Influences of Mutual Recognition of Credits and De...
Achieving mutual recognition of credits and degrees between Chinese and foreign universities，in fact，is a cross-border，cross-language，cross-cultural exchange and integration process.This process constantly enhances a mutual understanding of each side's educational and cultural institutions and models of educating a qualified workforce，and further reaches standards and operating procedures of mutual agreement.
It is also a process of achieving a deeper understanding of the educational philosophy，the curriculum，and the teaching resources of the first class universities，and even of the education systems and training modes of each country in the world，thereby will most likely help to adjust existing teaching，management and research institutions so as to build a curriculum system and teaching evaluation system which is more advanced in the forefront of international academics，more open，and meets in international standards and the economic and social development needs，based on domestic conditions and experiences learned from outside world.
Teachers and students involved in the programs jointly run can benefit greatly from interaction with the world-class university teachers and students，taking advantage of a richer educational resources，experiencing academic atmosphere of world-class Universities，tasting the diverse cultures and unique values of different countries，so as to expand their eyesights and to enhance their international understanding.
In the process of achieving mutual recognition of credits and degrees，the following problems will have to be addressed：
a.objectives and specification of a program of educating a qualified workforce；
b.a complete education process to achieve the established training objectives and specifications；
c.a whole set of management and assessment system for realization of this process；
d.scientific teaching means，measures，and methods that match the process.
By thorough discussions of these issues，both sides of the cooperative training programs learn from each other and form commonly agreed standards and then finalize the terms of the cooperation agreement.
Reforms in education involve a wide range of innovations in teaching philosophies，training plans，teaching modes and management mechanisms.The process of achieving mutual recognition of credits and degrees also inspired our deep reflections on the following questions about innovating training models：
What is a Model ofEducating a Qualified Workforce
A model of Educating a qualified workforce refers to standard structural pattern and operating mechanism to achieve the training objectives，which include educational philosophy，training objectives，training process，training systems，and training evaluation and are formed under the guidance of education theories and philosohies.Model of educating a qualified workforce takes educational activities as the major concern，where：a）education theories and philosohies refer to educational thoughts and principles that educational activities should follow.It specifies the nature of the activities of educating a qualified workforce and its direction of development；b）training objectives refer to the specific requirements of the knowledge，competence，and quality structures.It pointed out the direction for educational activities；c）training process refers to steps to implement educational philosophies and objectives of educating a qualified workforce；d）training system refers to modes of behavior which stabilize and maintain a continuous behavior of educating a qualified workforce；e）training evaluation refers to the step to judge activities of educating a qualified workforce.It is to measure the successfulness of formation of the activities of educating a qualified workforce as well as its models.As a process，model of educating a qualified workforce is embodied as a sum of the processes for which education of the human resources is implemented.These processes have specific objectives and specifications in accordance with a program of educating a qualified workforce，including corresponding teaching contents，curriculum system，management system and assessment methods.
Why Reform and Innovation of Training Model is Needed
There are both external and internal motivations for reforming and innovating training model.When reforming model of educating a qualified workforce by higher education，with improving the quality of educating a qualified workforce as a core objective，both the laws of internal and external relationship for education must be followed.
Law of external relationship for education，i.e.，the law of relation between education and a society，specifies that whenever talent cultivation of higher education institutions cannot meet the needs of a society，i.e.，cannot provide satisfactory services for the society's economic，political and cultural developments，the current training model must be reformed.
Law of internal relationship for education，namely law of education per se，announces that higher education must cultivate highly qualified specialists with knowledge，competence，optimized quality structure，a comprehensive development，and a spirit of innovation and creativity.When the educating a qualified workforce of colleges and universities cannot meet the above mentioned objectives，the model of educating a qualified workforce must be reformed so as to coordinate better the plans of and approaches with educating a qualified workforce objectives and specifications.
