Hebei official proposes Xiongan University

A world-class university should be founded in the Xiongan New Area in North China's Hebei province to nurture talent and support development of the area, a top Hebei official said.

"The construction of Xiongan and the integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region can't go smoothly without the support of high-quality higher education," Gao Zhili, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a top official in Hebei, was quoted as saying by Renmin Zhengxie Bao, the CPPCC's official publication.

The Xiongan university should be directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education and recruit the president, management and teaching staff from around the world, Gao proposed.

Compared with neighboring Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei is in shortage of high-quality first-class universities.

According to Wu Yiqing, vice president of Hebei University of Economics and Business, Hebei only has one university that's listed in China's 211 or 985 key university national projects, while Beijing and Tianjin together have 38.

And the only one — Hebei University of Technology — is located in Tianjin.

To make up for the weakness in higher education, Gao proposed founding Xiongan University and developing it with high standards and goals.

He also suggested listing one or two more universities in Hebei as national key universities, which can enjoy support from policies like China's "Double Top" universities.

The "Double Top" plan was launched last year, with the aim of developing a batch of world-class higher education institutions and disciplines in China.

Peking University, Renmin University of China and Tsinghua University are among the 42 universities listed.