Master's Program in ICMP

2019 年 6 月 19 日 清华大学研究生教育

International Programs

in the Eyes of Student Reporters

Editor's Note

Tsinghua University has been taking large footsteps towards internationalization ever since its establishment more than a hundred years ago. Up to now, over 80 international graduate degree programs have been implemented to enhance students’ global competency and the reputation of Tsinghua worldwide. With various cultural backgrounds, students and teachers from all corners of the world gather in the beautiful campus of Tsinghua University, sharing knowledge and life experiences and opening windows of the outside world for each other. The “International Programs in The Eyes of Student Reporters” series are narrated by the program students and teachers, providing readers an in-depth insight to those colorful pictures of cultural integration.

As One Belt, One Road Ratchets Up, Tsinghua ICPM Program Says It's Ready to Rise to the Occasion

He had a hefty scholarship offer to study in England, where he could spend a pittance, speak a familiar language, and remain a six-hour flight away from home in Lagos, Nigeria. But Oluwasegun Siriki instead chose to move around the world, spend more money on class, and attend the International Construction Project Management（ICPM） program at Tsinghua University in Beijing -- a decision that, despite the drawbacks, took little hesitation.

“That was where the future of construction was,” Seriki said.

Seriki, who is now in Ireland writing a Ph.D. dissertation on the social responsibility of Chinese construction companies in Africa, is one of dozens of students who have come from around the world to attend Tsinghua’s ICPM program since its founding six years ago, hoping to open doors for themselves back home.

Nearly all of students say that, like Seriki, studying ICPM in Beijing means simply going where the action is. As other industries have slowed down in China, the construction sector has continued to boom. Overseas spending jumped 18% last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Now, though, as China revs up its $1 trillion One Belt, One Road initiative, the stakes are higher than ever. The ICPM program is looking to harness its connections with large state owned enterprises, and its students will potentially play a vital role in mediating China’s deepening overseas involvement as questions arise over what analysts see as problematic loans and a lack of engagement with local labor markets.

The question is whether the program will produce more students like Seriki, who said souring attitude towards China in Nigeria -- the two countries agreed on another $40 billion of investment in January, although he said locals are wary -- led to his decision to establish a firm that will advise Chinese companies on their work in Africa.

Program head Binchao Liao said he is confident his program will help solve the mounting challenges of OBOR. According to him, it is a job the ICPM program was built to perform.

“It’s a perfect match,” Liao said. “Our goal and One Belt, One Road -- there’s no conflict.”

In fact, Liao says the program fits the needs of OBOR so well that “our goal is not going to be shaped or adjusted” at all: training students capable of managing large-scale infrastructure projects and communicating across cultures -- the bread-and-butter of OBOR -- is why the program exists in the first place, although it predates the initiative by several years.

Students in ICPM will continue to take classes, for example, that mix practical knowledge in subjects like contract management with more theoretical topics like construction ethics, learning from a rotating cast of international professors. They will also continue studying the ins-and-outs of the Chinese construction market: its management structure, supply chains, and so on. Now, he said, there just might be an ever-increasing number of examples involving OBOR projects on a class-to-class basis -- “the stories are there.”

Liao also says he takes corporate social responsibility seriously and sees the student body as crucial links to countries with OBOR spending on the rise. He has noticed a large uptick in the number of inquiries from prospective students in Pakistan, which is playing an outsized role in China's OBOR plans. Same with students in Malaysia and Egypt, both touted as important OBOR partners by China.

“Mostly they are really curious about their scholarship,” Liao said. Wais Baheen is a current student from Afghanistan who says OBOR was central to his decision to join the program. China has been the largest source of direct foreign investment in his home country for a decade, and the two nations signed an “OBOR Memorandum of Understanding” in mid-2016. Baheen plans to work as an intern on OBOR projects while in China and focus on project delivery, he said.

Former students said they left with the impression that China will continue to represent the future of international construction, both within the scheme of OBOR and beyond.

“It’s just a matter of exposure,” said current student Chilambwe Chilando, who is from Zambia.

Some are totally unconcerned about China’s motives in its investment and said other countries have something to learn from its example.

“Whereas the US are closing their borders, China is deepening their relations and proving their aim towards win-win deals,” alumni Ricardo Vega said in an email from Singapore, where he works in real estate. “By partnering with China, developing countries such as my home Costa Rica can certainly have access to an immense market full of opportunities and knowledge that we can apply to our own development strategies.”

Not all students have followed their initial plans to return and help develop their homelands, though. Around half a dozen have stuck around to pursue doctorates at Tsinghua, and others like Serge Broksnkiy, from Russia, ended up finding a niche in the construction industry in China.

Broksnkiy is now in Guangzhou at an international firm. Long-term, though? “I'm sure someday I'll decide to go back home,” Broksnkiy said.

Program overview

The construction sector in China is now the country’s largest single market with more than 35 million employees in the field. The industry has modernized and is increasing its influence overseas. It’s time to witness the bloom of the construction industry in China! The International Construction and Project Management (ICPM) Program aims to broaden and deepen students' knowledge of contemporary issues in leadership, strategic management, and the delivery of international projects to provide value to stakeholders and to society as a whole. The program is practice-oriented and devoted to cultivating highly qualified, technically-oriented project management professionals with a solid theoretical base, competence in independent judgment, and a considerable ability to analyze and solve problems.