The Nondestructive Testing Education in China: Current Status, Development Objectives and Strategies More info about this article: http://www.ndt.net/?id=22174 Abstract Rongming Yan Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, P.R. China Email:yanrongming@126.com The current status of the Nondestructive Testing education in China, including higher education and continuing education, has been investigated and introduced in this paper. The main milestones, the achievements, the features as well as the development objectives about the academic and vocational education has been presented. The strategies including network education, college and enterprise model to promote the Nondestructive Testing education in China were introduced. Keywords: Nondestructive Testing, academic education, vocational education. 1 History and milestones The Nondestructve Testing (NDT) education in China can be classified to academic and vocational ones. The academic education covers graduate and postgraduate which theory and technology makes the main part of the program; on the other hand, the vocational education emphasis on physical skill which covers junior college and secondary vocation. 1.1 The beginning of graduate education The higher education of NDT in China began in Nanchang Hangkong University in 1982. Thirty nine people was enrolled in that year, and thirty six people graduated from this school to became the first group of graduate of NDT in China four years later. In 1984, as a specialty, NDT entered the undergraduate specialty catalog of higher education specified by Chinese education ministry. Several universities such as Liaoning Shihua University, Dalian University of Technology set up the NDT specialty also [1]. 1.2 The beginning of postgraduate education The postgraduate education for NDT began in Beijing research institute of aeronautical material in 1978. Some top universities like Tsinghua University made a very important role in it. 1.3 The beginning of continuing education 1
East China University of Science and Technology started the continuing education for NDT in 1984 which was called cadre training program. Before they were enrolled, all the students have been engaged in NDT of chemical and metallurgy engineering for many years. Nanchang Hangkong University did the same thing since 1987. The school recruited students from several industrial sectors such as civil aviation, pressure equipment, petrochemical engineering. The students stayed in school for one or two years to study different NDT methods. This training program helped them a lot because they got a wider view and deeper understanding of NDT. 1.4 The beginning of Vocational education Shenyang railway mechanic school (now changed to Liaoning Guidao Jiaotong Polytechnic Institute) took the lead of secondary vocational education of NDT in China since 1988. Three years later Liaoning Mechatronics College followed in 1991. Hunan Labor and Human Resources Vocational College also conducted secondary vocational education of NDT since 1993. The above schools changed to higher vocational of NDT in 2013, 1999 and 2014 respectively. Liaoning Jinxi Industry School has been engaging in the secondary vocational education of NDT since 2006. Changsha Aeronautical Vocational and Technical College is the first school to conduct the higher vocational education of NDT in China since 1985. A number of institutes started this education since 2000. 2 Current Status The multilevel education system of secondary, junior college, graduate and postgraduate has been set up successfully by the NDT educator and experts from schools through intensive investigation and hard working for many years. The teaching plans, teaching guidelines, textbooks, instructors as well as training laboratories have been well prepared for different levels of education for NDT. 2.1 Graduate education There are about 13 universities which are engaged in graduate education in China [2]. Almost eight hundreds people accomplish the training program and earn their bachelor degree (refer to table 1 below). 2
Table 1 Information about academic education--graduate S/N School name Specialty Founding time 1 Nanchang Hangkong University NDT 1982 2 East China University of Science and Technology Safety engineering 2010 3 Liaoning Shihua University Safety engineering 1999 4 Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai Applied physics 2011 5 China Jiliang University Safety engineering 6 PLA Air Force No.1 Aviation University aircraft damage test 7 Xi`an Polytechnic University Applied physics 2002 8 Lanzhou Polytechnical College Welding technology 2015 9 Beijing Jiaotong University Applied physics 1982 10 Wuhan University of Technology Testing technology & instrument 1988 11 Beijing University of Science and Technology Applied physics 1988 12 Dalian University of Technology Metallic material 1987 13 Guangxi University Applied physics 1986 The undergraduate specialty catalog was modified in 1992, instead of a specialty, NDT has become a lower level, that is specialization, of some other specialties like testing technology & instrument, safety engineering and so on. This obviously has significant influence to all the schools. For example, the specialty has changed to testing & controlling technology in Nanchang Hangkong University. Nanchang Hangkong University has been taking the lead of NDT higher education and owned very good reputation in China. The university created a very effective teaching plan and talent training pregame which served as the fundament for the training of NDT specialty in our country. It set up a key lab of NDT supported by education ministry of China, and postdoctoral research station. 2.2 Post graduate education Dozens of universities provide postgraduate education of NDT in China. A number of masters and doctors of NDT have graduated in the past several tens of years. Today NDT has penetrated into and found enormous applications in many fields, so this is conducted as a specification of other specialty. The number of universities which conduct postgraduate education of NDT is much greater than that of 3
undergraduate (refer to table 2). These postgraduates have greatly met the demands of many industry sectors. Table 2 Information about academic education postgraduate S/N School name Specialty Founding time 1 Tsinghua University NDT 1985 2 Beihang University Mechanical & electrical engineering 2000 3 Dalian University of Technology Metallic material 1987 4 East China University of Science and Technology Safety engineering 5 Huazhong University of Science and Technology Mechanical & electrical engineering 1984 6 Beijing Jiaotong University Applied physics 7 Tongji University Acoustics 8 Nanjing University Acoustics 9 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Electrical technology 10 Beijing acoustic institute of Chinese Academy Acoustics of Sciences 11 Nanchang Hangkong University testing and metrology technology & 1996 instrument. 12 Wuhan University of Technology Testing technology & instrument 13 Beijing University of Science and Technology Applied physics 14 Beijing research institute of aeronautical material NDT 1978 15 Beijing research institute of aeronautical process NDT 1978 16 Xi`an Polytechnic University Applied physics 2015 17 Harbin institute of welding technology Welding 1986 18 Beijing University of Technology Applied physics 1988 19 Shenyang metallic research institute of Chinese Materials Processing Engineering 1987 academy of science 20 South China University of Technology Intellectualized testing & control 21 Daqing Petroleum University Chemical Process Equipment 1985 2.3 Vocational education 4
Table 3 presents the specific information of the school name, classification, schooling length, and the year to start NDT for the vocational education. Table 3 Information about vocational education S/N School name classification Length of schooling (year) Founding time 1 Shenzhen Polytechnic Higher vocation 3 2004 2 Liaoning Mechatronics College Higher vocation 3 1999 3 Hunan Labor and Human Resources Vocational College Secondary vocation Higher vocation 5 3 1991 1993 4 Nanchang Hangkong University Higher vocation 3 2003 5 Naval Aeronautical and Astronautical Junior college 3 2002 University,Qindao 6 Shanxi Polytechnic Institute Higher vocation 3 2002 7 Changsha Aeronautical Vocational and Technical Higher vocation 3 1985 College 8 Changzhou Vocational Institute of Engineering Higher vocation 3 2006 9 Xi'an Aeronautical Polytechnic Institute Higher vocation 3 2007 10 Hebei Mechatronics College Higher vocation 3 1997 11 Sichuan Engineering Technical College Higher vocation 3 2002 12 Inner Mongolia Technical College of Mechanics and Electrics Higher vocation 3 2005 13 Hebei Technical College of Petroleum Profession Higher vocation 3 2004 14 Henan Wuyang Metallurgy Vestibule School Secondary vocation 3 2008 15 Bohai Ship-building Vocational College Higher vocation 3 2003 16 PLA Air Force No.1 Aviation University Junior college 3 1992 17 Shandong College of Electric Power Junior college 3 2005 18 Liaoning Guidao Jiaotong Polytechnic Institute Higher vocation 3 2013 19 Hefei Institute of General Professional Higher vocation 3 2000 Technology 20 Chengde Petroleum College Junior college 3 2006 21 Liaoning Shihua University Junior college 3 1990 22 Tianjin Maritime College Higher vocation 3 2006 23 Shandong Polytechnic Higher vocation 3 2010 24 Lanzhou Petrochemical College of Vocational Higher vocation 3 2011 Technology 25 Changzhou Railway Higher Vocational and Higher vocation 3 technical School 26 Liaoning Jinxi Industry School Secondary vocation 3 5
27 Sichuan Vocational College of Chemical Higher vocation 3 2012 Technology 28 Zhongshan Polytechnic Higher vocation 3 29 Baotou Vocational and Technical Collage Higher vocation 30 Xuzhao Technician Institute Higher vocation 5 2007 31 Guangxi Technological College of Machinery and Higher vocation 3 Electricity All colleges are state owned, only few schools are owned by specific industry sector (e.g. Hebei Technical College of Petroleum Profession), or even owned by an enterprise like Henan Wuyang Metallurgy Vestibule School, they trained the students to meet their demand of NDT personnel in their sector or enterprise. While most of the colleges provides students for all industry sectors. Higher vocational education domain the above colleges which enroll from the graduation of senior high school and they will stay in the college for three years. While only few are for secondary vocational education that enroll from junior high school and will study for three years also. There are almost three thousands students graduate from these colleges and that makes the biggest amount among different level of education in NDT in China. The training objectives for the vocational education are specified as the professional NDT inspectors who are good at both theoretical knowledge and practical skill in NDT to be able to conduct NDT in front line in factory. Training courses normally covers radiographic testing (RT), ultrasonic testing (UT), magnetic particle testing (MT), eddycurrent testing (ET) and penetration testing (PT) which are mostly used in the NDT field. Most of the instructors have a very good background of practical working experience in the NDT laboratory or manufacture company and even are qualified level III personnel of the American society for NDT (ASNT), personnel certification on NDT (PCN), or Chinese society for Nondestructive Testing (ChSNDT) Great efforts have been made to train the students for the practical skills of different NDT methods to operate of equipment, conduct testing on welds, forgings, castings and tubes, to interpretate and evaluate of the indications. Every student is required to be qualified to at least level I of NDT personnel in at least one NDT method, so they are highly accepted in the market. 6
3 Develop Objectives 3.1 NDT personnel According to the 2025 China road map in NDT [3], by the year of 2025: 60% of level I and level II personnel should have achieved junior college education or equivalent; 80% of level III personnel should have achieved graduate education; 70% of NDT engineer should be postgraduate; 60% NDT technician should be qualified to level III personnel; 80% manager should be graduate; 30% manager should be level III; 80% NDT researcher should be postgraduate; 50% NDT researcher should be level III. 3.2 establish an education chain of NDT The universities that offer qualified NDT personnel, the enterprises that provide service to NDT and the employers which employ NDT personnel should cooperate closely to form an education chain, in which all three parts support each other, to improve and enhance the quality of talent training in NDT. The education, training and popularization of science committee of ChSNDT will organize this NDT education chain through China higher education forum on NDT that is sponsored by ChSNDT. 3.3 set up a collaborative innovation center of NDT In order to make good use of each part s strength, based on the top 10 universities, a collaborative innovation center of NDT shall be set up to promote the NDT talent training level, and to enhance the science research in NDT. 4 Strategies 4.1 Clarify the objectives of talent training on NDT For junior college, the objective should be defined to inspector of NDT; For graduate, the objective is to train NDT engineer; For postgraduate, it should aim at the innovation in NDT. 4.2 Establish cooperation model between schools and enterprises 7
Encourage enterprises to join in the training program of NDT with schools. Students should have enough time to take part in the on the-job training in enterprises, to accomplish the inspection and testing physically with their own hands on the spots. A double-tutor way should be used in this situation, in which two tutors come from school and enterprise respectively will supervise and support the student. 4.3 develop internet + NDT education With the development of internet education on NDT, distance education will greatly benefit the continuing education. Contents for this kind of education could cover: training program, examination, virtual experiment, textbook, video, and so on. References [1] Rongming Yan, The comparison of the education for NDT between China and other countries, Nondestructve inspection, April 2007. [2] Yearbook of NDT in China (1949-2005), The Chinese society for NDT, Oct. 2006, China, P84. [3] Road map of NDT in China, The Chinese society for NDT, Jul. 2017, China.. 8