The process of reforming the model of educating a qualified workforce is a process to actively adapting to social changes，from unsuited to suited，and from uncoordinated to coordinated.
Ideas for Reforming Model ofEducating a Qualified Workforce
Following are some primary ideas for reforming model of educating a qualified workforce：
Oriented to internationalization of higher education and meet China's needs in economic and social developments；
Taking an integration of knowledge transfer，capacity-building，and quality improvement as the entry point；
Building a well established curriculum system，where reforms should focus on teaching contents and curriculum system；
Taking innovation in teaching methods as the breakthrough point so as to carry out heuristic，exploratory，and participatory teaching with students，and curriculum as center；
Highlighting improvement of competence in pragmatics and creativity；
Establishing a diversified teaching evaluation mechanism to promote the goal of personnel development；
Building a digitalized teaching platform and creatively applying information technologies in education.
Only through implementing the strategy of opening to the world，can higher education institutions adopt advanced educational philosophies in the world，stand in the leading edge of scientific developments，cultivate talents with international visions，fulfill its social responsibilities effectively，and win social recognitions and trusts，thus to achieve their own rapid development.
To adhere to the philosophy of internationalizing education，and to reform the model of educating a qualified workforce，following actions should be taken：（1）learn the internationally advanced educational philosophies so as to achieve the internationalization of education and training objectives.Reform the model of educating a qualified workforce，and to cultivate talents with a global vision and international perspectives；（2）reform the curriculum structure，adding more international contents to achieve internationalization of educational content；（3）enlarge students'and teachers'visions and inpire their wisdom through sending teachers and students to stand on the international stages and to communicate with the world，and through sending visiting scholars，exchange teachers and students，and mutual recognition of degrees.At the same time，international common teaching and management system should be established，which will be conducive to international cooperation and the launching of the international exchanges.
The process of achieving mutual recognition of credits and degrees granted with foreign universities is also a process deepening our understanding of the educational philosophies，the curriculum settings，and teaching resources of first-class foreign universities，as well as understanding of education system and training model of countries around the world.Furthermore，it also promotes adjustment of existing teaching，management and research institutions，and facilitates in the establishment of an international，academic-oriented curriculum system facing academic frontier，and helps to build up more open curriculum and teaching evaluation systems and innovate conventional training models，based on Chinese national conditions，borrowing experiences of countries in the world，and referring to international standards.
Moreover，teachers and students involved in the cooperation can benefit greatly from interaction with teachers and students of the world-class universities，especially in terms of taking advantage of their rich educational resources，experiencing worldclass academic atmosphere of the renowned universities，tasting the diversity of the world and unique culture and values of different countries，thus expand their international horizons and enhance their international understandings.
What is the internationalization of higher education？UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Universities（IAU），defined it as“a process integrating an international and intercultural dimension into the teaching，research and services functions of an institution”.Recently，many universities set up a goal of becoming a world first-class university.Compared with the features and impact factors of world first-class universities，which include first-class people，resources，and management etc and were proposed by Dr.Jamil Salmi，the Tertiary Education Coordinator of the World Bank，Chinese universities have a long way to go.The internationalization of higher education，in the end，is the internationalization of the objectives of educating a qualified workforce.For a university to be international，the first step is the internationalization of the teachers and students.International experience has shown that promoting a reasonable moblization of teachers and students among universities across the world，is one of the most effective approach to narrow the gaps in educational levels and the degrees of internationalization of higher education institutions in different countries.Mutual recognition of credits and degrees granted is one of the most important ways to promote a rational flow of teachers and students among universities in the world，and one of the most critical measures to improve the quality of educating a qualified workforce and internationalization of human resources.
Influenced by the trends of globalization and internationalization of education，more and more Chinese colleges and universities commited to a continuous exploration and nonstopped improvement in the process of achieving a mutual recognition of credits and a multual/joint granting of degrees.This will certainly bring far-reaching impacts on the internationalization of higher education and innovation in training models in China.
【注释】
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