2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Tracing the policy shift to new engineering education in China: An analytical lens of historical institutionalism

Presented at Engineering and Public Policy Division (EPP) Technical Session 1

The global landscape of higher engineering education (HEE) is changing rapidly in response to and alongside the sci-tech revolution and industrial global transformations. Echoing such trends, China is transforming its HEE through new engineering education (NEE) initiatives. China has contributed to the largest scale of HEE worldwide, and its economic power and strategic reach has increasingly grown at the global stage. Thus, it becomes increasingly important to develop a nuanced understanding of the evolutionary path of HEE to NEE in China. However, there has been a lack of research efforts in this regard. Historical institutionalism, an integrated approach examining structural, institutional, and actor contextual factors with the view of gradual change, provides a powerful analytical framework to fill such research gap. Based on an analytical review of policy documents and scholarly research since the founding of PRC in 1949, as well as semi-structured interviews with policy makers, university managerial personnel and faculties, this paper aims to investigate the structural, institutional, and actor contextual factors that facilitate the policy shift to NEE in China’s HEE, and their interactions. In so doing, this paper will depict the big picture of path evolution concerning the policy shift to NEE in China’s HEE, thus contributing to the current gap in literature regarding HEE in China as a socio-historical phenomenon.

Authors

Dr. Yanru Xu University of Chinese Academy of Sciences [biography]

Dr Yanru Xu is an assistant professor in University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interests focus on research-teaching-study nexus in higher engineering education, higher education management, and the sociology of higher education.
Ji’an Liu
YaXuan Wen [biography]

Yanru Xu, Ji'an Liu, Yaxuan Wen. (2023). From accessibility to participation: Broadening diversity and inclusion in higher engineering and computing education through an OOICCI model. 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), Kuwait, Kuwait, 2023, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125233.
Xu, Y., & Liu, J., & Wen, Y., & Wang, L., & Wei, Y., & Rong, Y. (2023, June), Tracing the policy shift to new engineering education in China: An analytical lens of historical institutionalism Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. https://peer.asee.org/44512
Dr. Lufan Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-0384 Florida International University [biography]

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor at Florida International University.
Dr. Yan Wei Southern University of Science and Technology [biography]

Teaching Associate Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, research interests focus on engineering education
Prof. Yiming Rong Southern University of Science and Technology [biography]

Yiming (Kevin) Rong is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Associate Program Director of Manufacturing/Materials Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from University of Kentucky, in 1989

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