"This year, Sun Yat-sen University will establish an Institute for Advanced Study in Hong Kong." Gao Song, president of Sun Yat-sen University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said recently. Not long before he made this statement, Shenzhen University had taken the lead in setting up a Hong Kong campus, "drinking" the "first taste soup" of mainland universities to run schools in Hong Kong. From universities in Hong Kong and Macao cooperating with mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to run schools, to universities in Guangdong going to Hong Kong to "land on the beach", higher education cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is showing a new trend of "two-way rush".
In line with international education
Creating an international education demonstration zone is one of the important goals in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Hong Kong can provide special assistance for Guangdong to integrate international education.
Sun Yat-sen University revealed that the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study will become the main carrier of the school's international education. It will build three major platforms, namely the Biomedical Research Center, the Applied Mathematics Research Center and the Humanities and Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Center, and recruit top researchers from around the world. talents to build a world-leading laboratory.
"The establishment of the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study is of great significance to the development of Sun Yat-sen University in the new century." Gao Song said, this will help Sun Yat-sen University to promote international education with high quality, promote higher education cooperation and exchanges in the Greater Bay Area, and promote the development of the Greater Bay Area in Integrated development of technology, culture, talents and other aspects.
"There is absolutely room for two-way complementarity in higher education in the mainland and Hong Kong, and efforts should be made to achieve two-way complementary cooperation and exchanges." Li Qingquan, secretary of the Party Committee of Shenzhen University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that mainland universities operating schools in Hong Kong can attract more Hong Kong, Macao and international students, and enhance International education level.
In addition to setting up a Hong Kong campus, Shenzhen University has established cooperation with many universities in Hong Kong, including the eight major public universities such as the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, involving faculty cooperative scientific research, joint student training, and joint construction of laboratories and research centers. In addition, Shenzhen University also participated in the founding of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).
Guangdong universities are facing new opportunities in running cross-border education in Hong Kong. Wong Kam-leung, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Educators, recently stated that the Hong Kong SAR government intends to build a university education city in the northern metropolitan area, and mainland universities can consider moving into it to cooperate with Hong Kong universities in running schools.
Give full play to their respective strengths
If Guangdong universities are still at the initial stage of spreading their wings in Hong Kong and Macao, Hong Kong universities have already made many achievements in running schools in mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area.
On March 23, the 10th anniversary meeting of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) was held in Shenzhen. Xu Yangsheng, President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in his speech that in 10 years, the university started from a deserted vacant land and a few abandoned factory buildings, and has now developed into an area of about 1.33 million square meters, with 6 colleges and 7 schools. It has an academy and an international university with more than 10,000 teachers and students.
The rapid development and growth of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) is a microcosm of Hong Kong universities’ cooperative education in Guangdong. In recent years, a number of new Hong Kong cooperative schools have sprung up in various cities in Guangdong. At the beginning of this year, the first phase of the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) campus was officially opened; the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) will start in September 2022; and Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist United International College was completed earlier. In addition, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Foshan), the University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and the Hong Kong Metropolitan University (Zhaoqing) are in the preparation stage.
As one of the cities with the highest density of top universities in the world, Hong Kong has 5 universities ranked among the top 100 in the world, and its teaching quality and scientific research level are internationally renowned. The cross-border education of Hong Kong universities will not only gain broader development space for themselves, but also help the Greater Bay Area build an educational highland.
In addition to cooperative education, there are other channels for educational cooperation in the Greater Bay Area. Data shows that currently nearly 70 universities in Guangdong are qualified to recruit students from Hong Kong and Macao; 43 universities have joined the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance. In early January this year, the list of the third batch of 11 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint laboratories was released, bringing the total number of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao joint laboratories to 31, many of which were founded with the participation of universities in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Explore new ways of cooperation
Recently, the third event of the "Bay Area Talk" Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area school leadership series was held in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. 56 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens from Hong Kong and Nanshan District signed contracts to become "sister schools". So far, the number of "sister schools" in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has exceeded 1,500 pairs.
The establishment of "sister schools" between primary and secondary schools in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is one of the measures for cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in the field of basic education. Through mutual visits and exchanges between schools, they can exchange and learn from teaching experience, explore and reach curriculum connection plans, and help students who return to Hong Kong and Macao adapt in advance after completing courses in mainland schools.
It is estimated that there are currently more than 100,000 Hong Kong and Macao students under the age of 14 living in Guangdong. In order to solve their schooling problems, many mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area have established schools for children of Hong Kong and Macao. In September 2021, the first school for children of Hong Kong and Macao in Guangdong - Guangzhou Jida School for Children of Hong Kong and Macao was opened. In the following years, a number of schools for children of Hong Kong and Macao, including Shenzhen Hong Kong Peiqiao College Longhua Lutheran School, Guangzhou Minxin School for Hong Kong Children, and Shenzhen Qianhai Harrow School for Hong Kong Children, were also opened one after another.
Cross-border education methods for primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and Macao are still being innovated. In the "Macau New Neighborhood" community in the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone, the Hengqin School (a school for Australian children) affiliated with Haojiang Middle School has recently launched enrollment. This school is based on the Macao model, allowing Macao students studying in Hengqin to continue to accept the school's educational philosophy, curriculum design and textbook version. Tuition fees, books, admission allowances and promotion benefits can also be extended from Macao.
Education cooperation in the Greater Bay Area is in the ascendant and there is huge space. Huang Jinliang believes that Hong Kong and the mainland can also jointly organize vocational education courses, such as medical nursing and hotel management. "Joining efforts to promote the development of vocational colleges in both places can cultivate more vocational talents for the construction of the Greater Bay Area and the realization of comprehensive modernization of the country." (People's Daily Overseas Edition Reporter: Wang Ping)