President Xi Jinping has called for the creation of world-class tertiary institutions with Chinese characteristics to expedite the development of socialism and STEM subjects in China, in a speech delivered during an inspection of Peking University conducted on 2 May.
“Youths must become the vanguard for achieving the great renaissance of the Chinese people, and upholding the wishes of the nation and the people,” said Xi according to the People’s Daily.
“Tertiary institutions must seize upon this fundamental mission of training up the builders and successors of socialism, firmly pursue the correct political direction, establish a high-quality cohort of teachers, form a high-level human talent training system, and endeavour to establish world-class universities with Chinese characteristics.”
Xi emphasised the continued importance of Marxist theory to Chinese tertiary education.
“Marxism is the guiding ideology for the establishment of the party and the nation, as well as the most brilliant background for China’s universities.
“[We] must seize Marxist theoretical education, deepen the understanding of students of the historical inevitability and scientific truth of Marxism, as well as its theoretical and practical meaning.
“[We must] train them to study how to use the Marxist viewpoint to observe the world, analyse the world, deeply comprehend the developmental direction of the world, and clearly recognise the broader development trends of China and the world.”
Xi also stressed the need for China to transform its universities into world leaders for STEM education and research.
“[We must] vigorously establish cross-disciplinary cohorts and strong science and technology breakthrough groups…and strengthen support for original, systematic and leading research.
“We must train and create a group of strategic scientific and technological talent of a world-class calibre; science and technology vanguard talent, science and technology youth talent, and high-level innovation groups, as well as strive to achieve cutting-edge fundamental research.”
