Universities without Walls

Universitieswithout Walls

Over two thousand years ago, Emperor QinShi Huang built the Great Wall to prevent enemies from invading his country.The feat of engineering made it one of Seven Wonders of the World. Though greatit is, some people believe that it is to some extent a symbol of isolation Chinafrom the world for many years. However, things have changed since opening-upand reform policy implemented in 1978, which is a turning point of Chinesehistory. Four decades have witnessed tremendous transformation in Chinesesociety, but there are some walls in people’s mind that have not been brokendown. Such a feeling has never been stronger than when I set feet on the campusof the University of Liverpool.

It is a university without walls just asmany British universities are. Before I came to the UK, I imagined that I wouldtake a photo with a university gate as the background, but it turned out to bea daydream. When I was walking on the Oxford Street toward the campus, I triedhard to figure out where was the edge between the university and the surroundingsaround it, but I failed, because there are no walls! Passers-by travellingthrough the campus are not necessarily students or staff of the university,instead, a large proportion of them are local people. By contrast, in China,the traditional universities (by traditional I mean universities are notSino-foreign joint venture ones such as Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University or Universityof Nottingham Ningbo) have walls which keep passers-by outside of the campus. 

Visible walls of Chinese universities arebuilt for the sake of safety and security, but the invisible walls in people’minds increase the sense of insecurity, particularly in the age ofglobalisation. The For over a decade, British universities without walls haveopened campuses or established joint schools in China, increasing theirinternational presence and reputation, but at the same time their Chinese counterpartswith walls have just started to go global. In the time when all the countries are interconnected, the institutionsof higher education in the globe should break down the walls which limitthemselves to embrace challenges and opportunities in the internationalcommunity. To put it another way, the awareness of openness, diversity andglobal engagement should be increased in Chinese universities which are currentlyfacing the increasingly fiercer competition in the global higher educationmarkets. Following this should be the development and implementation ofstrategies of internationalisation, which has already been cases in manyChinese universities.