NYU Shanghai as a study in globalisation

The founding chancellor of New York University Shanghai, Yu Lizhong, likens the joint venture between New York University and East China Normal University to a couple expecting a child.

He said it had been love at first sight for both, followed by the honeymoon, and they were now facing the reality of whether they could produce a world-class university and help nurture reform of the mainland's clumsy education system.

"Higher education in China has come such a long way that it's no longer about having another school to accommodate more students, but about whether we can produce one of the best schools in the world to set an example for the rest in China," Yu said. "So it's of little significance if we just founded another mediocre university."

Yu, 64, said NYU Shanghai would try to set itself apart from most mainland universities with a strong focus on students' needs and the establishment of a "scientific community" to give academics and professors a bigger say in school management. It will be run by a board of directors rather than an in-house Communist Party committee, freeing it from much of the bureaucratic meddling that besets  mainland tertiary education.

Yu said it would admit 300 students, including 150 from overseas - two-thirds of them American - in its first intake later this year.

Nearly 2,000 mainland students applied during its recruitment period, even though it limited first-year recruitment to just 10 mainland regions.