Studying China’s Political System and Foreign Relations in the heart of Beijing
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UIBE, School of International Relations: A Decade of Consolidating the Discipline of Political Science in China

During the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China's economy has achieved remarkable achievements. As the world's second largest economy, China is increasingly moving to the centre of the world stage. As a first-class financial and economic institution, the University of International Business and Economics has cultivated a group of economic leaders and academic elites from all walks of life, which produced major achievements in China’s reform and opening up. From an international perspective, given the increasing economic strength of the country, it becomes necessary to participate more extensively in the international affairs and play a growing role in the international community. From a domestic perspective, outstanding experts in the field of Political Science are needed to promote the national governance system and improve the governance capacity. In order to respond to the current needs, the School of International Relations strongly relies on Economics to vigorously promote the construction and development of Political Science, while emphasizing the growing need for international trade.

I. The School of International Relations has achieved ten years of major successes and significant leaps forward

The predecessor of the School of International Relations was the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, established in 2006. At the beginning, School only provided one undergraduate major. In 2007, the first international undergraduate students were recruited.  In 2010, the college was renamed and reorganized into the School of International Relations. In March 2011, it was awarded the right to grant a Master's Degree in Political Science. In September 2012, the first postgraduate students were enrolled. In September 2015, the college established a second undergraduate major in Political Science and Administration. 20 students were enrolled at first; subsequently, the enrolment of undergraduates reached 75-80 per year. In December 2017, in the fourth subject evaluation of the Ministry of Education, the School was granted a B ranking, placing it among the top 16 higher learning institutions teaching Political Science nationwide, along with universities such as Wuhan University or Sun Yat-sen University. In March 2018, the School has been awarded the right to grant doctoral degrees in Political Science. Only 10 years after enrolling the first undergraduate students, the discipline construction has developed by leaps and bounds. School’s rankings have quickly made breakthroughs, ranking among the top 15 in the country, with disciplines ranging from undergraduate to master and doctoral degrees. The School currently offers all his programs for both Chinese and international students enrolling over 400 students.

II. Highlighting the trade characteristics in the field of Political Science

The college always regards talent cultivation as the top priority, investing a lot of time, energy and resources in all aspects of enrolment, education, and employment, while dynamically adjusting the curriculum. The School aims at cultivating a large number of international talents who understand foreign languages, have an international perspective, understand international law, and can participate in international affairs.

From the perspective of employment, most of the School’s graduates are hired by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other national ministries and commissions, municipal-level public institutions, private enterprises, and media. The employment rates of the School’s graduates are shown below:

Graduate School of International Relations

Go

Session

Studying abroad

Domestic further studies

Employment

total

Number of people

proportion

Number of people

proportion

Number of people

proportion

Number of people

employment rate

2014

19

28.8%

20

30.3%

23

34.8%

66

93.9%

2015

21

35.6%

17

28.8%

20

33.9%

59

98.3%

2016

18

34.0%

16

30.2%

17

32.1%

53

96.2%

2017

22

39.3%

12

21.4%

22

39.3%

56

100%

2018

20

36.4%

19

34.5%

16

29.1%

55

100%

According to the statistics, over 100 students from the School have pursued higher studies at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, New York University, Cornell University and other reputed academic institutions overseas. Some of the School’s graduates pursued higher studies at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Renmin University of China, University of International Business and Economics and other national first-class institutions of higher learning. Among the School’s graduates, Luo Zhaotian is a typical representative; he has published an article in the international top political science SSCI journal "American Journal of Political Science" and in the "Political Science Quarterly". Dr. Luo obtained the position of Assistant Professor of the University of Chicago after earning his Ph.D. Similarly, Dr. Zhang Yifei also joined the American Academy of Social Sciences this year and engaged in academic research on international relations.

Among the postgraduates, the number of students who have joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies has constantly increased since 2015, accounting for 17% of the total employment of graduates. Some of the School’s graduates have chosen to join international organizations and actively participate in the international affairs. School’s alumni Bai Hefei, a typical representative of our School, found employment with the United Nations Development Programme. He has received an outstanding evaluation granted by the Ministry of Education. Actively responding to the call of the country for innovation, many alumni have joined the entrepreneurial tide. Di Lixia, a 2016 graduate, is one of the co-founders of one of the largest social media brands in China, “CrusherTV”.

