As part of an effort to aid colleges and universities in China's western region, the Ministry of Education has issued a statement entitled "Opinions of the Ministry to Further Promote the Work in Support of the Institutions of Higher Learning in China's Western Areas" and set up a group to coordinate its funding and related policies.

Aid plan

The plan to aid higher education institutions in the western region first came into effect in 2001. The number of recipient institutions in the region has since grown to 38 from just 13 at first.

They include Tibet University, Xinjiang University, Qinghai University and the University of Shihezi. The department-to-department aid has been offered practically to all regular colleges and undergraduate colleges for special vocational training in the Tibet region and all regular colleges in the Xinjiang region.

Guizhou University, Ningxia University, Qinghai University, Tibet University and the University of Shihezi have entered the ranks of the famous "Project 211", which was designed to aid the development of 106 more colleges and universities in China in the 21st century.

Training quality

By offering intensified support in all fields, the competence of the teaching faculties, the quality of personal training, research and services as well as the administrative managerial standards of recipient colleges and universities have been significantly upgraded.

They have become a reliable force for promotion of the local socio-economic development as well as centers of regional intelligence and human resources.

The crucial focus in the college-to-college help is to raise the quality of personal training in a planned, selective way in the recipient colleges and universities, which in turn helps recipient colleges to carry forward the work of jointly training PhD and masters graduates and undergraduates.

In the course of joint training for masters and PhD graduates, the support colleges and universities help their recipient counterparts with the building of relevant professional disciplines.

Research

Another focus in offering help to the partners in pairs is to beef up strategic research cooperation and regional socio-economic development.

Support colleges and universities are asked to work hard to provide human, financial and technical assistance and continue upgrading the capacities and standards of their recipient peers.

They are also asked to file reports on research projects with their recipient colleges and universities at various levels and conduct cooperative research to boost the study of humanities and social sciences.

One-to-one aid

With regard to the college-to-college aid, partners of both sides are asked to be inspired to fully utilize all available up-to-date information technology, share top-quality resources and to coordinate in order to continually upgrade the management of the recipient institutions of higher learning.

The support and recipient institutions of higher learning are also required to undertake exchanges of staff to assume temporary official posts.

Those sent by the support colleges to the recipient ones would generally work there around two or three years.

They may assume principal leading status during their tenure at their designated institutions with approval of the relevant authorities.

Furthermore, support colleges and universities are required to help their recipient peers to set up global platforms or arrange international conferences and forums to beef up their cooperation with friendly overseas universities or agencies and encourage officials of the recipient institutions of higher education to partake in international cooperation and increase exchange capabilities.