BEIJING: China will encourage universities in central and western regions to prioritize the development of disciplines including engineering, agriculture and medicine to better serve local development, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.
Wu Yan, director of the ministry’s department of higher education, said the ministry will support universities in the regions to establish schools in modern industry, future technology, smart agriculture and public health.
More than 10,000 new undergraduate majors including desertification prevention, border defense management and intangible cultural heritage preservation have been set up by universities in western regions to meet the demand of social and economic development, Wu said. Almost 140,000 massive open online courses have been offered to western universities to bridge the education resource gap between regions, he said.
A total of 725 western universities, or 97.3 percent of all western universities, have used the MOOC platform, and the courses have been taken 163 million times, Wu said.
Moreover, more than 9,700 teachers in eastern regions have been sent to teach or give lectures at universities in western and central regions, he said, adding that Tsinghua University has sent four senior experts to serve as president of Qinghai University.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
