Founding a Number of First-rate Universities and Disciplinary Areas or Fields of Study Reaching International Advanced Level

18. It is of strategic Importance to develop China's own first-rate universities ranking with the best ones in the world£® As President Jiang Zemin pointed out in his speech at the conference celebrating Peking University's centenary, "To realize modernization, China must have quite a few first-rate universities of international advanced level." Through long-time developmental efforts and the accumulation of scholarly achievements in a few leading universities in China, the level of research in a small number of fields, including some high-tech fields, has attained or approached international advanced level£® They have highly qualified faculty, and the undergraduate and graduate students trained are of a high quality, laying the requisite conditions for developing these leading institutions into first-rate ones in the world.

19.  It goes without saying that all the first-rate universities in the world have invariably built up tbe fame and prestige through efforts exerted over many years. The development of a first-rate university requires governmental support and financial input£® What is more important is the commitment and persistent and dedicated efforts exerted by its leaders, faculty and students over the years. Especially, graduates from these universities should enjoy publicly acknowledged repute on their posts, both at home and abroad. Of course, these leading institutions should have a high concentration of distinguished professors. There fore, it takes a historical process to develop a university into a first-rate one in the world, and in the process it must undergo the test of social practice. We must have a down-to-earth style of work as well as an ambitious goal in this regard£® Therefore , the development of a number of key disciplinary areas or fields of study in selected universities should be the point of departure. These centers of learning either have already approached international advanced level or are promising to attain such standard in the foreseeable future. It is desirable to concentrate the limited financial resources of the state on their development and at the same time mobilize other sources of funding to intensify and speed up their development£® By so doing it is envisaged that a number of Chinese universities and a larger number of key dlisciplinary areas or fields of study might rank among first-rate academic institutions or centers of excellence in the world within ten to twenty years.