Hainan takes lead on Tropical Universities League

A new university alliance focusing on the tropics will be led by Hainan University, tackling sustainability in a strategically important region.

The Tropical Universities League (TUL), which was announced this week in Chinese national media, will facilitate research collaboration on sustainability and climate change in the hot-weather countries located around the equator.

Home to 40 per cent of the global population, the tropics host 80 per cent of terrestrial biodiversity and 95 per cent of the world’s mangroves and corals. The region is also an increasingly important source of natural resources, with 50 per cent of people expected to live in the region by 2050 – and particularly vulnerable as global temperatures rise.

Although thematic university alliances exist in other key areas – with European alliances in health, the circular economy and agriculture, for instance – researchers said that few, if any, are currently devoted to tackling challenges in the tropics.

TUL’s members include an unusually geographically diverse group: Cairo University in Egypt; the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS); Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; Hainan; Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in Indonesia; the University of São Paulo, Brazil; and the University of Malaya and the Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Malaysia.

“As an institution based in Hainan, China’s largest free trade port, we understand the intricate interplay of climate, economy and sustainable development in the tropics,” said Luo Qingming, president of Hainan University.

Miguel Lim, a senior lecturer in international education at the University of Manchester, said that while quite different in size and mission, the participating institutions were tied by common “climatic structures and constraints”.

“What distinguishes tropical universities is clearly the geography,” he said. “From travels and conversations in the region, I had a sense of a growing attention to sustainability issues – of which several are linked to particular climate-related challenges – and opportunities.”

Anding Shi, a doctoral researcher in higher education at the University of Oxford, noted the significance of participation in the initiative by Hainan University and CATAS, both of which are Hainan-based, given Beijing’s emphasis on making the tropical island an international education hub.

She recalled that in a 2018 speech, China’s president, Xi Jinping, called for Hainan institutions to “firmly establish…the concept that clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets and…set an example for the ecological development of the whole country”.

Chia-Ming Hsueh, a vice-dean and professor at Taiwan’s Minghsin University of Science and Technology, was optimistic about the alliance, citing complementary links between institutions stronger in humanities, such as Cairo, and others, like São Paulo, that excel in engineering and medicine.

But he cautioned that the alliance, which is spread across a number of continents, could face some setbacks from “cultural and language differences”.

“This could pose challenges in terms of communication and cooperation,” he said. “Investing time and resources in addressing these differences will be necessary.”

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com