The Press Conference on the 7th China International College Students’ “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was Held

At the Press Conference held by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on October 9, Wu Yan, Director-general of the MOE’s Department of Higher Education, said that the 7^th China International College Students’ “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition will be held at Nanchang University on October 12. This year, the coverage of the competition has been achieved in three aspects: the complete coverage of the mainland higher institutions, the complete coverage of phases of studying, and the basic coverage of World Top 100 Universities.

More than 9.56 million people of 4,347 institutions from 121 countries and regions at home and abroad registered to participate in the competition, which increased by 51%, and the number of projects registered reached 2.28 million, which increased by 55%. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 15,611 people and 5,531 projects of 1,263 institutions (including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge and other World Top 100 Universities) from 117 foreign countries and regions are registered to participate in the competition, which increased by 68% and 74% respectively. More than 3.3 million people from over 860,000 projects of 2,116 institutions are registered for the vocational education segment, and 228 projects are registered for the infancy segment. In order to accommodate the development of the event, the number of finalist projects increased from 1,600 to 3,500, and the number of gold medals increased from 158 to 320.

According to Wu Yan, the 7th competition should further return to the essence of education, and it is essential to highlight the differences hidden behind naivete. The undergraduate creativity category and its separate qualification assessment system are newly set up to ensure that the undergraduates are able to deeply participate in the competition and to provide more “Future Stars” of innovation and entrepreneurship with opportunities to stand out. This year, the participants should not be older than 35 years old, so that more young students are able to grasp the opportunities. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Achievement Exhibition held in the same period of the competition will highlight the achievements of higher institutions around the world in implementing the fundamental task of building student’s moral character and fostering talents for business startups and innovation.

“The 7th competition has a new segment–assigned industry propositions segment. Propositions are assigned by different companies and teams from different higher institutions try to realize the propositions, thus winning the high attention and high participation from so many famous companies. 59,454 people and 10,466 projects from 1,024 domestic institutions are registered for this segment, which has effectively promoted the transformation of competition results and the deep integration of industry, academics and research, created a good environment to train innovative and entrepreneurial talents collaboratively, and promoted the quality of employment and startups of graduates”, said Wu Yan.

At the press conference, Zhou Chuangbing, President of Nanchang University, introduced the preparations for the competition. Zhou Chuangbing said that the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government have paid great attention to and strongly supported the preparations for the competition. Under the guidance of ministries and provincial departments, Nanchang University has formulated an event program focusing on one major competition (the competition), one major activity (red journey activity), and six concurrent events, held the national launching ceremony for the activity of the Red Journey of Dream Building for Youths, and is now sparing no effort to prepare for the finals. Nanchang University has made an all-round renovation of 102 competition classrooms, indoor and outdoor activity venues,and other facilities. A team of more than 2,000 faculty members and 3,000 student volunteers has been formed, and several rounds of special task training and many sub-events and full-process drills have been carried out to ensure that the event is organized in a standardized and orderly manner.

According to Zhou Chuangbing, Nanchang University will take the hosting of the competition as an opportunity to implement the fundamental task of carrying out moral education at a higher starting point and a deeper level, and promote the high-quality development of talent training.