Universities need to nurture students' passion for science, and provide qualified expertise for the nation's further technological innovation, the president of Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang said.

Jiang Chunlan, president of the university, said college education should further reform to meet increasing demands for scientific and technological innovation.

Colleges need to provide essential conditions for innovation, especially in the applied sciences.

Jiang stressed college education as the foundation of innovation after President Xi Jinping awarded prizes in Beijing for scientific and technological achievements on Jan 10.

Statistics from Essential Science Indicators, reflecting science performance and trends based on article publication counts and citation data, said that only 15 universities and colleges in China ranked in the world's top 500 at the end of 2012, while seven were in the top 300. In contrast, the United States had 114 in the top 500 and 94 in the top 300.

Jiang said universities have an obligation to create the appropriate environment for staff to conduct their work and for students to excel.

The evaluation of teachers, which is common practice in many domestic universities, now takes place every three years, instead of annually.

"An outstanding essay on an original invention and innovation may take many years, and pressure from an annual evaluation may disturb that schedule," the president said, adding that some teachers may be forced to split long essays into several sections to meet such requirements. "But these shorter articles will have less value."

Sun Ying, who teaches in the College of Life Sciences at the university, won second place in the State Technological Invention Award in 2010.

"But it took her team more than seven years to finish the program," Jiang said.

On the other hand, universities should give more options and easier access for students wishing to change majors, since most teenage students do not initially have clear goals, he said.

In China, some universities restrict the option of switching majors to top students, and sometimes this can involve underhanded dealings, giving rise to corruption. The recent case of Cai Rongsheng, former head of the admissions office of Renmin University of China, highlighted that problem.

"But we have lowered the threshold on scores for changing majors since 2011, cutting the restriction on scores," Jiang said.

"As long as their majors have empty slots, the students, no matter what their score is, can apply to switch," he said.

Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang was founded in 1902. Its prominent graduates include Deng Yingchao, a pioneer in promoting women's welfare and the wife of late Premier Zhou Enlai.

The university, with 40,562 students, has 21 colleges, covering literature, history, philosophy, classics, management, law, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, teaching and art.

A mathematician, Jiang also worked as intern president in many foreign colleges, including the University of Canberra, Australia, and as a professor at the University of Puerto Rico. He became president of Hebei Normal University in 2007.

He found the leading staff at the university contained different levels of talent and professors from overseas who came to the university felt there was a shortfall in qualified researchers to help them with their work.

The urgent need for expertise forced him, as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, to suggest that the provincial government boost local expertise.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/05/2014 page5)