Some of Shanghai's universities are expected to have their walls and fences dismantled, making campus resources more accessible to the public.

"We plan to remove the wall and open the campus to the public," said Xu Xu, secretary of the Communist Party of China committee of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, who is also a political adviser in Shanghai.

Xu made the remarks at the annual meeting of the municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that concluded on Saturday.

The school campus is located in Fenyang Road in the city's downtown area. There are six historical buildings on the campus, including the former Jewish club and the former Belgian Consulate in Shanghai. These old buildings shaded by green trees attract many music and history lovers.

Xu said that the purpose of demolishing the wall is to allow artistic resources to better serve the society.

The school is not alone in making the transition. A number of higher education institutions in the city have initiated similar moves or planned to tear down their walls to share campus resources with the public.

Huang Changyong, president of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, said the school would make its theater more accessible to neighborhood communities, and it plans to build an art gallery and a drama space on the Huashan Road outside the campus to turn the street into an "avenue themed on drama and art."

The school's Pudong campus, which opened in 2019, is already a fenceless one situated on the bank of Huangpu River, integrating the campus with a riverfront park and a nearby community.

"Going fenceless has become a new trend for universities," said Ding Xiaodong, president of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, at the meeting.

Ding also pointed out that universities open and share their resources with the public on the premise of comprehensive institutional guarantee, as school roads are transformed into public roads. Traffic safety and school security need to be clarified in terms of management responsibilities.

He said the school is discussing these campus-opening arrangements with city and district authorities.

Source: Xinhua

Editor: Zhang Long