Syntegrative Education is a new educational model proposed by XJTLU in response to future talent development needs. Through close collaboration with industry, the XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang) has established Industry-themed Schools to cultivate future-oriented industry leaders capable of leveraging artificial intelligence and robotics to drive emerging industries. At the same time, it explores future university concepts and campus development to provide an XJTLU solution for future education.
In mainstream university education, students typically take dozens of courses over four years, studying them sequentially, with connections mainly made through theoretical and knowledge-based frameworks. However, industry problems and needs are difficult to integrate into such a course structure, making it challenging to effectively target the development of competence and professional attributes.
The diagram below illustrates the curriculum structure of the XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang). Students choose an industry-oriented programme, and their course learning is guided by Syntegrative Projects originating from enterprises. The red section in the upper part of the diagram represents 75% of industry and technical courses, while the purple section at the bottom represents 25% of entrepreneurship courses. Therefore, all students at the College gain an in-depth understanding of an industry, develop foundational knowledge and theory of its core technologies, and acquire entrepreneurial thinking to apply these technologies in driving industrial transformation.
In addition to developing high-level personal attributes and solid subject knowledge, students will acquire comprehensive and systematic industry knowledge, along with strong integration capabilities, creativity, an entrepreneurial mindset, and management and leadership skills.
The Eight Core Elements of XJTLU Syntegrative Education
As a new educational model designed to meet the needs of future societal development, Syntegrative Education comprises eight core elements, covering the major functional components of higher education institutions.
Integrated Programme and School Structure Combining Technology and Entrepreneurship
Syntegrative Education advocates establishing schools and programmes based on industry sectors rather than traditional academic disciplines. Accordingly, what students are expected to learn is not determined by the knowledge structure of a single discipline, but by the needs of the industry they choose to focus on. For instance, if a student selects the robotics industry, they must understand knowledge from areas such as mechanics, artificial intelligence, communication and sensing in order to become a leader in the field. More importantly, students who aspire to become elite professionals in their chosen industry must not only understand its core technologies but also possess innovation mindset and leadership capability; therefore, they must also engage in entrepreneurship and management learning. To support this industry-driven knowledge integration approach, Syntegrative Education places emphasis on a “technology + entrepreneurship” structure in both programme and school design— incorporating core technology modules alongside entrepreneurship and management courses.
Syntegrative Projects as the Bridge Between Industry and Education
Syntegrative Education promotes the deep integration of education and industry, and Syntegrative Projects serve as the key bridge enabling this integration. Syntegrative Projects originate from real challenges and cases within enterprises. These authentic projects are incorporated into formal curricula, and students begin their learning through practical project engagement. Throughout this process, they acquire relevant industry and management knowledge via supporting course modules. Industry partners may take part in this process and may expect to derive solutions to their own challenges through collaboration, creating mutual benefits.
Centre of Excellence for Syntegrative Education (CoESE) as a Mechanism for Cross-Department and Cross-Organisation Collaboration
Syntegrative Education encourages individuals from different departments and organisations to collaborate as required to solve problems. Promoting such cross-boundary collaboration among students and staff is a key challenge, and the establishment of CoESE serves this purpose. CoESE functions as a virtual team in which individuals from various departments and organisations are flexibly assembled to jointly address a specific problem. Such a centre may consist of a small group of three to five people supporting a student project, a teaching team for a single course, or a larger comprehensive solutions centre comprising dozens of experts from both academia and industry.
Innovation Factory
The Innovation Factory is a platform that enables students to verify the technical feasibility of their ideas and serves as the place where ideas are transformed into reality. Primarily functioning as a technological platform, it connects all laboratories and equipment across campus into a unified network, which is open to students, staff and industry partners to meet their customised needs. Additionally, the Innovation Factory integrates expert resources to focus collective efforts on achieving systematic breakthroughs in key areas and delivering comprehensive solutions.
X³ Co-Venture
X³ Co-Venture is the incubation platform for student entrepreneurial projects, where students create societal value through their learning. Syntegrative Education promotes learning beyond the classroom, emphasising engagement within real social contexts. X³ Co-Venture supports students in understanding societal needs and developing products and services that respond to those needs. Unlike a conventional incubator, X³ Co-Venture plays a crucial role in guiding students to engage with society and inspiring their interests and future development directions.
Industry Development Ecosystem
The industry development ecosystem is a collaborative mechanism founded on symbiosis. It brings together key stakeholders connected to student learning and academic research onto a shared platform and fosters cooperation and co-creation through mechanisms that ensure mutual benefit, ultimately enabling each participant to realise their value.
Comprehensive Solution Centre
The Comprehensive Solution Centre is the primary channel through which universities generate value for industry within Syntegrative Education. Unlike traditional university research departments which focus on theoretical technical problems, this centre is driven by real societal or industry challenges. Starting from these challenges, it develops reliable comprehensive solutions through research and iterative (entrepreneurial) processes, before transferring them to industry partners to facilitate implementation and value creation in practice.
Research-Led Teaching Guided by Real Projects
Syntegrative Education introduces new requirements for university teaching. Instruction is no longer simply about teachers delivering pre-designed theory and knowledge to students, but rather about guiding and supporting students to engage in authentic, industry-based projects and learn through this process. This education model advocates research-led learning for students and research-led teaching for educators to facilitate this approach. Research-led learning begins with real problems and projects, whereby students collect and integrate information to form their own perspectives and further develop these into implementable solutions. Research-led teaching involves educators guiding students through questioning, structuring knowledge frameworks and providing feedback on proposed solutions as part of this learning process, representing a new instructional philosophy and methodology.
