On the afternoon of May 3, 2017, the 58th Jingshi Business and Management Celebrity Forum was presided over by Prof. Li Shi from BNUBS. In the forum, Prof. Scott Rozelle from Stanford University gave a lecture in Chinese themed with “When Does China’s Education Crisis Begin? Tracking the Cognitive Development of Babies, Kids and Youth in Rural China”, followed by comments from Prof. Lai, Dean of BNUBS.

At the beginning of the forum, Prof. Rozelle was brief introduced. He is Stanford University Helen Farnsworth Endowed Professorship professor and senior fellow, policy counsellor of the World Bank and NUDP Chinese Office. He had contributed greatly on the analysis of agricultural supply and demand, and the economic analysis of poverty and inequality. Then, Prof. Lai and Prof. Li issued him the letter of appointment to become BNU guest professor and academic committee researcher of the Income Distribution Research Institute.

In the lecture, Prof. Rozelle first introduced the situation of China’s human capital and explained its important role in causing the middle income trap from the perspective of China’s education. After that, he illustrated the root of high dropout rate and low human capital in rural China, which he concluded is due to the poor education quality and low cognitive ability before middle school education. Finally, Prof. Rozelle put forward some suggestions to improve children’s education and increase human capital.

Prof. Lai complimented Prof. Rozelle as “a foreign professor who speaks the best Chinese, tells the best story and knows China the best”, and extended the wish to conduct a long-term cooperation with Prof. Rozelle. The forum ended with warm applause soon after the Q&A session, photo taking and gift exchange.