On May 12, the 2018 Annual Meeting on University Cultural Research of the Chinese Association of Higher Education and the first Tianjin University Forum on University Culture was held at Tianjin University. Over 130 experts and scholars from more than 40 universities and research institutions attended these events. The forum formed the "Tianjin Initiative" on “University Culture-Building with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era”.

In the context of strengthening a nation through education, the focus for discussion in this forum was: How can Chinese universities maintain the right direction in education while building their own culture? How can universities achieve development goals within the concept of cultural nourishment? And how can a university display its own personality regarding its own actual conditions?

The Forum proved to be a fruitful event. A shared understanding on culture-building of Chinese universities in the new era was reached, and resulted in the scholars jointly launching the "Tianjin Initiative" on "building university culture with Chinese characteristics in the new era."

Experts and scholars also proposed four cardinal principles for culture-building at universities: Culture-building should keep pace with the times; Culture-building should serve the mission of universities and promote the development of the academic ethos, educators’ ethics and generating impetus to cultivate talent for our nation and society; Culture-building should value the inheritance and innovations of our fine culture; Universities should highlight their own personalities in light of their actual conditions in culture-building .

It was the first university culture forum held at Tianjin University. Lei Ming, Vice Party Secretary of Tianjin University presided over the opening ceremony. Leaders of related municipal governments, the Chinese Association of Higher Education, and Tianjin University attended the event and delivered speeches.

Tianjin University Party Secretary, Li Jiajun made reference to all the exploration by and practices of Tianjin University in its culture-building. As the first modern university in China, Tianjin University has shaped a profound cultural heritage in its 120 years of development. The mission to strengthen the Chinese nation and promote China's education, the motto of “Seeking Truth from Facts”, the spirit of “rigorous academic scholarship”, the tradition of “patriotic dedication” and the commitment to innovation are all forces that have shaped the character of the faculty members of Tianjin University and have been inspiring people of Tianjin University to work to build a world-class university. “Tianjin University will keep on building excellent characters and set out on a new journey to become a world-class university with distinctive Chinese features. We will continue to devote our efforts to the realization of our Chinese dream: the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

In a parallel session, representatives were divided into two groups for discussion: one group of undergraduate colleges and another of vocational colleges. The former group focused on the mission and role of Chinese universities in promoting culture, the value of Chinese classics and traditional culture in the inheritance and innovative development of university culture, and the reality of and cultivation path for organizing local university culture. The latter group centered on topics including the significance of craftsmanship and the spirit of inheritance in building cultural confidence in vocational colleges, internal generating mechanisms of craftsmanship, and the requirements of times and the future development approaches to cultural education in vocational colleges.

In the invited speeches, Yang Rui, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong, contended that the mission of top universities in China is to combine the outstanding traditions of western higher education with those of Chinese. Zha Qiang from York University in Canada, proposed that Chinese universities should focus on developing students’ ability of “Learning to Learn” and “Learning to Be”. Professor Hamish Goates, from the University of Melbourne, Australia spoke from the Australian higher education perspective. He said that Australian universities need to form a new and sustainable workforce model to respond to technological changes. Australian universities plan to create a more inclusive academic environment for diverse personalities and offer academic and executive personnel more professional training.