Training in Engineering and Science in China By P. J. Alley, B.E., A.M.I.C.E., M.N.Z.I.E. [Delivered before the Canterbury Branch as a lecture on June 4,1958.] Traditional beliefs in the backwardness of the Chinese were shattered when the author visited the country in the latter part of 1957. Especially is this so in the efforts being made to train the scientist and the engineer. If their value can be measured in terms of salary, then the engineer and scientist receive the greatest rewards. Their salary is three times that of the worker. By our standards the salary is not so high, but living costs of the Chinese are very much lower, and rent only amounts to 6 yuan a month. (6.70 yuan to the £, 1957.) A typical engineering university is that at Peking, where this year 15,000 engineers are being trained. China has a population of more than 600,000,000, and she trains about the same proportion of engineers and scientists as does New Zealand. The standards attained are equal to ours, and the equipment of laboratories is very much above that which exists in New Zealand. The professors in charge of the universities at present have been trained in overseas countries. For instance, Professor Wu at Peking was trained at Massachusetts, while others have been trained in England and Delft. The age of the lecturers in these subjects must of necessity be young, and the ratio of staff to students is about 1 to 7. As an instance of the youth of the university staff, I was talking to a group of university people at Chengchow, when a young man approached us and said, “Excuse me, I teach English at this university, and I would like to talk with you. I have never yet spoken to a person whose native language is English.” All this was said in perfect English. Claims are made that the Chinese lean heavily upon the U.S.S.R. for technical guidance. They acknowledge freely that much help has been given, but the author found that at a mechanical engineering university in Peking, one-third of the textbooks used were of Soviet origin, another third of English and American origin, and the remaining third Chinese. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in 1949 with seventeen research bodies, and this had increased to fifty-seven in 1956. There are four departments under the Academy: 1. The Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. 2. The Department of Biology, Geology and Geography. 3. The Department of Technical Sciences. 4. The Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences. The Department of Mathematics and Chemistry has ten research bodies, six of them in Peking, two in Shanghai, and one in Changchun and Nanking. The Department of Biology, Geology, and Geography has twenty-four research bodies, ten in Peking, and die others at Shanghai, Wuhan, Tsingtao, Canton, and Shenyang. The Department of Technical Sciences has twelve research bodies situated as follows: Peking: Institutes of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering, Laboratory of Dynamics, Automation, and Remote Control, Electronics. Shanghai: Institute of Metallurgy and Ceramics. Shenyang: Institute of Metal Research. Changchun. Institutes of Instrument Technology, Mechanical and Electrical. Harbin: Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture (including a Soil Mechanics Laboratory with 11 rooms packed full of every kind of equipment, and under Dr. Tan, who was trained at Delft). Dairen: Institutes of Petroleum and Coal Research.