Zhu Dajian, Professor of Tongji SEM

December 17, 2019

Source: Wenhui Daily

First-class cities cradle the first-class universities, while the first-class universities feed back into the first-class cities. On Shanghai’s threshold of creating a new miracle in the new era, an urgent need for universities in Shanghai is to resonate with the development of the city, so as to make greater contributions to the leveling up of Shanghai’s capacity and core competence. In this regard, the author notes his opinions from three perspectives: the international perspective of building a global city; the regional perspective of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta; and the municipal perspective of Shanghai’s high-quality development.

From the international perspective of building an outstanding global city, universities and researchers in Shanghai need to offer their solutions from two aspects in particular: “a hard one, and a soft one”. First, “hard science” is in need to build a technological innovation center with global influence in Shanghai, leading the city to develop into the bellwether of the fourth industrial revolution. Marked by artificial intelligence (AI), the fourth industrial revolution is deepening by its transition from data technology to digital economy and digital society, and from smart technology to smart industry and smart city. With their advantage and capacity in the creative adoption of new AI technologies in economic and social scenarios, universities and researchers in Shanghai can play a leading role in advancing the city as the top city of AI development and smart city construction. Second, the “soft science” must provide intellectual support. Over the years, Shanghai has been delving into the practice of leading cities such as New York, London, and Tokyo. Now it is necessary for Shanghai to shift from the following mode to the co-running and even the leading mode. A new global city with Chinese characteristics should be built creatively while aligning with the highest standards and the best levels in the world. The research achievements and intellectual contributions of various universities in Shanghai can be clearly seen from previous years’ Shanghai Decision-making Consultation Research Achievement Awards. In the future, universities and researchers in Shanghai will provide more proposal for telling Shanghai stories and showcasing Shanghai examples at a higher level.

From the regional perspective of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, the current strategic task is to build a demonstration zone for integrated ecological and green development in the Yangtze River Delta region. Universities and researchers in Shanghai need to provide intellectual support for two types of demonstrations in particular. One is about ecological green. The ecological green here is not a simple protection of the ecological environment. It requires us to convert the demonstration zone’s advantages of ecological environment into the advantages of green development, according to the theory that ” lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. Based on the global trend of sustainable development, universities and researchers in Shanghai put forward, with foresight, a three-in-one development path combining ecological nature, ecological economy, and ecological society for green development, when contributing wisdom to the construction of a world-class ecological island in Chongming many years ago. So today, they have the potential to provide suggestions for the green development of the demonstration zone from a more internationalized and guiding perspective. Another is about the integration. Without changing the administrative area, the Yangtze River Delta still achieves an integrated development, which highly depends on innovation – not only in the governance system and governance capabilities, but also in the governance efficiency whose results are derived from the innovation in the former two sectors. It is necessary to seek solutions to the coordination issues in organization, planning, construction standards, and regulatory among cities, between cities and rural areas，and between development space and ecological space. Playing an important role as a think tank, universities and researchers in Shanghai offered suggestions on the governance of megalopolis in the past years. Now they need to put forward more challenging insights on the strategic and cutting-edge issues of cross-administrative region governance.

From the municipal perspective of Shanghai’s high-quality development, the city aims at evolving into a city of innovation, humanity, and ecology with sustainable development. Coordinating production, life, and ecology, Shanghai seeks to upgrade by improving its level of accessibility, entrepreneurship, livability, and leisureliness, to attract the key talents it needs for future development. For megalopolis like Shanghai, universities are the “faucets” and “magnets” for large-scale talent inflows. The function of the university is more than offering knowledge and innovative new technologies. It is also about pumping out talents and high-quality population. The leveling up of the city’s capacity and core competitiveness cannot be achieved without universities’ role of magnet and faucet. Shanghai needs them to attract talents of diversity, high-level and international vision. The construction of the Lingang New Area in Shanghai Free Trade Zone is a good example – two factors can hold appeal for talents: one is industry, including high-tech manufacturing and high-end service industries; another one is university, requiring us to build a university with international competitiveness by using the existing strength of universities in Shanghai, and the increments at home and abroad. It is necessary to set up majors that meet the new area’s needs for future development, so as to attract young students from China and the rest of the world to study at universities in the Lingang area, constantly providing the area with the required talents after their graduations.

Pointed out by theories on relationships between city and universities, the transformation of contemporary university needs a school management of Pasteur style. On the one hand, going up from practice to theoretical innovation, universities should make major discoveries in basic research and universal scientific laws, to write knowledge creation into the textbooks worldwide; on the other hand, going down from theory to practical innovation, universities serve the country strategy and economic and social development with great contributions, to write knowledge innovation into the urban and regional development. The construction of a modern socialist international metropolis with global influence provides an unprecedented platform for universities and researchers in Shanghai, where universities need to strengthen the educational philosophy of Pasteur to carry out researches in major fields, shaping themselves into world-class universities on the path of building Shanghai into a world-leading city.