When I am reborn, I just want to be a top student

Tangdu Jiaotong University, conference hall.

Xu Songyao looked at the banner hanging there, and even now, his eyes still revealed a hint of shock and disbelief.

It has only been five days since Wang Donglai told him that he wanted to form a university alliance in Qin Province.

In contrast, university alliances like C9 and G7 have been coordinating for an unknown period of time, with the timeframe measured in months.

However, Wang Donglai, on the other hand, pushed this matter forward by using only single-digit numbers, not just days.

Qin Province has quite a few universities, most of which are concentrated in Tang City.

Furthermore, with Galaxy Technology's headquarters located in Tangdu City, it naturally had many advantages when proposing the formation of a university alliance.

Even so, it was enough to shock Xu Songyao.

Tangdu Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xidian University, Northwest University, Northwest A&F University, Chang'an University, Tangdu University of Science and Technology, Tangdu University of Architecture and Technology, Qinhuangdao University of Science and Technology, Tangdu Petroleum University, Tangdu Engineering University, Northwest University of Political Science and Law, Shangluo College.

There are a total of thirteen universities. Except for Shangluo College, which is a bit of a stretch, the other schools can be considered the top schools in Qin Province.

When Galaxy Technology announced its intention to form a university alliance in Shaanxi Province, it immediately received strong support from the aforementioned universities.

This doesn't mean that only these schools provided support; rather, Wang Donglai specifically selected thirteen schools from among those that did.

Even some universities from outside the province that wanted to join were politely declined by Wang Donglai.

Qin Province is the true home base of Galaxy Technology, and Wang Donglai has never forgotten this.

It possesses Qin Province and controls five northwestern provinces, driving internal economic development.

This is also one of Wang Donglai's goals.

The eastern coastal areas are already very developed, and there are enough wealthy people; there is no shortage of companies like Galaxy Technology.

However, the Northwest is lacking a Galaxy Technology!

The alliance meeting began soon, and in principle, Xu Songyao, as the host, should have taken the stage to give a speech.

But it didn't.

The person who went on stage was Wang Donglai.

There were quite a few people attending the meeting, including leaders from Tangdu City Compound, leaders from Qin Province Compound, and leaders from the education department who came from Beijing.

Tangdu City and Qin Province strongly support the university alliance that Wang Donglai called for.

The opinion of the Beijing education authorities was ambiguous; they neither agreed nor opposed it, but still sent a deputy to attend the meeting.

"Today, all of you are here for one thing."

"That is to form a science and technology innovation university alliance."

"Here, I need to explain to you why I proposed this university alliance."

"Galaxy Technology is a high-tech enterprise. Its most important asset is not those buildings or those equipment, but its talent."

"Tangdu City has seven 'Double First-Class' universities, including Tangdu Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Xidian University, which produce more than 7 science and engineering graduates every year. However, there are problems such as 'disconnect between enterprise and university training' and 'outflow of top talents'."

"Before Galaxy Technology, Tangdu City didn't have many companies that could provide suitable positions for so many outstanding talents, but now it's different."

"The emergence of Galaxy Technology is sufficient to accommodate so many outstanding graduates. In the past two years, the rapid expansion of Galaxy Technology has also benefited from the support of universities in Tangdu City. That's why I came up with the idea of ​​forming a university alliance to lock in outstanding talents and enhance core competitiveness through 'targeted training + scientific research practice'."

“In addition to these outstanding graduates, I also value the research strength of various universities. In the fields of semiconductors, artificial intelligence, aerospace, and new energy, Galaxy Technology is willing to collaborate with universities to conduct joint research and development, shortening the transformation cycle from papers to products.”

"Just like our previous project with Northwest A&F University, we will improve the 'industry-academia-research' system, combine the university's research papers with practical applications, and put them into production to generate profits."

"Using university alliances as a link, we will promote the joint construction of a 'science and technology innovation corridor' by universities, enterprises and governments, similar to the Silicon Valley-Stanford model, to form a closed loop of basic research, pilot-scale incubation and industrial application that belongs to us, and help Tangdu City become a global center for hard technology industries."

"I've said too much already, let's get straight to the point."

"Since you are all here, it means you support the establishment of the university alliance. So, to show our sincerity, on behalf of Galaxy Technology, I will allocate 10 billion yuan annually for research funding and another 10 billion yuan for equipment purchases."

