Recently, the Ministry of Education officially approved the undergraduate Sino-foreign cooperative education program in Information and Computing Science, jointly established by Northeast Forestry University and Birkbeck College, University of London (UK). This approval marks a first breakthrough for our university’s Sino-foreign cooperative education initiatives at the Hainan International College and signifies the continued expansion, quality enhancement, and upgrading of our internationalized talent-training system.

The undergraduate program in Information and Computing Science is administered by the Hainan International College, with its teaching site in the Li’an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone in Lingshui, Hainan. The program has a total enrollment capacity of 400 students, with 100 admitted annually. The program follows a “3+1” training model, under which students complete the first three years of study at Northeast Forestry University and spend the fourth year at Birkbeck College, University of London. Upon completing the prescribed curriculum within the required period and meeting the graduation and degree-conferral requirements, students will be awarded a bachelor’s degree certificate and a graduation certificate from Northeast Forestry University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of London.

Founded in 1823, Birkbeck College, University of London, is one of the oldest public research universities in the United Kingdom and a distinguished member of the University of London federation. It has a strong academic tradition and broad international influence in the humanities and social sciences, the natural sciences, and interdisciplinary research. Upholding an inclusive and open educational philosophy, Birkbeck College emphasizes high-level research and interdisciplinary integration. Since 1957, the College has continuously offered teaching and research in computer science and is among the world’s earliest universities to establish a computer science department. It has long enjoyed an academic reputation in data management and computational intelligence and has developed into an internationally leading center for research and talent cultivation in areas such as algorithms, artificial intelligence, databases, data science, and data analytics.

Aligned with the trends of digitalization and intelligent development, the Information and Computing Science program focuses on a new international talent-training paradigm featuring “solid mathematical foundations + computational thinking + a global perspective.” Through a systematically constructed Sino-foreign collaborative education mechanism, the program aims to cultivate internationally oriented, innovative, and outstanding talents with a strong sense of social responsibility and national commitment, an international outlook, robust application and innovation capabilities in information and computing science, core competitiveness, humanistic literacy, and sound awareness of science and technology ethics—thereby contributing to the building of a Beautiful China.

The successful approval of this cooperative education program marks a significant achievement in the university’s efforts to further open education to the world and actively integrate into the development landscape of the Hainan Free Trade Port and international education innovation. Looking ahead, the university will use the implementation of this program as an opportunity to continuously introduce high-quality international educational resources, deepen cooperation with leading universities worldwide, and steadily enhance the quality of talent cultivation and the level of internationalized education—injecting new momentum into the accelerated development of a world-class university with Chinese characteristics.