The Influence of the USSR on Chinese Engineering Education: Taking Beijing College of Aeronautics as an Example

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was seriously lacking in scientific and technical professionals. For this reason, the Central Government reformed higher education, hired experts from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and sent students and technicians overseas to socialist countries. The central government strengthened engineering education, established polytechnic universities or colleges, and engineering colleges such as iron and steel, mining, geology, machinery, and aviation. Universities or colleges generally adjusted their professional settings, implemented Soviet-style teaching plans, curriculum and syllabus, and translated Russian textbooks into Chinese. By 1953, 3/4 universities and colleges across the country had been adjusted. This paper, taking Beijing College of Aeronautics as an example, aims to discuss how the Soviet Union helped China to build higher engineering education, and promoted the transformation of the education model from versatile education practiced in Europe and the United States into professional model of the Soviet Union.