The opening ceremony of Duke Kunshan University in 2015. The school, a Sino-US partnership between Duke University and Wuhan University, started admissions in 2014. [Photo/dukekunshan.edu.cn]

Jiangsu also focused on setting up educational bases co-run by local and foreign institutes, such as a Suzhou-based research institute jointly organized by Monash University in Australia and the local Southeast University.

Soochow University is another example. The school not only partners with foreign institutes on various talent training programs, but is also developing itself into an internationally recognized educational brand.

The school set up a branch in Laos in 2012. Students there can choose their majors from international finance, Chinese language and computer science, and start living and learning in China in their second school year.

According to Wang Dong, a teacher at the Laotian branch, students graduating from the school were ideal candidates for local companies.

“Companies, including the Vientiane branch of the Bank of China, are always extending olive branches to us students,” Wang said.

What’s more, Jiangsu attaches great importance to the development of educators. Each year more than 2,000 local teachers take part in training programs overseas, and some 600 of them were financially supported by the provincial government.