Syntegrative Education is a new educational model proposed by XJTLU in response to future talent development needs. Through close collaboration with industry, the XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang) has established Industry-themed Schools to cultivate future-oriented industry leaders capable of leveraging artificial intelligence and robotics to drive emerging industries. At the same time, it explores future university concepts and campus development to provide an XJTLU solution for future education.
In mainstream university education, students typically take dozens of courses over four years, studying them sequentially, with connections mainly made through theoretical and knowledge-based frameworks. However, industry problems and needs are difficult to integrate into such a course structure, making it challenging to effectively target the development of competence and professional attributes.
The diagram below illustrates the curriculum structure of the XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang). Students choose an industry-oriented programme, and their course learning is guided by Syntegrative Projects originating from enterprises. The red section in the upper part of the diagram represents 75% of industry and technical courses, while the purple section at the bottom represents 25% of entrepreneurship courses. Therefore, all students at the College gain an in-depth understanding of an industry, develop foundational knowledge and theory of its core technologies, and acquire entrepreneurial thinking to apply these technologies in driving industrial transformation.
In addition to developing high-level personal attributes and solid subject knowledge, students will acquire comprehensive and systematic industry knowledge, along with strong integration capabilities, creativity, an entrepreneurial mindset, and management and leadership skills.
The Eight Core Elements of XJTLU Syntegrative Education
As a new educational model designed to meet the needs of future societal development, Syntegrative Education comprises eight core elements, covering the major functional components of higher education institutions.
Integrated Programme and School Structure Combining Technology and Entrepreneurship
Syntegrative Education advocates establishing schools and programmes based on industry sectors rather than traditional academic disciplines. Accordingly, what students are expected to learn is not determined by the knowledge structure of a single discipline, but by the needs of the industry they choose to focus on. For instance, if a student selects the robotics industry, they must understand knowledge from areas such as mechanics, artificial intelligence, communication and sensing in order to become a leader in the field. More importantly, students who aspire to become elite professionals in their chosen industry must not only understand its core technologies but also possess innovation mindset and leadership capability; therefore, they must also engage in entrepreneurship and management learning. To support this industry-driven knowledge integration approach, Syntegrative Education places emphasis on a “technology + entrepreneurship” structure in both programme and school design— incorporating core technology modules alongside entrepreneurship and management courses.
Syntegrative Projects as the Bridge Between Industry and Education
Syntegrative Education promotes the deep integration of education and industry, and Syntegrative Projects serve as the key bridge enabling this integration. Syntegrative Projects originate from real challenges and cases within enterprises. These authentic projects are incorporated into formal curricula, and students begin their learning through practical project engagement. Throughout this process, they acquire relevant industry and management knowledge via supporting course modules. Industry partners may take part in this process and may expect to derive solutions to their own challenges through collaboration, creating mutual benefits.
Centre of Excellence for Syntegrative Education (CoESE) as a Mechanism for Cross-Department and Cross-Organisation Collaboration
Syntegrative Education encourages individuals from different departments and organisations to collaborate as required to solve problems. Promoting such cross-boundary collaboration among students and staff is a key challenge, and the establishment of CoESE serves this purpose. CoESE functions as a virtual team in which individuals from various departments and organisations are flexibly assembled to jointly address a specific problem. Such a centre may consist of a small group of three to five people supporting a student project, a teaching team for a single course, or a larger comprehensive solutions centre comprising dozens of experts from both academia and industry.
Innovation Factory
The Innovation Factory is a platform that enables students to verify the technical feasibility of their ideas and serves as the place where ideas are transformed into reality. Primarily functioning as a technological platform, it connects all laboratories and equipment across campus into a unified network, which is open to students, staff and industry partners to meet their customised needs. Additionally, the Innovation Factory integrates expert resources to focus collective efforts on achieving systematic breakthroughs in key areas and delivering comprehensive solutions.
X³ Co-Venture
X³ Co-Venture is the incubation platform for student entrepreneurial projects, where students create societal value through their learning. Syntegrative Education promotes learning beyond the classroom, emphasising engagement within real social contexts. X³ Co-Venture supports students in understanding societal needs and developing products and services that respond to those needs. Unlike a conventional incubator, X³ Co-Venture plays a crucial role in guiding students to engage with society and inspiring their interests and future development directions.
Industry Development Ecosystem
The industry development ecosystem is a collaborative mechanism founded on symbiosis. It brings together key stakeholders connected to student learning and academic research onto a shared platform and fosters cooperation and co-creation through mechanisms that ensure mutual benefit, ultimately enabling each participant to realise their value.
Comprehensive Solution Centre
The Comprehensive Solution Centre is the primary channel through which universities generate value for industry within Syntegrative Education. Unlike traditional university research departments which focus on theoretical technical problems, this centre is driven by real societal or industry challenges. Starting from these challenges, it develops reliable comprehensive solutions through research and iterative (entrepreneurial) processes, before transferring them to industry partners to facilitate implementation and value creation in practice.
Research-Led Teaching Guided by Real Projects
Syntegrative Education introduces new requirements for university teaching. Instruction is no longer simply about teachers delivering pre-designed theory and knowledge to students, but rather about guiding and supporting students to engage in authentic, industry-based projects and learn through this process. This education model advocates research-led learning for students and research-led teaching for educators to facilitate this approach. Research-led learning begins with real problems and projects, whereby students collect and integrate information to form their own perspectives and further develop these into implementable solutions. Research-led teaching involves educators guiding students through questioning, structuring knowledge frameworks and providing feedback on proposed solutions as part of this learning process, representing a new instructional philosophy and methodology.