The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council recently issued a list of academic degree authorization programs added by academic degree authorization independent review units in 2020. East China Normal University (hereinafter referred to as "ECNU") added the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program (code: 1256) to the master’s degree authorization category. The establishment of this program was to train chief technology officers for the transformation of high-tech achievements. Shanghai International School of Chief Technology Officer, the teaching and scientific research entity of the ECNU, was responsible for the recruitment and teaching work.
At the 23rd Annual Meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology this year, Qian Xuhong, President of ECNU and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stressed the importance of Chief Technology Officers (CTO). Qian Xuhong pointed out that we should explore and form a set of industrial technology leaders training model with Chinese characteristics that could be promoted and copied, and accelerate the industrialization process of high-tech in China through the training of technology leaders, so as to solve the last kilometer problem of the achievement transformation.
ECNU established the master’s degree in engineering management, which was an important achievement of the university's interdisciplinary construction of “science and technology +” and “business +”. Shanghai International School of Chief Technology Officer advocated the establishment of the “science and technology business” and change of the traditional business education, which was endorsed and supported by experts and scholars from Tsinghua University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Tongji University and other academic communities.
Different from the traditional training orientations of the Master of Engineering Management (MEM), the Master of Engineering Management of ECNU aims to cultivate comprehensive and integrated chief technology officers, emphasizing the combination of technology and management, the integration of technology and commercialization, and the integration of scientist spirit and entrepreneur spirit, and strengthening students' creativity and outstanding thinking, technology transfer and commercialization capabilities, technology leadership, global vision and technology trend insight.
During the study period, each student selects and determines new engineering fields such as ultra-limit manufacturing or artificial intelligence and information technology, and takes corresponding cutting-edge technology courses in the three major industries of artificial intelligence, integrated circuit and biomedicine as well as several strategic emerging industries as the selective courses to achieve the cultivation goal of industrial characteristics.
In the training program, a new curriculum system is created, and the core module features the structure of “4+X”. “4” refers to the four modules of CTO core knowledge and ability system, and “X” refers to the module of promoting professional technology frontier based on CTO technical background.
Shanghai International School of Chief Technology Officer established an education base with the deep integration of industry and education for the Master of Engineering Management program (CTO training direction). It jointly established the “Interdisciplinary Research and Demonstration Education Base of Intelligent Robot Application Ecology” with CloudMinds, the “Digital Industry CTO Executive Education and Intelligent Business Demonstration Base” with Shanghai Caohejing Hi-tech Park and the “Biomedical Industry CTO Executive Education and Innovation Strategy Demonstration Base” with BRL Medicine. The School has also signed strategic cooperation agreements with the ECNU National University Science Park, the ECNU Industrial Technology Research Institute, the ECNU Innovation and Entrepreneurship School, Shanghai Zizhu Hi-tech Park (Group) Co., Ltd. and other units inside and outside the university and science and technology enterprises, established in-depth strategic cooperation alliances, and set up the China-Israel-France Technology and Business Innovation Education Alliance.
ECNU obtained the qualification as the independent degree authorization examination unit in 2019, and carried out the work of adding degree authorization points for independent degree authorization examination in 2020 for the first time. From May to October 2020, it deliberated the addition of the first-level doctoral program in library, information and archives management and a professional program for a master's program in engineering management, and submitted them to the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council for approval through expert evaluation and the research of the school according to the requirements of the independent review policy of academic degree authorization, in order to implement the spirit of the “Education +”, “Ecology +”, “Health +”, “Intelligence +” and “International +” action plans of the university to accelerate the development of disciplines and to adapt to the needs of the national medium and long term development plan and the plan of building five centers in Shanghai.
So far, ECNU has had 31 doctoral degree authorization programs and 35 master's degree programs of first-level disciplines, 1 professional doctor's degree program and 22 professional master's degree programs.