Achievements recognised at the 28th meeting of XJTLU Board of Directors

The 28th meeting of the XJTLU Board of Directors was held on 17 January 2018. The meeting was chaired by Professor Xiaoping Song from Xi'an Jiaotong University, the new chair of the XJTLU Board of Directors.

Professor Song welcomed Mrs Qun Xu as a new member of the board and congratulated Professor Dame Janet Beer on being honoured with a Damehood.

The Board discussed key strategies for the 2018/19 academic year, development strategy for the next decade of XJTLU, further cooperation with Suzhou Industry Park, the XJTLU Auditing Committee work plan and other major matters since the last board meeting.

During the meeting, the senior management team of XJTLU reported on the University’s development strategy for the next decade and presented the following four strategic directions:

• In addition to the existing education model for specialised elites, XJTLU will further explore the education and university management methods in the era of globalisation, networking and artificial intelligence;

• XJTLU will strengthen cooperation with its two parent universities, other domestic and international universities, enterprises and governments. It will also vigorously develop research institutes in key areas, enhance research capability, increase research findings and build international competitiveness in the field of research;

• To explore a new interactive relationship between universities and society, XJTLU New Era Development Research Institute will be established and XJTLU Think Tank will be strengthened. XJTLU will also cooperate with international enterprises, organisation alliance and financial institutions to progress the realisation of the China Dream and implementation of the new-era strategy. In particular, XJTLU will increase cooperation with the Suzhou government and Suzhou Industrial Park to seek more opportunities for cooperation and innovation, promote the integration of education and research resources and help the government create platforms for sharing innovation, creativity and resource;

• XJTLU will strengthen the internationalisation of the university, maintain the leading position of XJTLU among Sino-foreign cooperative educational institutions and further enhance XJTLU's influence in education exploration and management.

Looking forward to the second decade of XJTLU’s development, and based on the further strengthening of the University’s internationalised features and enhancing its basic functions in the areas of education, research and social services, XJTLU will have a significant new strategic plan in educational exploration:

• XJTLU will continue to develop and expand the current education model aimed at cultivating internationalised specialised elites. In the meantime, XJTLU will also explore ways to foster the ‘Syntegrative Education’ model for industry elites and industry leaders in order to face the challenges of artificial intelligence and robotics.

• On the basis of refining a networked and platform-type university organisation and management system, XJTLU will explore a new form of university and campus through the development of the ‘XJTLU Entrepreneur College’ in collaboration with the municipal government of Taicang, Jiangsu.

• XJTLU will restructure and expand the function of ‘Institute for Leadership and Educational Advanced Development’ and increase its influence in fields, such as education reform, research, training and consultation, making the University an influential education exploration and communication base in China and abroad.

The Board praised the continued efforts of XJTLU to explore a new model for the development of higher education and unanimously passed a proposal to establish ‘XJTLU Entrepreneur College’ in Taicang.

The Board hopes that the ‘XJTLU Entrepreneur College’ will innovatively develop a new future-oriented educational model that is market-friendly, internationalised and in line with the future development of industries and enterprises to provide students with increased exchange and internship opportunities with international universities, like the University of Liverpool, to give students diversity and flexibility of choice in the new education model.

The Board also hopes that high standards will continue to be maintained in both the campus construction and teaching quality at the Taicang campus to further aid XJTLU in its international influence.

The senior management team reported on the planned cooperation projects between XJTLU and Suzhou Industrial Park, including the development of the XJTLU International Innovation Hub Entity Zone - the aim of which is to realise resource integration and a sharing platform by combining with XJTLU dominant disciplines within the Zone making it a model for reference.

Another project will seek for cooperation in talent training programmes to support PhD recruitment and the development of postdoctoral work spaces.

The Board gave high praise for XJTLU’s achievements in the past six months and extended their appreciation to the senior management team and all staff at XJTLU for their efforts in the sustained development of the University.

Story provided by the President’s Office
Translation by Boqiang Xiao, edited by Guojuan Wang and Jacqueline Bánki