China
At a recent meeting of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), Education Minister Huai Jinpeng further announced the Double First Class Initiative to foster world-class universities and excellence in specific academic fields comparable to the world’s best. He said it would be expanded. Legislature.
This new phase of our work includes more interdisciplinary research, stronger collaboration with industry, and adopting a long-term approach to research.
Huai said the government would “moderately expand” signature programs, focusing on “advantageous areas” that more precisely fit the country’s strategic goals. In recent years, China has cut back on university programs to make way for more technology programs related to key industries.
The Double First Class initiative, aimed at improving the quality and international competitiveness of China’s higher education, was launched approximately 10 years ago targeting 140 universities and will be expanded to include nearly 150 universities by 2022. Ta.
Selected institutions and disciplines under this program receive special funding for teaching and research in specific subject areas, as well as other benefits that help them compete with the world’s elite universities.
In a press conference with lawmakers during the National People’s Congress session on November 5, 2024, Huai pointed out the “remarkable progress” of the initiative.
“Since 2016, universities under this system have trained more than 50% of master’s students and 80% of doctoral students in the country, giving them a special focus on developing high-level human resources that the country urgently needs. “We have undertaken more than 90% of the missions,” Huai said.
According to the minister, the scheme has provided more than RMB 256 billion (US$ 35.5 billion) in research funding nationwide, and according to a recent list published by an international ranking organization, many universities and specific fields have gradually become world-class. It is said to be among the highest ranked.
“The overall international influence, competitiveness and discursive power of China’s higher education have been strengthened,” he said at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress earlier this month.
The scheme currently covers more than 500 specialties in around 150 universities and is focused on building world-class specialties.
World top class subject rankings
The Ministry believes that a wide range of indicators applies and that world-class specializations can more effectively strengthen global competitiveness than focusing on universities that still lag behind Western universities on a variety of indicators. There is.
The World University Academic Rankings, also known as the Shanghai Rankings, showed that Chinese universities topped 18 fields in the 2024 world rankings of academic fields released on November 11.
Among them, Tsinghua University ranks first in the world in two new fields: chemical engineering and environmental science and engineering.
This year, a total of 308 fields were selected from 100 universities. Peking University and Tsinghua University were ranked first and second with 26 top-class fields and 23 top-class fields, respectively, followed by Fudan University in Shanghai with 14 top-class fields.
“The double first class initiative is transforming China’s higher education system and has far-reaching implications for global competition,” Huang Tayu, deputy director of the Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University in Japan, said in this week’s Universities I mentioned it in the commentary. World news.
Huang, an expert on China’s higher education system, said, “Many educational institutions participating in the program have made significant progress in areas such as academic development, talent development, research innovation, and global impact. “
“However, despite these successes, there are also significant challenges and areas when it comes to reforming higher education systems that require reflection and improvement to ensure sustained progress.”
Professor Huang pointed out that, “To maintain momentum, Chinese universities need to go beyond short-term academic achievements and prioritize long-term growth in research innovation, talent development, and international partnerships.”
Huai said in his report to the National People’s Congress that some universities are only focused on the short-term goal of achieving world-class status. Under the current evaluation system, universities are evaluated based on various indicators, such as the number of citations in their papers. This led to a large number of international publications instead of working on producing long-term results.
More interdisciplinary education and research
Huai said the next phase of the Double First Class initiative will also focus on promoting interdisciplinary research. Universities are expected to make major scientific advances through broad integration and collaboration between disciplines.
“The human resource development model needs to evolve with greater emphasis on integrating STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and humanities, and strengthening collaboration between education and industry,” Huai said in official media. reportedly said.
However, some scholars argue that there is a contradiction between promoting the construction of specific disciplines, which actually reinforces disciplinary divisions, and interdisciplinarity, which seeks to break down such barriers. pointed out.
Chen Hongjie, a professor at Peking University’s Graduate School of Education, said in a recent commentary that universities are becoming less willing to engage in interdisciplinary research, and that specializations not only remain an integral part of the higher education management system; posed an “obvious dilemma”. , they are also “a strong basis for the allocation of resources and power.”
“In practice, universities usually develop specialized areas well, and some interdisciplinary research is done only in a superficial way,” he writes.
The National People’s Congress also focused on training top research talent, including young researchers in basic fields. Compared with foreign universities, Chinese universities still have a “relatively large gap” in attracting talent, Huai said.
global technology competition
Against the backdrop of global technological competition, China is pushing universities to accelerate the pace of breakthrough discoveries and discoveries.
Huai warned that while great achievements have been recorded in areas such as human spaceflight and the exploration of the Moon and Mars, these combined represent only a small number of “disruptive achievements.”
He particularly pointed to the lack of “original innovation,” which refers to major, unprecedented scientific discoveries and technological inventions.
He stressed that universities should fulfill national strategic goals “more precisely”.
Mr. Huai’s comments come at a time when universities are in the midst of intensifying global technology competition, said an education management scholar at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, an emerging research university with world-class aspirations, who spoke on condition of anonymity. This is said to emphasize the role of
“China’s current strategic needs are to break the technological ‘blockade’ and “It is to strengthen the core competitiveness of independent science and technology.”
The lack of innovation could also be attributed to the need for industry-academia collaboration, he told University World News. That’s because much research comes from companies rather than universities, and much of it is building “castles in the air” (a reference to research). This is out of touch with industry needs.
The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to achieve critical technology breakthroughs and combat pressure on its domestic industry in response to increasing U.S. restrictions on China’s access to key technologies.
Regulations are likely to be further tightened when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States in January 2025. Analysts say the incoming Trump administration could accelerate technological decoupling from China.
Some technologies, such as AI chips, continue to face bottlenecks due to U.S. regulations, while others, such as AI chips, continue to face bottlenecks, said Tilly Zhang, a technology analyst at Beijing-based consulting firm Gabekal Dragonomics. is still making progress.
“There are a lot of moving parts. If some areas are blocked, you don’t lose all of your original ability to innovate,” she said, pointing to humanoid robotics as a technology with plenty of room for “free exploration.” He cited fields such as autonomous driving and self-driving.
