Bialystok University of Technology will educate Chinese engineers

“International School of Engineering is a unique project that unites three universities – TCU, a Chinese university and two Polish universities, i.e. Cracow University of Technology and Bialystok University of Technology,” said Assoc. Prof. Marta Kosior-Kazberuk, DSc, PhD, Eng., “to our university, this essentially means more foreign students, an increase in internationalisation both in terms of the number of students and the academic exchange of the staff. The BUT diploma is now more recognisable internationally.”

The International School of Engineering (ISE) at TCU is a jointly operated Sino-foreign educational institution approved by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, subject to the laws of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Poland, as well as the relevant regulations on Sino-foreign cooperation in the operation of educational institutions.

The ISE is managed by and based at Tianjin Chengjian University in cooperation with Bialystok University of Technology and Cracow University of Technology. All the courses at both BUT and CUT will be conducted in English.

The ISE offers first- and second-cycle studies, including four types of first-cycle studies (Bachelor of Engineering) in the field of Civil Engineering (with the co-operation of Bialystok University of Technology), Environmental Engineering (with the co-operation of BUT), Architecture (with the co-operation of Cracow University of Technology) and Landscape Architecture (with the co-operation of CUT) and four types of second-cycle studies (Master of Engineering) in the field of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering (with the co-operation of BUT, where the course is called second-cycle studies in Civil Engineering), Resources and Environment (with the co-operation of BUT, where the course is called second-cycle studies in Environmental Engineering), Architecture (with the co-operation of CUT) and Landscape Architecture (with the co-operation of CUT).

The study programmes will meet the educational quality standards of both Poland and China. TCU has also ensured that the ISE has a comfortable and modern headquarters.

The International School of Engineering will educate Chinese nationals, and the total number of students planned for enrolment at the ISE is 1,200 – 240 students are planned to be enrolled for the first-cycle studies and 60 students for the second-cycle studies each year.

First-cycle students of the ISE will be obliged to study at Bialystok University of Technology for the duration of one academic year and second-cycle students for one semester (half a year).

Bialystok University of Technology has been actively engaged in cooperation with universities in China as part of the Belt and Road Initiative of the Chinese government. This has resulted in a number of inter-university double degree agreements, the student and teacher exchange under the Erasmus+ programme, summer schools and scholarships for Polish students studying in China, as well as scholarships for visiting professors.

“We have been offering Chinese language courses to our students and employees for several years now, and since autumn 2018, we have launched the Confucius Classroom at Bialystok University of Technology,” emphasised Assoc. Prof. Marta Kosior-Kazberuk, DSc, PhD, Eng., Rector of Bialystok University of Technology. “This project, for which BUT partnered with CUT and TCU, is unique in many respects. Polish universities will have a real and tangible impact on the education of Chinese engineers in the form of a double diploma. It is a great challenge, but also an honour for Bialystok University of Technology. TCU not only appreciated our didactic programmes but also invited our lecturers to co-create the study programme,” added Prof. Kosior-Kazberuk.

Bialystok University of Technology has been cooperating with Tianjin Chengjian University since 2013. TCU was established in 1978 and is located in the city of Tianjin, 114 km southeast of Beijing. Tianjin is an important port on the Yellow Sea, a centre for oil production from the Bohai Bay and… China’s largest salt producer. There are more than a dozen universities in the city. In 2010, the population of Tianjin reached almost 13 million.