How to cultivate future-oriented innovative talents in economics and management in the face of the intelligent era of rapid technology iteration? At the 16th International Advisory Committee held by the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University (hereinafter referred to as “SEM”), academic and business members from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, started a lively discussion on the topic of “Digitalization, Greening, and Integration”. A lively discussion was held on “Digitalization, Greening and Convergence”.

WU Qidi, former Vice Minister of Ministry of Education and former President of Tongji University, YU Lijuan, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), FANG Shouen, Secretary of Party Committee of Tongji University, LV Peiming, Executive Vice President of Tongji University, ZHOU Zhen, former Executive Vice President of SEM, and former Dean of Tongji Economics and Management, LI Yuan, Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University and former Dean of SEM, Frank BOURNOIS, Vice President and Dean of Provost of CEIBS, Amir REZA,, President of Parsons School of Global Education, Kenneth MCPHAIL, President of Manchester Business School, and Jens WÜSTEMANN, President of Mannheim School of Business, attended the event, as well as other educators and experts concerned with the development of the education sector.

Representatives from the corporate sector include LIU Xinyi, President of Shanghai International Group; XIE Wei, President of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank; SUM Jian, General Manager of Yantai Zhangyu Grape Brewery Company Limited; LIN Bin, Executive Vice President of Siemens Ltd. and General Manager of Smart Infrastructure Group of Siemens Greater China; SHEN Xuejun, Vice President of Jingdong Industry and General Manager of International Business; LI Xiaohong, Global Chief Human Resource Officer of Vision Dynamics; and Cecilia K. C., Senior Vice President and President of Global R&D Network of SAP Global Clas NEUMANN, Senior Vice President and President of Global R&D Network, and others, also came with industry’s thoughts on digital transformation.

As former French Prime Minister Francois Raffarin said in his video speech, global management education is becoming more and more technological and segmented, requiring universities to break down disciplinary boundaries and integrate different knowledge areas, while paying attention to greening and ecological themes, and responding to the future challenges with diversified thinking and a global vision.

At such a juncture in time, it is crucial to keep the right course and develop the new. What should be done to move towards “new” and improve “quality”? FANG Shouen, secretary of the Party Committee of Tongji University, said that colleges and universities should focus on serving the major national strategies and regional needs, actively promote the transformation and upgrading of disciplines empowered by AI, break down disciplinary barriers, promote the cross-fertilization of disciplines, and continue to explore the innovative practices in disciplinary innovation, talent cultivation, scientific research, social services, international cooperation, digital campuses and other fields, so as to effectively enhance the service capacity and service level of higher education. The university will also promote the development of the higher education system and the development of the higher education sector.

Build a strong foundation and accelerate the “new” force. SHI Qian, secretary of the Party Committee of SEM, said that over the past 40 years, the College has closely followed the major national strategies and social needs, strived to be a leader in the management of the country’s major complex projects, an explorer of high-quality development of the economy, a promoter of the innovation and transformation of enterprises, and a practitioner of the modernization of social governance, and has taken the initiative to act as a role model to serve the country’s high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and the high-quality development of the economy. From “laying a foundation and raising the level” to “entering the mainstream and building up characteristics”, the university has made remarkable achievements under the unremitting efforts of several generations of managers.

The College has obtained authoritative domestic and international certifications such as Association of International Business Schools (AACSB), European Quality Development Accreditation System (EQUIS), China Accreditation for High Quality MBA Education (CAMEA), Project Management Institute Global Accreditation Center (PMI-GAC), and so on. In terms of academic disciplines, the discipline of Management Science and Engineering is ranked A+ in the Academic Discipline Assessment of the Ministry of Education. The discipline of Business Administration was rated A+ in the Times Higher Education China Discipline Rating. Management Science and Business Administration were ranked in the top 100 of the Soft Sciences World Class Disciplines and among the top five universities in Mainland China. Economics and Business Studies entered the top 1% of the global ranking of the US Essential Science Indicators Database (ESI for short).

The past thick foundation, high starting point in the current new era of intelligence, how to serve the development of science and technology and national strategic needs as a traction, to realize the cultivation of talents from discipline-based professionals to the industry field of excellence talents change?

