China has launched an ambitious five-year foreign training programme for 1,000 presidents of public universities in the central and western provinces to improve their management capacity.
Some 100 university presidents will be sent to the US, Britain, Australia and Germany for a three-week training course later this month, the Ministry of Education said.
The trainees will study relations between universities and enterprises and the management of human resources within universities, said Zhao Lingshan, an official with the ministry.
The programme, which will cost 80 million yuan (about $12.8 million), is being jointly funded by the Hong Kong-based Lee Shau Kee Foundation and the Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Vice-Minister of Education Hao Ping said the programme would help university presidents understand the development of higher education in developed countries, as well as learn about management reforms that have taken place in global colleges and universities.
Hao said the programme would boost exchanges between domestic and overseas institutions of higher learning.