The International Evaluation of Academic Degree Programs in Discipline of Education at Zhejiang University, was successfully held on March 20-21, 2018. Nine educational experts from home and abroad conducted diagnosis and evaluation of the development and construction of the academic degree programs in discipline of education at ZJU’s College of Education from 2012-2016, and provided their advices on the improvement and future development of the academic degree programs.

This Experts Panel, led by Prof. Rui Yang, Associate Dean of Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong, was composed of experts from the education disciplines of first-class universities worldwide. It included Prof. Anthony Welch from Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, Prof. Bernadette Baker from Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin- Madison, Prof. Creso Sa from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Prof. Liang Zhang from Department of Administration, Leadership, and Technology, New York University, Prof. Yong-Je Woo from Department of Education, College of Education, Seoul National University, Prof. Jessica Li from Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Also, Mr. Ruihong Li, the Former Director of Zhejiang Museum of Science and Technology and Mr. Jianhua Zheng, the Deputy Principal of Hangzhou Changjiang Experiment Primary School were invited as peer experts.

The International Evaluation included presentation of self-evaluation report, data access, class observation, interview with faculty members and students and close-door Meeting of Experts Panel and opinion feedback. On the Opening Session on March 20, following the welcome address delivered by Prof. Jianmin Gu, Dean of College of Education, Prof. Yue Kan, Associate Dean of College of Education gave a presentation of self-evaluation report on the Programs in Discipline of Education. Then, the self-evaluation report of programs in sub-discipline and Master of Education (MED) were also delivered.  

In the afternoon, after the class observation of two lectures, E-Learning and the Science of Teaching and Reading & Translation of English Literature in Education, the Experts Panel held interviews with faculty members and students respectively.

On March 21, the Closing Session was held. Through the close-door meeting of Experts Panel, Prof. Rui Yang, the chair of experts panel, reported Experts Panel’s feedback and highly praised the self-evaluation report on the Programs in Discipline of Education and MED program on behalf of the experts panel. The experts all agreed that Discipline of Education at College of Education is a leading one in China, and both Discipline of Education and the Program of MED fully meet the requirement set by the Ministry of Education.

Prof. Jianmin Gu responded to the feedback on behalf of College of Education. He first expressed the gratitude to the Experts Panel's evaluation work, and emphasized that the college will attach importance to the recommendations, take practical measures, and continue to improve work to lay a solid foundation for the construction of world-class disciplines.

Prof. Gongyin Ye, Associate Dean of Graduate School indicated that ZJU will continue to support the improvement of the College of Education and gave thanks and appreciation to the Experts Panel.

Prof. Qiang Zheng, Vice President of Zhejiang University expressed that the opinions of the Experts Panel are of great significance to the construction of discipline of education and personnel training. Zhejiang University will also incorporate the opinions of the Experts Panel to continuously upgrade the quality of personnel training and advance the construction of world-class universities.

Through the self-assessment, the academic degree programs in education discipline will further benchmark programs against international standards and learn from the best practices, continuously improve the quality of graduate education and core competitiveness, and solidly advance the construction of world-class discipline, so as to accelerate the pace of achieving the goal of “Double-First Class” at the college.