The country's first private research university, Westlake University, held its first school board meeting this month on April 16 in Hangzhou, eastern China. During the meeting, Chen Ning Yang was elected as the Honorary Chairman and Shi Yigong the first president.

Shi Yigong

“I came back with the purpose of cultivating more talented individuals who are both ambitious and down to earth," said Shi Yigong, who resigned from Princeton in 2008 to join Tsinghua University. In January this year, Shi gave up the position of vice-president in Tsinghua and put all his efforts in to setting up Westlake University. His aim? To make it one of the top research-oriented institutes in the world.

A Strong School Board

The first meeting confirmed a list of 21 board members. Qian Yingyi, dean of the School of Economics and Management department in the university, will work as chairman of the school board. Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese physicist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics, will be the honorary chairman.

The school board also decided that all primary donors to Westlake University, including Tencent CEO Pony Ma and Wanda’s founder Wang Jianlin, are to be honorary board members.

During the same meeting, Shi Yigong was voted as president of Westlake University. Shi said in his speech that he is now ready to devote his time to transforming Westlake University into a leading institute and the pride of China.

Prof. Xu Tian and Prof. Qiu Min were also appointed as the university’s vice presidents. Xu Tian had served as deputy head of Genetics at Yale University for 15 years and already waived his tenure in order to join Westlake University. “It’s a good opportunity to come to Westlake University. We will be able to work jointly to push forward multidisciplinary activities and explore new education methods as well,” Xu said.

The second vice president, Qiu Min, was once the youngest professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). He expressed his expectations of Westlake University’s success and said that it has been a long term desire to participate in the establishment of a college.

A Rising University

Westlake University, located in the scenic West Lake area in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, was a private university set up on the basis of Westlake Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS). China’s Ministry of Education officially approved its establishment on April 2, 2018.

The non-profit institution will mainly carry out basic and advanced scientific research, emphasizing the cultivation of competitive innovative talent. The research will be based on four research institutes in biology, basic medicine, natural science, and cutting-edge technologies. A Faculty of Life Sciences (including Biology and Basic Medicine), Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Engineering will come into being, giving priority to 12 first-class disciplines split in to these three categories. With the development of the university, more academies will be set up in the future, such as the Humanities and Social Sciences Academy.

Different from some other colleges, Westlake University takes doctoral student training as a starting point and will conduct undergraduate education in due course. It is planned that the number of full-time students will not exceed 5,000. The doctoral degree programs of 2017 officially admitted 19 students and the enrollment of doctoral students of 2018 has also started, with a plan to enroll 130 students.

A Way to Privatize Institutions of Higher Education Reform

Critics have pointed out that the founding of Westlake University is expected to improve the current situation of higher education in China, discovering a new way for Chinese private universities to become world-class research-oriented institutes. As the article “Biologist unveils China's first private research university” published by Science Magazine indicated, Westlake University may “play a much more important role in a rapidly transforming country.”

There were 69 private higher education institutes in China in 1949, which were then changed into public schools in the early 1950s. For the following 30 years, China had no private higher education institutes. Although China’s privately-run higher education sector has been gradually reintroduced since the 1980s, it is still in a relatively small and underdeveloped state. Up to this point, it has primarily focused on vocational and technical education for employment. However, there is no shortage of successful examples of private research universities overseas. In the United States, private universities including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford account for more than half of all universities. In Japan, private universities such as Waseda University and Keio University account for approximately 80% of the total number across the country.

The president, Shi Yigong, doesn’t deny the doubts about difficulties and challenges they are faced with, stating “the road is obstructive and long". However, he is also full of confidence for the future. At the inauguration ceremony of Westlake University on December 10, 2016, Shi Yigong expressed his determination, “We expect that in ten or twenty years time, there will be a university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang that is respected by the whole world. Westlake University will provide powerful support for the sustainable development of China's high-tech and even make contributions to world civilization!”