Background

The China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Oriented Education (CEIS-SIOE) was initialised with an educational project supported by the Asia-Link Programme of the European Commission. The project, entitled EMERSION (Education to Meet the Requirements of Software Industry and Beyond - Establishing, Implementing and Evaluating an Industry-Oriented Education Model in China) involves three partners: Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in Ireland, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in China, and University of Wolverhampton (UOW) in the United Kingdom.

The goal of the EMERSION project is to develop and implement an education model for software development at both undergraduate and postgraduate level which incorporates the industrial ethos and focus of DIT and UOW with the advanced excellence in research of HIT, which could act as a model of excellence to the mutual benefit of the EU and China. Through the excellent and extensive collaboration, the project partners have developed an industry-oriented education model for undergraduate software education, supported by comprehensive documentation including a set of requirements of an industry-oriented education model together with a supporting curriculum, and education quality assurance system.

In January 2005, launched by the members of the EMERSION project, the First China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Oriented Education was held in Harbin. In January 2006, the Second CEIS-SIOE was again held in Harbin. Both symposiums were extremely successful and attracted great attention from educationalists, industrialists and relevant government officers across China and the EU. In total more than 100 representatives and over 300 attendees, from about 30 universities, institutions and companies around China and Europe came to the first and the second CEIS-SIOE. 61 papers have been presented in the previous two symposiums, and panel sessions with special interests focusing on key educational issues for industry-oriented software education were held.

The Third China-Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Oriented Education aims to involve more academic institutes and industrial organisations in extending the impact of EMERSION to help further develop and perfect the software industry oriented education in China and Europe.