Education sector needs to improve to keep students at home, university chief says

As Chinese students flock to elite universities overseas, China's own higher education sector should improve its talent-cultivating system to build more world-class institutions to draw students back home, a university president said on Tuesday.

Jin Donghan, delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party and president of Shanghai University, meets the press in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing October 24, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The increasing number of Chinese students attending foreign universities has exposed the lack of top-notch higher education institutions at home and more world-class universities should be developed at home to meet the people's need for high-quality education and the country's demand for elite talents, said Jin Donghan, president of Shanghai University, after the closing session of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

"A world-class university should put cultivation of world-class talent at the core of its development in a system where academic teaching, core value building and occupational ability training shall be combined," said Jin, who is also Party secretary of the university.

According to the 2016 Report on the Development of Chinese Students Studying Abroad, China had a total of 1.26 million students overseas by the end of 2015, accounting for 25 percent of the world's total number of students attending colleges outside their native countries.

Due to expensive tuition, tough employment prospects and security concerns, most Chinese parents are actually not willing to send their children abroad but the lack of elite choice domestically have forced them to do so, said Jin

By the end of 2016, China had 2,880 higher education institutes, but only 45 of them ranked in the top-500 list of the Academic Ranking of World Universities' 2017 version.

"The top leadership of our country has reiterated that to build a strong education system is the fundamental project of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," said Jin. "We need a massive number of excellent politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs as well as a skillful and innovative labor force to contribute to the great cause. We need to build more and more world-class universities to cultivate enough talents on our own."

In November 2015, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released a plan to help a number of universities and academic disciplines enter the world's top level by 2020 with financial support from central and regional governments.