Educator Yang Fujia passes away at age 86

Yang Fujia, member of the China Central Institute for Culture and History, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, former president of Fudan University and president of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. [Photo/UNNC]

Yang Fujia, a renowned physicist and educator who spent his entire life teaching others and promoting the development of education in China, passed away at the age of 86 in Shanghai on July 17.  

In 1958, Yang graduated from the Department of Physics of Fudan University, where he then went on to serve as a teacher. From 1963 to 1965, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. After he returned to China, he established a laboratory entitled "Accelerator-based Atomic and Nuclear Physics Laboratory", and became the first to carry out research on ion beam analysis in China. 

From 1993 to 1999, Yang served as the president of Fudan University. In 2001, he was selected as the sixth Chancellor of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, becoming the first Chinese national to serve as the president of a British institution. 

Having served as the president of well-known universities for many years, Yang had profound insights into the development of higher education and talent cultivation. He advocated the idea of liberal arts education and promoted the reform of higher education in China.  

 "I was fortunate enough to be the president of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom for 12 years. I visited countless universities around the world and gradually came to understand what liberal arts education is really all about. Naturally, I am also thinking about whether this excellent teaching system can be implemented in China," said Yang.

To promote liberal arts education in China, Yang became involved in the establishment of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, the first Sino-foreign university in China, and served as the president of the university until his death.  

President Yang adhered to three principles in his work at the university - focus on teaching quality, insistence that education should "ignite the flame in students' hearts", and emphasizing "human beings first, professionals second."

During Yang's tenure as president, the university steadily moved forward on the premise of ensuring teaching quality, and has cultivated many outstanding students who have shone across the globe over the years. 

Many graduate students wrote in their letters to Yang that "the university has changed our lives".