[photopress:mba_china_students.jpg,full,alignright]China will invest RMB10 billion in creating around 1,000 key subjects between now and 2011 in the country’s universities. This is the third phase of the ‘211 Project.’
The project 211 stands for the development of 100 key universities in the 21st century.
The implementation of the project has been jointly carried out by China’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission. It aims at concentrating resources to construct about 100 key higher education institutions and disciplines in the 21st century.
The major task of the third phase of the project is the construction of key disciplines, including fundamentals like mathematics and applied science, which are in high demand for national development, and philosophical and social science concerning significant theoretical and practical issues.
The central governmental funds will remain the main source of funding for the project, together with money from government branches, local governments and universities.
The third phase will still follow the ‘survival of the fittest’ principle. Higher Education Institutions failing to meet the national standard will not survive. Authorities say special support will be given to universities to employ outstanding scientists and talent, including teaching staff from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
The third portion work of the project will continue to place priority on normal universities. Two normal universities in western China have been added to the list of the ‘211 Project’.
(The use of the word normal here is a bit misleading. It is not to suggest that other universities are abnormal. Originally a normal school was a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. In 1685, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded what is generally considered the first normal school, the École Normale, — that is, a school whose purpose is to train teachers — in Reims. In the United States the schools were upgraded to universities focused on meeting the needs of the region in which they were located. A Chinese normal university is usually controlled by the national or provincial government.)
Guo Xinli, deputy director of Academic Degree Committee Office, said, ‘We are looking forward to the construction of key disciplines that are relevant to fundamental education in these normal universities.’
Source: CCTV.com and research.
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