In 2022 spring, the International Cooperation and Student Affairs Office of Shenzhen Technology University (SZTU) improved students’ competitiveness by offering three international courses, which are parts of the Economics of Engineering Course Series. A total of 109 students attended the online courses this year, and they earned two credits by taking one course of 36 class hours. This course series is an effective measure to improve the quality of international talent training.

SZTU has been exploring new ways for international cooperation in the past two years. “In order to maintain international exchanges for students, we keep offering online courses with international professors from overseas universities of applied sciences,” Ms. Zeng Siyu, director of International Cooperation and Student Affairs Office said. “I hope that students can take the chance to gain first-hand experience and frontier knowledge, so as to better adapt to the rapid development of future world.”

Established in September 2018, the Economics of Engineering Course Series has invited more than 20 international professors and industry experts from well-known universities and enterprises to open 25 courses with over 600 students enrolling in. It is set as a teaching platform to store international curriculum resources for SZTU students. The program is dedicated to helping students establish critical and analytical thinking, obtain first-hand knowledge, acquire comprehensive skills needed to compete in the global market, and confidently present themselves in both Chinese and English.

01 Course: Entrepreneurship in Family Firms

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Anita Zehrer, Management Center Innsbruck, Austria

Anita and her class [Photo/International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office]

Anita's course focuses on interactive teaching with diverse case studies and group assignments to improve students' reporting and presentation skills. She guided students to use Padlet, by using which students could share their opinions more vividly with online illustrations. In the class, students analyzed cases in groups and presented their works via PowerPoint or PechaKucha.

Case study and group discussion [Photo/International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office]

Anita said, “It is my pleasure to teach the students from SZTU and they are very interested in some topics, such as succession, governance, innovation, and internationalization of family firms. We had a great amount of interactivity in the class. I offered some cases and videos, and they elaborated on their key findings and pre-defined questions. I am impressed by their incredible performance. They worked very hard and finished their group assignments well. All in all, it is a great experience for me to teach SZTU students and I would like to do it again in the future.”

02 Course: Innovation and Technology Management in Europe

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Wei Manske-Wang, Management Center Innsbruck, Austria

Wei and her class [Photo/International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office]

The course introduces the innovation development and technological innovation in Europe from the perspective of globalization, aiming to help students learn the basic concepts, principles and methods of technological innovation management, understand the process and application of technological innovation, and grasp the global R & D and innovation trends.

Wei shares some cases. [Photo/International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office]

Wei presented innovation strategy and competitiveness of global enterprises with some real cases at home and abroad. “Online communication with European students has been introduced to my class, which encouraged SZTU students to speak up and propose their ideas bravely, ” Wei said. “When they told me that they became more confident of self expression and intercultural dialogue, I felt quite happy. I am willing to create more opportunities for SZTU students to communicate with their European peers.”

03 Course: Strategic Management

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Michael Freiboth, Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Michael and his class [Photo/International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office]

This problem-oriented course aims to help students grasp common strategy making tools, evaluate corporate strategies, and acquire basic strategic analysis skills. Nearly 60 students were divided into 10 groups. Michael encouraged them to think independently and offered some enlightening questions after each chapter as well as reviewing their answers carefully. Although SZTU students were sometimes too cautious in answering questions, he was impressed by the sincere respect they showed to their instructors. He hoped that they would be brave enough to voice their opinions and find the answers by trial and error.

Drafted by Lily（董媛媛）, Brian（郑斌）/ International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office

Revised by International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office

Edited by International Cooperation & Student Affairs Office