On November 13th, Sino-Thai International Rubber College (STIRC), the first overseas joint-education project of Qingdao University of Science and Technology (QUST), jointly established by QUST, Rubber Valley Group and Prince of Songkla University (PSU, Thailand), has been inaugurated in Bangkok, Thailand. Wissanu Kreangam, Vice Prime Minister of Thailand, Wang Shujian, Vice Governor of Shandong Province, Phinij Jarusombat, president of Thailand and Chinese Cultural and Relationship Council, and other representatives from some big rubber and tire companies, like Xiamen Zhengxin Tire Co., Ltd and Shandong Linglong Tire Co., Ltd attended the unveiling ceremony. Gao Qing, party secretary of QUST, Chusak Limsakul, president of PSU, unveiled the plaque for the college, which officially marks the beginning of STIRC.

It has been learned that the establishment of STIRC is the practical action to the implementation of the national strategy “One Belt, One Road”. Regarding “One Belt, One Road, Rubber Media, Education First” as the principles, STIRC is committed to facilitating exchanges and cooperation for both China and Thailand. The college can not only provide human resources in economy and trade, science and technology, cultural exchanges and cooperation, but also offer services for our national diplomacy and foreign economy and cooperation.

STIRC will start recruiting Thai students from next year and will later open up to students of other ASEAN countries. It will offer High-polymer Material and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Automation majors for undergraduate, postgraduate and vocational education.

The four-year undergraduate program will enroll 300 students every academic year. The program will adopt a “2+2” model, the students will study at STIRC for the first two years, and at QUST for the rest two years. The three-year postgraduate program will enroll 100 students per academic year. Students can come from both STIRC and other Thai colleges and universities, and will finish their academic study at QUST. In addition to providing excellent educational and teaching resources in rubber industry, offering educational platform of cutting-edge and advanced educational concept, helping develop rubber discipline and cultivate related talents, STIRC is devoted to fostering inter-disciplinary high-level engineers and management talents with cultural backgrounds of both China and Thailand, and having the language competence of Thai and Chinese, for Thai rubber companies and Chinese rubber corporations in Thailand. The college will also conduct cooperation on nurturing personnel in “order-form” training, building internship and practical training bases, on-job training with Thai rubber companies and Chinese rubber corporations in Thailand.

The unveiling ceremony has attracted extensive attention from all walks of life. Some renowned media from home and abroad, such as People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China News Service, Guang Ming Daily, The New Chinese Daily News, Kia Hua Tong Nguan Daily News, World News, Asian Focus, have made a live report.

(Translated by Wu Tengfei)