Lately, Zhejiang Provincial People's Government granted the approval of establishing the Zhejiang Institute of Economics and Trade Haaga-Helia Digital Technology and Operation Joint School! This is the first time that ZJIET has applied for a joint school with a foreign institute and the approval is seen as a zero-to-one breakthrough. It is also another landmark achievement of ZJIET’s internationalization of education since the school’s High-level Vocational Schools with Chinese Characteristics and Professional Construction plan has been launched.
The Haaga-Helia Digital Technology and Operation Joint School (hereinafter referred to as the Joint School) is not an independent institute but a non-independent-entity secondary college jointly run by ZJIET and the Finnish Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. It offers two majors: E-commerce, and Hotel management & Digital operation. Its application for official approval, which began at the end of 2020, has been given keen attention by the ZJIET leaders. Guided by the ZJIET CPC Committee, a specific work group was set up under the school’s International Exchange and Communication Center to liaise between the Chinese and Finnish schools. The group, in light of the need of a new development pattern in the Sino-foreign joint education programs, has made extensive research into related government policies, and has organized regular meetings between the two sides for communications and consultations. Despite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has managed to implement various tasks in an orderly manner.
In December 2021, the evaluation panel of the Chinese-foreign jointly-run schools from Zhejiang Department of Education came to ZJIET to review the application materials and inspect the campus site. According to the feedback of the expert group, the two schools have had nearly 6 months of online communications and gone through multiple rounds of expert reviews. The application materials which had been repeatedly revised and polished were finally submitted to the provincial government and won its approval.
The approval of the Joint School provides a new engine and new impetus for ZJIET’s further implementation of the Double High School plan and the 14th Five-Year development plan as well as for its goal of building itself into a high-level vocational college being “first-class in China, well-known in the world with Chinese characteristics” .
From the new starting point, the Joint School will adhere to the working requirements of integrating the planning, organization and implementation of the CPC construction with the principle of introducing, fusing, innovating and upgrading in the jointly-run school management. Combining the reform of teachers, teaching, and teaching materials and the characteristics of Sino-foreign cooperative education, it will bring in innovative practices in the organization, management and talent training schemes to effectively improve its profession construction and education level. At the same time, taking the Joint School as an entry point, ZJIET will continue to pursue its fundamental mission of strengthening moral education and cultivating people to create a number of highly recognizable landmark achievements and classic cases, and strive to make the joint program a model of the China-Finland higher education cooperation and an important window for humanity and cultural exchanges, so as to make greater contributions to the local social development.
Attachment: Introduction of Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (HHUAS) has its origin in the Finnish Business School in 1881, one of the oldest universities of applied sciences in Finland. It is also the largest business school in Finland at present. The university has five campuses, more than 11,000 students, over 700 faculties, and 34 undergraduate and postgraduate programs. HHUAS has been awarded the highest standard quality certification by the Finnish Educational Evaluation Center (FINEEC) and the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). Its scientific research capacity and talent training level ranks first among the Finnish universities of applied sciences, taking the lead of their strategic alliance.
