Photo exhibits the Songshan Lake campus of Great Bay University (GBU). (Photo offered by Great Bay University)
On June 19 this yr, China’s Ministry of Education formally authorised the institution of Great Bay University (GBU), positioned close to Songshan Lake in Dongguan, south China’s Guangdong province.
The time period “Greater Bay Area,” initially a purely geographical idea, has advanced to signify financial dynamism, technological innovation, and management. Now, it extends into the realm of increased education, with the creation of a brand new mannequin for analysis universities.
What units GBU aside?
The college’s location performs a key function in its imaginative and prescient. Situated simply minutes from Shenzhen, a famend know-how hub, GBU advantages from proximity to some of the Greater Bay Area’s most cutting-edge scientific and technological assets. The area is residence to tech large Huawei, China’s first pulsed spallation neutron supply, and the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, amongst others. Notably, lunar soil samples introduced again by the Chang’e-5 lunar mission have been despatched to the area for examine.
“Establishing the GBU near Songshan Lake fosters closer cooperation with local laboratories, large-scale scientific facilities, and leading tech companies. The excellent transport links to Guangzhou and Shenzhen further enhance our connectivity,” defined Tian Gang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and founding chief of the college.
The college options two campuses: the Songshan Lake campus, which is already in use, and the Binhai Bay campus, nonetheless underneath improvement.
GBU is strategically centered on science and engineering, providing high-quality education on a smaller scale. Its preliminary educational applications embody arithmetic, utilized arithmetic, physics, supplies science and engineering, pc science and know-how, and industrial engineering.
In its first undergraduate admissions in July, GBU enrolled 80 college students within the physics program, with all obtainable slots crammed within the preliminary spherical. Despite its modest consumption, the college boasts a sturdy school, with almost 300 instructing and analysis employees, of whom 70 % have expertise at top-tier worldwide universities and analysis establishments, together with 10 academicians and 78 national-level main abilities.
Photo exhibits the Songshan Lake campus of Great Bay University (GBU). (Photo offered by Great Bay University)
“We encourage our undergraduates to work with different mentors and gain hands-on laboratory experience. Our curriculum is designed to align with national needs, social demands, industrial priorities, and global frontiers,” stated Zhao Jinkui, govt dean of the School of Material Science of the GBU.
GBU promotes a mannequin of collaboration, together with partnerships between universities, analysis institutes, and main enterprises. These initiatives intention to align with the event wants and industrial planning of the Greater Bay Area. Guangdong province is spearheading top-level academic planning, optimizing the distribution of universities, and fostering a cluster of world-class establishments with distinctive Greater Bay Area traits.
Innovative establishments comparable to GBU, Southern University of Science and Technology, and Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology are reimagining academic fashions, advancing interdisciplinary analysis, and cultivating top-tier expertise in rising sectors.
Additionally, joint-venture universities comparable to Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), and City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) are selling sustainable and collaborative improvement, contributing to a extra open and high-level academic ecosystem.
Meanwhile, vocational establishments comparable to Shenzhen Polytechnic University and Guangdong Industry Polytechnic University are pushing the boundaries of vocational education, coaching professionals with each strong theoretical data and sensible abilities to assist the area’s industrial transformation.
“We are advancing a higher education strategy focused on excellence, addressing gaps, and strengthening distinctive strengths, to develop universities of greater depth and quality,” stated Lin Rupeng, director of the Department of Education of Guangdong province.
Each yr, Guangdong allocates devoted funding to assist universities of their pursuit of world-class standing and the event of world-leading educational disciplines. This consists of monetary assist for expertise recruitment, analysis initiatives, platform improvement, and educational applications, whereas additionally granting universities higher operational autonomy, Lin added.
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)