NeurIPS, the ‘AI Olympics’, gets new hurdles in Canada with US-China tech competition

NeurIPS, the ‘AI Olympics’, gets new hurdles in Canada with US-China tech competition

An annual gathering of the world’s top minds in artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining wider attention as it emerges as the new battleground in the competition between the US and China, according to event attendees. The six-day Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS, wrapped last week in Vancouver, Canada, and attracted more than … Read more

Chinese students join military as stepping stone to university degree

Chinese students join military as stepping stone to university degree

In the last of a four-part series on China’s universities and campus life, Alcott Wei investigates why army life has become an attractive option for many of the country’s young people in their quest for a university degree. Read the third part here. For Alan Yuan, joining China’s military wasn’t so much about the lofty … Read more

China’s foreign joint venture universities feel chill as political controls tighten

China’s foreign joint venture universities feel chill as political controls tighten

In the second of a four-part series on China’s universities and campus life, Alcott Wei looks into the effects of geopolitical tensions in the country’s joint venture campuses with overseas institutions. Richard Li, president of a Japanese culture club at a university in China, was pulled aside after a club meeting by a faculty supervisor. … Read more

China’s urban-rural gap is a threat to growth. Is the divide too wide to fix?

China’s urban-rural gap is a threat to growth. Is the divide too wide to fix?

She managed to survive the fierce competition. After her graduation from Fudan, she expanded her master’s thesis on the gap between urban and rural students at top universities in China, and her findings were published early last year. Zheng’s book, which discusses class differences from a sociological perspective, is one of the most prominent of … Read more

Groping professor shows why China’s universities need a sexual complaints system

Groping professor shows why China’s universities need a sexual complaints system

Wang, a former deputy dean and party secretary of the university’s school of liberal arts, was also expelled from the Communist Party. Local police have said they are investigating the case. Renmin University’s quick action was welcomed, but did not dispel doubts among those who believe that Chinese universities lack the mechanisms to prevent sexual … Read more