Presentation Schedule
Crossing Three Borders in China: Building a Sustainable Foreign Language Education Research Center Under SDG4 (104119)
Session Chair: Hong Li
Saturday, 11 July 2026 11:10
Session: Session 2
Room: UCL Torrington, G09 (Ground Floor)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
This reflective case study, written by the founding director, examines the creation of the Center for the Sustainable Development of Foreign Language Education (CESD) at Shanghai Jian Qiao University in 2024. Framed as a formative account rather than a summative report, it highlights how CESD was inspired by SDG4’s call for inclusive and equitable quality education and how this global agenda was localized within a Chinese private applied university pursuing research excellence by the benchmark of Essential Science Indicators (ESI). The study’s central contribution is the articulation of a three-borders framework—disciplinary, competence, and assessment—that redefines the scope of English education research. SDG4 provides the rationale for each crossing: to move beyond the disciplinary border, CESD links language education with the social sciences through an Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Symposium Series (six lectures, 500+ participants, with speakers from UNESCO, AAC&U, and Harvard). To move beyond the competence border, CESD adapts McKinsey’s T-shaped skills framework to integrate lifelong and industry-specific competencies. To move beyond the assessment border, CESD collaborates with AAC&U to apply VALUE rubrics, advancing authentic assessment beyond test-based models. Early outcomes include three SSCI Q1 publications on interdisciplinarity, the renaming of the “College of Foreign Languages” as the “College of Foreign Languages and International Education,” and the launch of a university-wide initiative on research excellence aligned with ESI. This case illustrates both the challenges and opportunities of building institutional research capacity through sustainability-driven innovation, offering a transferable model for higher-education leaders and language-program administrators.
Authors:
Huiyuan Ye, Shanghai Jian Qiao University, China
About the Presenter(s)
Dr Huiyuan Ye is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Shanghai Jian Qiao University in China
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/huiyuanye/
Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huiyuan_Ye
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