Chinese perspectives on IT education

It is important to prepare students with the capabilities required by the Chinese national development strategy and with competencies driven by a rapidly emerging field of information technology (IT). The Ministry of Education of China as well as colleges and universities are taking actions to redefine IT education programs at the baccalaureate-degree level. The emphasis on IT programs has been moving from traditional computer science studies to innovative IT fields such as network engineering, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. This paper provides an overview of IT education development in China. It introduces three newly established pilot IT programs focusing on internet of things, big data, and application computer science and technology. It also maps these programs into the ACM/IEEE IT 2017 framework with an emphasis on flexibility to accommodate diverse industry needs. Additionally, this work addresses the future directions for an evolving IT educational transformation in China that reflects national development goals for the next decade.