The Belt and Road University Alliance for Standardization Education and Academics (B&R UAS), the first-ever alliance in this regard across the world, was established at China Jiliang University (CJLU) on May 20, 2018.
B&R UAS was initiated by China Jiliang University, the winner of the First ISO Award for Higher Education in Standardization, and home to Talent Training Base for International Standardization, jointly with 10 domestic universities including Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Hunan University, Shandong University, Qingdao University, The Open University of Guangdong, and 3 foreign winner universities of ISO Award for Higher Education in Standardization---Chung-Ang University of Korea, Erasmus University of the Netherlands, and Ecole de Technogie Superieure, University of Quebec, Canada. At present, 105 universities from 30 countries and regions have acceded to the Alliance, which includes 37 overseas universities and involves 19 countries along the Belt and Road.
At the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on May 14, 2017, President Xi Jinping stressed efforts to strengthen the “soft connection” in policies, regulations and standards. In Education Action Plan for the Belt and Road Initiative, the connectivity and cooperation in education are stipulated to promote people-to-people exchanges among countries along the Belt and Road. As per Action Plan on Belt and Road Standard Connectivity (2018-20), it advocates consolidating people-to-people mutual learning by pushing forward standardization cooperation in humanities. The establishment of B&R UAS seeks to build a platform of innovation, a platform of collaboration, and a model platform for international cooperation in standardization education and academics on principles of “extensive consultation, joint contribution, shared benefits”, and to erect a bridge to connect people in B&R countries via standardization-related cultural exchanges.
On May 20, 2018, the B&R UAS General Assembly, together with the First B&R Summit Forum, was held at China Jiliang University. Approximately 300 distinguished guests attended this ceremony, including leaders from Ministry of Education, The People’s Government of Zhejiang Province, State Administration for Market Regulation, Standardization Administration of the P.R.C., Hanban, China Association for Standardization and relevant departments of Zhejiang Province, as well as ISO leaders, presidents and delegates of founding members and members from home and abroad, chairs and secretariat representatives from some ISO technical committees, and representatives delegated by observers like regional standardization research institutions, standardization management organizations and standardization research institutes.
At the General Assembly, 105 universities jointly announced the “UAS Hangzhou Declaration”, expressing their resolution to uphold the philosophy of “unity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation”, as well as their pursuit to discuss cooperation through extensive consultation, make joint contributions to cooperation on platform construction, and share benefits from cooperation under the theme of “standardization education and academics”. They affirmed the determination to build a B&R bridge toward people-to-people exchanges through cultural exchanges on standardization, and jointly promote common development of global higher education in standardization, research and talent team building.
With the remodeling of the new international order, the economic and trade exchanges along the B&R routes are becoming increasingly frequent.“Standardization has played as a powerful tool for national governance, and also a significant channel for international cooperation in economy and trade, as well as global exchanges in science, technology and culture”, said Zhang Gang, former Counselor of the State Council and Deputy Director General of the China Standardization Expert Committee, “We urgently need to promote exchanges and sharing in global standardization education and academics from the perspective of internationalization.”
Without high-level talent teams and scientific research, standardization would have no way to serve the development of economy and society. Under this background, B&R UAS emerged. Experts are confident in the future of B&R UAS. Ji Zhengkun, Chairman of China Association for Standardization believed that B&R UAS will lead to remarkable achievements in BRI construction with the building of platform of innovation, platform of collaboration and model platform for international cooperation in standardization education and academics on principles of “extensive consultation, joint contribution, shared benefits”. John Walter, President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) believed that B&R UAS will exert influence on standardization technology and academics, bring benefits to governments, enterprises and residents, and lead the direction of international standardization to a certain extent. Chen Hongjun, Vice-Administrator of Standardization Administration of the People’s Republic of China hoped that B&R UAS will create new channels to accelerate the “going global” plan of Chinese standards and to reinforce compatibility between rules and standards systems.
Zhejiang Province is the only pilot province for national comprehensive reform of standardization. Yu Yongming, Deputy Director-General of Department of Education of Zhejiang Province, pointed out that B&R UAS, an organic hybrid of standardization and higher education, acts as a positive response to major national development strategies and strongly backs up the pilot comprehensive reform of standardization of Zhejiang Province and the strategy of building a strong province in higher education.
China Jiliang University is a pioneer in China’s standardization education and hailed as “Huangpu Military Academy” in the field of China’s standardization. The university takes the lead in enrolling undergraduates in Standardization and Quality Management as early as 1996. In April, 2008, College of Standardization---the first college in standardization in China---was established at China Jiliang University; in 2010, the bachelor program of “Standardization Engineering” was approved as the first undergraduate degree of standardization by the Ministry of Education. In recent years, the university has devised a pattern of standardization education for international connectivity and local services by her devotion to innovation of specialties and disciplines, reinforcement in talent incubation, and development of an international network of standardization education; eventually, the university has been conferred the First ISO Award for Higher Education in Standardization. “We are expecting to avail of the alliance for further consolidation of collegiate exchanges and cooperation, and for greater contributions to fulfillment of the strategy to build China into a power of quality, to realization of building Zhejiang into a strong province in higher education, to in-depth participation of China’s higher education in BRI construction”, said Zhang Tuqiao, Secretary of the CPC Committee of China Jiliang University .
Unveiling Ceremony of Talent Training Base for International Standardization was held on the same day. The Talent Training Base will be built by China Jiliang University under the guidance of the Standardization Administration of the P.R.C.
In future, the member universities will jointly carry out the development of standardization teaching plans, teaching materials, teaching knowledge systems, online teaching platforms, and the teaching expert bank; and undertake researches on disciplinary development of standardization, standardization knowledge system, standardization theories and methodologies, and frontier standardization knowledge. Meanwhile, B&R UAS will launch cooperation programs for teachers and students such as exchange visits, cultural exchanges and collaborative educational programs with focus on standardization education and academics.
“We hope that the establishment of B&R UAS can inspire new ideas and channels on building a B&R community of shared education and strengthening people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries, while seeking to produce schemes, materials and samples with Chinese styles for standardization education”, said Song Mingshun, President of China Jiliang University.
(Written by Li Fengxiao / Photo by Dai Jie and Xu Tuo / Translated by Zhu Tiantian)
