German Professor Ulrich Stein Miller has become one of very few foreigners appointed to senior posts at leading Chinese universities after becoming president of the Foreign Languages College at the prestigious Zhejiang University, east China.

Prof. Miller was former vice-president of the University of Technology of Berlin and will serve in his new position for two years at the university, in Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang Province, said Pan Yunhe, president of the university.

Miller would preside over a comprehensive reform of the college in a full and free manner, said Pan. The professor was expected within two years to lift teaching and research levels and the competitiveness of the college, and to build a high-quality faculty through recruiting both domestic and international experts and scholars.

Pan said his university had confidence in Prof. Miller and hoped that his appointment would raise the foreign languages college to one of the world's best.

Zhejiang University would give Prof. Miller monthly pay and another 10,000 yuan (approximately US$1,200) subsidy to cover travel and communications expenditure in China. The German professor would keep his teachership at the German university and come to China twice a year to work a total of three months in the university. He would give instructions via e-mail or phone the rest of the year, said Pan.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2003)