Abstract:The excellent engineer training consortium is an important measure to give full play to the advantages of the new first-class system, implement the integrated deployment of education, science and technology, and talents with the deep integration of government, industry, academia and research, and deepen the reform of excellent engineer training. Based on the perspective of histology, this paper analyzes the construction mechanism, construction principle and implementation path from the three core elements of common goal, willingness to collaborate and information exchange. In order to achieve the common goal of cultivating outstanding engineers through the integration of industry and education, it is necessary for the first-class departments to do a good job in policy guidance, universities and enterprises to deepen two-way integration, scientific research institutions and industry organizations to provide social support, and to consolidate and strengthen the willingness of members to collaborate by building a resource sharing platform with multi-subject participation, multi-regional layout and multi-field integration, and at the same time establish and improve a multi-dimensional governance mechanism, decision-making mechanism and incentive mechanism to strengthen information exchange among members, so as to ensure the long-term and stable operation and functional realization of the training consortium. Promote the construction of a new paradigm of integrated training of industry and education for outstanding engineers in China.
I. Introduction. At the fifth collective study of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, the general secretary pointed out that engineering education should be further strengthened, and the independent training of top-notch innovative talents should be strengthened, so as to provide talent support for solving key core technology research in China. The cultivation of outstanding engineers in the context of the new era is a powerful combination point for building a strong country in education, science and technology, and talents, and it is also a systematic project, which needs to further integrate universities, enterprises, scientific research institutions and industry organizations and other multiple subjects to establish an integrated industry-university-research "consortium" organization to realize the deep integration of industry, university and research, and collaborative education. The concept and organizational form of the "Consortium" had an early start in the Soviet Union. In the 50s of the 20th century, in order to rank among the world's leading countries in science and technology, the Soviet Union organically combined universities with scientific research and production units, explored the organizational form of integration of teaching, scientific research and production, and put forward the concept of industry-university-research "consortium". In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's engineering education mainly drew on the Soviet model to explore the integration of industry, university and research cooperation. In 1952, China implemented the first national adjustment of colleges and universities, and the first department directly managed the industry colleges and universities, and established a higher education system isomorphic with the economic system. The earliest reference to the concept of teaching, scientific research, and production associations in domestic literature was in 1983, when "since the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the combination of teaching, scientific research and production and labor has been implemented." In this process, guidance has been playing a vital role in industry-university-research cooperation, and the cooperation between government, industry, academia and research has been deepened.
Up to now, the consortium based on teaching, scientific research and production cooperation has not yet formed a unified definition, but it can be summarized as a cooperative organization formed through the deep integration of industry, university and research, which promotes the mutual promotion of innovation chain, industrial chain and talent chain, and plays an important role in the reform of engineering education in China. Different times and internal needs determine the formation mode and development direction of industry-university-research cooperation organizations, and in recent years, new paradigms have also been derived from the consortium. On May 28, 2021, the general secretary of the ** proposed the concept of innovation consortium for the first time at the 10th National Congress of the China Association for Science and Technology. The innovation consortium focuses on giving full play to the main position and leading role of enterprises as technological innovation, and is clearly led by leading enterprises, supported by universities and institutes, and coordinated with each other. At the 2021 Talent Work Conference, the general secretary emphasized the need to cultivate a large number of outstanding engineers, mobilize the enthusiasm of universities and enterprises, and realize the deep integration of production, education and research. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will unify the deployment of education, science and technology, and talents, and comprehensively improve the quality of independent training of top-notch innovative talents. The Ministry of Education and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the People's Republic of China established the first batch of National Outstanding Engineer College and the National Outstanding Engineer Innovation Research Institute, and 18 national excellent engineer college construction units jointly issued the "Beijing Declaration on the Training of Outstanding Engineers", and China has entered a new stage of engineering education reform represented by the training of outstanding engineers. To cultivate a large number of outstanding engineers, it is urgent to give full play to the advantages of the new first-class system, promote the systematic, all-round and in-depth integration of education, science and technology, and industry, and the construction of the excellent engineer training consortium is at the right time.
In this study, we propose to establish a consortium for the cultivation of outstanding engineers (hereinafter referred to as the "training consortium"). In terms of essential attributes, it belongs to the industry-university-research cooperation organization, but more emphasis and attention are paid to the guiding role of the first-class system, so as to better play the advantages of the new first-class system and unite the multiple joint forces of government, industry, academia and research. In terms of target selection, the training consortium is committed to promoting the construction of a new paradigm of independent training of outstanding engineers through the deep integration of government, industry, academia and research, and contributing Chinese solutions to the world's engineering education. In terms of cooperation methods, different from other loose organizations, the cultivation consortium realizes the integration of multiple subjects across fields, industries, regions and organizations through substantive alliances, and jointly creates an "ecological rainforest" for the cultivation of outstanding engineers. In view of this, based on the perspective of histology, this study proposes the realization path of the excellent engineer training consortium in the new era from the aspects of the common goal achievement mechanism of multi-agent interest symbiosis, the collaborative will-driven mechanism of multi-platform resource sharing, and the information exchange and communication mechanism of multi-dimensional system co-construction.
2. Reference thinking of the excellent engineer training consortium.
1) Theoretical basis.
Organization theory has a good explanatory effect on cooperative organizations such as associations, alliances, and consortia. Some scholars have studied the practical logic and governance system of the strategic alliance of "The Belt and Road" universities based on organizational theory, some scholars have explored the possibility of integrating universities and social non-profit organizations, and created a co-construction platform to serve talent training and social development. Through the coordination of many social subjects such as enterprises, enterprises and social organizations to form an organized consortium, in order to adapt to the transformation of China's economic structure and the transformation of social lifestyle, to achieve the goal of co-construction and co-governance.
Organizational theory argues that organizations are based on three elements, namely, a common goal, a willingness to collaborate for a common goal, and a mechanism for forming information exchange. The common goal is the common pursuit that is widely accepted or recognized by the members of the organization according to their respective interests, and the unanimous goal is a necessary prerequisite for achieving the willingness to collaborate. The willingness to cooperate is the desire of the members of the organization to contribute to the organization and make efforts driven by certain inducements, and the stable willingness to cooperate is the endogenous driving force and necessary guarantee for the construction and operation of the cooperative organization. Effective information exchange can ensure teamwork among members, which is an important foundation for the sustainable development of the organization, and has an important impact on the organization's structure design, rule formulation and business scope. A stable organization should have clear goals, members should have a high willingness to cooperate to achieve a common goal and mission, and all parties agree on the importance of communication and coordination.
2) Empirical enlightenment.
Countries around the world have carried out multi-dimensional and long-term practical exploration in the training of engineers, cultivated a large number of engineering and scientific talents, and promoted the development of global engineering education. Based on the organizational theory, this study selected four representative engineer training cooperative organizations, including the Canadian Association for Cooperative Education and Industry-University Integration Education (CEWIL), the Australian Alliance for Industry-University Cooperative Education (ACEN), the French Engineer Title Commission (CTI), and the Chinese Consortium of Engineers (CSE), (see Table 1) to sort out the structure and operation mechanism of the above organizations through various forms such as literature search, collection of publicity reports, and field visits and research. The study of its reference value for the construction of a cultivation consortium in China. Among them, the Canadian Association for Cooperative Education and Industry-University Integration Education is a leading organization in the integration of work and learning in Canada, and through close cooperation with employers and universities, it cultivates the ability of future students with high-quality combination of engineering and learning. As the leading organization of the integration of work and learning in Australia, the Australian Industry-University Cooperative Education Alliance advocates cooperation and partnership among educators, communities, industries and all parties. The French Engineer Titles Board is the earliest evaluation and accreditation body for engineers in Europe, and the most authoritative body in the field of professional certification of engineers in France. Initiated by the China Association for Science and Technology, the China Consortium of Engineers focuses on the post-career development stage of engineers, improving the professionalism of engineers internally, improving the internationalization level of engineers externally, promoting mutual recognition of engineers' qualifications, and participating in global governance in the field of engineering.
