University towns have entered the 2.0 era.
The establishment of new universities has become a common trend. What's more curious is that these universities, which have sprung up like mushrooms, are starting to pop up from the same places:
In Shenzhen, the newly approved Shenzhen University of Technology and the Shenzhen campus of Sun Yat-sen University, which was completed last year, are both in Guangming Science City, Guangming District; In the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, the Junshan Campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Chegu Campus of Wuhan University of Technology will welcome the first batch of students this year.
The professional settings of these new universities (campuses) often have distinct local characteristics.
The construction of colleges and universities has begun to focus more on local industries.
The image is generated by AI
【1】
"Desperately building a university" has become one of the labels of Guangdong, among which Shenzhen is a typical representative.
Official figures show that at least eight universities have been built in Shenzhen over the past decade. In May this year, the Ministry of Education officially approved the establishment of Shenzhen University of Technology. Not long ago, Shenzhen University of Technology announced the "2024 Summer College Entrance Examination Enrollment Regulations", which launched this year's enrollment.
Shenzhen University of Technology and Sun Yat-sen University's Shenzhen campus, which was completed last year, share the same growth path. It is obvious from the location that these two schools (campuses) are in Guangming Science City.
Let's look at the professional setup.
Sun Yat-sen University Shenzhen Campus majors mainly in medicine and new engineering.
The first batch of colleges announced by Shenzhen University of Technology this year covers seven aspects: life and health, synthetic biology, computer science and control engineering, biomedical engineering, materials science and energy engineering, pharmacy, and computing power and microelectronics.
It is clear that the focus of teaching in both schools is on "new medicine" and "new engineering".
It is said to be a "coincidence", but in fact, there is a common background behind it: local industries.
In 2022, the Shenzhen Municipal Government proposed a new policy for industrial clusters. Dagang observed that more than 80% of the "8+5" industrial clusters focused on in Guangming District belong to the fields of "new medicine" and "new engineering".
Source: Shenzhen University of Technology Undergraduate Admissions Network
The same phenomenon occurred in Wuhan, which is known as a city of higher education.
The Chegu Campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Junshan Campus of Wuhan University of Technology, which were put into use in September this year, are less than three kilometers away in a straight line.
In the Chegu Campus, Wuhan University of Technology plans to set up majors in three major fields: intelligent vehicles, intelligent transportation, and intelligent manufacturing. The Junshan Campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology will set up four interdisciplinary departments: Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Application, Advanced Manufacturing and New Materials, and Life Science and Healthcare.
Found the "highlights"? Automobile, electronics, and biomedicine are the three core industrial systems of the Economic and Technological Development Zone.
【2】
In fact, as early as 2022, this kind of gathering of colleges and universities because of the industry appeared in the new university town of Guzhenkou, West Coast New Area, Qingdao.
Guzhenkou can be called one of the biggest winners in the construction of colleges and universities.
Along the west coast, there are four universities (campuses) of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Qingdao Innovation and Development Base of Harbin Engineering University, the Guzhenkou Campus of China University of Petroleum (East China), and the China Ocean Shipping University.
A new university town was born on the blue seaside. Before the arrival of these new universities, however, the coast had already established itself as an economic powerhouse.
As one of the ten functional areas of the West Coast New Area, Guzhenkou has four advantageous industries: shipbuilding and marine engineering, aerospace, electronic information, and new marine materials.
These industries also have a strong Qingdao flavor.
The ocean is one of Qingdao's characteristic economies. Electronic home appliances, petrochemical industry, and new materials are among the four major industrial bases built in Qingdao.
Not to mention shipbuilding and offshore engineering, Haixi Bay Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering Industrial Base is one of the three major shipbuilding bases planned and constructed by the state, and it is also the hope of Qingdao's shipbuilding and offshore industry to enter the world.
Looking back now, the four new universities (campuses) in Guzhenkou all echo these characteristic industries.
Therefore, it is not so much that Guzhenkou has built a new university town, but that the new university town has chosen Guzhenkou, which has outstanding industrial characteristics.
The high degree of integration of university majors and local industries has brought about the 2.0 era of university towns.
【3】
Speaking of the 2.0 era, what is the 1.0 era like in a university town?
In the middle of the 20th century, universities were still a rare species on the mainland. Therefore, the initial construction of the university will not take into account too many urban planning issues. Often, where the construction indicators are, colleges and universities are built.
However, judging from the layout of these old universities in Wuhan now, the location of the universities at that time was still in a relatively core area. Conversely, factories are usually built on the outskirts of the city. It is difficult for universities to interact with industry.
Later, the number of colleges and universities increased, and universities came together to share resources.
People prosper, industry prosper. The huge university students in turn feed the surrounding shops. Slowly, a community-like area formed around the university. This is version 1.0 of College Town.
Localities want to develop the economy, and enterprises want to develop production. With the interaction between education and the urban economy, the knowledge and talents of universities have become "sweet and sweet" in the eyes of the government and enterprises.
At this time, a new interaction has emerged between the government, enterprises and universities in the university economic circle (belt) around the university cluster.
In 2007, Shanghai began to build a knowledge economic circle around Tongji University, undertaking the spillover of Tongji University's advantageous disciplines and the entrepreneurship of teachers and students.
In 2012 and 2013, Harbin and Jinan respectively built an economic circle around Heilongjiang University and Jinan University.
Renderings of Huazhong University of Science and Technology Junshan Campus
In 2016, Wuhan also started the construction of the innovation economic circle of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Two years later, Wuhan issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Construction of World-class Universities and First-class Disciplines in Han Universities" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing to build three innovation economic belts around universities, including the East Lake Innovation Economic Belt, the South Lake Innovation Economic Belt, and the Huangjia Lake Innovation Economic Belt.
Until now, we can see the fruits of this organic innovation space.
On the west bank of Nanhu Lake in Wuhan, there are 7 universities, and at present, there are nearly 600 high-tech enterprises around the university.
【4】
However, this model has its limitations.
On the one hand, the land price of the economic circle (belt) has risen with the development of the ship, and the cost of expanding the capacity of colleges and universities in the campus is also getting higher and higher. On the other hand, the development of industries in many places is difficult to find the support of innovation resources in universities.
At this time, these places threw an olive branch to the universities.
In 2015, Shenzhen and Sun Yat-sen University signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperating in the Establishment of Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen. By 2018, the Shenzhen Municipal Government had allocated 30 billion yuan for the Shenzhen campus of Sun Yat-sen University.
The two new campuses of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan University of Technology in the Economic and Technological Development Zone have also been jointly built with the Economic and Technological Development Zone.
On the one hand, the local government attracts colleges and universities to settle down for industrial development, and the change in the trend of university talent training is also one of the reasons.
Industrial transformation and the boom of emerging industries require colleges and universities to send more application talents to enterprises.
In recent years, colleges and universities have also participated in a series of application-oriented education reforms, such as the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and school-enterprise cooperation.
The trend of gathering colleges and universities with industry as the core is a further realization of "building schools into factories" and "moving classrooms to workshops".
The progress of the city requires the university, and the university breathes with the city.
When colleges and universities bring enterprises, and enterprises bring universities, the same frequency resonance between universities and cities may be the best interpretation of the era of university towns 2.0.
[Source: Jiupai News]
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