The finals of the seventh China International College Students’ “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition were held yesterday at Nanchang University in East China’s Jiangxi Province. Wu Yan, director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, said a total of 9.56 million students from 4,347 universities in 121 countries and regions have signed up for this year’s competition, up by 51 percent from last year. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging globally, more than 15,600 students from 117 countries and regions abroad have participated in the competition this year, marking an increase of 74 percent year-on-year, Wu said. They include students from world-renowned universities such as Harvard, Oxford University and Cambridge, he said. With the increase in its scale, this year’s competition has increased the number of projects for finals from 1,600 last year to 3,500 this year, while the number of gold medals was raised from 158 last year to 320 this year, he said. The competition has been held every year since 2015, Wu said, with 25.33 million students taking part in it. The projects that have won gold medals in past competitions have created more than 500,000 new jobs, he added. “The scale and quality of the competition has kept improving and it has become the most influential and extensive innovation and entrepreneurship competition for college students in China.” Universities in China have opened more than 30,000 courses on innovation and entrepreneurship. They also have employed almost 35,000 full-time teachers and 139,000 working part time to assist students’ innovation and entrepreneurship efforts, he said. Zhou Chuangbing, president of Nanchang University, said the university has made all the preparations for the upcoming finals, with more than 2,000 faculty members and more than 3,000 students serving as volunteers. More than 12,000 students at the university participated in this year’s competition, up by 45 percent from last year, he said. (Xinhua) | 