Deputy Qin He is interviewed during the national two sessions in Beijing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Qin He, a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) from Northeast China's Jilin province and president of Jilin International Studies University, called for stabilizing the size and improving the structure of nation's higher education, during this year's national two sessions, according to local reports.

Qin said that with rapid expansion of higher education, many problems had appeared, such as an imperfect quality assurance system, imbalanced structure and unbalanced regional development.

Given this, she made five suggestions. The first was to innovate college admissions and management modes, establishing a flexible management mechanism. That would mean, she said, linking enrollment plans with the quality of professionals, the employment situation of graduates and funding for the universities and colleges.

The second was to adjust and optimize the national university and college establishment policy, which meant encouraging universities and colleges to achieve high-quality development and shut down those of low quality.

The third suggestion was to give more support for universities and colleges focusing on training applications-oriented professionals -- both in policy and funds -- as well as support them to establish reasonable resource allocation mechanisms and evaluation mechanisms.

Qin also suggested adjusting and improving the layout of higher education disciplines -- calling for more focus on communication technology, biotechnology, new materials, new energy, artificial intelligence, deep space and deep sea exploration and other emerging fields, as well as establishing major scientific research infrastructure in some universities and colleges.

In addition, she also suggested more national support for higher education in central and western regions, in terms of financial investment, talent policy and scientific research projects.

This, she said, was in order to tackle problems such as insufficient funding and the outflow of talent in China's northeastern and northwestern regions.