On December 7, 2021, Nankai University MTA Education Center organized a seminar on promoting practical teaching and invited MTA tutors to discuss the practical teaching work. Prof Yao Yanbo, the vice dean of the college of tourism and service management at Nankai University, several MTA tutors and administrative staffs of MTA Education Center attended the seminar. The seminar was chaired by Associate Professor Yan Jiao, the director of MTA Education Center.
MTA programs of Nankai University attaches great importance to practical teaching. We not only incorporate professional practice as a compulsory course into the curriculum system but also form a "four fronts" joint training mechanism inside and outside the University. In details, we aim to select industry elites who are good at sharing information to carry out professorial courses with teachers in our university; we aim to build practice base through selecting typical and representative units that can accept students' on-site research and internship; we aim to select industry elites who have the ability and energy to guide students as industry mentors and help students finish professional dissertation and career development together with teachers of our university. However, in promoting practical teaching, there are still limitations to be improved. Director Jiao Yan particularly pointed out that there are still some practical problems in MTA practical teaching. For example, the evaluation method of practical teaching is relatively single. The internship requirements are biased on the needs of students, and the role of the practice base in practical teaching is not in-depth enough, etc. She also wished to hear more suggestions from teachers according to their own teaching practice. The participating teachers put forward many constructive suggestions on the students' internship report, the development of the practice base and the closed-loop management, the design and implementation of the practical teaching in the curriculum, the appointment and management of industry tutors, and the development and construction of teaching cases. At the meeting, the teachers also sorted out the list of MTA industry mentors and clarified the selection criteria for industry mentors.
The conference was significant in highlighting the originality of our MTA programs, improving practical teaching, and effectively playing the vital role of practice bases and industry mentors in the training process.
（Translate：Bi Jianwu；Proofreading：Liang Sai）
