The aim of this seminar is to discuss strategies for internationalisation of higher education in Denmark and China. Under focus will be experiences of current collaborations (the Sino-Danish Centre and student exchange programmes) and future developments, notably joint campuses along the new silk road (One Belt, One Road initiative). The seminar will consider these current and future initiatives in the context of Danish and Chinese strategies to position themselves in a changing global order, extending from pedagogy and ideas of the formation of the future workers and citizens to international relations and soft power.

The day is organised in three sessions in which a senior and more junior academic are paired. Each speaker has 30 minutes (max) for their presentation. A discussant is asked to make a few observations and raise some questions (5 minutes) and then facilitate a general discussion (25 minutes).

Programme

10.30-11.00 Coffee and introductions

11.00-12.30 Internationalization of higher education in China
Discussant: Marijk van der Wende

Professor Wanhua MA, Peking University
Further opening up for new economic initiatives in education
Recent research has identified two problems in the internationalization of higher education in China. First, more Chinese students go to North America for education, while foreign students coming to China are from its neighbouring countries. Second, inside the country, many more universities ask for English as a second required language, and this causes a lot of problems for One Belt, One Road (new silk road) initiatives, for lack of language competence. Current policies for further opening up higher education are mostly trying to change the situation. The presentation will discuss the rationales or actions on these two issues.

QU Mei, Aarhus University
From "student hub" to "talent hub": A study of the career service for international students in Zhongguan Village
The career service for international students has been mushrooming in the last two years, especially in Zhongguan Village,"China's Silicon Valley". It opens a window to see how Chinese universities are transforming in internationalization. I'm interested in the features of these services and how international students react to them. 

12-30-13.15 Lunch

13.15-14.45 Sino-foreign Cooperation: diplomatic and educational agendas
Discussant: Dr Chunrong Liu, Executive Vice Director, Fudan-European Centre for China Studies, Copenhagen University

Professor Marijk van der Wende, University of Utrecht  (m.c.vanderwende@uu.nl)
The New Silk Road: Implications for higher education and research cooperation between China and Europe 
In times of great global change, China is launching new initiatives with its New Silk Road (or One Belt One Road) project, which could potentially span the Euro-Asian continents. But likely on new and different conditions, also for higher education. How will these new relationships affect European higher education and research? What types of academic activity travels over the NSR, how do universities respond, under what conditions are these activities taking place, who defines these and based on what values? Do we actually understand these values at all? How can we prepare our stu­dents for safe travels on these New Silk Roads toward the fu­ture? A major challenge for internationaliza­tion; to enrich our vision and understanding of the world, to widen our focus from being predominantly or even exclu­sively Western, to open it toward a new history.

Jie Freya Gao, Aarhus University
From Educational Institution to Helix Institution: Coordinating Multiple Actors in Sino-Danish Joint Campus
This presentation looks into the mechanism of International Triple Helix and how it is employed to establish the alliance among the governments, industries and universities from China and Denmark within the Sino-Danish Centre of Education and Research (SDC). By showing how SDC coordinates the strategies of both countries as well as the agendas of the multiple actors through its innovative MA programmes, tailored talents and multi-tasking campuses, I locate the tensions between the imaginaries/narratives of global competition and the national strategies and how they mutually enforce each other within a world interrupted by competition fetish.

14.45-15.00 Break

15.00.16.30 Student exchange programmes
Discussant: Wanhua MA

Professor Stig Thøgersen, Aarhus University
Chinese students in Denmark, Danish students in China: Reflections on the study abroad experience
The presentation is based on 1) a longitudinal study of Chinese pre-school teachers doing a joint degree in China and Denmark and 2) accounts from Danish China Studies students who spent their 3^rd semester in China. What do the experiences of these two groups tell us about the global education hierarchy?

Ursula Lorentzen, Aarhus University and Deakin University, Australia
on ideas for PhD on Danish, Australian and Thai students’ experiences of studying for a semester in China.

Register here