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Qinghua Aims to Become Elite University
China's prestigious Qinghua University will join the ranks of the world's elite universities upon its 100th birthday in 2011, Beijing-based Guangming Daily quoted the university president Wang Dazhong as pledging.
Though plagued by a money shortage, the university that developed China's first silicon transistor and first atomic reactor in the 1950s decided to set the goal and has stirred up school spirit for the effort.
"It took international big-name universities hundreds of years to emerge," Chinese President Jiang Zemin said in 1998. "But besides the governmental support, what's more important is how university leaders, teaching staff and students work together."
Gene scientist Cheng Jing, who owned several patents in the United States, Britain and other European countries, decided to work at Qinghua as it was the only university that allowed him to choose his own research assistants.
Cheng's friends from Yale and Oxford and other international experts soon joined him. The university now has 43 academicians both from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, more than any other university in the country.
Qinghua often invites alumnus such as those who contributed to the country's development of atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb and satellite, to give lectures to students.
A recent survey by the China Youth Daily showed that 36.22 percent of the 7,000 students who took this year's college entrance examination thought Qinghua University is the best school in the country, regardless of whether or not they could enroll there.
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