Minister of Education takes questions on Shenzhen MSU-BIT University

Minister of Education Chen Baosheng takes questions at a press conference of the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, March 16, 2018.

Question from Russian BRICS TV and Alpha TV:

The Shenzhen MSU-BIT University held the inauguration last year. General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the ceremony. This university is one example of many Sino-foreign joint universities. Minister Chen, could you tell us what the future plans for such cooperation. Thank you.

Answer from Minister Chen:

Shenzhen MSU-BIT University is an educational institute approved by both leaders. Its inaugural ceremony was launched last year. General Secretary Xi Jinping and President Putin both sent congratulatory letters to this university. This is a new practice and a new outcome for Sino-Russian cooperation in the educational field.

We’ve seen great performance in this university, and the collaboration is going smoothly. The Chinese government attaches great importance to Sino-foreign cooperation in education since the past 40 years of the reform and opening up. The education industry is slowly strengthening and opening up to the whole world.

Our strategy is and has always been that putting equal emphasis on “inviting in” and “going out”, and learning from the leading educational institutes ’successful experience all over the world. Joint institutes are based in China with Chinese characteristics. Based on this mindset, we have established a couple of joint educational institutes with some countries. With approval of Ministry of Education, we have established more than 2600 institutes and training facilities, in which 1324 institutes provide bachelor degree and above.

Our goal is, through this collaboration, we draw on each other’s strength, which is mutually beneficial. Chinese children can enjoy high-quality education offered by foreign institutes in China and our counterparts in China will also learn from each other and better understand the Chinese culture. We’ll nurture the talents that will be essential for future development and become envoy of friendship for cooperation.

This is our strategy of “inviting in”. In terms of “going out”, we’ve been accelerating the development in recent years. And now we’ve also established the joint educational institutes overseas and seen great results. We will accelerate such development in the next step. Thank you.

(Source: www.china.com.cn)