Broad education initiative unfolds in Northeast China

Around 300,000 college students will take about 1,000 high-quality courses at different colleges and universities across Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), according to a guidance they released recently.

The guidance is expected to foster a new pattern of high-quality higher education in the regions, strengthening cooperation in student training, teacher employment, collaborative innovation and foreign exchanges.

Local education departments will establish around 10 cooperative alliances and 30 interdisciplinary professional alliances at universities in those regions.

They will jointly built about 50 school-enterprise research institutes and apply for about 10 major scientific research platforms and 30 major scientific research projects.

About 100 high-level cross-provincial, cross-university teaching teams and 10 curriculum teaching demonstration centers and teacher development centers will be set up. Some 500 high-level teachers will be recruited to teach in colleges and universities.

"The opening of colleges in the three provinces and the autonomous region will not only promote the high-quality development of higher education but also provide talent and scientific support for the all-around revitalization of Northeast China," Zhang Guolin, director of the higher-education department of Liaoning's Education Department told ThePaper. "It will also enhance the competitiveness, innovation, contribution and influence of colleges in the regions."

Zhou Yuhua, a professor of administrative law at Northeast Forestry University, said, "It will promote the development of national higher education and stimulate the vitality of colleges. It represents a trend in education reform. College students will have a broader vision of China and the world."