MINISTER’S 1978 VISIT OPENED DOOR TO UK UNIVERSITIES
Education secretary sealed agreement that saw nearly 500 Chinese students head to Britain in 1979
Before 1978, only a few dozen Chinese students had attended British universities, but that changed the following year, when hundreds made the journey.
The turnaround followed a visit to China by then UK education secretary Shirley Williams in July 1978, just as the country was embarking on reform and opening-up. She urged China to embrace foreign thinking and education.
One visible sign of change after Deng Xiaoping became the nation’s leader in the late 1970s was the realization that foreign knowledge would aid modernization.
As a result, the Chinese government invited a British delegation, led by Williams, to discuss how more Chinese students could enroll at British universities, allowing China to catch up with Western technology.
Looking back, “it was a huge step”, Williams said. “It was recognition that China is part of the global world. And it was a move toward being internationally recognized, because, for quite a long time, China didn’t think it could learn from other countries anymore.”
The change demonstrated China’s commitment to building new international relations and encouraging its businesspeople to interact with the British market system.
Williams lauded Deng’s contribution to the reform process, saying: “Deng was an amazing leader and he opened the doors. Not only did he talk about China to the West, but he also talked about the West to China. He was a remarkable and successful leader.”
Recalling her first visit, Williams said she was met by the equivalent of the minister of education, quite a few civil servants and lots of head teachers.
“Education can be a rather closed world, and they were all fascinated,” she said. “They just loved sitting there and talking, limited by translation obviously.”
Translation was provided by her niece, who was studying Mandarin in China at the time. “My niece was able to say, ‘You ought to ask about that (issue) because they haven’t touched on that yet,’” she joked.
She said that during her 1978 visit, the dialogue with the Chinese government was mainly about primary education.
“They were interested in English primary education and were very struck by the way in which we conducted primary education,” Williams said. “In China, there was a somewhat old-fashioned approach to the relationship between teacher and pupil, in which the teacher was not just a teacher but also a kind of commanding figure.”
She equated the teacher-child relationship in China at the time to that of the Victorian and Edwardian eras in Britain, between 1837 and 1910, with strict discipline, a lot of reciting together and learning by rote.
“What we brought, to some extent, to China was a sense of emancipation — bringing children into the sharing of teaching and learning, not just sitting there being told what to think,” Williams said. “It took quite a long time for China to get somewhat away from that.”
Arranging for some Chinese students to go to the United Kingdom was a focus during Williams’ visit. After a few days of intense discussion, an agreement was made for nearly 500 to head to the UK the following year, bound for universities, polytechnics, colleges and English-language schools.
Williams said they were largely sponsored by the British government during the first five years, although sourcing the funding wasn’t smooth sailing.
“We had a little crisis when we realized that China (was) serious about sending hundreds of Chinese to the UK,” she said. “So we got in touch with the (British) government, which was in the middle of an economic crisis, and eventually the then Labour government sort of swallowed hard and found the money. The initial five years or so was largely scholarship, provided by the British government.”
William Buckley, then director of North Cheshire College, told The Guardian newspaper that when he was informed about China’s training needs and desire for national development, he ensured the prospective students had passed their key examinations in China with distinction, and would have the right kind of motivation.
Williams said the Chinese government wanted to have the students focus on areas such as aeronautics and aerospace engineering, and that made sense.
“It wasn’t just an academic thing — it was a deliberate attempt, very sensibly, to fill certain gaps in China’s traditional education,” she said. “It would be more appropriate than simply trying to do it in China itself.”
Williams’ trip to China was a significant milestone, paving the way for Britain to welcome more students from China. It now hosts the largest Chinese student community in Europe.