On December 8, 2021, the 2021 ICEE Governing Board and Advisory Board Meeting was held in the form of combination of online and offline. Prof. WU Qidi, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education and Director of ICEE, presided over the meeting. QIU Yong, President of Tsinghua University and Chairperson of ICEE Board, WANG Chen, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, delivered speeches respectively. Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO Office in Beijing, members of the Governing Board and Advisory Board of ICEE as well as representatives from relevant institutions attended the meeting.

 
WU Qidi presides over the meeting

QIU Yong said that in the past five years, focusing on major issues such as the quality and equity of engineering education around the world, especially in developing countries, ICEE adhered to innovation-driven development strategy and industry-university cooperation, and strived to build a high-level talent training base, think-tank research and consulting center and an international exchange platform. On March 4th, 2021, the World Engineering Day, ICEE and UNESCO jointly released the UNESCO Engineering Report which titled Engineering for Sustainable Development. ICEE undertook and served as the secretariat of the International Forum on Engineering Education of Tsinghua and played an important role in the preparation of the forum. ICEE highly engaged in the revision of the standard of Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies (GAPC) of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA). In recent years, Tsinghua University has increased its investment in engineering education. For example, Tsinghua University established the innovative leading engineering doctoral programs and innovatively invited the classified enrollment model, advocated interdisciplinary development, emphasized the integration of theory and practice, and recruited leading engineering talents who boast rich engineering practice experience and have made outstanding achievements, led or participated in major engineering projects as a key member from key industries, key regions and innovative enterprises. Tsinghua University held the Global Forum of University Presidents 2021 and released the "Tsinghua Consensus". Several research institutes and initiated alliances established at Tsinghua successively. QIU Yong pointed out that ICEE, established five years ago, is the only UNESCO Category II Centre with the theme of engineering education in the world. Tsinghua University sincerely hopes to take ICEE as a platform to share China's engineering education experience with other countries and jointly promote the development of global engineering education.

 
QIU Yong delivers a speech

According to WANG Chen, engineering is the key driving force to support the realization of the UN SDGs, and engineering education plays a key role in engineering science and technology talent training. The global engineering and engineering education communities should work together to enable engineering science and technology to empower human development and to build a more sustainable and prosperous world. He expects ICEE will perform effectively to its international impact, contribute to a global engineering education community and promote engineering science and technology.

 
WANG Chen delivers a speech

Shamila Nair-Bedouelle expressed her gratitude to Tsinghua University, CAE and ICEE for their support to UNESCO, especially for their contributions in UNESCO Engineering Report. In the next five years, in order to realize the engineering for sustainable development goals, UNESCO will support member states in reforming engineering education curriculum, strengthening engineering education and research, and attracting more women and men to get involved in engineering education. We will face various opportunities and challenges. Hopefully, engineers and scientists from all over the world will work together and use the system thinking of engineering and science to seek global solutions. UNESCO will continue to work closely with ICEE.

 
Shamila Nair-Bedouelle delivers a speech on behalf of UNESCO

ICEE Executive Director YUAN Si reported the 2021 annual work of ICEE. ICEE is actively responding to the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in global education, through continuously promoting online education and expanding its international platforms, and doping lots of effective work in teachers’ ability training. In the past year, ICEE not only successfully completed the works of UNESCO Engineering Report and the research work of multiple consulting and research projects, but also strengthened the partnerships with UNESCO and other Category II Centres as well as many international organizations. Besides, ICEE has conducted a series of engineering education activities in collaboration with its global partners, such as the ICEE Ballet Aesthetic Education Program and online education jointly with Xuetangx.com. YUAN Si said that the world is still in a special period of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, and ICEE is also facing different kinds of challenges. As for the work in the coming year, ICEE will closely centering on its vision and mission, and focus on consulting and research, capacity building, education and training, international cooperation, organizational building, etc.

 
YUAN Si delivers the work report

Members of the Governing Board and Advisory Board had an in-depth discussion on the work report of ICEE. Edward F. Crawley, Co-Director of the Advisory Board of ICEE, a MIT professor and foreign member of CAE, made a summary of the meeting. He said that the contents of UNESCO's report titled Engineering for Sustainable Development are not only about technologies, but also about the correlation between human beings and education, which has well received and will be impactful around the world. Sustainable development, digital education and right skills represent the three major trends of future development of engineering education. We need to extend engineering education to research work, put it into practice after discussion, and implement it in education. We should combine science and technology with the UN SDGs, and consider follow-on monitoring and tracking of outcomes that align with the recommendations in the report and strengthen the cooperation with relevant UNESCO organizations. Finally, the Governing Board deliberated and adopted the annual work report and work plan of ICEE, and put forward important constructive suggestions on the future development of ICEE. This is the fifth annual meeting since the establishment of the ICEE Governing Board and Advisory Board in 2017. 

A photo from the meeting

The members of the ICEE Governing Board and Advisory Board and representatives who attended the meeting included Hans J. Hoyer, Secretary General of International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), Anette Kolmos, Director of Aalborg University Centre for Problem based Learning in Engineering Science and Sustainability (UCPBL), Tony Marjoram, former Head of Engineering ,Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences at UNESCO, Hideaki Koizumi, Executive Vice President of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ), Robert Pullen, former President of the South African Academy of Engineering (SAAE), Funso A.Falade, president of Africa Engineering Education Association (AEEA), Yashin Brijmohan, former Vice President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), TIAN Hongqi, President of Central South University and former Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, ZHENG Qinghua, Vice President of Xi’an Jiaotong University, YANG Bin, Vice President and Provost of Tsinghua University, GONG Ke, President of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), QU Zhenyuan, former President of China Association of Higher Education, YU Shouwen, former Vice President of Tsinghua University, CHA Jianzhong, UNESCO Chair in Cooperation of between Higher Engineering Education and Industries at Beijing Jiaotong University, KANG Jincheng, former Director General of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, WANG Sunyu, ICEE Secretary General and a professor of Institute of Education Tsinghua University, and Dean SHI Zhongying, Secretary LIU Huiqin, Professor LIN Jian, Professor LI Manli, Associate Research Fellow XIE Zheping, Assistant Research Fellow QIAO Weifeng, and Associate Professor TANG Xiaofeng from Institute of Education Tsinghua University. XU Lihui, SHEN Ye, WANG Yujia, ZHU Pan and LI Jingjing from ICEE also attended the meeting.