SYSU Is Expected to Cooperate With More of the World’s Top Universities

Guangzhou, June 28, 2010, Nanfang Daily: Yesterday, reporters learned from SYSU that a copy of Reform Proposal of SYSU-foreign Cooperative School Running was presented to the educational departments. If this revolutionary proposal is approved, it will be brought into line with the Development Plan Outline for Medium and Long Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020), together with which a new round of SYSU-foreign Cooperative School Running activities will be carried out.

It is mentioned in the proposal that SYSU will “cooperate with top European and American universities and to build high-level Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools and projects in fields like nuclear energy, IT, electronics and pharmacy etc. by 2013”, this means that SYSU will have great advantage in Chinese-foreign Cooperative School Running.

The information was confirmed by Xu Ningsheng, Vice President of SYSU during the interview.

School of Sino-France Nuclear Engineering and Technology, the contract of which is signed with the premiers of the two countries as witnesses, is part of the “cooperative school running” plan.

In September, the first preparatory class will start to recruit students and 100 students will be recruited each year. By the year 2015, the school will have 400 undergraduate students and 200 postgraduate students. Cooperating with the world’s top universities is seen by SYSU as the necessary prerequisite in Chinese-foreign Cooperative School Running. The best American research universities are included in the cooperating school list.

In the Chinese-foreign Cooperative School Running plan, SYSU plans to cooperate with famous American universities in undergraduate teaching, postgraduate and doctor cultivation. SYSU hopes to start with postgraduate cultivation; the first students will be recruited in 2012 if everything goes well. SYSU hopes to start with high-level scientific research so both sides can join efforts to cultivate excellent international students majoring in IT, electronics etc.

The Franco-Chinese Center for Mathematics and Physics (ENS Class) is the base for training top international creative talents. The École normale supérieure (ENS) is a well known elite higher education institution in France, and its mathematics and theoretical physics is also famous all over the world. Ten students of ENS have won the International Medals for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, which is often referred to as the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. At the end of each year, ten to twenty students majoring in physics and mathematics will be selected to study in the Franco-Chinese Center for Mathematics and Physics.

Dialogue with Academician Xu Ningsheng- a professor of SYSU: It is important to cultivate top-notch talents with international insights

Academician Xu Ningsheng, vice president of SYSU, has been taking charge of Sino-foreign cooperative education all these years. Professor Xu Ningsheng, who always stays away from the media even after he became an academician, accepts an exclusive interview with this newspaper and shares his thought on Sino-foreign cooperative education.

Why did you choose Sino-foreign cooperative education as the breakthrough point?

Nanfang Daily: As Guangdong is developing a higher education reform pilot area, for what reasons did SYSU decided to choose Sino-foreign cooperative education as a breakthrough point?

Xu Ningsheng: In recent years, there are more and more overseas cooperation opportunities for SYSU. Actually, a lot of first-class universities in the world have a high degree of recognition on SYSU’s education strength, which brings unprecedented opportunities for SYSU’s Sino-foreign cooperative education.

It is proposed in Pearl River Delta Program to “strive to build one or two domestically first-class, internationally advanced high-qualified universities”. SYSU realized that, to achieve this goal, Sino-foreign cooperation is the surefire route. When we made the decision to conduct Sino-cooperative education, we were clearly aware of the difficulties we might meet on the road. But no matter how difficulty it is, we will spare no effort to achieve it.

Creating conditions to cultivate top-notch talents

Nanfang Daily: all of the SYSU’s Sino-foreign cooperative programs are elite education, which aims to cultivate top-notch innovative talents, is it so?

Xu Ningsheng: Yes. In the past, conducting Sino-foreign cooperative education was deemed to be optional. Today, however, affected by globalization, it is necessary for the innovative talents brought out by Chinese universities to develop international insights. Therefore, Sino-foreign cooperative education is of great significance.

The essence of Sino-foreign cooperative education is to provide high-qualified education for students and make them top-notched. It is Just like taking students to climb a mountain, the higher we push them, the farther their sight will cover. Besides, students will gain more courage and stronger will for innovation in the process of climbing up. So, it is necessary to develop students’ international views when we cultivate top-notch talents. We must create conditions and provide students with overseas high-qualified education resources and send them into the world.

Strengthen SYSU’s own features

Nanfang Daily: What featuresdoes SYSU expect to strengthen in the Sino-foreign cooperative education?

Xu Ningsheng: SYSU Sino-foreign cooperative education pursuits the multi-dimensional development for the cooperated disciplines, developing both the applied disciplines directly related with the development of economy and society and the basic disciplines. On this basis, we hope to enlarge the scale of the students taking part in overseas cooperation program. At present, SYSU recruits about 8000 students per year. And we expect to send 10 percent of the students overseas to enjoy at least one term’s of study from which they can obtain credits.