By bringing world-class experts to Southwest Jiaotong University, Danish scholar Frede Blaabjerg, a 2025 recipient of the China Friendship Award and chief expert of the university's "111" innovation base for railway electrification and automation, has helped build a premier international academic team.

For an institution with a 130-year legacy in rail transportation, internationalization has become a two-way track: it involves welcoming global talent while projecting its own expertise onto the global stage.

In advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, universities need to transcend their roles as mere classrooms or technical exporters. They have to become dynamic nexuses that weave together education, innovation, talent and global standards.

To this end, Southwest Jiaotong University has engineered a multi-dimensional global strategy, a five-fold framework that integrates education, science, talent, standards and services into a singular engine for international development.

The success of high-quality BRI cooperation rests upon coordinated development, and at the heart of that coordination are people.

As the primary engines of talent cultivation, universities must respond to the needs of partner countries by establishing prestigious educational brands and cross-border training platforms.

In doing so, they enable the fluid flow of resources, fostering the high-level, interdisciplinary talent essential for today's mega-projects.

For universities specialized in rail, this necessitates capitalizing on their unique heritage and technical prowess. Such institutions should center their efforts on consolidating premier educational resources to pilot an open, "one-to-many" model of international cooperation.

In tandem, they need to address the demand for railway professionals in BRI partner countries by developing joint training systems anchored in dual institutions, dual supervisors and dual certification. This framework ought to span the entire academic spectrum, from undergraduate to doctoral studies, while also encompassing non-degree training and professional development.

Education is at its core a commitment to people-to-people connectivity, which serves as the social foundation of high-quality BRI cooperation. In this mission, universities provide far more than professional expertise. They align perspectives and bridge cultural divides, building the human trust that ensures lasting international cooperation.

For these reasons, international talent cultivation belongs within the wider landscape of China's diplomacy and national talent strategy.

This calls for offering rigorous international degree programs. As a vanguard of this mission, Southwest Jiaotong University has spearheaded national initiatives to train elite transportation engineering talent for BRI partner countries.

As the sole institution in Sichuan province authorized by the Ministry of Commerce to nurture BRI talent, the university has trained over 7,000 international students from 58 countries and regions through its English-medium programs. Many graduates have since emerged as leaders in their home countries' transportation sectors, serving as vital links of friendship with China.

Beyond the cultivation of talent, high-quality BRI cooperation requires more than capital and infrastructure. It demands the harmonization of rules and standards. Just as the university prepares the professionals to lead these projects, it also provides the technical frameworks that make cross-border partnership possible.

Through their technical depth and research capacity, universities are uniquely positioned to support the entire value chain from standard-setting to validation, certification, and technical services.

In this capacity, universities can actively support China's pursuit for standards connectivity under the BRI and help establish regional platforms for railway standards coordination. Such efforts allow standards to move past mere regulation, acting instead to facilitate technological compatibility and industrial integration.

The viability of BRI cooperation hinges not only on infrastructure but also on the development of local skills to sustain it. Universities excel at translating China's modernization experience and technical expertise into local capacity. This shift represents the essential transition from providing short-term assistance to driving long-term, self-sustaining growth.

Rail-focused universities need to support capacity building in developing countries by instituting multi-level training systems for government officials, technical specialists and frontline workers.

Such programs reinforce the international railway training network while diversifying cooperation across emerging sectors and collaborative models, ensuring that the BRI partnerships deliver tangible and lasting benefits to local communities.

Scientific and technological innovation is a primary driver of high-quality BRI cooperation. As hubs of research and innovation, universities should utilize their specialized infrastructure and expertise to provide technical advisory services and practical solutions for major projects. In doing so, they transform Chinese scientific achievements into shared progress for the global railway sector.

Achieving this requires deeper integration into global innovation networks. Rail-focused universities are expected to play a more active part in international bodies such as the International Union of Railways (UIC) and the Organization for Co-operation between Railways (OSJD), contributing to the formulation of international railway training standards and building joint laboratories with leading overseas institutions. Through sustained cooperation and technical support, they can resolve complex engineering challenges in BRI projects, positioning Chinese railway technology to further advance global development.

High-quality BRI cooperation is a systemic undertaking. The value of universities surpasses the delivery of resources and technology, as it stems from their capacity to build platforms, bring together partners, and maintain the long-term sustainability of collaborative efforts.

Far from being peripheral actors, these institutions stand as architects in building a global community with a shared future.

Moving forward, universities, especially those with distinctive rail expertise, should remain dedicated to national strategic goals while expanding the scope of their international reach.

By doing so, they can bolster high-quality BRI cooperation and help build a more interconnected and prosperous world.

Yu Minming is Party secretary and Yan Xuedong is president of Southwest Jiaotong University.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

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