Vice-Premier Liu Yandong said the authorities should pay special attention to the development of higher education in central and western regions of China.

Liu made the comments on Sept 23 during a midterm briefing concerning the results of a training program involving about one thousand university presidents in China’s central and western regions.

She said improving the quality of higher education in these regions is essential to building a well-off society and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Liu also said that China has entered a new stage of deepening the reform comprehensively and expanding the country’s policy concerning opening up to the outside world. She urged the university presidents to be innovative concerning the training of personnel and also their management system, and to combine Chinese traditions with the experience of other countries in the field of education — as well as to enhance cooperation with neighboring countries.

The university presidents’ training program, initiated in 2012, is sponsored by the Lee Shau Kee Foundation and the Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation. A total of 432 individuals from 307 colleges in 25 provinces of China’s central and western regions have already participated in the program.