Exploration on education model of international engineering competencies for undergraduate students through Project-Based Learning: A case study from China

Internationalization is the developing trend of engineering education in the contemporary world. An increasing number of Chinese universities provide international engineering education programs for undergraduates majoring in engineering in the form of Lecture-Based Learning models that sometimes separate theory from practice. In this paper, we define the most important competencies of engineers with international competitiveness as being Multicultural, Multidisciplinary, Innovative, Integrative, and skilled in Leadership and develop the International Engineering Practice Program (IEPP) based on Project-Based Learning (PBL) to foster these five competencies. In IEPP, students cooperate in the multidisciplinary research in defining problems, designing, manufacturing, and showcasing the projects. A team composed of one project supervisor, project instructors and assistants are built to guide the students for the practical work and theoretical lectures are offered to them for basic knowledge. Throughout the program, English is used as the working language to develop the student's international outlook. This education model has been evaluated as successful: some students' projects won the top prize in national technological competitions and over 90% of the students consider it effective in both enriching their knowledge base and enhancing their abilities despite slightly more workload.