By Snow Zhao & Julie Zhu
September 20, 2018
The Alliance of Universities in Lingang has announced its establishment. SDJU, Shanghai Maritime University (SMU), Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU), Shanghai Jian Qiao University (SJQU), and Shanghai University of Electric Power (SUEP), the five universities whose main campuses are located in Lingang New City of Shanghai, have joint forces to strengthen the collaboration among themselves, and facilitate the integration of respective high-quality resources, in the interest of the development of Lingang as a new city of production and education.
'In the open organization of the Alliance, the universities are supposed to assume more responsibilities for economic growth and social advancement in Lingang Area,’ says Ping Hui, superintendent of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and Chairman of the Alliance.
The Alliance Council consists of the General Secretary or President of each university of the Alliance, the heads of relevant departments of the Municipal Education Commission, the persons in charge of the Education Bureau of Pudong New Area District, and the managers and inspectors working for Shanghai Lingang Area Development Administration (SLADA) and Nanhui New Town.
‘SLADA will be devoted to the establishment of cooperation platforms, in diversified patterns, to join to make a heterogeneous and harmonious society in the Area,’ says Zhang Hong, SLADA associate director.
Lingang New City, which sits on the coast of Pudong right outside the Yangshan Free Trade Port Area, 60 kilometres southeast of downtown Shanghai, is being by degrees nourished into a hub for high-tech research and development. Large amounts of funding are being awarded to relevant researchers and technicians, subsidies and tax breaks given to enterprises and manufacturers to relocate and open plants, and apartments rent at a miserably low price to talents moved in. In particular, Tesla, US-based e-car manufacturer, will start the construction of its first overseas super-factory in Lingang this November.
‘SDJU will encourage our students to set up collaborative innovation teams across the universities, and open up high-quality courses for the other universities in the Alliance, for the furtherance of resource sharing in classroom education and laboratory instruction among the universities in the Alliance,’ remarks Sun Peilei, General Secretary of SDJU, and Vice Chairman of the Alliance.
Lingang as a new urban centre was designed by German architects: its streets are arranged in concentric circles around Dishui Lake, a giant and circular man-made lake on land reclaimed from the sea. Dayin Book Mall, the first big bookshop of its kind, opened on the bank of Dishui Lake this April, which made up an entertaining essential in the Area.
The nascent circular city, along the western edge of which the five university campuses in the Alliance are lined up in a row, creating an educational compound to by far enhance the radiance of the high-tech park, is now home to students, white collar workers, researchers and shoppers.
‘The advantage of the universities in science, technology and human resources can be taken, to write on the tablet of cultural and sports activities in Lingang Area,’ says Sun.
