Joint Programs

Our Institute started relatively early in sino-foreign joint programs and has achieved remarkable success,which in turn contributes a lot to the positioning of our university as an international business university in China.

Right now, we have three sino-foreign joint programs: RMIT International Business School of SIFT, Sino-America Maodeshen Financial Management School of SIFT and Sino-Britain English and Business School of SIFT, all of which offer quite a few joint specialities, including the international trade (junior college), international business ( undergraduate course), international transport and logistics management (undergraduate courses) and MA project offered in the joint effort of SIFT and RMIT; the business English speciality ( college course) set up by SIFT¡¯s language department and University of Central Lancashire in Britain; the financal affairs management ( undergraduate course) cooperated by SIFT and Douglas College in Canada; and the MA courses of international science of law and economic law cooperated by our Institute and Canberra University of Australia. Right now we are applying to set up the cooperated speciality of international expo with Aosinabuluke University of Applied Technology, and the cooperated specialities of Business English ( undergraduate program) and English economic news reports with UCLan.

1. Principles for establishing the Sino-foreign joint programs

We are striving for the cooperation in outstanding specialty.
Though our partners are not the first-rate universities in the world, we choose to cooperate with their strong specialties. For example, the speciality of logistics in RMIT and that of Business English in Uclan are both in the leading position among the like subjects.
All the Sino-foreign programs must include teacher-training plans:
The purpose of these joint programs is not to get more income, but to acquire more chances to send teachers abroad for training so that they may bring back the advanced teaching concepts, instruments and original textbooks.

2. The sino-foreign joint programs propel the construction of specialities and curriculum.
We have introduced boldly from abroad the advanced curriculum system. Up till now, the three undergraduate programs and one college program have totally opened 76 professional courses, all taught in the introduced original textbooks and tested in English. On the basis of the course construction, we have set up the only speciality which has been approved by the Degree office of the State Council and which can confer two BA Degrees both from our Institute and foreign university---- the logistics management, so as to meet the demand posed by the new industries of the 21st century. This program has recently been appraised by the experts panel organized by the Degree office of the State Council and has got very positive comment. We may also say that it is through the launching of the Sino-foreign programs that we have sped up the establishment of this speciality.

3. Sino-foreign joint programs have furthered the construction of the teaching team
We have aimed these Sino-foreign programs at upgrading the educating levels and furthering the development of the teaching team.
Based on the national principle of ¡° associating education with modernization, global views and future¡±, our Institute is now trying to adapt itself to economic globalization, the challenges arising from the tech revolution and the new demands for international elite merging from China¡¯s entry to WTO , and we also lay stress on creating conditions for the undergraduate professional courses to be taught in English. Therefore, all the Sino-foreign programs are required to include teacher training projects. In order to adapt teachers better to other countries¡¯ conditions, we have launched English training courses for teachers, organized them to attend the English qualification tests for going abroad and selected the candidates through public bidding. Every teacher, when going abroad , is required to specialize in one or two major courses. Right now, our Institute has forged a teaching team made up by middle-aged and young teachers, who can not only teach such subject courses as economics and trade, science of laws and management in both Chinese and English, but also know how to apply the foreign advanced teaching methodologies and instruments to classes. What is more precious is that they are in a position to keep track of the latest developments of the related subjects and apply them to their own teaching and researches. We have also launched the bilingual training among the middle-aged and young teachers and put it into the teachers¡¯ professional assessment system, and gradually, we are going to shape them into a teaching team who can teach the basic courses and professional courses both in Chinese and English.

4. the Sino-foreign joint programs upgrade the teaching level
The ultimate purpose of these joint programs is to enhance the quality of personnel training. These programs have acquired a leading position in this aspect in that at least four courses of them are taught in foreign language and 5-7 courses use foreign language textbooks. For those specialities which can not be taught in foreign languages, at least 3-5 courses should be taught in Chinese but must apply original textbooks so that finally all the courses can be taught in foreign language. At least 40 courses of the non-foreign language specialities should apply the original textbooks for language teaching, accounting for 11.7% of the total courses offered by the school in one year. The biggest beneficiaries of the Sino-foreign joint programs are students, who can not only learn the newest theories and knowledge of the related courses, but also enhance their abilities of acquiring information, analyzing and resolving problems, since teachers for these programs adopt the advanced teaching methods and modes. The teaching concepts and modes are constantly updated. Theoretical teaching content is closely connected with practice, which emphasizes the applications of knowledge and the training of skills. As far as teaching instruments are concerned, teachers adopt the diversified and informative methods through applying on-class teaching, demonstration with multi-media facilities, Q and A, case studies, group discussions to enlighten students¡¯ thinking and motivate their learning autonomy and activity. Students trained in this way will obtain solid professional basis and acquire the ability to study further and innovate and the ability to practice, analyze and resolve problems and their competitiveness for employment is greatly enhanced. Besides, a traditional feature of our Institute¡¯s education is that we have a ¡® strong foreign language teaching faculty ¡®. Now , on the basis of primary English language teaching in year 1 and year 2, students may even conspicuously enhance their ability of English applications since many professional courses are also taught in English. They can even make professional communications in English.

5. Sino-foreign joint programs are favorable to launching gradually the ¡®bilingual¡¯ teaching plan
The Institute is gradually launching the ¡®bilingual¡¯ teaching plan. Especially in the joint programs, the major courses are taught in English so that students may be equipped with considerable ability of English communication on the basis of mastering adequate professional knowledge. For example, according to the national statistics of the score of college English test, the passing rate of key universities nation-wide in BET 4 is about 47.8%, and the rate of excellence 4.28%, and the two indexes of the non-major universities are respectively 29.52% and 1.38%, but the two indexes of our university are 83% and 33.3%, the passing rate of major universities of BET 6 is 17.24%, and the rate of excellence is 0.11% and the two indexes of the non-major universities are respectively 13.56% and 0.05%, but the two indexes of our Institute are 52.15% and 0.86%.

Since our Institute has achieved very satisfactory performance in the Sino-foreign joint programs, the specialities of international trade, finance and financial management won respectively the ¡®second prize of Shanghai¡¯s Merit Award for Teaching Achievement¡¯ in the year 2001, The joint-programs of finance and financial management have also won the Prize of Outstanding International Education awarded by the Canadian Federal Government. Thanks to the excellent performance achieved by our joint-programs and under the arrangement of Shanghai Municipal Educational Committee, ten media organs from the Central Government and Shanghai interviewed our Institute in 2003 to gather our experience in joint programs.

In brief, the practice of our Institute in launching joint programs has transformed the traditional educational concepts, optimized the subject structure, updated the teaching content , improved the application of teaching methods and result of the teaching activities so that the graduates have obtained well-structured professional knowledge, relatively strong ability in practical operation and considerable ability to communicate in English. At the same time, the new joint programs have also forged a professional teaching team composed of young teachers who are versed in their own subjects, strong in English language and who can achieve good teaching effect.