2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Against the backdrop of accelerating global industrial transformation and the continuous emergence of future industries, China's higher engineering education system faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities. To meet the forward-looking demands of future industries—such as the metaverse, quantum information, artificial intelligence, and biomanufacturing—on the competency structure of engineering talent, advancing systematic reforms in engineering education has become a critical pathway to enhance national innovation capacity and industrial competitiveness. This study is grounded in the practical context of China's engineering education, focusing on core elements such as curriculum systems, teaching methods, faculty structures, and practical training mechanisms. It systematically explores pathways for aligning these elements with the demands of future industries. Employing multiple research methodologies, the study first conducts a systematic literature review to trace the theoretical evolution and practical experiences of engineering education reform globally. Building upon this foundation, it utilizes multi-case studies to deeply analyze the reform logic and implementation mechanisms of exemplary cases, including Chinese engineering institutions and MIT's NEET program. Concurrently, semi-structured interviews are conducted with four key groups—university faculty, corporate technical leaders, engineering students, and education policymakers—to gather firsthand data on competency demands and educational realities. Finally, comparative research methods were employed to evaluate the applicability and outcomes of different reform pathways, distilling transferable insights tailored to the Chinese context. This study aims to identify structural gaps between the current higher engineering education system and future industrial demands, explore feasible and scalable engineering education reform pathways with Chinese characteristics, and provide theoretical foundations and practical references for building a future-oriented higher engineering education system.