International Education Curriculum Development
USIEA’s mission includes building an International Education Curriculum for Chinese universities to help encourage student mobility. We hope that by providing a standard curriculum for universities, students will be better prepared to study abroad.
The curriculum, which was launched in 2013, is titled “International Education and Intercultural Communication (the ‘Curriculum’)”. When developing the Curriculum, we planned to create a critical resource for Chinese schools, which incorporates knowledge from expert lecturers working on the front lines of international education both in China and abroad. This resource is available to all of our Chinese member universities free of charge, and covers a wide range of topics related to study abroad.The Curriculum has been used as a resource by university administrators to encourage students to go abroad, and to develop both pre-departure orientations and re-entry interviews. Our ultimate goal is to provide students with a basic understanding of studying abroad, prepare them for their study abroad experience, and to help them develop essential skills while studying and living abroad.
We appreciate the fact that international education and study abroad varies widely based on the type of program. There are non-credit programs, full degree programs, and programs ranging in length from one week to several years. It is not possible to provide information on every type of program, each of which has its own unique advantages and challenges.
USIEA focuses on study abroad opportunities which take into account our main audience. The Curriculum focuses on undergraduate university students planning to study overseas after completing four years of study in China. The Curriculum highlights the educational systems in major overseas study destinations, available majors, institutional profiles, country highlights, classroom culture, a variety of pedagogical approaches, culture shock, and cross cultural communication. Teaching aids such as PowerPoint presentations, a suggested reading list and real-life student case studies are included.
The curriculum was reviewed and updated in 2015 based on feedbacks from lecturers and students. Some chapters were re-written with the "Flip class" concept and more case studies have been added to the lesson plan.
The curriculum is now offered as an elective in a number of Chinese university’s course directory, and has become popular with students.