Robert Hargrove

Professor Wen told me about his own aspiration to make Beijing University a world-class university on the level of Harvard or the University of California -- where he earned his Masters and PhD.

Professor Wen, in addition to his other responsiblities, is in charge of the Shenzhen branch of Beijing University, which includes a medical school, business school, law school, and environmental school. He said he wanted to attract distinguished scholars from around the world and produce ground-breaking research.

He said both faculty and students supported the idea of raising Beijing Univestity to world-class standards, but sometimes came up with reasons and excuses for not adopting these, such as saying, "We want a school with Chinese characteristics, not just international standards."

He said that if he asked faculty members if they wanted a world-class university, they will say yes! But if he told them that meant publishing scholarly articles with ground-breaking ideas, they would say "that's a good idea for the guy in the other department, but not for me due to my special situaiton."