President Zhang Jie Attends the Opening Ceremony of CUHK Shanghai Liaison Office

President Zhang Jie Attends the Opening Ceremony of CUHK Shanghai Liaison Office

The Three Presidents Talk about "Discovery and Innovation"

SJTU President Zhang Jie attended the opening ceremony of City University of Hong Kong Liaison Office in Shanghai on the evening of February 26. He participated in the seminar on the theme of "Discovery and Innovation" which was to explore approaches towards continuous innovation for higher education in China against the fierce international competition. The Shanghai Liaison Office, located at SJTU, is CUHK's first on the Mainland. Present at the seminar were also Professor Way KUO, President of CUHK and Professor Zhou Zhewei, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Shanghai University.

President Zhang Jie started his speech by expounding the definition, nature and mission of a university. He holds that innovation is its nature and that talent cultivation is the mission. Throughout its 115-year history, SJTU has formed its "trinity" of educational philosophy, namely the integration of "knowledge exploration, competence enhancement and character building".

Knowledge exploration is the basis, competence enhancement the core and character building the essence, remarked President Zhang Jie. SJTU is the alma mater of the late Mr. Qian Xuesen and bears the responsibility to bring into practice his philosophy of creative talent cultivation.

An alumnus of CUHK asked what higher education institutes would do to cultivate creative talents since innovation and transformation are the keynotes for the Shanghai's 12th Five-Year Plan. President Zhang Jie replied that SJTU was concerned about the future of China and that of Shanghai. He believed that future development should be world-oriented.

SJTU will continue to educate its students to contribute to the people's welfare and society and it will offer support in electronic automobiles, wind power and clean energies for Shanghai's development. He also answered questions from other CUHK alumni.

It is reported that and Hong Kong has developed extensive academic exchanges and cooperation with the Mainland since its return to China. Over 16,000 Mainland students have graduated from universities in Hong Kong, of which over 3,000 studied in CUHK. The CUHK Shanghai Liaison Office is committed to strengthening ties with the Mainland governments, universities, science and technology institutions, enterprises, students and alumni and to boosting academic exchanges, student recruitment and alumni relations.

Translated by Chen Yanzi | Reviewed by Tian Cong