SHI Qian believes that the key hand lies in the active implementation of digital intelligence, greening and integration, using the “three” to give new momentum to the development of traditional academic disciplines, continue to take the road of multi-dimensional integration of disciplines, integration of industry and education, strengthen the internationalization of the layout, and reshape the new paradigm of educating people.

“Layout of emerging cross-disciplines and promotion of migration and transformation of advantageous specialty fields to new fields and new tracks are the new directions that SEM is doing and will do.” Dean XIE En introduced.

Over the years, Tongji E&M has undertaken “big tasks”, served national and regional economic and social development, and contributed “Chinese wisdom” and “Shanghai program” to the management of national major complex projects, global sustainable development and digital governance. “Gathering “big teams”, breaking through “neck” technical barriers, and achieving domestic key core technology leadership in mega-city fine management, intelligent flight recovery system, etc.; Innovating big platforms, carrying out integrated research and joint training of talents, and focusing on the development of new technologies and new technologies. Innovation platform, to carry out the integration of research and joint training of talents, focusing on a new generation of artificial intelligence technology risk identification and assessment, aimed at creating a “Shanghai demonstration” and “national template” for the intelligent upgrading of social governance; expanding the “circle of friends “to bring together the world’s innovative resources, to explore the creation of Sino-German cooperation “new lighthouse”.

“At present, the College focuses on ‘triple’, the layout of emerging cross-cutting areas, in the service operation and management, the intelligent era of enterprise AI strategy and innovation choices, the digital economy and urban governance and other areas gathered a number of high-level, specialized talents, focusing on the big model of integration of organizational learning and the construction of innovation ecosystem, market-oriented green technology innovation, synergistic transformation of enterprise digitalization and greening, and internationalization strategy of Chinese enterprises, etc., to provide overall solutions for the transformation and upgrading of Chinese enterprises and improvement of international competitiveness.” Shane said.

Aiming at national strategic needs, accurately matching market supply and demand, dynamically adjusting professional settings, and strengthening integration and collaboration with related disciplines such as computer science, data science, mathematics, etc., the college has added an innovative experimental area focusing on professional frontier and interdisciplinary cross-fertilization, which has begun to bear fruit.

In 2024, the most popular undergraduate dual-degree program with the largest enrollment at Tongji University is precisely the Finance-Mathematics and Applied Mathematics dual-degree program launched by SEM in cooperation with School of Mathematical Sciences. In addition, the Master of Finance program in the direction of intelligent finance, jointly launched by the College and the School of Electronic and Information Engineering, has also attracted a large number of students to enroll in the program.

SEM also joins hands with the advantageous disciplines of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, focuses on serving the national “dual-carbon” strategy, innovates the concept of “dual-carbon” talent cultivation, and establishes a dual-degree program of environmental science-accounting, “Dual-carbon” compound talent cultivation mode, and “Dual-carbon” composite talent cultivation mode. The “Dual Carbon” strategy is the focus of our university, and we innovate the concept of “Dual Carbon” talent training development, set up the “Dual Carbon” Experimental Zone of Environmental Science-Accounting Dual Degree, and create a team of composite and top-notch talents who can meet the needs of the national “Dual Carbon” target.

The “cross-border” integration of disciplines is promising, but “how to do” needs to be calibrated and positioned in practice. Lv Peiming, executive vice president of Tongji University, reminded that the college should deal with three aspects of the relationship in the process of AI-enabled discipline development: the first is to accurately grasp the holistic change of management disciplines, the second is to realize the synergistic development of the college’s internal disciplines; and the third is to continue to strengthen and expand the in-depth synergies with the advantageous disciplines of the university and cross-fertilization, in order to shape the new advantages of the development of disciplines.

At the meeting, representatives from the business sector, on the other hand, invariably emphasized the importance and urgency of the integration of industry and education in the era of artificial intelligence.

XIE Wei, president of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, believes that the application scenarios of artificial intelligence in various industries are complex and challenging, and that the innovation of university classes must be in line with this major development trend to enhance the cultivation of students’ interdisciplinary and multi-skills. Sun Jian, general manager of Yantai Zhangyu Grape Winemaking Co., Ltd. also believes that students should be trained with a forward-looking vision of digital intelligence in the era of artificial intelligence, and particular attention should be paid to equipping them with the ability to control artificial intelligence.