Through the literature study of the four cooperative organizations, it is found that these industry-university-research cooperative organizations have played an important role in supporting the growth and development of engineering and scientific talents. Although the development mode, organizational structure and operation mechanism of the relevant organizations are different, the members of the organization have a clear common goal and a stable willingness to collaborate, and have formed a unique information exchange mechanism in the long-term practice and exploration, which jointly reflects the following three characteristics.
In terms of strategic choice, it emphasizes the elit-oriented and the pursuit of excellence in the same direction. It is based on the goal of meritocracy and excellence that the four cooperative organizations have gradually established their leading positions. In terms of organizational goals, most of them adhere to the world vision and international standards for construction. In terms of members, elite members such as leading enterprises, first-class universities and top scientific research institutions play an important supporting role in promoting the achievement of organizational goals. In terms of training objects, more focus on elite education, such as the French CTI certified engineering college is positioned to cultivate elite talents in military and political, high-tech and business administration, etc., and only high school graduates ranked in the top 10% have the opportunity to be admitted to the engineering college. In terms of construction effectiveness, the above-mentioned industry-university-research cooperation organizations have strong international influence and leadership.
In terms of organizational composition, strengthen the collaborative integration of multiple subjects and heterogeneous resources. The complementarity of multiple subjects determines the dependence of heterogeneous resources. Heterogeneous resources are the material basis for the complementarity, integration and coordinated operation of multiple subjects, and the more heterogeneous resources that other members do not have, the stronger the willingness to deepen cooperation through sharing resources, and the stronger the cooperative relationship will be. For example, CEWIL, ACEN, etc. are composed of many universities, enterprises, industry associations and other heterogeneous units, deepening the integration of industry and education to cultivate talents for the school, and deliver high-quality graduates for enterprises.
In terms of mechanism design, it emphasizes the integration of organizational goals and operating mechanisms. Clear goals and a matching operating mechanism are the keys to the smooth operation and continuous development of the above-mentioned industry-university-research cooperation organizations. For example, the goal of CTI is to "ensure the quality of engineer education and ensure that engineer education is consistent with European and international engineer education", so the organization promotes the mutual recognition of engineer degree diplomas and qualifications through a unified certification system of talent training standards, and the evaluation and certification results of the French engineer qualification certificate accredited by CTI and the European engineer education accreditation system are mutually recognized. CSE is committed to promoting the international mutual recognition of engineer qualifications, promoting Chinese standards to the international and Chinese engineers to the world, serving the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road", actively participating in global governance in the field of engineering, and gradually becoming one of the comprehensive engineer organizations with global influence.
3. The construction mechanism of the excellent engineer training consortium.
The integration of industry and education to cultivate outstanding engineers must be guided by serving the needs of the country, give full play to the advantages of the new first-class system, concentrate on tackling key problems, and build a close and integrated relationship paradigm of government, industry, academia and research, which is a direct and effective response to China's national conditions and the background of the times. On the basis of extensively absorbing the beneficial ideas of relevant scholars and the construction experience at home and abroad, this study explores and proposes the connotation of the outstanding engineer training consortium: the training consortium is composed of universities, enterprises, scientific research institutions, industry organizations and other multiple subjects with common vision, goals or interests, based on the goal of cultivating outstanding engineers through the integration of industry and education in China, under the guidance of the first, organized systematic, all-round and substantive integration, and forms a new type of government-industry-university-research cooperation organization, which is "education, science and technology, and talents" An important form of integration. Based on organizational theory, this study constructs an analytical framework for the construction of a cultivated consortium with the three elements of common goal, willingness to collaborate and information exchange as the core, the principles of excellence, synergy and systematization, and the common goal achievement mechanism of multi-agent interest symbiosis, the willingness to collaborate driven mechanism of multi-platform resource sharing, and the information exchange and communication mechanism of multi-dimensional system co-construction to achieve the path. (See Figure 1).
In order to achieve the common goal of cultivating outstanding engineers through the integration of industry and education, the training consortium must deepen the integration of government, industry, academia and research, and fully embody the principles of excellence, synergy and systematization.
The first is to highlight excellence and serve the needs of the country with high-quality education supply. For the construction of the training consortium, in terms of training goals, it is necessary to focus on the national strategy, serve the needs of the country, rely on major projects and major projects to independently train outstanding engineers, establish a world-class engineer training system with Chinese characteristics, and provide important talent support for solving the key core technology research in China. In the selection of members, it is necessary to start from the needs of the industry, widely gather the strength of multiple subjects with excellent attributes, and focus on relying on the relevant construction units of the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers and the Institute of Outstanding Engineer Innovation to cultivate top-notch innovative talents. In terms of element allocation, it is necessary to adhere to first-class standards, build first-class teachers, build first-class courses, build first-class platforms, gather advantageous production and education resources and innovative elements, and build a high-quality education environment.
The second is to highlight synergy and achieve common sharing with open collaboration of all elements. Although loose cooperative organizations can also achieve resource complementarity and sharing to a certain extent, there are inherent drawbacks that the integration of industry and education is not deep and unrealistic. The construction of the training consortium will focus on the integrated cooperative organizational structure, focus on the connection and matching of the industrial demand side and the supply side of talent training, and widely gather the high-quality resources of multiple subjects such as universities, enterprises, scientific research institutions, and industry organizations, so as to achieve in-depth resource integration and common sharing. The training consortium will focus on establishing and improving the "four commons" and "four links" mechanism of school-enterprise joint enrollment, joint training, joint topic selection, shared results and teacher exchange, curriculum integration, platform integration, and policy smoothness, so as to promote the orderly and efficient open sharing of teaching, projects, platforms, teachers, and information within the training consortium.
The third is to highlight the systematic, and lead the paradigm change with all-round institutional innovation. In the construction of the training consortium, it is necessary to design the system from the national level, break down the institutional and policy obstacles that restrict the training of outstanding engineers, promote the systematic reform of the education system, school-running mechanism, training methods and incentive evaluation, and build an institutional and policy environment conducive to the integration of government, industry, academia and research. It is necessary to give full play to the ability of resource allocation from the implementation level, support and encourage universities, enterprises, scientific research institutions and other multiple subjects to give full play to their own advantages, and carry out substantive cooperation in the whole process of training such as joint enrollment, integrated curriculum system, dual tutor (group), and alternate training of engineering and research through standardized organizational structure, training process, work arrangement and evaluation mechanism design, so as to build a training system for the integration of government, industry, academia and research.
Fourth, the realization path of the excellent engineer training consortium.
Common goals, a willingness to collaborate and the exchange of information are key to facilitating the creation and operation of the foster consortium. Guided by organizational theory, the cultivation consortium should be guided by the common goal achievement mechanism of multi-subject interest symbiosis, the collaborative willingness driving mechanism of multi-platform resource sharing, and the information exchange and communication mechanism of multi-dimensional system co-construction.
1) Construct a mechanism for achieving the common goal of multi-subject symbiosis of interests.
The common goal is the premise of cultivating the cooperation of the consortium members, and the symbiosis of interests can promote the cooperation of the members and reach the same goal. The integration of industry and education to cultivate outstanding engineers is a common problem faced by engineering education in the world, and the main reason is that there are natural differences in the interests and value pursuit of universities and enterprises. Colleges and universities are committed to talent training, but the disconnection between industry and education leads to the miscoupling of students' abilities cultivated by colleges and universities with the needs of enterprises, which restricts the cultivation of high-quality talents. Enterprises focus on the pursuit of maximizing economic benefits, in the process of China's progress from an industrial power to an industrial power, enterprises have transformed from low-end replication to high-end creation, and talents have become the first resource of enterprises, which urgently requires enterprises to move the training link forward and "tailor-made" talents with universities. In recent years, China has successively introduced a series of relevant policies on the integration of industry and education, and China has played an important enabling role in organically connecting universities and enterprises and deepening the integration of industry and education. In general, the integration of industry and education to cultivate outstanding engineers has become the common interest choice and strategic goal of universities, enterprises and other multiple subjects.
In order to achieve the common goal of cultivating outstanding engineers through the deep integration of government, industry, academia and research, all members of the training consortium should act together to truly build the training consortium into a community of policies, interests and development. As shown in Figure 2, there are three main aspects that can be taken into account.
The first is to do a good job in policy guidance. Although the management departments at all levels are not directly involved in the construction and operation of the training consortium, they play an important role in policy guidance, and can continue to provide support for the training consortium through institutional guarantees, financial support and management services, and effectively break the institutional obstacles that restrict the integration of industry and education to train outstanding engineers. At the same time, the training consortium can give full play to the advantages of expert think tanks, issue common training standards and construction guidelines, create a public policy advocacy position, and provide reliable support for the reform policy direction of outstanding engineer training.
The second is to do a good job of two-way integration. Enterprises and colleges and universities gather more common interests, and the substantive alliance runs through the whole process of enrollment selection, course materials, tutor team, practice platform, graduation evaluation, etc., to build and improve a new system of excellent engineer training for enterprises, school-enterprise joint answers, and industrial grading, and effectively solve outstanding problems such as the disconnection between engineering and technical personnel training and production practice.
The third is to do a good job in social support. Scientific research institutions and industry organizations have abundant industry advantages, scientific research conditions, incubation platforms, expert think tanks and other high-quality resources, and have rich promotion experience and industry advantages for new technologies, new processes, new products and new methods spawned by the integration of industry and education.
2) Build a collaborative willingness-driven mechanism for multi-platform resource sharing.
The most significant indication of the willingness of the members of the organization is to establish a good cooperative relationship through the integration of resources and thus gain a competitive advantage. On the one hand, the level of resource integration and sharing directly affects the level of collaboration between members and the degree of competitive advantage. On the other hand, different ways of cooperation between organizations will also have an impact on the level of resource integration and sharing. For loose cooperative organizations, all parties invest less resources, and it is impossible to reach a stable willingness to collaborate. The integrated organizational structure can achieve a higher degree of resource investment and integration and sharing, prompting all members to jump out of the traditional scope of rights and responsibilities, and collaborate to create a resource sharing platform, with close connection, interdependence and high cooperation between members, so as to obtain the best competitive advantage. The construction of the cultivation consortium should be oriented towards the operation of an integrated entity, and promote the members to shift from individual cooperation to chain ecological cooperation, so as to form a more stable willingness to collaborate.
In order to consolidate and strengthen the willingness of members to collaborate, the training consortium should take resource sharing as the core, build an excellent engineer training "ecosystem" with multi-subject participation, multi-regional layout and multi-field integration, and continuously deepen the mechanism of "four commons" and "four links", as shown in Figure 3.
The first is to build a joint platform for national excellent engineering colleges. The National College of Outstanding Engineers is a new type of government, industry, academia and research entity organization composed of a university and a number of enterprises or an enterprise and a number of universities, through the construction of the platform, it can realize the integrated integration and optimal utilization of resources such as universities, enterprises and national laboratories, and promote the direct docking and long-term matching of supply and demand of industry and education.
The second is to build a joint platform for the National Institute of Outstanding Engineer Innovation. The National Institute of Outstanding Engineer Innovation is based on the establishment of a national key region led by the industry, industry traction, university support, market optimization of the entity talent training and science and technology industry innovation special zone, through the construction of the platform, can innovate the integration of science and education, the integration of industry and education collaborative education model, open up the regional city talent training and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements "last mile".
The third is to build a joint platform for the training of outstanding engineers in key fields. Support the subdivision and development of each key field, build sub-consortia in each key field, and further integrate resources and co-construction and sharing in each key field around core courses, teaching materials, practice platforms and industry mentor team construction, so as to serve the training of outstanding engineers in key fields. Taking the joint construction of core demonstration courses as an example, the consortium can gather high-quality resources such as theoretical research, industry frontiers, engineering cases, and high-level teachers of each member unit in a key field to jointly build a number of national-level core demonstration courses in key fields.
3) Build an information exchange and communication mechanism for multi-dimensional system co-construction.
