Internationalization of higher education has been a hot topic in the higher education sector.In China's higher education system, Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education has emerged as an important form of internationalization, and experiencing rapid growth in mainland China in recent years. However, the growth of Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education in western China has proven especially difficult because of China's unequal regional development.This study employs qualitative research methods, including case studies and semi-structured interviews, to conduct an in-depth interview with a Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education institution from a western region of China. The objective of the study is to explore the current state of Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education development in western regions and explore the strategies to address development challenges. In this study, we found that due to the risks associated with cooperative education and the relatively underdeveloped state of the cooperative education in western regions, these areas should establish a disciplinary system and talent pool tailored to their regional characteristics, actively pursue disciplinary transformation and upgrading, and leverage foreign higher education resources to address their own shortcomings in higher education, thereby achieving better development of regional higher education.
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