Trust in China's creative youth to seek solutions

Students are showing the qualities needed to lead in science, business and governance

What would happen if Chinese teachers took over a British classroom? That was the question posed by the BBC documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School.

The show started a debate not only about the differences between Chinese and British education systems, but about how our students think.

Critics say Chinese students are discouraged from the independent thought prized in the West in favor of rote learning. Chinese students are widely seen as bright, hardworking and disciplined but lacking in the creativity displayed by their British counterparts.

In my experience, this is a false dichotomy and these stereotypes look increasingly outdated. Almost every day I meet brilliant Chinese students who are willing to take risks, think creatively and apply their outstanding intellectual skills to solving societal problems.

Entry to Imperial College London is highly competitive. As one of the world's leading universities, we expect students to demonstrate not only academic prowess, but also creativity and innovative potential. We have more than 2,000 Chinese students currently rising to this challenge, with applications from China at an all-time high.

Imperial's Chinese students are thriving. They embrace a diverse, international student body, vibrant clubs and societies, and life in London, Europe's entrepreneurial capital.

These 2,000 students are no shrinking violets. They are leaders, pursuing original research projects and developing entrepreneurial ideas to help tackle issues such as climate change and diseases and create new opportunities for economic growth in the United Kingdom, China and worldwide.

Take Yan Xu, a strategic marketing master's student from Guangzhou, in southern Guangdong province, who recently led an international Imperial team to victory in the McKinsey Venture Academy Award, winning 10,000 pounds ($15,300; 13,400 euros) in seed funding for her innovation in coffee production. Her idea to make coffee production less wasteful, soon to be piloted in Ethiopia, could improve the economic situation of coffee producers in some of the world's poorest countries.

Another example is Xi Liu, a PhD student in environmental engineering from central Hunan province. She is contributing to an Imperial-led European Union-wide project that aims to harness vegetation in urban spaces to make our cities cooler, healthier and more habitable.

She led the construction of a multifunctional green roof garden on a college building and presented the approach to the House of Lords and the House of Commons, explaining how it could be used as a flood control measure in times of heavy rain. When even Britain's political leaders are eagerly learning from people like Xi, it's clear that something is going very right with the current generation of Chinese students in the UK.

Of course, Imperial College London has the privilege of educating some of China's finest students. It is little surprise they achieve great things.

But it is not just on Imperial's campus that Chinese students are showing such promise. China's students are proving creative, innovative thinkers at a young age wherever they are based - a sign that the Chinese education system is changing in deeper, more fundamental ways.

Last month, I had the opportunity to meet with high school students in Beijing. The sheer enthusiasm and potential of these aspirant young scientists was breathtaking. They were insightful, ambitious, and curious - exactly the kind of students we hope to attract to Imperial.

I spoke to them about my own work as an immunologist, in which I frequently work with mathematicians, physicists and engineers as we work out how to apply our discoveries in the real world. They immediately grasped that research is an inherently collaborative endeavor and were excited by the prospect of immersing themselves in an educational environment that takes advantage of this. I have no doubt that among these Chinese high school students were some of the great science, business and government leaders of the future.

I was especially pleased to meet a young man who has won a place to study engineering at Imperial this year. His eagerness to learn and commitment to his studies was evident, but I was also struck by how excited he was to participate in university life in general, especially, in his case, by competing with the Imperial College fencing club. I look forward to seeing him flourish.

The challenges our world will face will require a generation of creative, innovative problem-solvers. If my experience is anything to go by, Chinese students in the UK are well placed to take up this mantle.

The author is associate provost at Imperial College London. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 10/16/2015 page8)