China to Foster Top-notch Schools"The development of universities is the indication of the strength of a country's education and science and comprehensive national strength," said Jiang at a grand ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of the founding of Tsinghua University.Jiang called on China's top academic institutions to remain alert to the latest scientific and technological research and thinking. Also present at the lavish celebration for Tsinghua were Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-President Hu Jintao and Vice-Premier Li Lanqing. Zhu and Hu are alumni. The party drew more than 40,000 people, including thousands of graduates. Jiang's words were echoed by educational experts home and abroad who attended various activities. Top-flight academic institutes should play a key role in advancing technological innovations in the fields of technology, gene sequencing and high-energy physics, keys to China's prosperity in the global marketplace, experts said. Leading universities must be upgraded into research institutes, the latest educational concept in the global community, to strengthen their role in the world economy, the experts said. "Top Chinese universities produce key workers needed to develop the high-tech industry, lead the way in innovation and play a key role in incubating high-tech start-ups, the bottom line for China's competitiveness in the global market," said Pan Yunhe, president of East China's Zhejiang University. Pan said the top universities need funding to compete at the level of the world's best research centres. Pan's views were backed by Lu Fuyuan, vice-minister of education, who said that China will strengthen its support of a few universities. China has mapped out its plans to allocate the largest amounts of funding to turn 100 leading universities in the country into its own version of the US Ivy League, which will include Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan and Zhejiang universities. Meanwhile, major reform of the education system started in 1995 will ensure that universities are no longer impeded in putting lab results to good economic use. A merging spree has taken place in the last two years in China, producing a number of giant university conglomerates and strengthening the comprehensive fortitude of China's top universities, as access to higher learning amongst Chinese people expands. The number of students in China's institutions of higher learning jumped to 4.6 million last year from 2.8 million in 1999, official statistics showed. And this year, the education authorities vowed to further expand enrolment in State universities, the backbone of China's higher learning community, by 1 million. "China has gained a better understanding of what universities mean to economic growth in the last five years," said Mark Wrighton, chancellor of US-based Washington University. "I have traveled to China 15 times and have found that Chinese universities are operating more in line with the national economy as infrastructure and equipment is upgraded and increasing numbers of top academics flow back into the system to join in the research," said Wrighton. However, China's top universities are yet to join the ranks of the world's most distinguished as they are still dogged by fund shortages, a chronic problem in China's education sector. In 1999, expenditure on education only accounted for 2.79 per cent of the national GDP, and of that 2.79 per cent, only one-fifth of the cash went on higher education. As a result it is taking time to convince world experts to lead research programmes. Colin Lucas, vice-chancellor of Oxford University said£º "China has very smart people who have studied in foreign countries but many of them have stayed abroad and got involved in science and technology research there." "China should do more to attract them back while sweetening the pot for more foreign talent to study and join its research programmes," said Lucas. |
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