International Cooperation in Regards to Overseas Exchange Programs & Establishment of an International Campus
Our school has established long-term, stable cooperative teaching relations with more than 40 institutes in Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. Over the past five years, the number of students who studied for at least three months at foreign institutes through these exchange mechanisms was 331, with an average of 66 per year. Among these, there are about 25 undergraduates (accounting for 14% of the average annual enrollment), and about 41 master’s and doctoral students (22% of average annual enrollment)
Number of Students Who Studied >3 Months at Foreign Institutes from 2014 to 2019
Number of Students Who Conducted Short-term Academic Stays at Foreign Institutes (5 Days–2 Months) in 2014–2019
In 2012, our school started a cooperative undergraduate education program with the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux and the Université de Paris I. As a result of this agreement, we sent each year 12-16 students to France to study for a period of 12 months, and received 2-4 French exchange students at our School for the same time duration. In 2016, the program was recognized as an “Excellent Sino-French University Cooperation Program” by the French Minister of Education and the Chinese Vice-Premier of the People’s Republic of China.
In 2018, our Dean KONG Yuhang, on behalf of the School, signed a new cooperation agreement with the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux and the Université de Paris I, thus expanding the implementation of the joint undergraduate education program of Architecture (Landscape Architecture), and extending the student exchange mechanism to encompass the postgraduate program as well.
In addition, our school has obtained funding from the Ministry of Education for the support of the initiative titled “exchange of excellent undergraduates” involving universities such as Iowa State University, Kobe University and Nagoya University.
Our school has signed double-degree graduate program agreements with universities such as: Polytechnic University of Milan, University of Sassari, Iowa State University, Nagoya University, and the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy. As a result of these efforts, the international exchange students received by our School in recent years come mainly from France, Spain, Italy, and Japan, among other countries and regions, and we fully intend to continue expanding the degree of geographical diversity in our body of foreign exchange students.
In 2018, Tianjin University and the Georgia Institute of Technology cooperated in the launch of the Shenzhen campus, with one of its key fields of research being that of the built environment. In the same year, our University cooperated with the National University of Singapore, the Municipal Government of Fuzhou and the Education Department of Fujian Province to launch the Fuzhou International Campus, where the disciplines of Architecture and Urban Planning play a very active role.
Education Programs for International Students (Master of Architecture Program in English)
Our school has offered an accredited Master of Architecture degree program (M.Arch.) in English since 2012. The curriculum includes the subjects of design theory (core courses and elective courses), design practice, research topics, and a dissertation in design. The majority of the teaching staff are faculty members of our School, while some are guest professors invited from high-level universities overseas.
In recent years, the number of international student enrollments as well as the overall quality of their output has steadily increased (Table 8-3). In both 2018 and 2019, foreign students won the “Excellent Graduation Dissertation Award” in Tianjin University. Besides returning to their own countries to pursue work opportunities, a number of graduates have been employed by foreign businesses in China such as the AECOM Beijing Office, and other well-known architectural companies.
Our international students mostly come from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, America, Russia, etc; every year, the School accepts an average of 5-6 exchange students from France, Italy, and Spain, among other EU nations.
Enrollment of International Students from 2016 to 2019
List of Prized Dissertations by International Students at the School of Architecture, TJU
Authors：Adrian Smith, Nabiyon Gezaie
Authors：Melica Dukic, Kazela, et al.
Urban Public Space：Taught by WANG Lijun, YANG Wei
Built Environment in a Resource Conservation Perspective
Taught by YANG Wei，KOHLER Niklaus, BELLE Iris
