Harvard University Professor William C. Kirby Delivers Speech at Tsinghua

Dr. William C. Kirby, Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University and Chairman of the Harvard China Fund, visited Tsinghua University recently and delivered a speech entitled “The Chinese Century? Universities and Liberal Education in the 21st Century.” Tsinghua University President Chen Jining attended the speech and had a discussion with Dr. Kirby afterwards.

William C. Kirby is T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor. He serves as Director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Chairman of the Harvard China Fund. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and (Dr. Phil. Honoris Causa) from the Free University of Berlin and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Before coming to Harvard in 1992, he was Professor of History, Director of Asian Studies, and Dean of University College at Washington University in St. Louis. At Harvard, he has served as Chair of the History Department, Director of the Asia Center, and most recently, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard's largest school, with 10,000 students, 1,000 faculty members, 2,500 staff, and an annual budget of $1 billion.

As Dean he initiated major reforms in undergraduate education in Harvard College; enhanced Harvard's international studies at home and abroad; increased substantially financial aid in the College and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; supported the growth of the Division (now School) of Engineering and Applied Sciences; and oversaw the construction of major new buildings in the Life Sciences, Engineering, and the Arts. During his tenure the Faculty expanded at its most rapid rate since the 1960s.