Undergraduate employment trends

Flow direction

Session

State organs and institutions

State-owned enterprise

Foreign-funded enterprises

Private enterprise

Other types such as NGO

Freelance

2014

10.8%

23.7%

32.4%

23.7%

4.7%

4.7%

2015

10.0%

25.0%

25.0%

30.0%

5.0%

5.0%

2016

30.0%

23.5%

5.9%%

11.8%

17.7%

11.0%

2017

9.1%

9.1%

13.6%

40.9%

4.5%

22.7%

2018

0

25.0%

12.5%

43.7%

0

18.8%

In recent years, the employment of graduate students has been dominated by public institutions and state-owned enterprises. Many of our alumni represent China at the United Nations or the International Organization for Migration, while some others work at the State Grid, China Foreign Economic and Trade Trust Co., etc. The flow direction distribution is shown in the figure below.

Postgraduate employment trends

Go

Session

State organs and institutions

State-owned enterprise

Foreign-funded enterprises

Private enterprise

Other types such as NGO

Freelance

2015

7.7%

7.7%

30.8%

30.8%

7.7%

15.4%

2016

20.8%

45.8%

4.17%

29.2%

0

0

2017

41.1%

23.5%

17.6%

17.6%

0

0

2018

9.5%

42.9%

9.5%

28.6%

4.8%

4.8%

 

 

 

 

 

The achievements in talent cultivation have benefited from the hard work of the faculty, which covers more than 100 undergraduate courses and over 30 graduate courses.

 

III. With "Talent Building" as Main Driving Force, the School of International Relations Employs a Faculty of Outstanding Cadres

Employing only 16 faculty members in 2010, the School currently hires 32 full-time instructors. All of them graduated from prestigious universities. The faculty counts 6 professors and 15 associate professors. 16 faculty members have more than one year of study abroad or visiting experience. The teacher team presents a “double high” achievement, having both the highest academic level and the high degree of internationalization.

 In terms of age structure, the average age of the 32 full-time academics is 37 years old. The academic structure, gender structure, and teacher-student ratio are among the highest optimized schools of the university.

While the scale of the faculty of the school has significantly expanded, the level of talent has also steadily improving. One of the school teachers has been awarded the title of special allowance expert by the State Council, one person has been awarded the title of "Excellent Teacher" in Beijing, and one person has been selected by the Ministry of Education as the "Talents Support Program for the New Century". One person has won the title of "Four Groups" of talents in Beijing's propaganda and culture system and two people have been selected as "Young Talent Program" in Beijing. One person has won the first prize and two people won the second prize for outstanding achievements in Beijing's philosophy and social sciences. Two batches received the second prize for outstanding achievements in education and teaching in Beijing, and four were selected as "Distinguished Young Scholars" and "Outstanding Young Scholars" in the school. Three people were awarded "Wang Linsheng Award", two were selected Huiyuan Young Talent program. Many teachers were selected as excellent teachers, excellent education administrator, scientific research model, teaching model, excellent undergraduate teaching management staff, outstanding graduate education staff and outstanding Communist Party members and so on. The proportion is in the forefront of the school.

The school also pays special attention to the use of the strength of experts and scholars outside the school to enhance the strength of teaching and research. It has hired Mr. Mukul Sanwal, former senior adviser to the United Nations Environmental Program, Professor Qin Yaqing, Dean of the Foreign Affairs School, Professor Jerald McBeath of the University of Alaska, and the former Minister of International Department of the CPC Central Committee, Professor Yu Hongjun. We also hired Vice-President of the Jilin Provincial People's Political Consultative Conference, Professor Lin Yanzhi, Professor Yu Keping of Peking University and other famous scholars at home and abroad. Their rich academic research experience and profound theoretical cultivation have had a great impact on the teachers and students, and injected new vitality into the faculty of the school.

 The school's outstanding faculty members, excellent education managers, scientific researchers, and outstanding Communist Party members rank among the top schools.

