(Tsinghua News Center) Sir Colin Lucas, vice-chancellor of Oxford University, delivered a lecture Jan. 24 on Oxford’s governance for a dozen top administrators of Tsinghua and representatives from the Institute of Education Research.
Using Oxford’s educational and administrative reform in recent yeas as an example, Sir Colin detailed Oxford’s experiences in building itself into a world-class university, saying such growth depends on three conditions: outstanding faculty, top students, and advanced infrastructure.
He stressed the importance of recruitment of the high-quality faculty, noting that the procedure for employing educators at Oxford is open and highly competitive. To improve the quality of students, Oxford adopts a “one-to-one” approach, pairing each undergraduate with a teacher to oversee study programs. Regarding the infrastructure, Sir Colin said that in addition to getting money from donations, Oxford also encourages its faculty to be big earners themselves through multiple ways.
Sir Colin put special emphasis on the importance of establishing a name as a world-class university. Oxford’s reputation has a long and glorious history. He mentioned that since 1945, all but two prime ministers of the United Kingdom were Oxford graduates.
Sir Colin has been vice-chancellor of Oxford University since 1997. He is an elected member of the UK Board of Universities, the representative body for UK higher education institutions. He is also an educational consultant to the Governor of Guangdong province in China.
President Gu Binglin warmly greeted Sir Colin and his delegation at the President’s Office before the lecture. In the afternoon, the guests visited the Law School, the School of Economics and Management, the Department of Physics, and the State Key Lab of Intelligent Technology and Systems, and the Department of Computer Science and Technology.
The speech was hosted by Vice President Gong Ke.
Reported by Liu Aixiang
Photoed by Guo Haijun
