China Daily reports XJTLU: Head of the class

From China Daily US Edition, 25th Feb, by Matt Hodges


China's higher education system is on the verge of an overhaul and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) is leading the charge, according to Professor David Sadler, vice-president of academic affairs at China's leading Sino-foreign cooperative university, which is based in Suzhou.

"The Suzhou area is at the vanguard of new ways of thinking about higher education, and the benefits it will bring to regional and national development," he says.

"In fact, the whole higher education sector is on the verge of reform. There's been lots of investment recently into world-leading universities here.

"We get lots of visits from other Chinese universities. It's almost like being under the microscope, and being very closely observed."

If the Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) can be loosely compared to Silicon Valley, then XJTLU, which is set amid a cluster of 16-17 university campuses within the park's Dushu Lake Higher Education Town (HET), is its Stanford.

"We have a goal to do something like that (what Stanford did vis--vis helping build up Silicon Valley's creative and entrepreneurial talent), but we're more diverse, with a bigger focus on financial services and fields like nano-technology," says Sadler, as he walks among sculptures of Chinese and Western philosophers outside the school's front gate.

"And if you think about it, the reason why Silicon Valley was so vulnerable was because it developed based on one industry."

"(The SIP) was a mono-activity area, but it has become quite diversified over the last few years. We also teach biological sciences, deliberately to contribute to that part of the local economy. We're even starting courses in design and architecture, because there's a demand for building the New China, or the New China landscape."

Set up in May 2006 as the first overseas collaborative university in China to have been granted degree-awarding powers from the Ministry of Education, XJTLU aims to foster top talent in the fields of business and technology armed with international perspectives and the ability to think creatively, laterally and within groups.

"We teach them how to fish, rather than just giving them the fish," Sadler says. "We hope ultimately they will return to Jiangsu (province) to contribute to the local economy."

Professor David Sadler, Vice-President of XJTLU, points to a model showing
the university's planned expansion. Photo by China Daily

Based in the most competitive industrial development zone in China, in a city that boasts the fourth-highest local GDP in the country after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the Sino-British school is well-placed to plug the gaps in a national education system that is often criticized for not arming its students with the skills to succeed in the global market.

"I think the things we are doing here will be drawn on by other universities," Sadler says. "We've already been asked to effectively skill up the professors at Jiangsu University to teach in the way we teach, and to teach in English."

After two years in the park, including a foundation year in English, students are given the chance to complete the second half of their course back in England.

XJTLU is growing so fast that construction has already begun on two new buildings. Whereas its first cohort came exclusively from Jiangsu, students now hail from all Chinese provinces bar two. In terms of enrollment numbers, it graduated its first 136 students last year and now has 4,000 in a total of 10 subjects. This student body will swell to 10,000 by 2015.

According to Liu Jie, an official with SIPAC, the park's administrative committee, its "university town" is also set to grow to help flood the local economy with top talent.

"We want to have more collaborations like this here. We've already signed several new contracts," he says, naming the National University of Singapore and Australia's Monash University as among those on the list.

"They all agreed to set up master's degree programs. We need more talented people so we can gradually upgrade to more high-tech industries."
Link of origininal report: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2011-02/25/content_12079335.htm