 

In terms of scientific research projects, as of August 2018, the school has successfully applied for 24 national social science fund projects, 17 humanities and social science fund projects of the Ministry of Education, 15 provincial and ministerial research projects, and 60 scientific research projects at the school level. In addition to vertical projects, the school has successfully won 11 horizontal projects from central ministries and local governments. The total amount of funds for the above vertical and horizontal projects amounted to more than 10 million yuan. In terms of scientific research results, as of August 2018, the school has published 29 papers of A journals in CSSCI, 48 articles of B journals, 163 papers of C journals, 12 papers of SSCI journals, and 224 papers of other journals. There are 18 monographs and 25 research reports have been adopted. One was selected as important achievement of the National Social Science Fund project and three were awarded excellent achievements in philosophy and Social Sciences in Beijing, and 2 were awarded excellent achievements in higher education teaching in Beijing.

The school organized 6 international academic conferences, 14 domestic academic conferences, and more than 140 teachers participated in international exchanges. In terms of social services, the frequency of school teachers being interviewed by well-known media such as China Central Television, China Radio International, Beijing People's Broadcasting Station, People's Daily, Guangming Daily and the people's Forum is constantly increasing. It fully demonstrates the academic advantages and research features of the school, and creates more favorable conditions for the continuous progress of various undertakings, such as the construction of disciplines and the training of talents.

In December 2015, the School established the first “Big Data International Relations Research Centre” in China. Since its establishment, the centre has regularly published "International Relations Strategic Impact Index of Major Countries in the World", the first real hybrid model of structured and unstructured data in China. Big data research results through large-scale distributed computing. The data was first released on April 18, 2016, with a total calculation volume of 34,511 times. The relevant results have been adopted or paid attention by the Ministry of State Security, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations and many other university research institutes. The centre can provide data-based industry consulting services, trend forecasting and hotspot tracking, and is growing into a public service research platform, integrating scientific research data collection, retrieval, mining, intelligent translation and visual analysis services.

 

IV. Cultivating International Talents though International Academic Exchanges

The School attaches great importance to the overall development of its students and actively carries out a variety of extra-curricular activities. International seminars and guest lectures have been hosted by the School for over ten years. So far, more than 90 international scholars from China and overseas have been invited to give lectures at our school, including Professor Chang Ping of the Yangtze River Scholars and College of Europe. Other distinguished visiting professors included Professor Qin Yaqing and Professor Paul Welfens, etc. 

In terms of academic exchanges, the School hosted 6 international academic conferences, 14 domestic academic conferences, and received over 140 international scholars.

In addition, the college also attaches great importance to international exchange programs, and has signed academic exchange agreements with Dalhousie University of Canada, University of Denver, and University of Kentucky, including exchange of scholars for collaborative research, student exchanges and summer camps. In the past five years, the average number of undergraduate students studying abroad has exceeded 21 each year. In 2015, it reached 35, accounting for 18% of all undergraduate students. 

Our students have successfully completed one-year exchange programmes at the University of California at Berkeley, as well as short-term fellowships such as the UNCTAD project and the Oxford Visit Program. In recent years, the graduates of colleges and universities abroad have maintained a high level of quality, and the level of schools selected has been continuously improved and the scope has been continuously expanded.

At the same time, the college has hosted a several academic programmes for international students in China, and has customized relevant courses for international students. At present, the School's international student programmes have improved significantly, with students from over 20 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, North and South America, providing Chinese students with a good opportunity to conduct cross-country exchanges without going abroad.

 

2016 students visit the UN office in Geneva

Since the establishment of the School, under valuable leadership of the School Party Committee, the School of International Relations has overcome challenges, and contributed to discipline construction and national development. 

In line with the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the School earnestly studied Xi Jinping's thought of new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, keeping in mind the original mission, inheriting the past and the future, and working hard to become bigger and stronger, and to cultivate more talents with international perspective for the country.

Looking back on the establishment of the School over ten years ago, our faculty has continued to grow and provide talent cultivation, scientific research and social services. The new era is facing new development opportunities. The School of International Relations will continue to develop in accordance with the times, work diligently, unite all the staff and students, continuously improve the academic strength, help the school to build a world-class university and strive to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

 

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