CHINA

CHINA: Ministry supports formation of an 'Ivy League'

China's Ministry of Education last Monday voiced its support for the formation of C9, an academic conference comprising nine prestigious domestic universities and referred to as China's Ivy League by some experts, reports the official agency Xinhau.

Xu Mei, the ministry's spokeswoman, said the establishment of the conference is a "helpful attempt that is conducive to the country's construction of high-quality colleges, cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, and enhanced cooperation and exchanges between Chinese universities and their foreign counterparts."

On 12 October nine institutions of higher learning, including the elite Peking University and Tsinghua Univerisity, signed cooperative agreements that featured flexible student exchange programmes, deepened cooperation on training postgraduates, and establishment of a credit system that allows students to win credits by attending classes in member universities of C9. Other universities are Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanjing University, University of Science and Technology of China, and Xi'an Jiaotong University.
Full report on the Xinhaunet site