Training the Heavens

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, which 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 preparation period was expected to be relatively long, and the school would not open until two years later.

By that time, the university in Guangzhou should be 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 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 had 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 cultivating 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 moved to Dongchangkou, Wuchang, and was 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 included 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 Educational 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 materials, it can be seen that National Wuchang University still has a certain foundation. In recent years, it has introduced some teachers from schools such as Aurora University. 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 simply about gathering teachers and students from several schools to study together. It also requires scientific adjustments to the school's departmental settings, school building construction, etc. 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 several colleges and universities that are currently preparing to cooperate is obviously not in balance. The proportion of liberal arts is too large, and the science and engineering faculty is very lacking. This is actually a common problem in many universities nowadays.

Because the construction costs of science and engineering departments are much higher than those of liberal arts departments. For example, they need classrooms and basic experimental teaching equipment. These various items add up to a considerable amount.

But no matter how high the goal is, we have to do it, 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 plans to see how much budget they can come up with. There will be different approaches for larger budgets and smaller budgets.

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 a long time ago. Many particularly sophisticated equipment are not yet capable of production. Some ordinary equipment is fine, but the performance is slightly worse than the new equipment in Europe and the United States. It is enough for teaching.

In addition to the future Wuhan University, Zhang Xingjiu was also planning to establish another university, which he intended to locate in Hong Kong. Hong Kong already had a university, Hong Kong University, but this university was established by the Governor of Hong Kong to encourage local residents to identify with British values, counter the cultural ideologies of other powers, and facilitate the expansion of British influence in southern China and the consolidation of its rule over Hong Kong.

There were many biases in the establishment of colleges and departments. Initially, there were only three colleges: medical school, engineering school and liberal arts school, and there was not even a Chinese department.

Therefore, it was necessary to re-establish a Chinese-dominated institution in Hong Kong. Zhang Xingjiu selected Wang Zijun, a Hong Kong-born student from Aurora University, to take on the task, and sent several students from Nanyang to assist him in establishing the institution.

Wang Zijun's family was quite influential in Hong Kong, and coupled with Zhang Xingjiu's reputation, they quickly raised the funds needed to run the school. The two 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 it must have 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 organizing 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 to attend 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 on to Feifei and others.

After finishing all this, Zhang Xingjiu immediately went north and arrived in Wuhan to concentrate on leading the school merger work. He planned the school to be 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 invitations 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 in his heart 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)