Talk is cheap; it's better to just throw money around.

Wang Donglai's words about throwing money at the event immediately shocked everyone present.

Two hundred billion is definitely not a small number.

It's worth noting that the highest education funding in 2018 was only 269 billion yuan for Wudaokou.

Even if the thirteen companies split the money equally, each company would get seven or eight hundred million out of the ten billion.

Not to mention there's also a 10 billion yuan equipment budget that can be used to purchase experimental equipment.

In fact, one of the reasons why some of the school leaders present agreed so readily to form a university alliance is that Wang Donglai was genuinely willing to spend money and engage in various research collaborations with them.

After everyone calmed down a bit, Wang Donglai continued, "Galaxy Technology will invest one billion yuan annually to support the following disciplines: quantum information science, advanced materials, aerospace propulsion, intelligent unmanned systems, bio-genetics, nuclear physics, and mathematics."

"Specifically, the relevant departments are led by Tangdu Jiaotong University, which takes the lead in one or two disciplines, while Northwestern Polytechnical University and Xidian University, among other universities, split up according to their areas of strength."

"I require the alliance universities to upgrade their laboratories to at least catch up with international advanced levels. Secondly, the money should be used for talent recruitment, such as offering young scholars a million-dollar annual salary plus research start-up funds, and recruiting professors and scholars globally. Finally, the existing textbooks should be reviewed and updated. Textbooks in universities must keep up with the times. Only by teaching students the most advanced technologies can we cultivate enough outstanding talents."

"In some areas, Galaxy Technology will cooperate with universities to compile textbooks suitable for universities."

“Select a group of geniuses to form a genius class, just like the Qian Xuesen Class at Tangdu Jiaotong University. The teachers can be experts invited from outside or engineers invited from enterprises.”

“Outstanding students from alliance universities can intern at Galaxy Technology during winter and summer vacations to get acquainted with the company in advance. During the internship, they will be paid according to the internship salary standard and enjoy benefits. Those who perform well can sign a talent training agreement in advance and directly join core positions after graduation with generous compensation.” “We will also provide support for graduate and doctoral students. For graduate and doctoral students in relevant majors from alliance universities, we will provide living allowances, which will be paid monthly.”

"In addition, we will provide funding for outstanding graduate students and doctoral students to help them carry out research projects. Galaxy Technology will provide experimental data and scenario support, and both parties will share the patents if successful."

"For the research achievements of teachers and students of the alliance universities, they can also apply for Galaxy Technology pilot-scale funding, which can reach up to 50 million yuan. In return, Galaxy Technology will have priority to obtain the technology transfer rights at 80% of the market valuation."

"For some conceptual scientific research results, you can also apply to Galaxy Technology, which will provide an engineering team to complete the transformation from theory to prototype and then to product. After successful transformation, the university team can receive 5% to 20% of the revenue from the results."

"For financial aid to impoverished college students, Galaxy Technology will not adopt cash methods. Instead, the catering management system will automatically recharge the monthly funds of eligible students from the backend."

"Of course, since it's a collaboration, we must balance the needs of businesses with academic freedom."

"Here, I propose the 'three no' principles: no interference with the selection of basic research topics; universities can independently conduct pure theoretical research, such as breakthroughs in the fundamentals of mathematics and physics; and enterprises can only provide suggestions on topics for 'application-oriented research'."

"Universities are free to publish papers on non-classified research results that are not funded by enterprises and shall not monopolize them. For research results from jointly funded projects, enterprises shall only obtain 'priority commercial rights' and shall not restrict universities from using them for teaching or other non-profit research."

"They do not participate in academic evaluations, such as the evaluation of teachers' professional titles in universities and the defense of students' graduation theses. The company personnel only provide opinions as 'external experts' and have no voting rights."

"I've finished speaking. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and I will answer them."

After Wang Dong finished speaking, he stood quietly on the stage.

Xu Songyao was the first to stand up and express his opinion, saying, "I strongly agree with the formation of this university alliance. It's a good thing from every perspective."

"With more funding for university development, students will have better and more job opportunities, and university teachers will have more opportunities to translate their research results into practical applications. Tangdu City's economy will also see significant growth due to the influx of talent."

