Friends: Here is something very interesting. Sundar Sarukkai and Anitha may forward this to all participants of the NIAS conference on India's competitiveness and preparedness. This step is probably the result of the discussions the political leaders have been having with academics like Prof. Xue Lan, the public policy professor at Tshinghua University, which I mentioned in my talk. Thanks. Arun China's next great leap is to be the cleverest country By Howard French in Shanghai October 29, 2005 China wants to transform its top universities into the world's best within a decade, and is spending billions of dollars to woo big-name scholars and build first-class research laboratories in the latest bid to raise the country's profile as a great power. Having already pulled off one of the most remarkable expansions of education in modern times, increasing the number of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees fivefold in 10 years, this latest model is simple. Recruit top foreign-trained Chinese and Chinese-American specialists, set them up in well-equipped labs, surround them with the brightest students and give them tremendous leeway. China is focusing on science and technology, areas that reflect the country's development needs but also reflect the preferences of an authoritarian system that restricts speech. The liberal arts often involve critical thinking about politics, economics and history, and China's government, which strictly limits public debate, has placed relatively little emphasis on achieving international status in those subjects. In fact, Chinese say - most often euphemistically and indirectly - that those very restrictions on academic debate could hamper efforts to create world-class universities. Nonetheless, the new confidence about entering the world's educational elite is heard among politicians and university administrators, students and professors. "Maybe in 20 years MIT will be studying Qinghua's example," said Rao Zihe, director of the Institute of Biophysics at Qinghua University, an institution that is renowned for its sciences and is regarded by many as China's finest university. "How long it will take to catch up can't be predicted, but in some respects we are already better than the Harvards today." When Andrew Chi-chih Yao, a Princeton professor who is recognised as one of the top computer scientists in the US, was approached by Qinghua University in Beijing last year to lead an advanced computer studies program, he did not hesitate. It did not matter that he would be leaving one of America's top universities for one that is little known outside China, or that after his birth in Shanghai, he was raised in Taiwan and spent his entire academic career in the US. He felt he could contribute to his fast-rising homeland. "Patriotism does have something to do with it, because I just cannot imagine going anywhere else, even if the conditions were equal," said Yao, who is 58. In only a generation, China has sharply increased the proportion of its college-age population in higher education, to roughly 20per cent now from 1.4per cent in 1978. But only Beijing University and a few other top Chinese institutions have been internationally recognised as superior. The biggest weakness, many Chinese academics indicated, is the lack of academic freedom. "The greatest thing we've done in the last 20 years is lift 200 million people out of poverty," said Xu Tian, a leading geneticist who teaches at Yale. "What China has not realised yet, though, if it truly wants to go to the next level, is to understand that numbers are not enough. "We need a new revolution to get us away from a culture that prizes becoming government officials. We must learn to reward real innovation, independent thought and genuine scholarly work." The New York Times Friends: Here is something very interesting. Sundar Sarukkai and Anitha may forward this to all participants of the NIAS conference on India's competitiveness and preparedness. This step is probably the result of the discussions the political leaders have been having with academics like Prof. Xue Lan, the public policy professor at Tshinghua University, which I mentioned in my talk. Thanks. Arun China's next great leap is to be the cleverest country By Howard French in Shanghai October 29, 2005 China wants to transform its top universities into the world's best within a decade, and is spending billions of dollars to woo big-name scholars and build first-class research laboratories in the latest bid to raise the country's profile as a great power. Having already pulled off one of the most remarkable expansions of education in modern times, increasing the number of undergraduates and people who hold doctoral degrees fivefold in 10 years, this latest model is simple. Recruit top foreign-trained Chinese and Chinese-American specialists, set them up in well-equipped labs, surround them with the brightest students and give them tremendous leeway. China is focusing on science and technology, areas that reflect the country's development needs but also reflect the preferences of an authoritarian system that restricts speech. The liberal arts often involve critical thinking about politics, economics and history, and China's government, which strictly limits public debate, has placed relatively little emphasis on achieving international status in those subjects. In fact, Chinese say - most often euphemistically and indirectly - that those very restrictions on academic debate could hamper efforts to create world-class universities. Nonetheless, the new confidence about entering the world's educational elite is heard among politicians and university administrators, students and professors. "Maybe in 20 years MIT will be studying Qinghua's example," said Rao Zihe, director of the Institute of Biophysics at Qinghua University, an institution that is renowned for its sciences and is regarded by many as China's finest university. "How long it will take to catch up can't be predicted, but in some respects we are already better than the Harvards today." When Andrew Chi-chih Yao, a Princeton professor who is recognised as one of the top computer scientists in the US, was approached by Qinghua University in Beijing last year to lead an advanced computer studies program, he did not hesitate. It did not matter that he would be leaving one of America's top universities for one that is little known outside China, or that after his birth in Shanghai, he was raised in Taiwan and spent his entire academic career in the US. He felt he could contribute to his fast-rising homeland. "Patriotism does have something to do with it, because I just cannot imagine going anywhere else, even if the conditions were equal," said Yao, who is 58. In only a generation, China has sharply increased the proportion of its college-age population in higher education, to roughly 20per cent now from 1.4per cent in 1978. But only Beijing University and a few other top Chinese institutions have been internationally recognised as superior. The biggest weakness, many Chinese academics indicated, is the lack of academic freedom. "The greatest thing we've done in the last 20 years is lift 200 million people out of poverty," said Xu Tian, a leading geneticist who teaches at Yale. "What China has not realised yet, though, if it truly wants to go to the next level, is to understand that numbers are not enough. "We need a new revolution to get us away from a culture that prizes becoming government officials. We must learn to reward real innovation, independent thought and genuine scholarly work." The New York Times http://www.smh.com.au/weekend http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chinas-next-great-leap-is-to-be-the-clevere...