The achievements of the opening-up of China's education sector have been no less remarkable than those in the economy and trade.
Co-operation between China's leading universities and the world's prestigious schools, research centres and multinational corporations has benefited all involved.
Tsinghua University in Beijing, in a step to help turn itself into one of the world's top universities, has signed co-operation and exchange contracts with more than 100 universities in 20 countries and regions. It has also set up dozens of jointly run laboratories and training centres with renowned international organizations.
Beijing Municipal Education Commission statistics show that around 20 universities in Beijing have been co-operating with universities from Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United States.
In the past two years, foreign universities vied with each other for a share of China's education management market. A number of prestigious US universities, such as Harvard and Johns Hopkins, flocked to China to co-operate with Chinese universities to establish industrial and commercial management training programmes.
International co-operation has become a valve to release the burden of a shortage of educational resources in the world's most populous country.
Wu Yan of Beijing Municipal Higher Education Institute said that, since China joined the World Trade Organization, a host of foreign education organizations and investment enterprises have entered the country, providing favorable opportunities for China's education industry to develop.
By 2010, institutions of higher learning in China will have 16.5 million to 17 million students, providing a huge incentive to invest in education.
Peking University offers a total of 4 million yuan (US$480,000) in scholarships annually to its students, with 3 million yuan (US$360,000) or 75 per cent coming from foreign-funded firms.
Along with funding come first-rate university management and abundant teaching resources. Quite a few Chinese universities have started to adopt the teaching systems and materials used by the world's top universities. Some of the teaching methods used by foreign colleges favoured by their Chinese counterparts include offering students a "preview" before they have to choose a course.
China's education circles realized long ago that experienced, high-level faculty members can bring immeasurable value to a school. Some key universities have invited world-renowned scholars and scientists to take posts such as guest professorships.
But China is not the only one to benefit from this co-operation. Universities and enterprises from overseas also get the qualified personnel they badly need.
Intel has begun research in five leading Chinese universities into the future structure of the Internet. Both Microsoft and Hitachi have founded laboratories through co-operation with Tsinghua University in an effort to orient basic research toward Chinese-made computers.
The most practical reason for the multinationals to expand co-operation in education is that they want very much to advance their strategy of exploring markets with well-trained local personnel.
(Xinhua 07/10/2002)
