a two-day conference is being held in shenzhen for educational experts, university presidents and corporate elites to share their ideas about cultivating young entrepreneurship.
the educational forum started at shenzhen kylin villa in nanshan district yesterday morning. the forum was jointly organized by the unesco international center for higher education innovation (unesco-ichei) and south university of science and technology of china (sustc).
representatives from the government, unesco organizations, universities and tencent delivered speeches at the opening ceremony, addressing the importance of cultivating entrepreneurs and through cooperation between schools, the government and businesses.
wu chuanyue, vice president of sustc, described shenzhen's need for sustc as the silicon valley's need for stanford university. to provide innovative talent to shenzhen, according to wu, sustc has been optimizing its curriculum.
wu explained the university's principle of integrating disciplines and having students create projects independently.
mei yanchang, vice president of nanyang technological university in singapore, said that one of universities' missions is to inspire students. the vice president said that in current era, it is crucial for universities to coordinate teaching and research.
"the world will be driven by technology, so will the education mode at universities," said mei at the forum. mei suggested open online courses should be used at higher education institutions.
shenzhen university is known for encouraging students to start their own businesses while studying at the university.
"each year we spend more than 2 million yuan (us$304,800) supporting our students in starting businesses since 2000," said li qingquan, president of shenzhen university. "we have been providing services like the incubators that assist startups."
li said that the university has incubated over 100 companies in the past decade and five of the companies are worth more than 100 million yuan. the university will continue to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship education, said the president.
pony ma, ceo of tencent and also an alumni of shenzhen university, shared his story of starting a business with a few other students three decades ago at yesterday's forum.
"when i look back, i think the city's rapid rise may contribute to the active ecosystem of entrepreneurship jointly created by the government, the corporations and the universities here, with the government playing a leading role to encourage innovation" said ma.
the two-day forum will host sessions on promoting lifelong learning, entrepreneurship education, and university governance.
