The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a consultation meeting in Beijing on June 5, focusing on the handling of a key proposal on reforming the education sector, more specifically on the building of world-class university disciplines. Zhu Yongxin, vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and executive vice-chairman of the China Association for Promoting Democracy Central Committee, addressed the meeting. 

Zhu said making proposals is an essential way for the CPPCC to perform its functions, an important vehicle for upholding and improving the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and a key pathway to assist Party and government organizations in achieving democratic and scientific decision-making. 

He called on CPPCC members to thoroughly study and implement the central leadership's key instructions on improving the CPPCC's work in general and on proposal work in particular, conduct in-depth research into issues of public concern and make high-quality proposals accordingly by fully tapping their expertise. 

Proposal-handling departments need to study the issues reflected in the proposal and the suggestions put forward, handle the proposal with the aim of promoting the integrated reform of the education, science and technology, and talent systems and mechanisms in a coordinated manner, and incorporate consultative democracy into the entire handling process, to ensure that the proposal is effectively materialized into tangible results, he said. 

The office of the Committee on Education, Science, Health and Sport of the CPPCC National Committee should continue to support and serve the committee members in conducting in-depth research on relevant topics, constantly deepen theoretical research and practical innovation, and strive to promote the continuous improvement of proposal-related work, he added.

Sun Yao, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and former vice-minister of education, gave a briefing on the proposal on behalf of CPPCC members in the education sector. Officials from the proposal-handling departments, including the Education Ministry, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the Ministry of Finance, introduced their work progress in handling the proposal. Meeting participants also held thorough discussions on issues such as increasing educational funding, enhancing support for postdoctoral research stations in universities, and responding to the challenges brought by artificial intelligence to the development of universities.