Relying on science and education to rejuvenate the nation has been adopted as one of China's crucial strategies for development in the 21st century.

Given the significance of higher education to a modern society, the following five aspects should be taken into consideration when designing strategies for the country's university education:

First, changing mindsets should precede the mapping of development strategy.

History has proved that world power lies where there are world class institutions of higher learning. And the power of the universities comes from their sustainable creativity, which is of paramount importance to a nation.

University development has its own rules, and education has its own circles. It takes a fairly long time to exam whether university education has produced successful talents. The top-notch universities in the world today have needed at least dozens of generations or a century to achieve their present status. For a developing country like China, it is unrealistic to expect to achieve its goal within a short time frame. We should respect the rules of education and stop being too eager for quick success and instant benefits.

Instead, we should change our mindset about the country's development strategy. Rather than seeking short-term accomplishments, we should look beyond the university enclosure and orient our universities towards training talents who will contribute to world civilization and the international society.

Second, institutional reform should lead the building of a modern university.

To create a system that allows the gathering of top-ranking professors and the making of brilliant brains is the core of institutional reform. In recent years, China's universities have seen a series of structural reforms - for example, the merger of universities. However, big is not always beautiful. Scale does not necessarily mean strength. If we do not recognize that the strength of the universities are defined by their professors' capabilities, we are still on the same path as administrators running bureaucratic organs.

Therefore, administration reform should be speeded up in domestic universities. Schools in the universities should function as different branches of learning in its true sense, instead of just serving as the namesake of former departments.

While financial incentives are schools' major concerns at present, they should be encouraged to look for academic excellence and put themselves in competition with their counterparts both at home and abroad.

Third, platform-building should be taken as the foundation for elevating discipline levels.

Compared with world class universities, our universities' major weakness is the irrational structure of disciplines.

Domestic universities have undergone adjustments and tried to strengthen discipline-building in the past decade. However, we must foresee the trends in science development as well as future market demands.

Two key points should not be overlooked when adjusting disciplines.

One is that all subjects included in our university learning should be reviewed to determine whether they have great development potential. Subjects such as information science, life science,material science and environmental science should be considered as priorities, and unconventional approaches should be adopted to boost their development.

The other key point is to optimize utilization of our resources, as we must understand we cannot branch out all the way as world class universities do. So, for the time being, our priority should be focused on the construction of platforms for the study of those key subjects.

Fourth, cultivating personal qualities should be the key to school training.

The reputation of a university is decided by its students' quality and contributions to society. Therefore, universities should pay extra attention to quality education.

Traditional Chinese education does not emphasize a student's pride and self-esteem nor shows adequate respect for a student's interest in learning.

To change the situation, school authorities have to study and understand how to respect the learning desire of students and find ways to meet their curriculum demands and cater to their choice of teachers.

If students' creativity can be nurtured and their potential cultivated, universities can achieve a great deal in the training of talents.

Of course, learning motivation is still a key question that all educational institutions have to face. Under Chinese circumstances, emphasis should be put on social responsibility to encourage students to shoulder responsibility for the future of their nation.

Finally, creating scholastic masters should be the centrepiece for improving the academic environment.

A conspicuous lack of scholastic masters has hindered development of our universities. This is partly due to our established practice of giving top priority to seniority in promotions, and our distribution system which has not fairly matched rewards with contributions.

Hence, to create a fair and just system for competition that allows talents to bring their potential into full play is a pressing task.

Faculties should be treated equally in terms of their achievements. And seniority should give way to academic excellence in promotions.

We can also explore different ways to import talents. Projects and programmes that pull talents together by contracts should be encouraged.

Creativity heralds human knowledge development. And if we have a large group of brilliant talents, we will be able to build world class universities.

Note: The author was the former vice-president of Shanghai Jiaotong University and currently serves as deputy director general of the Education, Science and Technology Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR.