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Higher education plays a leading role in building China's strength in education. Next, what will the MOE do to deepen the comprehensive reform of higher education? What's your comment on the "Shanhe University" topic recently discussed online? Thank you.

Wu Yan:

I'm grad to answer your questions. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that higher education is an important indicator of a country's development level and potential. To give full play to the leading role of higher education in strengthening education, the MOE will implement the comprehensive pilot reform of higher education as one of the nine major projects this year. 

Our main target is innovation. We must first significantly improve the talent innovation capabilities of higher education institutions. Second is to greatly enhance their sci-tech innovation capabilities so as to provide a strong fundamental support and strategic leading force to achieve Chinese modernization.

Our main task is to carry out two kinds of trials. First is to carry out trials on fully improving the quality of independent talent cultivation to train top-notch innovative personnel. Second is to carry out trials on enhancing the adaptability of our capacity and quality to serve national and regional economic and social development.

Our main path and method require three steps to be launched "in an organized manner." First is to cultivate top-notch innovative personnel in an organized manner. Second is to promote sci-tech innovation in an organized manner. Third is to serve national and regional economic and social development in an organized manner, focusing on the national major strategic needs and regional leading industries.

In the process of work, we will insist on "three integrations." First, we will deepen the integration of vocational education and general education. By interconnecting universities and higher vocational schools in the same region, we will train all types of top-notch innovative personnel across the entire chain. Second, we will deepen the integration of industry and education and take extending the education chain, serving the industrial chain, supporting the supply chain, building the talent chain, and upgrading the value chain as an important part of comprehensive reform. Third, we will strengthen the integration of science and education. Cutting-edge sci-tech achievements will be introduced into every link of talent cultivation, including core courses, textbooks, and practices, and high-level scientific research will be used to support high-quality talent cultivation to serve the high-quality development of the economy and society.

Through comprehensive reform, we also emphasize the "three enhancements." First, we will enhance target orientation, proactively undertake the country's major tasks, and carry out frontier research at the top level. Second, we will enhance problem orientation. Through thorough research, we will focus on major problems and adopt differentiated polices in different provinces and schools. Third, we will enhance result orientation. Taking the implementation of strategic cooperation agreements between the MOE and provincial governments as the starting point, we will build regional talent centers and innovation highlands, and form an innovation paradigm through pilot zone-style reform.

When carrying out the two kinds of trials, we will also focus on the following three aspects. First, we will expand advantages. We will encourage pilot universities to make continuous efforts in areas where they have national comparative advantages to create new strengths to drive development. Second, we will strengthen weak links. We will focus on bottleneck fields to do integrated research for breakthroughs. Third, we will break new ground. We will carry out forward-looking research on future groundbreaking technologies in the following 10-15 years so as to seize opportunities and lead future development in original innovation from the source of science and major root technology research, as well as the training of top-notch innovative talents. 

We have also noticed the issues about "Shanhe University," as mentioned in your question. In the face of the new situation of higher education, as it enters a new stage of popularization and the new challenges and issues related to contributing to socioeconomic growth, the MOE will focus on the targets of enhancing national competitiveness, contributing to major socioeconomic development strategies, and promoting common prosperity. To achieve these targets, the MOE will work on optimizing the structure of higher education resources, and support the central and western regions, especially the populous provinces, in expanding the scale of higher education resources and optimizing their types and regional distribution. Thank you.