Recently, the Ministry of Education of China has approved the establishment of the Alberta International School of Recreation, Sport and Tourism of Beijing Sport University, a Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school without independent legal person status jointly applied by Beijing Sport University (BSU) and the University of Alberta, Canada (Approval Number: MOE46CAA02DNR20222303N). The school is the first of its kind in sports in China. Affiliated to BSU, it is located in the Li’an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone, Lingshui, Hainan Province, China.
Supporting Hainan to gradually explore and steadily promote the construction of the free trade port is a major reform and opening-up initiative planned, deployed and promoted directly by President XI Jinping; it is also a strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee from both domestic and international perspectives. The establishment of the Alberta International School of Recreation, Sport and Tourism of Beijing Sport University is an important historical mission of BSU to meet our national major strategic need and contribute to the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port. It is a landmark project that embodies BSU's philosophy of global vision, international standards, Chinese characteristics and high positioning and BSU's practice in strengthening international cooperation and exchange, gathering quality education resources and promoting the internationalization of education.
Lingshui Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone
The Lingshui Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone is located in Li 'an Peninsula, Lingshui, jointly developed by the Ministry of Education and Hainan Province. As one of the 11 key parks included in the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port, it significantly promotes the construction of the Hainan International Education Innovation Island and represents the new benchmarks of China's educational opening up in the new era. The Pilot Zone is designed and constructed with a vision of "small schools with a big sharing platform", under which concept the libraries, teaching buildings, stadiums and other public facilities can be shared. Based on the specific needs of different programs, the universities settled in the park use the exclusive schools to serve the purposes of education and teaching, and take advantage of the big sharing platform, including the international credit bank, the international master classes, the international general education, the international innovative practice, etc. to realize educational innovation in discipline integration, arts and science exchange, mutual course selection and credit recognition, teacher-student interaction, and management consultation. This concept aims to achieve the goal of cultivating high-quality talents for the future with an international vision and innovative capacity.
Aerial View of Beijing Sport University exclusive area in the Lingshui Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone
The University of Alberta, founded in 1908 and established an intercollegiate partnership with BSU in 2010, is a world-renowned research university and one of the largest in Canada. It ranked 77th in the world and 4th in Canada in the 2022- 2023 CWUR World University Rankings; its sports programs including recreation, sports and tourism have consistently ranked among the top ten in the global rankings.
The Alberta International School of Recreation, Sport and Tourism of Beijing Sport University is an important platform for the integration of higher education, international talent cultivation, scientific research cooperation and cultural exchange between the two universities. Closely following the strategies of the country to combine sports with education and sports with tourism, as well as the requirements for developing the Hainan free Trade Port and the Hainan International Education Innovation Island, based on the advantages of BSU, including the first-class discipline of sports science, and the national first-class program construction site of leisure sports and tourism management, the school fully introduces the high-quality educational, research and practical resources of the University of Alberta in sports, community sports, tourism management and other aspects. The school aims to realize Chinese-foreign integration and sports-tourism integration in the internationalization of talent cultivation, in order to create a world-leading comprehensive and innovative high-end talent cultivation base featuring "leisure sports+ tourism management+ internationalization", and build a world-class international platform with Chinese characteristics for academic exchanges and cooperation in sports tourism.
School building of the Alberta International School of Recreation, Sport and Tourism of Beijing Sport University
Physical Fitness Center in the exclusive zone of Beijing Sport University
Basketball Hall in the exclusive zone of Beijing Sport University
The school will offer two undergraduate programs, leisure sports and tourism management, as well as three master programs, including sports humanities and sociology-sports tourism management research, physical education and training-leisure sports research, and sports professional master's degree-social sports guidance. The total enrollment is set to be 900 students, all of which will be included in the national enrollment plan for general colleges and universities and the national master's degree enrollment plan. After completing all the courses stipulated in the training program and meeting the graduation and degree requirements, the students will receive a graduation certificate and degree certificate from Beijing Sport University and a degree certificate from University of Alberta at the same time.
The school provides a curriculum system suitable for the needs of student development and in line with the national strategies, local development and industrial needs. It adopts innovative teaching methods that integrate experiential teaching and theoretical teaching, and establishes a dual tutor system that matches Chinese tutors and Canadian tutors to strengthen students' ability to apply knowledge and life-long learning with a broad interdisciplinary and international perspective, so as to offer students the educational resources of world-class universities without going abroad, realizing the vision of "learning in Hainan = studying abroad". At the same time, the school will combine the educational resources of one zone, two universities and three cities (namely the pilot zone, the main campus of BSU located in Beijing and the University of Alberta in Alberta, Canada) to help students take advantage of the educational resources such as courses, books and databases, and provide students with opportunities to study, exchange, intern and practice at the Beijing campus of BSU and the University of Alberta.
The Alberta International School of Recreation, Sport and Tourism of Beijing Sport University will bring together first-class international teaching resources, cultivate first-class sports talents, produce first-class innovative results, and make new contributions to building a leading sports nation, an education power, and a healthy China; it will also actively play its part in supporting the Belt and Road initiative and Hainan's comprehensive construction of the Free Trade Port and the International Education Innovation Island.