On October 11, 2016, David Leebrom, President of Rice University, visited Peking University (PKU). He was warmly greeted by Lin Jianhua, President of PKU, in Linhuxuan.
The focus of the meeting was to develop further cooperation between PKU and Rice. President Leebrom mentioned that there were approximately 900 Chinese students at Rice, making them an important student body that he hoped to make good relationship with. Then President Leebrom and President Lin discussed about the possibility of initiating a dual-degree program. With good leadership, the existing inter-departmental physics program between Rice and PKU had matured over the years, and the dual-degree plan would operate based on this solid foundation.
In addition, President Lin addressed the need for Universities in China to attach more importance to humanities and social science education, a field that lacked concerning study in Chinese academia. Rice had a separate School of Social Science that focused on issues of public policy. In the light of this, both President Lin and President Leebrom had expressed their willingness to collaborate in this field of research. Besides this, they also discussed about how to foster the three-way relationships with the existing partners of their University in the hope to enhance worldwide educational collaboration.
The meeting ended on a discussion about the future of education. Both Presidents stressed the need for education to reform its structure so that it was fitting for the younger generation. This would involve increasing experiential opportunities by introducing more entrepreneurial and leadership skills to students as well as digitalizing teaching through flipped classrooms. Both Rice and PKU had advanced on the international rankings this year and the two Universities would work with each other more closely in the future as a way of fostering mutual growth.
Written by: Ji Caixuan
Edited by: Li Ruoxue
