Professor Wang Jianhua

Speech by the Public Orator

Vice-Chancellor,

Wang Jianhua is Chairman of the University Committee of Xi’an Jiaotong University. As the head of his institution he provides overall leadership for the leading university in Western China, and one of the most important universities in the whole of China, In that role he has worked over the past six years with the University of Liverpool to bring into being, and successfully develop, the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, known as XJTLU, in the city of Suzhou near Shanghai. XJTLU is an entirely new venture within the Chinese higher education system, its vision is to create a Chinese university which combines in full integration the distinctive strengths, and characteristics of the Chinese and British systems, as these are embodied in the two founding partner institutions. The importance of education is supreme and fundamental in Chinese culture, and enjoys a centrality reflected in the strong enthusiasm, respect and appetite for learning of today’s young Chinese university students. Xi’an Jiaotong-University brings these virtues to the venture, together with tis excellence in research and its long tradition of strength in mathematical and technical subjects. Liverpool brings a western-style emphasis on student-centred learning, the relevance of the workplace in curriculum design, and flexible innovation in methods of delivering learning and teaching. XJTLU is a new kind of Chinese university in combining these qualities, and in conducting all of its teaching and assessment through the medium of English, something we believe is completely unique within the Chinese system. In all of these developments Wang Jianhua has played a leading role.

Wang Jianhua was born in 1954 in the town of Xianyang near Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. His father was a professor in the local college, and when the college merged with Xi’an University in 1956, Jianhua moved with his family to live in the university. He was two years old at the time, and his entire life and subsequent career have been within Xi’an Jiaotong. He attended university schools, and then read Electrical Engineering as an undergraduate, taking his degree in 1977 and then continuing his studies with a Master’s degree and finally a Doctorate in 1987. After completing his PhD he had a period as a visiting scholar in Canada at the University of Toronto, before returning to Xi’an in 1988, when he helped with the organisation of an important international conference. That conference widened the horizons of Jianhua and his fellow academics, bringing international contacts and a strong sense of what might be made possible for research and higher education in the context of China’s then newly-adopted policy of opening up to the wider world. It was also momentous, in a more specific sense, for the future relationship of Xi’an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool. Wang Jianhua had already met with Professor Michael Fang, of the Electrical Engineering Department at Liverpool, as early as 1980, but the impression made by Professor Fang as a visiting teacher, and at the Xi’an Electronics conference in 1988, laid the foundations for a long-standing academic relationship and collaboration.

Wang Jianhua’s own academic career developed quickly from the late 1980’s. By 1990 he had secured a major research grant from the Chinese government to fund work on engineering design software. He remains immensely proud of his work, which transformed the productivity and quality of output in many hundreds of small factories across China. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1991, became head of his department the following year, and by 1993 was a full professor, and Director of the University Science Research Office. In the years since then, Wang Jianhua’s qualities as an academic leader have come increasingly to the fore, and after a period as University Vice-President of Science Research and Knowledge Transfer, in 2003 he was appointed Chair of the University Board of Xi’an Jiaotong, a position equivalent to Vice-Chancellor in the British system. He has also risen to national prominence within his academic field in China, becoming Vice Chairman of the Electrical Society of China in 2005.

Wang Jianhua’s early and enduring relationship with professor Michael Fang took a new turn in 2003, when the University of Liverpool began to think in earnest about a bold new venture in China, to attempt the creation of a new kind of Chinese university. The driving force was the then Vice-Chancellor Drummond Bone, powerfully supported by the University’s Chief Operating Officer at that time, John Latham. Liverpool was ambitious to secure a new future for its long-standing relationship with China, to make a contribution to the re-emergence of the city of Liverpool as an international presence and make its mark as a major Russell Group university with a global identity, an ambition strongly promoted by our current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Howard Newby. The venture required a bewildering range of considerations to be brought into constructive alignment. Extensive discussion and frequent visit across China gradually brought the components together in a viable combination. The University’s American partner Laureate brought invaluable advice and resources. A location on the industrial park in the extraordinary economic powerhouse city of Suzhou offered unmatchable advantages. The University of Liverpool’s many alumni and other important contracts in China enabled continuing constructive dialogue. The interest of the Chinese Ministry of Education in a new model for the future development of its higher education system brought impetus and mutual commitment to the project.

But the critical ingredient was a high-quality partner university in China, which would provide academic and administrative support at the appropriate level, enable student recruitment from the most able amongst China’s young people, and match the good name of the University of Liverpool in China for excellence in teaching and research. There were reasons for Professor Wang and Xi’an Jiaotong to consider positively establishing a presence in Suzhou, near to Shanghai. The University had originated there in the last 19^th century, around the same time as the founding of the University of Liverpool, but had been moved to Xi’an in 1956 with the need to establish a major university presence in the fast-developing region of Western China. Underlying factors made the new venture with Liverpool attractive.

But the existing good relationship of mutual trust and respect, embodied in the academic collaboration between Professor Wang and Professor Fang reaching back some 25 years, proved decisive.

XJTLU opened its doors to tis first 164 students just over three years ago in 2006. There are now already some 2000 students on campus in Suzhou, with another 450 who have transferred to complete their studies in Liverpool. They study on 14 degree programmes, with several more under active planning, embracing a range of subjects directly relevant to the pressing demands of the modernising Chinese economy, and spanning engineering, electronics and computing, science, management, architecture and town planning. Professor Wang’s direct involvement in this extraordinary achievement has been central, not least through his work as Chair of the Board of the new university.

The University of Liverpool is proud to honour him today for his personal contribution to the success of this hugely significant development in the history of the two partner universities.

Vice-Chancellor, in the name of the Council and Senate of the University, I present to you for admission to the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in this University, Wang Jianhua.