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)