Global Ambitions: Internationalisation and China’s Rise as Knowledge Hub.

• In Event: Breakthroughs and bottlenecks: Chinese higher education 1978-2018.

Proposal

The importance of the year 1978 cannot be over stated, representing China’s landmark re-entry into the world of global scholarship and higher learning, after the catastrophic losses of the Cultural Revolution decade. As a former Australian Ambassador recently remarked, “Deng’s opening of China … should not be seen in purely economic or political terms. It should also be seen as an opening of the mind.”
While Reform and Opening needs to be set against a longer history of oscillation between more open and more hermetic eras in Chinese history, there is no doubt that huge strides have been made in higher education over the ensuing four decades. The analysis focuses on two linked elements. First is the internationalisation of the Chinese higher education system, including its rise as a major destination for overseas students, its growing links with the region, and capacity to draw on its substantial high-skilled knowledge diaspora. Second, and somewhat connected, is its rise as a global centre for research, reflecting an unrelenting determination to build both world class institutions and world class disciplines. The analysis charts both, points to connections between the two and assesses the prospects for the higher education system.

Author

• Anthony Welch, University of Sydney