Adequate information exchange is a key part of cultivating consultation and co-governance among consortium members. The information exchange among the members of the cultivation consortium needs to be based on equal status, correct attitude and positive actions to form a good situation of pluralistic synergy, co-governance and symbiosis. The equal status is reflected in the management and operation, through the establishment of a rotation mechanism of the governing unit to ensure the initiative and enthusiasm of the participants, the annual meeting of the rotating organization to exchange work experience, and promote more in-depth cooperation among members; The correct attitude is reflected in the decision-making, through the establishment of a decision-making mechanism of consultation and co-governance, to correct and avoid the arbitrary decision-making and monopoly of the development process of the cultivation consortium, schools or enterprises; Positive action is reflected in the evaluation of incentives, and public choice theory believes that collective action does not occur automatically unless there is a "selective incentive" in the organization, and a sound evaluation and incentive mechanism can stimulate members' positive action and active participation. It can be said that the construction of a multi-dimensional institutional guarantee of information exchange and communication mechanism has built a bridge of cooperation for effectively connecting and cultivating the common goal of the consortium and the willingness of members to collaborate.
The cultivation consortium can strengthen the information exchange among members by designing and improving the multi-dimensional governance mechanism, decision-making mechanism and incentive mechanism, so as to ensure the long-term stable operation and functional realization of the cultivation consortium.
The first is to establish a rotating governance mechanism. The training consortium can implement the responsibility system of the board of directors, and the chairman unit of the board of directors adopts the rotation system, and all the governing units can take turns to serve as the chairman unit. The rotation system is conducive to the establishment of a substantive and equal relationship between member units, and is of great significance to enhance the enthusiasm and initiative of member units.
The second is to establish a consultation and decision-making mechanism. The realization of decision-making is based on the communication and consultation of all members, and consensus is reached by soliciting the opinions of members extensively. The Council of the Cultivation Consortium is the highest decision-making body, and can decide on relevant important matters in accordance with the board meeting system, so as to realize the co-construction and sharing of high-quality resources and the matching of rights and responsibilities among members.
The third is to establish an evaluation and incentive mechanism. The training consortium should establish a quality assurance and evaluation system, further strengthen the value, innovation, ability, and contribution orientation, clarify the requirements for the training of outstanding engineers, and ensure that the training standards among the consortium members are consistent. At the same time, it is also necessary to strictly admit and exit the members of the training consortium, play the role of positive incentives and negative constraints, stimulate the endogenous motivation of the members, and ensure the quality of the training of outstanding engineers and the construction of the training consortium.
V. Conclusion. The integration of industry and education to cultivate outstanding engineers is a common challenge faced by the international engineering education community, and it is also an important topic to be solved by China's engineering education. This study puts forward the construction ideas and implementation paths of the training consortium from three aspects: common goal, willingness to collaborate and information exchange, and proposes the operation mechanism of multi-subject interest symbiosis, multi-platform resource sharing and multi-dimensional system co-construction, in order to provide thinking and inspiration for the integration of industry and education to cultivate outstanding engineers. In the future, the excellent engineer training consortium should further give full play to the advantages of the new first-class system, implement the integrated deployment of education, science and technology, and talents, strengthen multi-subject collaboration, promote the reconstruction of the excellent engineer training system and process reengineering, build an engineering education community that integrates government, industry, academia and research, effectively improve the quality of independent training of outstanding engineers, and continuously contribute wisdom and strength to the construction of a strong country in education, science and technology, and talents.
This article has received guidance and help from experts and scholars from the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers and the National Institute of Outstanding Engineer Innovation, which are preparing to establish the China Outstanding Engineer Training Consortium. ）
Authors: Wang Yang1,2,3, Liu Jingchao2,3,4*, Zhao Qinping5,6
1 General Management Office, Graduate School, Beihang University.
2. Strategic Research Base for Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education (Research Base for Industry-Education Joint Training of Outstanding Engineers).
3 Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Outstanding Engineer Industry-Education Joint Training Research Center.
4 School of Computer Science, Beihang University.
5 Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
6 Beihang University.
This article was originally published in China Higher Education Research, Issue 11, 2023.
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