On August 16th, a research symposium on the optimization and adjustment for the layout and structure of universities attended by the leaders from universities in Central, East and South China was held in Zhengzhou. President Li Lu was invited to attend the symposium and gave a speech. At the symposium, the leaders from 20 universities, including Shanghai Tech-University, University of Science and Technology of China, Zhengzhou University and Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, exchanged opinions and had discussions on research topics.

At the symposium, President Li Lu introduced the basic information of our university by centering on the integration of industry and education, the adjustment and transformation of new majors based on the market demand; the construction of key disciplines and the formation of specialized characteristics through connotative development; the creation of favorable conditions to attract talents and resources for serving the high-quality development of the economy and society, and the dedication to the training of talents in interdisciplinary fields. In view of the future development of higher education, he put forward his hope that the state could support the classified development of private universities with characteristics, select some high-quality private universities and key disciplines and specialty groups in private universities for centralized support, and build some national high-level and model private universities in batches by “universities’ application, provincial and municipal recommendation, and national recognition”. He also hoped to expand the upward space and channels for the development of private universities, implement the equal legal status and fair competition opportunities for public and private universities according to the law, and lead the private universities to achieve high-quality development on the basis of standardized construction, and actively support qualified private universities in the application for the right to confer doctoral and master’s degrees.

President Li Lu also brought to the symposium the comments and suggestions from the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province, West Lake University and other higher education institutions on this research.

President Li Lu's comments and suggestions were highly evaluated and appreciated by Zhou Weiqi, the leader of the expert group and former director of Guangdong Provincial Department of Education. They thought that, President Li, in his speech, not only thought about the development of higher education in the province, but also summarized the situation based on practical development of universities, made the analysis the with factual basis and theoretical meaning, and proposed the countermeasures which were both forward-looking and practically guiding. After the symposium, the expert group would adopt these opinions and suggestions seriously, and write some of them into the research report.