Chapter 354: The Father of Huaxia University
According to the plan of the education department, the official name of National Wuchang University will be National Second Sun Yat-sen University in the future. This shows the status of the school. In the future, this school will evolve into Wuhan University, one of the best universities in the central region.
Considering the importance of this school, Zhang Xingjiu agreed despite his busy schedule. Fortunately, this university would not be established immediately. The estimated preparation period was relatively long and it would take two years for the school to open.
By that time, the university in Guangzhou should have been on the right track. He would first carry out some preliminary work in Guangzhou, and when the time was almost right, he would hand over Sun Yat-sen University to Zou Lu and take his people to Wuchang to formally preside over the university merger. After so many years of training, he had a group of people under him who were very good at university merger and construction work, and the success of Sun Yat-sen University has proved this.
Wuchang soon sent over information that the history of National Wuchang University can be traced back to the Ziqiang College founded by Zhang Xiangshuai more than 30 years ago. The school initially offered four courses: dialects (i.e. foreign languages), mathematics, science, and business, specializing in the training of foreign language and business talents.
Later, the Mining School and the Chemistry School were merged into the Ziqiang School. A few years later, the Ziqiang School was moved to Dongchangkou, Wuchang, and renamed the Dialect School. During the Xinhai Revolution, the Dialect School was forced to close.
After the founding of the Republic of China, the original dialect school's school buildings, books, and teachers were used as the basis to rebuild the National Wuchang Normal University, which had four departments: English, natural history, mathematics and physics, and history and geography.
A few years later, the four departments were changed into eight departments, namely, the Department of Education and Philosophy, the Department of Chinese, the Department of English, the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Physics and Chemistry, the Department of History and Sociology, the Department of Biology, and the Department of Geology.
Two years ago, the National Wuchang Normal College was renamed the National Wuchang Normal University, and this year it was renamed the National Wuchang University.
From these data, it can be seen that National Wuchang University still has a certain foundation. In recent years, it has introduced some teachers from Aurora University and other schools. If it is merged with National Commercial University, Provincial Medical University, Provincial Law University, Provincial Liberal Arts University and Private Wenhua University, it will become the university with the largest number of students and the strongest faculty in the central region.
However, the merger of colleges and universities is not as simple as bringing together teachers and students from several schools to study together. It also requires scientific adjustments to the school's departments, school building construction, and other aspects based on factors such as the school's current situation and national needs.
For example, the strength of the liberal arts and science departments of the colleges and universities that are currently preparing to cooperate is obviously not harmonious, with the proportion of liberal arts being too large and the science and engineering faculty being very lacking. This is actually a common problem for many universities nowadays.
Because the construction cost of science and engineering departments is much higher than that of liberal arts departments. For example, there must be classrooms, right? Basic experimental teaching equipment, right? All these small details add up to a lot of money.
But we have to do it no matter how high the goal is, because liberal arts and science and engineering are like a person's two legs. Without one, you can't walk well. If the country wants to develop as quickly as possible, it will inevitably need a large number of science and engineering talents.
The problem of teachers can be barely solved. Aurora University has trained many outstanding students over the years. Together with students and teachers from Peking University, Xiamen University and even Sun Yat-sen University, it is still possible to put together a team of science and engineering teachers.
Wuchang will have to figure out the equipment themselves. Zhang Xingjiu is going to see how much budget they can come up with. There will be different approaches for those with a large budget and those with a small budget.
If you have a lot of money, you can import new equipment directly from Europe and the United States. If you have less money, you can buy second-hand equipment from schools such as Aurora University and Peking University. Aurora University has been trying to make its own experimental teaching equipment since a long time ago. Many particularly sophisticated equipment are not yet capable of being produced. Some ordinary equipment is fine, but the performance is slightly worse than that of new equipment in Europe and the United States. It is enough for teaching.
In addition to the future Wuhan University, Zhang Xingjiu is also planning to establish another university, which he plans to place in Hong Kong.
Today, Hong Kong already has a university, which is the University of Hong Kong. However, this school was opened by the Governor of Hong Kong in order to make local people identify with British values, counter the cultural concepts of other powers, and facilitate Britain to expand its influence to South China and consolidate its jurisdiction over the entire Hong Kong.
There were many biases in the setting up of departments and faculties. Initially, there were only three colleges: medical school, engineering school and liberal arts school. There was not even a Chinese department.
Therefore, it was necessary to re-establish a college in Hong Kong that was mainly for Chinese. Zhang Xingjiu selected Wang Zijun, a student from Hong Kong from among the students of Aurora University, to take on the task, and sent several students from Nanyang to assist him in setting up the college.
Wang Zijun's family was quite influential in Hong Kong, and with Zhang Xingjiu's reputation, they quickly raised the funds needed to run the school. Both parties then found ways to obtain permission to establish a private university and established the Hong Kong Chinese University in Hong Kong.
Compared with Hong Kong University, this school focuses more on liberal arts, mainly offering majors such as literature, history, economics, and business. The science and engineering part also focuses more on application.
Domestic universities need science because national development cannot do without science and engineering talents. Hong Kong is a British colony, so there must be a university to inherit and carry forward Chinese culture and let the people know who they are.
In a blink of an eye, another two years passed. Zhang Xingjiu successfully completed his work in Guangzhou and handed over the position of president to Zou Lu. He then went north to Wuhan with his wife, children and many assistants, ready to take over the important task of preparing for the establishment of Wuhan University.
Before leaving, he secretly found Zhang Guoqiang. He had returned to China a few years ago and worked in the military academy under an alias. When Zhang Xingjiu came to the military academy for classes, he pretended not to know him and would only reunite with him occasionally.
During this meeting, Zhang Xingjiu revealed some very important information to Zhang Guoqiang, hoping that he could pass this information to Feifei and others.
After doing all this, Zhang Xingjiu immediately went north and arrived in Wuhan to concentrate on leading the school merger work. He planned the school into a comprehensive university with 6 colleges, 17 departments and 3 research institutes, including liberal arts, law, science, engineering, agriculture and medicine. He also sent out invitation letters to invite talents from all walks of life to teach at the school.
Thanks to his efforts, the school successfully completed the merger and Zhang Xingjiu became the first principal of the school.
When he took office, Zhang Xingjiu couldn't help muttering to himself that now he had participated in the establishment of several universities, including Aurora University, Xiamen University, Sun Yat-sen University, and Wuhan University. Maybe in the future he could even be called the "Father of Chinese Universities."
After working at Wuhan University for a while, Zhang Xingjiu had to temporarily put down his work and prepare to go to Europe because the new Solvay Conference was about to begin.
(End of this chapter)
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