On the afternoon of July 20, 2016, the kickoff meeting for the construction of international courses of the School of Agriculture and Biology was smoothly held. Dean of the School of Agriculture and Biology, Professor Zhou Pei attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Deputy Dean, Professor Che Shengquan, in which more than 20 specialized teachers from five departments attended the meeting. Discussion was made in terms of the formal startup of the construction of 20 international courses for postgraduates in which lectures are given in English.

Deputy Dean Che Shengquan gave a detailed interpretation of the management method, the construction approach, the assessment index, the issue of expenditure, the use and management and various tasks of 20 international courses for postgraduates, and pointed out that relying on such 20 international courses, two postgraduate specialties in which lecture is given in English including food safety and nutrition, horticulture landscape and ecology are set up in the school, and overseas students are recruited in the school to complete the study of postgraduate and doctoral courses. The construction of the course project was officially launched this week, and school begins from the fall semester since 2016 successively. The construction period of the first batch of courses is one year. The mid-term assessment will be made in December, 2016, and the final assessment will be made in June, 2017. 

All the teachers of 20 international courses selected in the school have relatively strong background of internationalized study and work. Deputy Dean Che Shengquan encouraged the teachers to apply the advanced teaching cases and teaching methods learned abroad to courses. With the construction of strong courses and soft power, 20 international courses will be built into the famous-brand project with sustainable development in our school. 

Dean Zhou Pei pointed out that the school will give full support to the construction of internationalized courses. Besides, he stressed that the future development of the school can’t do without internationalized construction. The introduction of internationalized standard, the expansion of the scope of internationalization, and the development of internationalized courses is the foundation to support internationalized education of the school. Besides, Dean Zhou also suggested that every specialized teacher should cultivate course successors while they give lectures well in course construction, make excellent courses continue, form specialized courseware of internationalized courses, guide students well, serve as role model, and show the style of internationalization. Meanwhile, Dean Zhou also emphasized that the construction of internationalized courses should be in synchronous development with international cooperative scientific research, and not a single one can be omitted.  

The Q&A and discussion link was set up in the meeting at last. The participating teachers made discussion in terms of the matters such as the setup of class hours, the teaching form, the standard specification of internationalized wording and etc., and presented valuable opinions actively and effectively.