China should join hands with western developed countries to further promote higher education worldwide, Nottingham University's first Chinese Chancellor Yang Fujia said Saturday in Changchun.

Yang, also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made the remarks when attending the ongoing annual meeting of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province.

The man who introduced the concept of knowledge-based economy to China, Yang said, "In a knowledge era, for profound exchanges and communications, every country has to cherish an insight into others' culture, history and social background, and the internationalization of higher education will help reach this goal."

According to Yang, Nottingham University, noted for its medical research, has cooperated with China's Fudan University and Jiaotong University, both based in Shanghai, to jointly set up a genetics research center in Fudan.

"Nottingham has established its first Asian camp in Malaysia. This well-known university saw great potential for the internationalization of higher education, and so appointed me as the first Chinese chancellor," Yang said. Yang pointed out that the knowledge economy is fundamentally education-based, and higher education is especially important as it is designed to cultivate talents, enrich human knowledge and develop new and high technologies to serve society.

Yang spoke of the advanced experiences of Finland and Israel. Finland, he said, has worked hard to develop its higher education and consequently has become a pioneer in the world's information and communication fields.

The World Economic Forum ranked Finland first in national competitive strength in 2000.

And Israel, Yang noted, has seven of the world's top universities.

Yang cited three major advantages of the British education system, namely, strict regulation over university administrations, student-oriented polices and an emphasis on globalization of higher education.

(People's Daily 09/16/2001)