New university to foster emergency professionals

The Ministry of Emergency Management has announced plans to establish a university of emergency management to beef up the cultivation of talent for the protection of people's lives and property.

An announcement posted on the ministry's website said the new institution will be established by merging the North China Institute of Science and Technology and the Institute of Disaster Prevention.

Located in Langfang, Hebei province, the two institutes are neighbors with only a wall dividing them.

Information online shows that the preparation for the new university started as early as 2020.

The ministry and the Hebei provincial government signed an agreement in November 2021, vowing to offer more support to the North China Institute of Science and Technology so that it can develop into a high-level university of emergency management as soon as possible.

Efforts will be made to guide and support the development of safety and emergency equipment as an emerging industrial sector, the release said.

The new university aims to address the shortage of talent for emergency management.

Wang Hongwei, a professor from the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University of China, said in an interview with Chengdu Business Daily, the new institution can also beef up the research of fundamental theories for emergency management and provide more modern and professional theoretical guidance for emergency response practices.

Efforts have been made in the country to launch emergency management as a new major in universities.

In March 2020, the Ministry of Education approved emergency management as a new major for undergraduate university students, and also set up master's and doctorate programs on emergency management at 20 universities across the country, including Peking and Tsinghua universities.