Chinese universities were urged to make progress by maintaining
their own special features rather than simply expanding their
campus size and drawing foreign experiences to sharpen their
international competitive edge.
This is a consensus reached by university presidents all over
China, who are in Beijing attending the on-going Chinese-Foreign
University Presidents Forum.
"My university will give major supports to key studies in
economics, law, finance, management and foreign languages so as to
train economic specialists who know the rules of the World Trade
Organization (WTO)," said Li Zhunmin, president of the University of
International Business and Economics.
The university, with more than 8,000 students on campus, is proud
of its graduates who participated in negotiations on China's WTO
entry.
Chen Naifang, president of the Beijing Foreign
Studies University, said the university will focus on training
top-class, multi-language expertise on the basis of its traditional
advantages in foreign languages teaching and research.
The university, which now offers courses on 32 foreign languages,
is the No. 1 university of foreign studies in China.
Chongqing
University's president Wu Zhongfu said they will focus on
training students of information technology, photo-electric
science, new forms of energy, bio-technology and advanced
manufacturing technologies that are needed in landlocked southwest
China.
Prestigious Universities such as Tsinghua has been
working to become among the world's top-class universities. In this
process, said President Wang Dazhong, Tsinghua will also give
priority to specialties that are badly needed in China's economic
construction, such as energy, environmental protection and water
resources.
The university presidents at the meeting share the view that it is
important Chinese universities focus their resources on some
leading subjects in the course of development.
(Xinhua News
Agency July 29, 2002)