On the afternoon of December 1, the signing ceremony for the Joint Doctoral Program was held at NEU. Attendees included Jochen Esmann, Vice President of Human Resources Strategy at BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd.; Senior Managers Zhang Yeping and Liu Shuang from the HR Strategy Department; and relevant representatives from NEU’s Graduate School and National School of Outstanding Engineers.
The principal leaders of NEU extended a warm welcome to Jochen Esmann and his delegation and expressed fully affirmation of the Joint Doctoral Program. They hoped that both sides would take this contract renewal as an opportunity to further innovate the doctoral training model, cultivate outstanding engineering talent while addressing practical engineering challenges faced by the company, and provide talent support for the high-quality development of the global automotive industry.
Jochen Esmann stated that BMW Brilliance has always valued its in-depth cooperation with NEU. He expressed hope to further leverage the strengths of both sides, expand collaboration in areas like talent cultivation and technological innovation, and jointly contribute to the innovative development of the automotive industry.
At the meeting, Dong Xingjun, a representative of the jointly trained doctoral students, delivered a speech sharing his personal growth journey and experiences from the joint training program to his subsequent employment at the company. NEU and BMW Brilliance have signed a cooperation agreement for the Joint Doctoral Program.
Before the meeting, Jochen Esmann and his delegation visited the University History Museum and the National Key Laboratory of Digital Steel, gaining an in-depth understanding of NEU's educational characteristics and the development of its academic disciplines.
It is reported that the NEU and BMW Brilliance Joint Doctoral Program was launched in 2014. The program’s industry-academia collaborative education model, which features task-driven requirements and tripartite supervision by Chinese and German mentors, has earned high recognition from China's Ministry of Education. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the program as "a successful model of cooperation between German enterprises and China's high-level universities."
