The Future of Universities in China

单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,The Future of Universities in China,Chuansheng Liu,Chairperson of University Council,Beijing Normal University,On behalf of the teachers and students at Beijing Normal University, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all the distinguished guests.,This afternoon, you have visited an affiliated high school to my university and one of our state key labs, and watched our students performance. I believe, you have already had a deep impression. This evening, we will further our communication and understanding, and actively explore the broad areas for cooperation and development.,Brief Introduction to Beijing Normal University,There are over 2200 universities in China, and Beijing Normal University is a famous one with 104 year history. Her major strength and characteristics are teacher education, educational sciences, natural sciences and humanities. Now, there are 19,000 full-time students, including over 8500 undergraduate students, above 8700 postgraduate students, and more than 1800 international students. There are over 1400 full-time faculty members.,Brief Introduction to Beijing Normal University,Beijing Normal University is now a comprehensive university: except for military studies, she has program in every discipline else. Her program in education, psychology, history and system science rank the first place among Chinese universities. The programs in Chinese language and literature, mathematics, environmental sciences and so on are in leading positions in China. The university ranks around the 15th for her academic reputation and overall strength.,International Exchange and Cooperation at BNU,Beijing Normal University always attaches importance to international exchanges and cooperation and the campus internationalization. At present, each year there are over 300 international scholars to lecture and conduct research at BNU, and above 700 time/person of BNU teachers go abroad for conference and joint research. Beijing Normal University established three Confucius institutes respectively with the University of Manchester, the University of Oklahoma and San Francisco State University. We are now building the fourth one in Canada. Internationalization is always a priority in BNUs reform and development.,“Triple Three in the Future of Universities in China,Three challenges,Three tasks,Three directions.,Three Challenges,The first one is the challenge from economic globalization. In this flat world, such trend brings about the global flow of information, market, resource, capital and human resource, and the increasing close exchange and cooperation among nations. Exchange and cooperation has become the key counter-measure against globalization.,Three Challenges,The second one is the challenge from the rapid progress in science and technology. In the age of knowledge economy and internet, the rapid development in science and technology accelerates the speed of knowledge renewal, and significantly changes the way to deliver and to acquire knowledge, which profoundly influenced the existing school education, education ideas and thoughts and methodology.,Three Challenges,The third one is the challenge from fast economic development in China. The continuous and fast growth of Chinese economy requires strong intelligent and human resource support, and the demand for high education is increasing. In the recent years, China has made significant achievement in higher education development and reform. By 2005, the student number in various forms of higher education had exceeded 23 million, 10.71 million more than that in 2000. The gross rate for higher education enrollment reached 21%, raising 8.5 points from 2000. Now China has the high education of the largest scale in the whole world, and has entered in the period of mass higher education. However, China is a populous developing country, and there is a huge gap between peoples demand for higher education, especially high quality programs, and our current offering. Chinese higher education cannot meet the demand from economic and social development. To modernize our education, we still have a long way to go.,Three Tasks,The first one is to reform. To meet the demand from globalization and diversified social changes, all the universities are reforming, in order to survive and develop in global competition. Chinese universities should be fully aware of such pressure and crisis, and to explore and reform education thoughts, schooling system, teaching content and methodology, to meet the need from global age.,Three Tasks,The second is to innovate. Universities should be standing at the front of science and technology, to train innovative talents and promote science and technology innovation. China always attaches importance to the construction of first class universities: to largely strengthen the universities ability for innovation, to catch up with the world leading research in a number of key disciplines, and to fully play the role in knowledge innovation and the education of innovative talents.,Three Tasks,The third one is to promote harmonious economic and social development. For the need of science and technology progress and the construction of harmonious society, Chinese universities should change their notion, open up the schooling, and strengthen cooperation with government, industry, research institutions and community. They should also fully involve themselves in science and technology innovation, economic construction and regional development, to promote universities ability in social service. To gain support through social service, and to develop with social contribution.,Three Directions,The first one is internationalization and the maintenance of ones characteristics. During the course of globalization, universities require international vision, internationalized curriculum and culture diversity. Since the reform and open policy implemented in China, especially after Chinas entry to WTO, Chinese economy is gradually engaging in the global system. Regarding to globalization, Chinese universities should fully utilize internationalized education resource, learn from advanced educational ideas and methods, and develop themselves through engaging in competition. At the same time, Chinese universities should keep and promote the excellence of Chinese culture and tradition, and establish their own characteristics according to the situation in the country. The reform and development of any university should be a course of innovation. There is no existing experience and model to copy.,Three Directions,The second one is the increasing concern for education quality and competitiveness. Universities key competitiveness is quality. The focus of Chinese university development is to promote quality and optimize structure, and to train students creativity and hands-on ability. With quality as the core, Chinese universities will change educational ideas, further education reform, promote inter-disciplinary studies and the innovation of education, science and technology, and train talents of international competitiveness, so as to construct in a populous country into a nation with strength in human resource.,Three Directions,The third one is to cooperate, to serve and to develop. Society needs universities, but universities need society even more. Universities cannot be separated from the society; in fact, universities are needed to be increasingly engaged in social, economic, political and cultural development. Universities should serve for not only the worlds needs and each countrys strategic economic and social goals, but also the development of the regions and communities they are in. Universities should play their part in knowledge and culture development: promote not only economic development, but also the overall human development. Universities should actively lead and develop advanced cultures, contribute to the construction of harmonious society. Universities should also make effort to construct lifelong learning system and promote equity in education.,Conclusion,The “triple three is my brief summary of the future of universities in China. Due to difference in cultural traditions, educational system and schooling, there are great disparities. But such disparities bring opportunities to the educational cooperation among countries. For example, China should learn from the U.S. on the training of creativity and hands-on skills. We hope to work with educators in Asia Pacific to identify issues of common interest, to strengthen exchange and learning from each other, to promote cooperation and research, so as to advance the education and harmonious social development in each country.,I am also happy to welcome your questions.,Thank you!,