The International Engagement of Engineering Education in China: A Historical Case Study of Tsinghua University

Abstract This paper examines the international engagement history of Tsinghua University, the leading institution of engineering education in China. We contend that the tradition of engineering education at Tsinghua resulted from learning from and cooperating with the west, grows with and impacted by domestic missions and international politics. The paper presents the history of engineering education in three phases, through which we aim to illustrate a scenario of how the international engagement influenced engineering education. This paper seeks to enrich and re-energize conversations toward an open and collaborative global community of engineering education at a time of uncertainty amid a global pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions.