The China Guiding Cases Project (CGCP) of Stanford Law School held a seminar at SCPKU on November 22, 2016.  Attended by legal practitioners, officials, academics, and students, the event was keynoted by Judge Guo Feng who oversees work on Guiding Cases of China’s Supreme People’s Court.  Other speakers included Judge Guo Feng’s colleagues, Judge Shi Lei and Judge Li Bing. The three judges explained, among other issues, the consideration of factors including “social effects” in the selection of Guiding Cases.  CGCP is planning another seminar to be held at SCPKU in Spring 2018.  Read more. 

Alluding to the famous dictum by China’s late leader, Deng Xiaoping, Min Weifang, the executive president of Chinese Society for Education Development Strategies and professor at Peking University (PKU), China, noted that the “water has become very deep, it is difficult to touch the stones [to cross the river].” Min’s comments came at the end of a conference titled “Building World-Class Universities: An Institutional Perspective,” and they specifically referred to the challenges facing Chinese institutions of higher learning. Yet, the phrase nicely captured the challenges facing institutions of higher education worldwide in remolding institutions, social norms and structures to better adapt to the 21^st century. Institutions of higher learning – whether “world-class” or not – need to grasp the demands of a rapidly changing future that is hard to discern. Speakers highlighted the complexities of globalization, market pressures, and a contracting public purse which encumber university governance and produce conflicting goals.

The conference, which was hosted at the Stanford Center at Peking University from Nov. 4-5, was part of the Beijing Forum 2016 and brought together over 30 scholars, university presidents and other thought leaders from 11 countries in Europe, Russia, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. The Forum aimed to focus on the institutional contexts that promote the construction and longevity of world-class universities. The second half of the Forum featured debates about the criteria for and, even, the very definition of “world-class.”

The Forum generated cross-cutting themes among a wide range of experts in attendance. The most prominent themes that emerged included the role of the government; government-university relations; and the tensions between education and knowledge production in universities. The Forum first highlighted the various “world-class university-projects” and elite national university-projects around the globe including in China, Russia, South Korea, Japan and Pakistan. Forum discussions then shifted to focus on questions such as “what is a university?” and “what is world-class”? Various university ranking systems drew skepticism, yet were also recognized as a resource used by donors, governments, alumni and prospective students.

As a policy prescription, a heavy role of the government in university education drew the most fire especially from Chinese colleagues who emphasized China’s need for greater university autonomy from government interference. All could agree, however, upon the important role of the government in tertiary education and, in particular, for building world-class universities, even if striking the proper balance between the role of the government and university administration necessarily differed depending on the national context.

Panelists agreed that contemporary challenges facing top-tier universities are many. They include social and economic pressures that favor “multiversities” over smaller, more cohesive universities; tensions among conflicting stakeholders in “multiversities”; intensification of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) research; commercialization of knowledge; diminishing focus on undergraduate education; overproduction of doctoral degrees; inequality in access to and quality of higher education; and increasing administrative scale and complexity of university management. Many panelists throughout the conference appeared to concur that accelerated knowledge production, a more direct connection to national development goals, increased specialization and commercialization have produced significant benefits in recent years. But they also acknowledged that these benefits have come with a price – perhaps in the form of excellence in undergraduate teaching.

The gains that Peking University and Tsinghua University, in particular, and Chinese universities, in general, have made were widely acknowledged. Increasing numbers of Asian universities, too, have entered the top-tier in global rankings. Yet, solving 21st century demands – as opposed to just managing them – still appeared difficult as experts and thought leaders grappled with what, if any, institutional models can best meet those demands. Some experts suggested providing students access to different kinds of tertiary education (for example, in the form of community colleges, vocational colleges, liberal arts and research universities, as in the U.S. context). Most experts, if not all, agreed that universities need to shore up their educational missions and ensure balanced support for both the humanities and social sciences as well as the sciences and technical fields. In addition, many experts emphasized the need to address societal imbalances and provide better access to quality higher education to all socioeconomic classes.

Related links:

Forum agenda and list of panelists

Photo gallery

The Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) held its second annual Lee Shau Kee World Leaders Forum at the center on Oct 13.  This year’s conference, titled “Climate Change and Clean Energy,” was keynoted by Dr. Steven Chu, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University; the 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy; and co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for laser cooling and atom trapping.  Two panel discussions with a diverse set of experts from academia, government, and industry were also part of the event.

After welcoming remarks by SCPKU Director Jean C. Oi and Xiamen University Dean of the School of Energy Research Ning Li, the conference kicked off with the first panel, “Paths to Clean Energy” which centered around two questions:  Is renewable energy feasible and how does China move away from coal as a dominant energy source?  The second panel, “Challenges and Opportunities to Clean Energy,” focused on barriers preventing China from being progressive on climate change.   China’s National Energy Advisory Committee, British Petroleum-China, and the U.S. Commission on Natural Resources Protection were among the organizations represented by panelists.

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Panelists discuss climate change and clean energy at SCPKU's World Leaders Forum held October 13.
Courtesy of Stanford University

Steven Chu’s keynote wrapped up the forum, which touched on new data reflecting the risks of climate change and the need to continue progress on the development of clean energy.  Regarding the pressing issue of pollution, he cited data from a British study inferring that the risk of contracting lung cancer is 29x higher in Beijing than other cities and highlighted Stanford’s research on nano-fiber filtration as a possible solution.  Chu also spoke on the topic of energy storage and how the full cost of renewable energy needs to account for backup generation capacity, transmission and distribution systems, as well as the storage itself.  Two things, he said, will likely play large roles in the future: high voltage lines (HVDC), and machine learning, which will be needed for largely autonomous management of the electrical grid.  Nuclear energy will also be important to mitigate blackouts when transitioning to clean energy.  In closing, Chu shared a poignant phrase from ancient Native Americans: “We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” 
 

The purpose of the forum is to raise public understanding of the complex issues China and other countries face in the course of development.  Funded by a generous gift from the Lee Shau Kee Foundation, the forum seeks to increase support for Asia-Pacific cooperation and turn ideas into action.  

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Steven Chu poses with SCPKU World Leaders Forum attendees after delivering keynote.
Courtesy of Stanford University

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Reception following SCPKU's World Leaders Forum featuring the China National Symphony Orchestra Concert Quartet in
the center's courtyard.
Courtesy of Stanford University

Lia Zhu writes in the September 5, 2016 issue of China Daily USA about her interview with Stanford University Professor Randall Stafford who believes that China is in a good position to help create new solutions to the world's health problems. Stafford is a professor of medicine at Stanford's School of Medicine and director of its program on prevention outcomes and practices.  He is also a former Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) faculty fellow.  As part of his SCPKU fellowship this past summer, Stafford partnered with Peking University to hold a graduate-level seminar at SCPKU on disease prevention which included two other Stanford experts - a health psychologist and a statistician.   Read more. 

Last month, Admiral Scott H. Swift, the commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, spoke to an audience at the Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) and at Stanford via their linked Highly Immersive Classrooms (HIC). Against the backdrop of increasing tensions and hostility in the South China Sea, Swift stressed the importance of building a trust-based relationship between China and the United States. Stanford professor Jean Oi opened the roundtable by introducing Swift at SCPKU while Karl Eikenberry, director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, chaired the session at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

After his formal remarks, Swift engaged in a roundtable discussion with Chinese and American scholars on both sides of the Pacific. The participants at SCPKU included experts from Peking University and Chinese think tanks. Participants at Stanford included a diverse group of scholars from across campus with a number from the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. The HIC allowed a lively interactive session where Swift fielded questions from SCPKU and Stanford.

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The Stanford Center at Peking University announced its newest faculty and pre-doctoral fellows from the latest July application round.

Team Innovation Faculty Fellows:

• Ying Lu - Professor, Biomedical Data Science
• Tze Lai - Professor, Statistics
• Lu Tian - Associate Professor, Biomedical Data Science

See SCPKU Team Innovation Faculty Fellowship Program and SCPKU Team Innovation Faculty Fellows for more program details.

Faculty Fellow:

• Hua Shan - Professor, Pathology

See SCPKU Faculty Fellowship Program and SCPKU Faculty Fellows for more program details.

Pre-Doctoral Fellows:

• Joy Chen - Economics
• Yu-chuan Chen - Art and Art History

See SCPKU Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Program and SCPKU Pre-Doctoral Fellows for more program details.

The deadline for the next round of applications for team-based faculty, faculty and pre-doctoral fellowships and graduate seminar faculty proposals is January 15, 2017. 

Now in its second year, the seminar developed by Dr. Robert Chang, digital health inventor and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University, recently came to a close at SCPKU, having trained twenty more of the next generation of rising healthcare entrepreneurs.  The seminar is a one-of-a-kind hospital immersion and educational experience with cross-cultural interdisciplinary student teams from Stanford and Peking University on a design sprint culminating in a live pitch in front of investors.  The grand-prize Huawei Bluetooth wearable went to each member of the winning team, MonitorREIN, who presented a novel way to monitor kidney transplant patients at home using a specialized gel insert capsule in the bladder.  Audience attendees also had a chance to win Xiaomi Mi Band wearables through a Wechat drawing. 

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Pitch Day winning team Team Purple MonitorREIN
Photo credit:  Stanford University

This year, the course was sponsored by Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Peking University School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in partnership with Prof. Dongmin Chen and Prof. Melody Li, and Director Huang from the Tongtai Zhongyi Traditional Chinese Medicine Institute.

The Medtech Hackathon event blends biodesign, design thinking, lean launch, business model canvas, and expert mentorship to help four teams of the brightest minds of medical, computer science, engineering, and business students tackle pain points in the Chinese medical system.  The students shadow physicians and interview patients to identify unmet needs and market opportunities. Then, they brainstorm solutions and develop rapid prototypes to test their ideas while obtaining real user feedback.  Along the way the teams incorporate real-world business models and receiving valuable feedback from physicians, digital health entrepreneurs, and investors while enjoying the entire process and building life-long friendships.

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Marshmallow challenge teamwork
Photo credit:  Stanford University

Besides MonitorREIN, the three other teams were Carnation Health focused on a telemedicine approach to postoperative orthopedic care, CANCAN trying to reduce smartphone-related neck strain using VR gaming, and Huhu, a real-time crowdsourced nursing platform for minor injuries.

“This year’s class was particularly impressive with their creativity and depth in business planning as well as the sophistication of their presentations in such a short time,” said Dr. Chang. “China has matured in the digital health and e-commerce markets, and the rapid pace of innovation in online to offline combined with sharing economies business models will certain benefit multiple industries around the world.”  The course is set to expand to include Peking University faculty next year.  Visit the program website for more details. 

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Final Pitch Day
Photo credit: Stanford University

Dr. Robert Chang can be reached at rchang3@163.com