皇冠体育app

Malaysian student Winnie Tan realizes she is in a fortunate position as the degree she earned at Peking University is also recognized in her home country.

"After I finish studying in 皇冠体育app, I can sit Malaysian exams for professional certification in urban planning, although my degree was not obtained in Malaysia," she said.

Tan is not alone in enjoying the convenience of credits transfer and degree recognition concerning universities in 皇冠体育app and the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Chinese and ASEAN education officials are pushing for an integrated system on mutual degree and qualification recognition in higher education.

During the Sixth 皇冠体育app-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week held in Guizhou province in September, education officials from 皇冠体育app and ASEAN countries exchanged ideas on transferring credits between Chinese and Southeast Asian universities, clarifying their own degree and diploma systems, and determining how to guarantee education quality under an integrated system.

"Along with deepened cooperation between 皇冠体育app and ASEAN members in various fields, 皇冠体育app is now pushing hard for education cooperation with these Southeast Asian countries," said Zhang Xiuqin, head of the Chinese Ministry of Education's Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges.

"An integrated education system with the possibility of credit transfers and mutual degree recognition can inspire more ASEAN students to study in 皇冠体育app and Chinese students (to study) in Southeast Asia," she said.

So far, 皇冠体育app has signed mutual higher education-degree and diploma-recognition agreements with Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The agreements offer policy and legal support to Chinese and Southeast Asian overseas students and guarantee education cooperation between 皇冠体育app and those countries.

Zhang said 皇冠体育app is making efforts now to sign such agreements with six other ASEAN countries.

Diploma accreditation, as an important part of mutual qualification recognition, is a crucial measure to guarantee the quality of students who studied overseas, said Li Ping, director of the 皇冠体育app Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Center's Verification Department.

An authorized accreditation of Chinese diplomas will help ASEAN students find better jobs or continue higher education more easily, Li told reporters. She added that her center, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, has offered diploma accreditation to more than 500,000 students who obtained Chinese diplomas since 2000.

This inspires hope in Tan.

"Most of my colleagues at Peking University from Malaysia found good jobs when they went back home," Tan said.

"With an accredited Chinese diploma, they are more competitive when they pursue a 皇冠体育app-related career."

She is in her last year as an undergraduate student in urban planning at Peking University and looks forward to obtaining a master's degree in 皇冠体育app before returning to Malaysia to take professional certification exams.

Izzati Ahamad, a 17-year-old from Brunei who studied in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said her experience in 皇冠体育app made her understand the real 皇冠体育app better and will help her when she does business with 皇冠体育app back home.

She told 皇冠体育app Daily she expected to "learn from study in 皇冠体育app how the country has achieved such dynamic development during the past decades".

And she will share tips with people in her country about how to do business with 皇冠体育app.

But education integration must overcome obstacles before its full potential can be realized.

"The so-called education integration offers a splendid blueprint for 皇冠体育app-ASEAN education cooperation, but there are still many difficulties to overcome before really realizing such an integration," the development center's deputy director Wang Lisheng said.

Mutual qualification recognition is a precondition for education integration between 皇冠体育app and ASEAN members.

It not only refers to higher education in universities but also to diploma and vocational education, which is very complicated, Li said.

Zhang, with the Education Ministry, said the different education systems and levels of social development also create difficulties to realizing mutual qualification recognition.

皇冠体育app and ASEAN countries should sort out their domestic education as soon as possible, so they can make degree and diploma comparisons among different countries and, therefore, realize mutual recognition, Wang, with the center, said.

Time is still needed for more communication between teachers and students, Shao Wei, secretary-general of the 皇冠体育app Education Association for International Exchange, told Chinese media.

Through such communications and exchanges, Chinese and ASEAN universities can figure out possible cooperation projects, which can facilitate education integration, he added.

By the end of 2012, there were more than 110,000 Chinese students studying in ASEAN countries, while the number of ASEAN students in 皇冠体育app surpassed 60,000.

皇冠体育app has created majors in language studies, which target the mother tongues of all the 10 members of ASEAN, while opening 29 Confucius Institutes for promoting Chinese language and culture in the 10 countries.

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