| Shi Yigong, a national adviser and the president of Hangzhou-based Westlake University noted that despite the fact that China's higher education has made a great leap, it is still lagging behind in some basic research areas. He suggested that the nation needs to ramp up efforts in cultivating outstanding talents with creativity and social responsibility, which is the target and direction of China's educational system in the future and the fundamental purpose of the Westlake University. Initiated by a group of China's top scientists and supported by the government, the Westlake University was established in 2018 and is China's first private university aimed at cultivating high-level talents in advanced technology. In July 2016, the university launched a global recruitment campaign for academics and has received more than 6,000 applications from all over the world over the past two and a half years, among which 100 world-leading scientists were selected and employed, Shi said, adding "more than 80 percent of them are talented Chinese students nurtured by our country and then sent to study or do research overseas". | 
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