Heavyweights from NTNU to China

NTNU's trip to China is nothing short of historic. The journey, with 60 academics and university leaders, will bring Digernes and his followers to Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing. The plan is to sign agreements with roughly 15 Chinese universities and educational institutions.

The rector concedes that taking nearly fifty academic staff and a dozen managers and support staff to China on behalf of the university sounds like a lot.

“But most of the academics in this party would probably come here on their own. We get more out of the trip this way,” Digernes says.

That he has decided to go with such a top-heavy delegation to China is in line with what the editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education describes as an international trend: global networking.

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Universities and academic institutions build relationships with selected sister universities around the world. This is how international recognition and reputations are built.

Many new agreements

“We have had a presence in China for some time,” the rector notes.

This presence is due to collaborative efforts between individual researchers and small groups and their Chinese counterparts. But now the university has set itself much higher goals. The ambition is to sign agreements with 16-17 universities, including those in Shanghai and Beijing. The plan calls for signing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and establishing Joint Research Centres.

“Our group represents considerable academic breadth. The biggest emphasis is on energy and environment and materials, but there are also physicians, architects and social scientists,” says Digernes.

Networking a must

This year it’s China. Next year it’s India. But while the geographic destinations have changed over the years, the fact that researchers and groups of researchers are working across international borders is hardly new.

“In order to achieve lasting relationships, you need to build institutional networks, not just individual ones. We've seen it before in China - that as people we have built relationships with disappear or are replaced, you have to start over,” Digernes says.

Official cooperation policy

"China is a dictatorship. How big a problem is this?

“Dictatorship is not the term I would use to describe China. We work in many countries with different governmental regimes. In cases like these, we rely on the official Norwegian cooperation policy. With China, Norway has a national agreement that encourages increased cooperation.

I am not aware that we have seen political influence in our academic efforts that is not legitimate, at least when it comes to the technological sciences. There’s more of a possibility of that happening in the social sciences, but I haven’t had any reports here either that it has been a problem.”

Risk of self-censorship?

“China is a huge country, and the Chinese can pick and choose who they want to work with. Academics who are in China for research reasons can be afraid that their visas will not be renewed if they do or say something that the government doesn’t like. Do you think that there is a risk of self-censorship here?”

“I am not aware that people from NTNU have had problems with this, but I have heard of other cases. This is the flip side of working in a country like China. But problems like these are not specific to this country. If we experience this kind of situation, we have to reassess the issue then,” Digernes says.

“Is NTNU good enough to be able to partner with these universities?”

“In some research areas we are among the best in the world. We have nothing to be ashamed of in that way. These kinds of agreements are suitable as benchmarking - and to set goals for our professional development. As a university we must have international visibility, otherwise we cannot meet the expectations that the government has for us,” Digernes says.