Innovative combination with industrial practice is more relevant to the actual needs of the industry. Liu Xinyi, president of Shanghai International Group, suggested that to enhance the innovation and practicality of curriculum design and should be more closely integrated with the needs of enterprises, for example, the choice of students’ dissertation topics to strengthen the actual case study, to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of the research. Lin Bin, Executive Vice President of Siemens (China) Limited and General Manager of Siemens Greater China Intelligent Infrastructure Group, believes that each industry encounters different challenges of digital intelligence, and the ways and means and paths taken are also different. In reality, AI empowerment lacks a grip at the enterprise level, and colleges and universities should pay attention to how to realize digital intelligence for industry-specific cases and scenarios. SHEN Xuejun, vice president of Jingdong Industry and general manager of international business, suggests allocating more time for course practice to the analysis and practice of complex cases, and carrying out personalized teaching for students through the assistance of AI to give full play to the characteristics of each individual, so as to equip them with the ability of integrating into the society and lifelong learning more quickly.

Clas NEUMANN, Senior Vice President and President of Global R&D Network of SAP, emphasized the importance of integrating enterprise practice from the perspective of cultivating cross-cultural international management talents. He said that as Chinese enterprises go overseas and expand their international scale, they need more management talents who are familiar with cross-cultural management, and the newly launched “SEM in Germany” has the opportunity to take on this role and work with local enterprises to cultivate more talents who are needed for local development. LI Xiaohong, Global Chief Human Resource Officer of Vision Dynamics, also believes that Chinese enterprises going abroad have brought about a huge demand for overseas talents, and that universities should take the initiative to deeply understand the human resource needs of enterprises, and build a dual channel of domestic and overseas employment for students studying in China.

In this regard, SEM has long been practiced. In recent years, the college has comprehensively promoted the integration of disciplinary characteristics and industry, and cultivated a new ecology of deep integration of industry and education with open innovation and multi-party collaboration. The College has joined hands with SAP China Research Institute, a leading enterprise in the field of global enterprise application and commercial AI, to build cutting-edge courses for intelligent transformation; cooperated with the technical team of Oriental Fortune to customize and develop a number of cutting-edge and exclusive knowledge bases covering AI-driven investment analysis, intelligent financial management, machine learning algorithms, etc.; signed a contract with Nail to cultivate digital intelligence talents; and cooperated with head securities firms such as Guotai Junan to build a structured internship mechanism. Ltd. and SAP China Research Institute to learn about the industrial applications of AI cutting-edge technologies in an immersive way.

“Gold Prize of the Ninth China International “Internet Plus” Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, Champion of the Royal Institute of Chartered Builders Global Student Challenge, Real Estate Innovation Award of the Third National Colleges and Universities Real Estate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition, First Prize of the National College Students’ Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction The MBA student team has won the first prize and the special prize in the “Beacon Moment” National Business Simulation Competition for five consecutive years, and has been awarded the first prize and the special prize in the highly anticipated “Beacon Moment” National Business Simulation Competition. The MEM team won two first prizes in the Second China Graduate Engineering Management Case Competition, the most authoritative postgraduate competition in China’s engineering management field; the MF team won two first prizes in the Third National Commercial Bank Management Simulation Competition “The Sharp Beacon Moment”; and the MBA team won two first prizes in the Third National Commercial Bank Management Simulation Competition “The Sharp Beacon Moment”. The Master of Finance (MF) team won the second prize in the finals of the third “Sharp Beacon Moment” National Commercial Bank Management Simulation Competition. …… has been effective in cultivating outstanding innovative talents.

Promoting the integration of industry and education, and deepening the integration of science and education, the ultimate goal is to serve the major national strategies and regional needs, and effectively improve the service capacity and capability of universities. ZHONG Ninghua, vice president of SEM, said that in terms of talent cultivation, the college will aim at the development of Shanghai’s leading industries, key industries and future industries, and actively cultivate urgently-needed talents in the fields of digitalization and transformation, green economy and other fields, so as to contribute to the construction of Shanghai’s “five centers” and the development of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta.