Mr. Zheng Nianyi was born on 03 May 1987 in Beijing, China. He completed his undergraduate studies at Chongqing Jiaotong University between 2005 and 2008, then earned a bachelor’s degree in finance (2009–2012). He obtained his master’s degree in software engineering at Tianjin University between 2013 and 2016.

He began building his professional experience during his university years. Between 2008 and 2017, he participated in alternative development projects at Jinghua Engineering Management Co., under the auspices of the Beijing Water Planning Institute incubator company (Youth League Branch), where he worked as a young manager and coordinator, making use of both his engineering and financial background.

He started his academic career in areas supporting the development of higher education and has since become a senior university executive.

Since 2017, he has worked in the office responsible for academic relations at Beihai University of Art and Design (Beihai, China), serving as Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office between 2018 and 2020. Since 2018, he has also been Head of the Academic Staff Office.

He became a board member at North Sean University of Art and Design in 2019, and since 2020 has also served as a board member at Beihai University of Art and Design. From this point on, he has been responsible for the university’s training programmes and has led the board organizing educational activities.

Currently, as Vice President, he also serves as Chairman of the Board at Beihai University of Art and Design.

His work became visible early on both as a lecturer and as a higher education expert.

As early as 2015, he implemented a major educational development project titled “Exploration and Practice Research on the Cultivation Mode of Applied Innovative Talents in New Undergraduate Colleges and Universities,” which formed part of the comprehensive “Guanxi Project” supporting young talents in China at the time. His particularly significant study, “Middle-aged and Young Teachers' Basic Ability,” focusing on generational differences among participants in education, was awarded second prize and published in 2017. In 2019, he worked on educational models aimed at developing entrepreneurship and innovation skills, and in 2022 he published on the development potential and operational methodologies of design-oriented training institutions.

Despite his young age, he has made nationally significant contributions in the fields of excellence support and innovation in higher education.

Mr. Zheng Nianyi has been involved from the very beginning in the cooperation between Beihai University of Art and Design and the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Pécs. The joint initiatives dating back to 2016 have by now grown to a strategic level. Their importance is further underscored by the fact that this period coincided with the launch of the English-language architecture programme at UP FEIT, during which these direct, almost personal programmes gained particular value.

The cooperation between the two institutions has so far been based on two main pillars: the “Pécs Class Program” and the “MIK Scholarship of Excellence.” The former is a two-year training programme supporting Beihai students applying to the architecture programme at UP FEIT, providing a high number of English-language classes as well as practical courses developing architectural, creative, and visual communication skills. Most of these courses are delivered with the involvement or subject validation of lecturers from Pécs. The latter is a student excellence scholarship programme awarded to the three best-performing students—based on admission scores—arriving from the Pécs Class Program.

With his active participation, a series of two-week professional training programmes was designed for students, curriculum developers, and institutional leaders, the milestones of which were agreed upon by the partner institutions in 2023. In spring 2024, Beihai hosted the “Design Saloon,” focusing on higher education practices in contemporary architecture and industrial design. The programme featured international courses based on the Pécs methodology in architectural concept development and product design, as well as lectures exploring the future of the built environment and the prospects of architectural research grounded in European standards. In the same year, a delegation from Beihai visited Pécs, where an active workshop on education, research, and methodologies was held, in which Mr. Zheng Nianyi also played a prominent role. Currently, content coordination is underway for bilateral short courses planned for 2026.

In addition to his successful leadership activities in China and his nationally recognized contributions to higher education development, he places strong emphasis on building international relations and strategic partnerships in the field of arts. Zheng Nianyi is an internationally recognized expert. He has played a significant role in several national projects aimed at reforming Chinese higher education and, as an experienced leader, has contributed to the implementation of major education-related initiatives.