Open-up call to raise level of education
Mainland universities must strengthen the internationalisation of their campuses to meet the central government's goal of opening up the economy, a leading national legislator has said.
Thousands of 'inter-cultural students' were needed to help bridge the 'psychological barriers' between China and other countries, Xu Jialu, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, told educators in Macau on Monday.
Professor Xu was keynote speaker at a forum on international co-operation and innovation in higher education organised by Macau Inter-University Institute, the enclave's Catholic liberal arts college, attended by 200 people from across the region.
'A severe problem is confronting us and that is the system,' he said. 'We must undergo major reform. The sector, the curriculum, the teaching materials and methodology must reach the level required for the 21st century. If we want Chinese education to reach a higher level, we must open up. Deng Xiaoping has led us on the road to opening up but we have not yet reached the level of opening up that we had in the Qing and Han dynasties.
'So the central government states time and again that we must deepen and strengthen our opening up. Only by further opening up can we better develop ourselves.'
Professor Xu, who is also chairman of United International College in Zhuhai, said that opening up the higher education sector involved international co-operation, inter- cultural education and internationalisation of the student body.
'International co-operation in higher education has only reached a superficial level. We should go further and deeper. And we need to be aware that within our schools, we need to nurture intercultural dialogue.
'It is not just mastering the language. It is important to understand your own culture and also your target language and culture. We also need to have the desire and impetus for intercultural exchange - to respect each other.'
Bernard Li Chien-Chiu, president of Taiwan's Fu Jen Catholic University, said universities in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland needed to forge stronger links as a prelude to building partnerships with universities abroad.
Due to the thawing of cross-strait relations since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office last year, the number of mainland students at Taiwan's universities was expected to increase rapidly.
'We have 30 students already,' he said. 'And across the whole of Taiwan there are 300. Next year the whole system will open up to mainland students. It is expected that at least 2,000 mainland students will come to Taiwan.'
Ng Ching-fai, president of Hong Kong Baptist University, said it was looking at whether it would be feasible 'to send all our students off campus for one semester' - despite the financial challenges involved.
Existing initiatives to promote an international outlook among students included Baptist University's resident consul general programme, under which consuls general from across the developing world gave seminars about their countries.
United International College, jointly founded by Baptist University and Beijing Normal University, provided a '3-D' element for exchange programmes, as visiting staff and students could see the mainland as well as Hong Kong, he added.
Macau Inter-University Institute signed a partnership agreement with Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan - its second formal link with a mainland university - and unveiled two new cross-border research initiatives at the event.
The college aims to launch joint research programmes with Zhongnan, and offer programmes designed by its own staff at partner universities across the Pearl River Delta through the new institutes for international business studies and for international arts and communications.
Vice-rector for research and international relations Ivo Carneiro de Sousa said the strategic goal of the conference was to start discussions 'on a new epistemological and scientific paradigm for social science' and how universities could work together to create that.
