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The development of China’s higher education is very impressive, said Stuart McCutcheon, Vice-Chancellor of University of Auckland of New Zealand during an interview with Xinhuanet.

“There has been explosive growth in the number of students in the Chinese system and number of graduates. Clearly the top universities in China are able to compete with the best universities in the world. You have a very large system, a very diverse system…I think that’s very great achievement for the Chinese nation,” he said Saturday.

McCutcheon was here attending the Global Summit of University Presidents during the centennial celebrations of Tsinghua University.

He said the centenary is an important milestone in the life of Tsinghua University. To reach 100 years is a very important time in the life of a university to look back on what has been achieved so far and think about what can be achieved in the future.

McCutcheon said universities play an important role in the society. On one hand, they create the next generation of leaders in many fields; on the other hand, they have the ability to bring their ideas to be on the big challenges of the world, such us food security, new energy, climate change, etc.

“We are training the great minds of tomorrow, the young people would be the future thinkers of tomorrow. We also help create the ideas that help solve the problems that we old people have created that we don’t want young people to inherit, ” said McCutcheon.

McCutcheon also stressed the importance of fostering cross-cultural talents with global vision. “I encourage my students to go to other universities and teaching staff to be have international background.”

“Give all our students the experiences of living or studying in other countries, so Chinese students going to New Zealand and New Zealand students coming to China, students going all round the world, and probably more than one country, so that they have an understanding of some of the different cultures, religions, some of the political systems in the world,” he added.

As the most famous university in New Zealand, the University of Auckland has 4,500 international students from about 100 countries around the world, including about 2,000 Chinese students.

McCutcheon spoke highly of the academic performance of the Chinese students studying there, “We found Chinese students are very hard working. They contribute to the life of university as we have the Chinese film festival, we have the Confucius Institute, which is the centre of Chinese culture, andwe have Asian food festival each year.”

Talking about how a university can become a world-class one, McCutcheon emphasized on “having the best people”.

“Lots of other things are important. Money is important and buildings are important. If you have really good students, and you have really good teachers, and you have really good staff, you’ll have really good university.”

“The best universities are about the best people. The most important thing is to attract the best people, look after the best people and keep the best people in your university.”

McCutcheon took office as the Vice-Chancellor of University of Auckland in January 2005. Prior to that, he had served as Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington since November 2000.

Rector of the Baku State University (BSU) Abel Maharramov (L) shakes hands with Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Azerbaijan Jiang Xiaoyang during the opening ceremony of the Confucius Institute at BSU, in Baku, Azerbaijan, April 22, 2011. The Confucius Institute was co-held by BSU and Anhui University in eastern China. (Xinhua/Liu Yang)

BAKU, April 22 (Xinhua) — The Confucius Institute opened Friday at the Baku State University (BSU) of Azerbaijan.

BSU and Anhui University in eastern China reached an agreement on joint creation of the Confucius Institute in Azerbaijan’s capital.

Addressing the event at the opening ceremony, rector of the BSU Abel Maharramov said opening of the Confucius Institute would make a “great” contribution to further strengthening of friendship ties and deepening of cooperation between the two nations.

According to the agreement, Anhui University will send highly qualified teachers of Chinese language and literature every year, as well as supply textbooks, manuals and audiovisual aids to organize the teaching process. Besides, students of the university will have a chance to practice at the Chinese university every year.

Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Azerbaijan Jiang Xiaoyang addressed the ceremony and wished success to the Confucius Institute.

Deputy Minister of Education Elmar Gasimov and vice president of the Anhui University Niu Liwen were also present at the ceremony.

Confucius institutes are non-profit public institutions that aim to promote Chinese language and culture and support local Chinese teaching internationally.

After establishing a pilot institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in June 2004, the first Confucius institute opened on Nov. 21, 2004 in Seoul, Republic of Korea and many more have been established in other countries, such as the U.S., Germany and Sweden, where Chinese enjoys an increasing popularity. As of July 2010, there were 316 Confucius institutes and 337 Confucius Classrooms in 94 countries and regions.

Higher Soy Intake Reduce Mortality

Higher soy intake and having a balanced diet can help reduce risk of death, said a study result made public Thursday by the University of Hong Kong.

The university’s faculty of medicine conducted a study which captured 81 percent of the death case in Hong Kong in 1998. Researchers collected information on eating habits of the deaths 10 years earlier, as well as that of similar living people of the same age. The results show that people with a higher soy intake had a lower risk of death. Those who ate soy four or more times per week had about 30 percent lower risk of death compared with those who ate soy less than once per month.

It is also revealed in the results that people with high intakes of less healthy food like meat and dairy products and less intake of healthy food including vegetables, fruits, fish, soy and tea, had about 113 percent higher risk of death than those who had a balanced diet.

Head of the university’s department of community medicine Professor Lam Tai-hing said that soy is rich in protein and fiber and can help reduce the chance of having cancer and heart disease.

Lam suggested member of the public to intake nutrients provided by soy through eating food like tofu and soy milk, rather than directly taking soy extracts.

Addressing the problem of Hong Kong people having a diet with more meat than vegetables, Lam suggested people to have vegetables and fruits before eating meat during every meal.

“There is little evidence that high intake of meat and milk are harmful to health” if the same amount of healthy food are being consumed, Lam explained, adding that the bad effects of those less healthy food which might have on our body can be counteracted.

The above study results were published in 2006 in two renowned international medical journals — Preventive Medicine and International Journal of Epidemiology.