A government official from the China Centre for Urban Development visited Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and exchanged ideas with XJTLU staff.

Runling Qiao (pictured below, second from left), former deputy head of the China Centre for Urban Development and current vice president of the centre think tank, visited XJTLU and attended a roundtable discussion on characteristic towns led by Dr Yixin Zhang (left), director of XJTLU-Suzhou Urban and Environment Research Institute.

Professor Youmin Xi, executive president of XJTLU, first introduced the development and future vision of XJTLU:

“We are now devoting ourselves to the exploration of four aspects,” he said. “Firstly, integrating global resources and the best educational practices of East and West to explore educational models that will be most suited to the future; secondly, exploring operational systems of university organisation and management that can adapt to an internationalised and networked environment; thirdly, exploring a new interactive relationship between universities and society; and fourthly, based on the above three aspects, to influence Chinese higher education reform and educational development throughout the world.”

Professor Xi pointed out that over its ten-year development, ‘XJTLU version 1.0’ was able to define its unique advantages in the above four aspects.

As a vision for the second decade of its development, ‘version 2.0’ will set a new strategic layout and take measures to develop in the following four aspects:

• XJTLU will explore ways to foster the Syntegrative Education model to educate industry elites and industry leaders who are able to face the challenges of artificial intelligence and automation;
• XJTLU will explore a new form of university and campus through the development of the Entrepreneur College at XJTLU;
• XJTLU hopes to use University intellectual resources, such as the XIPU New Era Development Research Institute, and its international knowledge networks, to mobilise social resources and promote the development of an innovation ecology and modern green society;
• XJTLU will further expand and enhance its function as a leadership and educational research and training base, making it an influential education base both within China and abroad.

Runling Qiao expressed his recognition for the cooperation mode of the XIPU Institution, China Development Bank, and the industrial and financial alliances to jointly promote the implementation of research achievements.

He also recognised the innovative conception of the three financial and social experiments: ‘International Common Market Area, International Innovation Hub and the Modern Green Society’.

He pointed out that government officials at all levels are active in learning about new conceptions and technologies, and that XJTLU’s plans to ‘expand and enhance its function as a leadership and educational research and training base’ are in-line with the demands of the time.

He also mentioned that society is full of expectations for universities and colleges, but there are two major problems in the field of education: the first is how to improve China’s capacity for innovation; the second is how to solve the practical problem of a lack of senior engineers.

“I truly hope that XJTLU, as a model of Sino-foreign cooperative education, will work out its own way to develop the talents that are badly needed by society,” he added.

Ruiling Qiao also attended the aforementioned roundtable on characteristic towns, during which discussions were conducted on the interpretation of policies, on plans, designs, and construction standards, and on modes for investments-in and financing-of characteristic towns.

Story provided by XJTLU-Suzhou Urban and Environment Research Institute, photos by Haochen Wang

Translated by Boqiang Xiao; edited by Guojuan Wang and Danny Abbasi