On December 5, the Global Engineering Education Leader Conference (GEELeC), organized by Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), opened at Shenzhen Shangri-La Hotel. The conference attracted more than 120 deans and heads (representatives) of engineering colleges (schools) from five continents (Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, Oceania). During the three-day conference, the attendees will discuss “engineering education innovation”, “evidence-based research and its influence on engineering education and experiential learning” and “engineering innovation and entrepreneurship”.

Chen Shiyi, President of SUSTech, delivered an address. Shenzhen is most competitive in high-tech industries, logistics, financial services and culture in China, said him, noting that SUSTech assumes the mission of serving Shenzhen in building a modern international innovation-oriented city. He introduced SUSTech, elaborating on SUSTech’s magnificent blueprint of building a world top university in three steps.

In his address, Li Dongsheng, Chairman of TCL Group, summarized the role of engineering education in his entrepreneurship and innovative development. Engineering talents have two advantages in business operations: one is rapidly turning their technical sensitivity into market insight; the other is the spirit of engineer, a spirit of never stopping until the goal is achieved, business operations exactly need the spirit, he said.

Subsequently, the attendees shared their experience in “engineering education innovation”, and discussed future engineering education reform, how the industrial circles and other engineering education organizations prepare for graduate employment, and other issues.

Present at the conference were representatives from domestic universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as local universities such as Shenzhen University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen Polytechnic and Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology. The Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) and the UNESCO International Center for Higher Education Innovation co-organized the conference.