On December 5, 2020, the 2nd Conference on the Development of World-class Research Universities was held at Southern University of Science and Technology in the city of Shenzhen. The conference was hosted by the Higher Education Research Center of Southern University of Science and Technology, themed as “The Road to Innovative University Development”. More than 200 experts and scholars from all over the country attended the conference.

IICE Professor LIU Baocun attended the conference and delivered a speech entitled “Pursuing Diversified Excellence: The Development Paths of Innovative Universities”. Professor LIU analyzed the innovation orientation of different types of universities around the world in their respective development process, and emphasized the importance of diverse excellence not constrained by a fixed definition on the course of developing world-class universities.