The Education Ministry has issued a statement in response to a motion put forward by members of the country's top political advisory body urging universities to reopen their campus to the public after closing them during the COVID-19 pandemic. While recognizing the importance of building open campuses, the ministry has kicked the ball to the universities by instructing them to adjust their measures to suit their own conditions, stressing that a prerequisite for opening campuses again is that the teachers and students should not be disturbed.

Even before the pandemic, there was a debate over whether and to what extent university campuses should be open to the public. For example, if the fast-and-furious couriers riding electric scooters are allowed to enter campuses, they will immediately become racetracks for the around-the-clock deliveries of kung pao chicken with rice or Big Macs. The tranquility that the teaching faculty and students have become accustomed to over the past four years will be lost in an instant.

There is no doubt that a campus not open to visitors is much easier to manage. However, the universities are also duty-bound to provide certain public cultural services to the society by acting as a platform for knowledge and talent exchanges, and actively being part of the socioeconomic life of the nation.

Instead of turning a deaf ear to society's call for the reopening of campuses, the universities can demarcate certain areas open to visitors for a specific period of time according to their actual conditions. Openness and inclusiveness are the core spirit of modern universities. Many prestigious universities around the world, including the University of Oxford and Harvard University, merge with the towns where they are located having no bounding walls at all.

BEIJING NEWS