Colin Lucas Discusses Role of Universities to Reconcile Traditions with Modern Times

at Upcoming Beijing Forum

Peking University, Oct. 24th, 2011: Colin Lucas, Former President of Oxford University and Former Chair of the Board of the British Library, has accepted invitation to give a keynote speech entitled Role of Universities to Reconcile Traditions with Modern Times at the upcoming 2011 Beijing Forum.

The three-day Beijing Forum “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All” - hosted jointly by Peking University, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, and Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies - consists of a series of speeches and seven panels exploring issues on tradition and modernity, transition and transformation from various perspectives. Sir Colin Lucas will address the issue in the field of university education.

Sir Colin Lucas is a scholar with worldwide reputation. He studied at Oxford. After graduation, he took a post at the University of Sheffield, and then later at the University of Manchester and the University of Chicago. Simultaneously he was granted membership of many education institutions and research centers. In 1994, he returned to Oxford and then became President of Oxford University in 1997. He was the first Oxford president to serve for seven years, during which he managed to lead Oxford to face the challenges of globalization and address the ensuing problems. Later, he was appointed in 2006 as Chair of the Board of the British Library for a four-year term ending 2010. He is now a member of the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Sir Lucas specializes in the history of 18th century France, especially the French Revolution. What he focuses on is the origin of revolutions, public violence and democracy in the oppressive environment. His academic publications include The Structure of Terror, Beyond the Terror and numerous essays and papers, etc.

Sir Lucas has also visited China for many times and gave lectures in Peking University, Tsinghua University and Sun Yat-Sen University, sharing his original opinions on establishment and management of fist-rate universities.

With more and more world scholars contributing to the conference, Beijing Forum has gradually developed into a world event for exchanges and communications from academia across the world, promoting development and communications of the world’s higher education. So far, over two hundred university presidents have attended previous Beijing Forums.  Sir Collin Lucas will soon join them. We believe his inspiring speech will add to the essence of the 2011 Beijing Forum. We are looking forward to the opening of 2011 Beijing Forum.

Written by: Liao Songyuan

Edited by: Li Xiaomeng

Source: PKU News (Chinese)