Profile

Supported by the Chinese and French ministries of education and co-established by Beihang University and Le Groupe des Ecoles Centrales (a group of five central schoolsin Paris, Lyon, Lille, Nantes and Marseille), the Sino-French Engineer School of Beihang University (Centrale Pékin in French, hereafter abbreviated as theSchool) has enrolled students since 2005. It aims to cultivate international engineers by introducing a French educational system for training engineers andrelying on Beihang University’s strengths in aeronautics, astronautics and communications. Now part of Beihang University and Le Groupe des Ecoles Centrales, the School has been jointly administered by representatives from Beihang University as well as its partnership universities and corporate partners. Since it is a pioneer in the Sino-French higher education cooperation on engineering, the School has been selected among the first group by the Chinese Ministry of Education to join its Program for Training Outstanding Engineers. It has also become China’s first institution to pass accreditation by CTI (Commission des titres d’ingénieurs) and EUR-ACE (Accréditation des formations d’ingénieurs en Europe), thus qualifying itself to award the French diploma of engineer. The School has led a team to form a Sino-French Educational Cooperation Alliance as well as an Alliance of Beijing Universities in a Program for Training Outstanding Engineers, with the former involving 17 universities across China and the latter 16 universities in Beijing. It has also established the French Studies Center, a national-level research base for studying regions and countries, as well as an international base for innovation and training in terms of industrial science and technology.

An experimental field for cultivating international talents, the School will continue to carry forward its management philosophy – development, opening up, cooperation and win-win. It will first build itself to be a world-class school for training international engineers and provide a guiding and exemplary role in the reform of China’s higher engineering education, through leveraging a plan that aims toadvance the establishment of model internationalized schools in colleges and universities and being geared toward world-class certification and training systems.

Orientation

The School aims tocultivate leading engineers with such abilities as global vision, systemicthinking and collaborative innovation to cope with a rapidly changing,diversified world. It will equip students with the following five abilities:

To understand international rules, be culturally open-minded, and have cross-cultural collaborative skills;

To gain systemic insights as well as achieve multi-disciplinary knowledge integration and transfer;

To innovatively resolve complex engineering problems under uncertain circumstances; To take on engineering-related ethical and moral obligations and respect socialvalues; and to have good organizational, teamwork and leadership skills, as well as critical and reflective thinking.

Method of Training

The School has implemented a training method featuring a combination of French preparatory courses for engineers with Chinese undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as an integration of curriculum learning, practical training, and the sissubmission. During the undergraduate (preparatory) stage, it will strengthen students in such basics as French language, mathematics, physics, and humanities, while during the graduate (engineer) stage, it will provide engineer education characterized by cross-disciplinary engineering practice.The School has established a platform for engineer training by immersing students in three languages – Chinese, English and French – and two cultures,Chinese and Western, and has become China’s first institution to establish an international base for innovation and training in industrial science and technology.

Corporate Partners

Having learned from a French corporate partner system for training engineers, the School has established partnerships with more than 20 enterprises both at home and abroad including the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Safran. These enterprises participate in planning the School’s development, formulating its teaching plans and implementing its teaching procedures, and provide students with internship and job opportunities.

Social Evaluation

The quality and influence of its talent training can rival that of other institutions of Le Groupe des Ecoles Centrales. —French Minister for Higher Education and Research, Geneviève Fioraso, June 2012 It is a pioneer and example in higher education cooperation between France and China. —French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, July 2012

In December 2009, FrenchPrime Minister François Fillon visited Beihang University, commendingeducational cooperation in scientific technology between France and China.

In June 2012, FrenchMinister for Higher Education and Research Geneviève Fioraso praised theSchool’s achievements in training engineers.

In July 2012, FrenchForeign Minister Laurent Fabius applauded the School for becoming a pioneer and example in higher education cooperation between France and China.

On May 15, 2015, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius presented awards to the School’s outstanding teachers and students at the second meeting of the China-France high-level cultural exchanges in Beijing. On June 30, 2016,Liu at a Sino-French higher education forum hailed engineering education as the most active and fruitful field in China-France education cooperation. The Program for Training Outstanding Engineers has promoted reform and innovation in engineering education.

On October 22, 2015, French Ambassador to China Maurice Gourdault-Montagne addressed the School’s tenth anniversary meeting, praising long and pragmatic cooperation between BeihangUniversity and France as well as their remarkable achievements, and haling the School as a great example in China-France education cooperation.

About Us

The School annually admits 120 high achieving students in the university entrance examination for undergraduate program and enrolls 80 students who either received their exam-exempt recommendation or achieved overall excellence in their admission examination for graduate program. Each year, about one-third of the School’s graduates further their studies or pursue doctoral programs overseas through avariety of funding. Over 180 students of the School go to overseas higher educational institutions for exchange or study purposes each year.