"Tangdu Jiaotong University will actively promote cooperation with Galaxy Technology to build the disciplines of mathematics and aerospace engineering into world-class levels."

"In addition to cooperation, we will also make it clear that the academic committee members of the joint laboratory will be university professors to ensure that the research direction conforms to academic principles."

This was, after all, an official and formal occasion, so Xu Songyao's words carried a hint of official platitudes.

However, everyone could hear the support that Tangdu Jiaotong University had for Galaxy Technology from Xu Songyao's words.

Following Xu Songyao, the president of Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) picked up the microphone and said, "NPU fully supports Academician Wang's proposal to form a university alliance. NPU will focus on aerospace propulsion and intelligent unmanned systems. All collaborative achievements will be reviewed by relevant units, and a university-enterprise cooperation supervision committee will be established to prevent the misuse of technological achievements."

These words were both a statement of commitment to cooperation and a message to higher authorities.

After all, it involves a university alliance and a university-enterprise cooperation, so some things naturally need to be explained in advance and the relevant authorities need to be informed.

Soon, the university presidents present all expressed their opinions.

At this moment, the leaders of Tangdu City picked up the microphone and said, "The University Alliance will be a key project of Tangdu City, and will be given preferential policies such as tax breaks and land support. We will also disclose the details of the use of university funds in accordance with regulations and accept supervision from the auditing department."

"Tangdu City is willing to support the cooperation between the university alliance and Galaxy Technology with the utmost sincerity, and jointly promote technological development and economic growth."

Leaders from the Qin Province compound followed suit, stating, "We encourage university alliances to explore new mechanisms for 'industry-academia-research-application,' but we still need to adhere to four bottom lines: not affecting the autonomy of universities, not infringing on the rights and interests of researchers' research results, not involving the outflow of national security technologies, and not forming industry monopolies."

"..."

Wang Donglai stood on the stage, listening to the opinions of the crowd below, his expression calm and composed.

Forming a university alliance is actually a small matter.

However, if someone else were to handle it, the process would be much more complicated and take much longer, perhaps several months of negotiations, and there would be no way to get a result so quickly.

This speed was entirely due to Wang Donglai's personal involvement.

When the university presidents heard the proposal from the university alliance, they probably wouldn't have given so much face by coming to participate and agreeing so readily if they hadn't known that Wang Donglai would personally be involved.

After everyone had finished speaking, Wang Donglai spoke again, saying, "I have high hopes for this university alliance."

"I hope that all the universities in this alliance can improve their rankings, with the top-tier universities becoming the best and the best becoming the most prestigious."

"By broadening our perspective, this is not just a university alliance, but also a way to cultivate outstanding talents for the country and to build up talent reserves and strength for the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

"Nobody knows how long it will take before we truly usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or whether we have already arrived on the eve of the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

"Against this backdrop, our higher education has not been very successful."

"Many schools and many majors are unqualified and cannot keep up with the times."

"I think you are all well aware of the work that Tangdu Jiaotong University has been carrying out in the past two years to reduce and adjust its professional disciplines, eliminating some unimportant and seriously outdated professional disciplines and stopping enrollment. This work has attracted a lot of controversy."

“My stance is clear: I believe it is correct, reasonable, and necessary.”

"Many schools, whether they are universities or private colleges, offer a business administration program. I can't help but ask if the curriculum is really reasonable. Do the students who study this major have families that need management? Have they ever been exposed to management?"

"After they graduate, how many of them will be capable of management?"

"What is the value of disciplines such as hotel management, business administration, logistics management, human resource management, and public administration?"

"Students who are able to come to higher education institutions are all outstanding students who have walked the single-plank bridge of the college entrance examination. Their learning ability has been proven by their college entrance examination scores."

"Institutions of higher learning have the necessity and the obligation to provide them with a suitable and excellent learning environment and conditions."

“Wrong, unsuitable, and outdated academic disciplines will waste their precious four years of university life and their intelligence.”

"Therefore, the first thing this university alliance does is to provide special support for certain disciplines and majors, while also reducing or even eliminating enrollment in some outdated and unsustainable disciplines and majors."

Wang Donglai's voice wasn't loud, but at this moment it was like a thunderclap, silencing the entire conference hall. (End of Chapter)