Introducing the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development:
The idea that China establishes the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development was initiated and announced by Chinese President XI Jinping during the High-Level Roundtable on South-South Cooperation at the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the United Nations in New York on September 26, 2015. With strong support from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance, and by virtue of Peking University’s strength in humanities and social sciences, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) was officially established at the National School of Development of Peking University (NSD) on April 29, 2016. President XI Jinping has announced that China will enhance development experience-sharing and capacity-building cooperation with other countries through the platform of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development during his host of the Dialogue of Emerging Market and Developing Countries on September 5, 2017 in Xiamen, Fujian.
Combining local knowledge with global vision, the new Institute is committed to excellence in national development research, talent training for developing countries, and dynamic exchange platform for global cooperation, and devoted to promoting equitable, inclusive and sustainable growth by sharing knowledge and experience on matters of public leadership and national development, with developing and especially the least developed countries.
The core faculty of ISSCAD draws heavily from NSD, which has an established reputation both academically and as a policy think-tank in China. Well aware that to craft effective solutions to complex real-world problems would require a multidisciplinary and actionable approach, the core faculty is also supported synergistically by a scalable network of select faculty and professional (including senior government officials) associates from other schools and departments of Peking University and beyond. The purpose is to nurture a vibrant interdisciplinary learning environment that encourages intense inquiry, open dialogue, and cross-cultural learning and serves as a bridge between theory and practice.
The Institute offers both degree programs and non-degree executive education programs. Our degree programs feature a rigorous economics-centred and problem-solving oriented curriculum which also covers quantitative analysis, political institutions, strategic management, leadership, and globalization.
A flagship of internationalization of education at Peking University, the Institute offers regular semester-based courses in English. Through these regular courses, supplemented by fieldwork and workshops on various policy domains (such as education and poverty reduction, population and public health, social security and public safety, urban development and land reform, energy and environment, industrial upgrading and technological innovation, and global governance and foreign policy), students are expected to develop a box of conceptual tools that is cross-disciplinary in nature but adapted for actions appropriate for local or country-specific conditions. On behalf of the Institute’s first 26 master graduates, a student representative read out a thank-you letter to President XI Jinping at their Commencement Ceremony on July 6, 2017, thanking China for giving them the opportunity to learn more about the country’s experiences in reform and opening-up. On October 11, 2017, President XI Jinping encouraged graduates of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development at Peking University to be leaders of reform and development in their own countries by replying them the letter.
