Opening-up education

To meet the free trade port's demand for domestic and overseas talent, and also to cater to demand for high-quality education, the Hainan government collaborated with the Ministry of Education to build the Li'an International Education Innovation Pilot Zone in Lingshui Li autonomous county, in the island's southeast.

Since its establishment in 2020, the pilot zone has signed cooperation agreements with 10 domestic universities and 12 overseas higher education institutions. Students are being recruited through five cooperation programs with foreign education institutions and a cooperation program with the City University of Macau.

Wang Linping, deputy director of the zone's administration, said its goal is to enhance Hainan's education system and improve its quality.

"Specifically, we need to innovate our admission process and further develop our international characteristics to create a better study atmosphere," Wang said. "Through such efforts, we can expect a steady increase in the number of international students coming to study in Hainan."

The pilot zone now has nearly 500 teachers and students, with the number expected to reach 2,000 by the fall semester. It aims to have 10,000 teachers and students by 2025, and 30,000 by 2035, according to the pilot zone's administration.

Coventry College, Communication University of China, a joint education institute in Li'an, last year admitted 90 students to its intelligent science and technology undergraduate major. It is scheduled to enroll another 100 students in its undergraduate majors in intelligent science and technology, and visual communication design this year.

Queen Mary School Hainan, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, also a joint education institute in Li'an, has the capacity to enroll 1,200 students. It offers three undergraduate majors in information and computing science, digital media technology, and intelligent medical engineering.

For the fall semester, the college plans to enroll 150 students, including 90 in information and computing sciences and 60 in digital media technology.

These disciplines not only take into account the academic advantages of both sides, but also give full consideration to the free trade port's development needs, said Kang Xiao, director of the school's Party committee office.

"We have top-notch teaching staff from the UK in the fields of medicine and life sciences to cultivate the students' abilities to integrate and apply intelligent information and biomedical science," Kang said, adding this will help meet Hainan's needs in innovative development.