Recently, during the 34th International Project Management Association (IPMA) World Congress held in Berlin, Germany, which also celebrated IPMA's 60th anniversary, the School of Management, Shandong University, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Project Management Association to expand cooperation in project management education, certification, and skill development.
As a benchmark institution in Chinese higher education, the School of Management, Shandong University, has built substantial expertise in project management education, establishing a comprehensive curriculum system and achieving notable results in cutting-edge fields such as digital project management. This collaboration with IPMA, a globally recognized authority in project management, marks a significant milestone in the School's internationalization strategy and will align China's project management education with top global standards.
According to the MOU, the two parties will collaborate on key areas including curriculum upgrading, certification alignment, talent development, and technological innovation. Initiatives will include introducing cutting-edge resources from IPMA to optimize courses, building an immersive practical training platform, and opening a “green channel” for students to obtain certifications. Additionally, cooperation interfaces will be reserved for the school's international partner institutions, with the goal of forming a transnational collaborative alliance for education in the future.
Professor Mladen Vukomanović, President of IPMA, stated that the cooperation will integrate forward-looking project management competency frameworks into classroom learning, equipping students to address global challenges. Professor Ding Ronggui, Dean of the School of Management, Shandong University, emphasized that the cooperation will propel the School's project management education into the “top global tier,” cultivating high-level talents who possess both an understanding of China's national conditions and a global perspective, thereby contributing to industry advancement.
Founded in 1965 and registered in Switzerland, the International Project Management Association is the earliest-established and most influential professional project management organization in the world. It currently has 72 national or regional member associations. IPMA oversees top-tier academic journals in the project management field, such as the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), and has developed over a dozen international standards, including the IPMA Global Excellence in Project Management Standards.
