Cooperation in Higher Education Between China and Nations along "the Belt and the Road"： Bilateral Perspective

LI+Sheng-bing

Abstract： Higher education cooperation is a multi-layer system between China and the countries along "the Belt and the Road"， involving regional cooperation， multilateral cooperation， bilateral cooperation and institutional cooperation ， among which national level cooperation is the main form. The national level cooperation mainly includes： cooperation between China and the countries along "the Belt and the Road" in the areas of higher education policies， forums， university alliances and educational exchanges， Running Schools and science and technology Cooperation.

This research， in a self-built bilateral cooperation framework， takes India， Malaysia， Mongolia， Israel and Greece as a case to study the status quo， characteristics and problems of bilateral cooperation between China and the countries along "the Belt and the Road”. Through the study we found the following.

In terms of educational policy cooperation， China has carried out bilateral policy cooperation in higher education with countries along "the Belt and the Road". For instance， Chinese Government has signed bilateral education cooperation agreements with Mongolia， Israel， Greece and Malaysia， and has signed a bilateral academic mutual acceptance agreement with Mongolian and Malaysian governments， and reached a basic consensus with Mongolia and Israel on teachers， students and research cooperation. However， China and India have not yet signed any educational cooperation agreement or memorandum， and china has not yet signed a bilateral academic mutual acceptance agreements with India， Israel， Greece， and has not yet signed bilateral student， teacher， research and school cooperation agreements with India， Malaysia， Greece and other countries. Therefore， our country and the countries along "the Belt and the Road” need to strengthen cooperation in the mutual academic acceptance， teacher exchanges， cooperative education and research .

In the aspect of bilateral cooperation mechanism of higher education， China has established a preliminary mechanism for bilateral higher education cooperation with the countries along "the Belt and the Road”， such as China Education Exhibition （Sino-Mongolian）， Higher Education Development Forum （with Mongolia， China and Malaysia）， Education Service Center （with Malaysia and India）， University League and the University Presidents Forum. And the five cooperation platforms provide an opportunity for the education officials， university principals， experts and international educators from different countries for communication. However， the platform for the ministers of education has not yet been established， and the form of bilateral cooperation mechanism for higher education needs to be diversified and enriched.

In the practices of international exchange of education， China has achieved a few successes in bilateral cooperation of higher education with the countries along "the Belt and the Road”. For example， in terms of student mobility， the level of cooperation between China and the five countries is different， but all show an increasing trend. In terms of cooperative education， China has a different number of Confucius Institutes and cooperative projects in five countries， including setting University of Xiamen Malaysia， hosting Israel University of Science and Technology Guangdong. In research cooperation， some interdisciplinary research projects were jointly launched by China and Mongolias colleges and universities， with six research and innovation centers by china and Israel， 37 intergovernmental research projects by china and Greece. However， there is still a big gap between countries in teacher exchange， cooperative education and student exchange. For example， cooperation with India and Malaysia has yet to be deepened， and further exchanges with distant countries need to be strengthened.

Key words： the Belt and the Road；bilateral relation；cooperation between nations；India；Malaysia；Mongolia；Israel；Greece