China-France educational cooperation has delivered fresh progress over the past year, with notable achievements in talent cultivation and joint scientific research.
At Beihang University, Centrale Pekin, or the Sino-French engineering school, established two decades ago -- inaugurated a joint carbon-neutrality laboratory last year and received its first cohort of French students this year.
For Eva, a French graduate student, this marks her second academic journey to China.
I think the education here of engineering is really good. Here, the Sino-French engineering school is like the same as the French teaching because it's a partnership between Beihang and a French school, (so it includes instruction from) French teachers who are coming here to teach. A lot of Chinese professors have some specific topic of research. So here, all during the three years of master, every year we have classes and we also have some practice of three months of internship and six months of internship to do in companies. So, we have a whole package together," she said.
Over the past year, Chinese and French universities have jointly launched more than 20 dual-degree programs, facilitating faculty and student exchanges, curriculum integration, and credit recognition.
The total number of cooperative educational institutions and programs between the two sides has reached 72.
"Beihang operates three China-France cooperative institutions in Beijing and Hangzhou, admitting approximately 500 undergraduates annually. Students can earn dual degrees and diplomas from both China and France. Moving forward, we will leverage Hangzhou and the Yangtze River Delta region's industrial strengths to focus on interdisciplinary research in fields such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and carbon neutrality," said Dong Zhuoning, dean of the Hangzhou International Innovation Institute under Beihang University.
Over the past year, Chinese and French universities have established 10 new joint laboratories and advanced over 90 research collaborations.
At Xiamen University, the Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions international project initiated by Chinese scientists with deep involvement from French research institutions, has achieved new progress.
The pilot-scale project to alkalize wastewater to increase carbon sink, synchronously deployed in China and France, has yielded preliminary results, increasing marine carbon sinks by three to five tonnes for each 10,000 tonnes of treated wastewater.
At China University of Geosciences (Beijing), a Chinese team collaborated with France's Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology to analyze radon gas data collected in situ by Chang'e-6 during humanity's first sampling mission on the Moon's far side.
By integrating remote sensing imagery, they preliminarily identified potential release pathways and distribution patterns of radon gas on the far side, opening a new chapter in lunar in-situ exploration.
China-France education collaboration delivers new success in research, talent development
An exchange program between China and France has provided thousands of French students with the opportunity to attend Chinese universities over the past year, giving them a comprehensive and multidimensional view of the country through their studies.
In 2024, China proposed an initiative aimed at bringing the total number of French students in China to more than 10,000 and doubling the number of young Europeans on exchange programs to China within the next three years.
Then, in June of that year, the education ministries of China and France jointly launched the Young Envoys Scholarship (YES) program during the first China-France Education Development Forum held in Paris.
Among the students to take advantage of the program is Mathis Champaigne, a French master's exchange student from the Institute of Higher Electronic Education (ISEP) in Paris. Through YES, he arrived at the School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) this September for a five-month study program.
According to the student, the program offered a valuable opportunity to learn about artificial intelligence (AI) from renowned scholars.
"In this country, you are very advanced in this AI field and so you have a lot of researchers, a lot of universities, very involved in this AI research. So for me that was an opportunity to learn from a great professor in a great university," Champaigne said.
Currently, 29 French students from seven French universities are studying at HUST across various majors, for periods ranging from two weeks to a full academic year. For some, a short-term exchange can give way to deeper ambitions.
"I want to extend my semester and stay longer because I feel like here the campus is made for students to have good experience while studying," said another YES program participant of HUST, an undergraduate student from the University of Strasbourg.
Since the initiative was proposed over a year ago, more than 8,300 French students have come to China for exchanges and studies, helping to spur a broader trend across Europe, with about 32,000 students from across the continent having chosen to undertake exchange programs in China.
The program also partners with other Chinese institutions, including the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), where exchange students have had similarly successful experiences.
"So, the YES program is a really good program to study abroad and you can choose many different topics and minors. I think that's the best way to see China," said Paul Ferrigno, another YES program participant of ECUST, a graduate student from Montpellier Higher College of Chemistry.
"And engineers in the future, they will have to see by themselves how this country is changing very quickly, how this country is very good in innovation, research, technology, and finally how China is addressing global warming and sustainable development," said Jacques Mercadier, French dean of the International Elite Engineering School of ECUST.
Exchange program fosters China-France partnership in talent cultivation
