As the first large-scale overseas teaching program organized by a Chinese university in Italy after the pandemic, the opening ceremony of the 2023 Tongji University Florence Overseas Campus Summer School took place in Florence, Italy, on July 4th. Vice President of the University of Florence, Prof. Giorgia Giovannetti, the head of the Architecture Department, as well as representatives from Tongji University’s Office of Teaching Quality Management, Undergraduate School, Career Center, and delegates from the Sino-Italian Campus, the School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, the College of Design and Innovation, the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the School of Political Science and International Relations, and the School of Automotive Studies attended the ceremony.

In April 2023, Tongji renewed the agreement for the overseas campus summer school

with the University of Florence.

In 2023, through collaborative efforts between the Undergraduate School, the Sino-Italian Campus, and the Foreign Affairs Office, a total of 242 students from 11 colleges and 32 teachers from Tongji University participated in the summer school. According to teaching plans and disciplinary characteristics, each college conducted various forms of overseas teaching activities, including courses, guided tours, general lectures, corporate investigations, and museum visits. Equipped with specific learning plans and goals, students engaged in learning, thinking, researching, and practical activities, receiving a comprehensive interdisciplinary internationalized liberal education in humanities, arts, engineering, social economics, and more.

Since its inception in 2017, the Tongji University Florence Overseas Campus Summer School has endowed the overseas teaching base with a dual positioning of a “Liberal Education Base” and a “Innovative Practice Teaching Base”. It has established an organized and structured overseas liberal education and practical teaching model, showcasing Tongji University’s strong international and innovative talent cultivation capabilities. This model demonstrates the university’s confidence in further educational openness and contributes a Chinese solution to the international community’s higher education development.