From August 4 to 6, the delegation of the University headed by Prof. Wang Xiaoru, Assistant President of the University, attended the 16th meeting held by the Interim Working Group of the Organization for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) on vocational education/ training in the railway transport.

This meeting was videoconferenced throughout due to the control and prevention of the epidemic. The Interim Working Group’s 14 members among the total of 16 participated in this meeting, including the Hungarian State Railways, the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Korean National Railroad, Moldova’s State-owned Railway Company, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Russian Railways, Uzbekistan Railways, Ukrainian Railways, Association of Transport Colleges and Universities, Beijing Jiaotong University, PLASKE Joint Stock Company, CTM Co., Ltd. and Southwest Jiaotong University. Ms. Lyudmila Vasilejia, chairperson of the Interim Working Group, presided over this meeting.

The Organization for Cooperation between Railways (OSJD) is an intergovernmental organization composed of 29 member countries including China. Liu Zhenfang, General Director of the National Railway Administration, was appointed as a member of Ministers’ Meeting of the OSJD; Lu Dongfu, Chairman of China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., as a member of the General Directors’ Meeting of the OSJD; Zhang Qun was designated by the National Railway Administration as Vice Chairman of the OSJD.

In 2019, the OSJD College was inaugurated at the recommendation of the General Directors Meeting and the resolution of the Ministers’ Meeting. According to the College’s articles of association, the Interim Working Group supervises the general operation of the College through the design of the development strategy for OSJD’s vocational training. Major items on the agenda of the meeting included the preparation ofAccreditation Methods for Educational and Training Institutions in the College of OSJD, pilot education projects, best practices in exchange training/education, updating and maintenance of OSJD’s information network resources, popularization of vocational training and education in railway transport, the agenda for the 17th meeting of the Interim Working Group, and other issues. Prof. Wang Xiaoru put forward some suggestions on the revision to the relevant provisions of theAccreditation Methods, which were accepted by the representatives.

Under the item of pilot education projects in the agenda, Qian Xiaoqun, Dean of the School of Distance and Continuing Education, delivered a speech entitled “China-EU railway project planning and the development of training project”, and introduced the project planning scheme jointly developed by SWJTU, Rail Cargo Austria and University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. The representatives expressed great interests in this project and made a special note of them in the protocol of the meeting.

Under the item of best practices in exchange training/education”, Xin Ling, Vice Dean of the School of Distance and Continuing Education, made a presentation on “China Harbour - Rail Transit Lecture Series of Southwest Jiaotong University - Cloud Training in the Context of Prevention and Control of the Epidemic”, and introduced the university’s practice and experience in using live stream class platform to conduct international training against the backdrop of COVID-19.

SWJTU’s membership in OSJD was approved in June 2017, and four months later a delegation of the University headed by Prof. Wang Shunhong, Secretary of CPC Committee, visited OSJD. The University has been an active member in different OSJD activities ever since.