Editorial:
This is a great era of change, also a golden age of pursuing dreams. The glorious mission of national rejuvenation and the noble cause of realizing dreams call for “the heaven exerting him to raise diverse talents”. As an important force for social change and development, it is university’s irreplaceable responsibility to train talents. How can universities make the most energetic university students with the most thinking and innovating capabilities cultivate personality, broaden their horizons and increase their abilities just like sponge absorbing water in ivory towers, to combine private dreams and China Dream after graduation and join the great journey to achieve national rejuvenation? This is the answer to consider and challenge to face for every university, including local universities and colleges exploring transformation. So, where does reform power of local universities and colleges grow? How do universities uphold their functions? In terms of these questions, this column organized experts and scholars to conduct in-depth response.
Host: Reporter LI Weiwei
Honored guests: HUANG Guoxiong (Deputy Secretary-General of Hubei Provincial Government)
SHANG Gang (Party Secretary of Wuhan Textile University)
WANG Hanqing (Party Secretary of Hunan University of Commerce)
ZHANG Jinlong (President of Wuhan Business School)
BIE Dunrong (Director of Education and Development Research Center of Xiamen University)
Openness and integration
Embracing the “digital tsunami”, focusing on mutual promotion of teaching and learning
[Snapshots]
In the past two years, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and other C9 universities, Tongji University, Dalian University of Technology, Chongqing University, one after another announced to work together to explore standards, sharing mechanism, platform and curriculum construction of “online open courses”. These universities also try to figure out training model of inter-institution minor majors based on this platform, and way to share courses with the whole society. They will lead and promote innovative development of online education and higher education. Different from advanced classes with such high tech information equipments as Internet, satellite, and mobile terminals, many universities spontaneously promote “no cell phone classroom” activities to get away from “mobile phone syndrome”
Host: With the development of new technologies and diverse access to knowledge, university education is bound to confront barriers in the wave of new technologies, to find and build a more rational education concepts and systems. Facing the overwhelming agitated impact, what kind of service university education could provide for young students?
HUANG Guoxiong: Reports of the 18thNational People’s Congress emphasized on the adherence to new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, agricultural modernization with Chinese characteristics. Its core is “informationization”, and the core of “informationization” lie in the cultivation and increase of person’s information literacy. As an institution to train people, universities are bound to play an important role in “informationization”. In the process, local universities and colleges should actively use new technologies to expand universities’ denotations and deepen their connotations, using informationized teaching methods to enhance teaching effectiveness. Universities should further open up vision to introduce foreign high-quality educational resources, which uphold localized cultivation with Chinese characteristics and utilize international education philosophy in all-round way.
SHANG Gang: Yes, today’s world is undergoing extensive and profound changes. Changes brought by new technological innovations in recent decades surpass those in the past one hundred years. University administrators should have such a forward-looking understanding. “MOOC” is one of the forms of impact of technological innovations on learning. Emergence of Internet enables students to acquire knowledge no longer confined to the classroom. But why do students still need to stay in school to study? In this regard, the answer of HUANG Yilv, president of Ursinus College in America, is that 90% of cultivation of their school to students is beyond the classroom. This is to emphasize the importance of university culture for student cultivation. Local universities should introduce more masters and create a good educational environment. With masters’ words and deeds, teaching and learning can be integrated together to form unique cultural spirits of local universities and colleges, where students dip, grow and succeed, obtaining real benefit.
WANG Hanqing: In the age of information, when promoting students’ ability to obtain information, universities should train students to distinguish, select and process information. Therefore, universities in the Information Age are like massive “information processing factories”. Here, teachers must attach great importance to carry out various forms of teacher-student interactions in the process of guiding self-learning. Teachers should also give full play to personal charisma and advantages of “getting knowledge earlier” and “specializing in their major”, so as to fully tap their learning potential and creative potential. To this end, local universities and colleges must have a more open attitude and make full use of information technology, to provide good environment for creating diverse teacher-student interaction scenarios.
ZHANG Jinlong: The rise of “MOOC” shows the education spectacular of “No Child Left Behind”. Platform, entirely different from traditional teaching, brings more equitable educational opportunities. According to the latest statistics of Harvard University, the number of students registering “MOOC” has exceeded the total number of the past 377 years. However, there are still worries under such spectaculars. Rapid growth of enrollment and courses on “MOOC” platform triggered series of quality crisis: such as evaluation of teaching effect, enthusiasm management of teachers, and sustainability of learners’ active learning, and so on. Therefore, local universities and colleges should insist on the integration of science and technology and humanities, to create a “mutual promotion of teaching and learning” environment. Local universities should provide students with interdisciplinary diverse and individualized teaching with orderly balance and clear presentation, to transfer the process of teaching knowledge to construction process of educational value system.
Breakthrough and Participation
Differentiated development to stimulate students’ inner motivation
[Snapshots]
From the initial contact with stage, entering into the “Model class” to winning the champion of “2013 Shanghai International Model Contest”, LIU Yanglin, student of Wuhan Textile University and majoring in fashion show, spent a year to complete the transformation from a stage rookie to a rising star. Since entering college, students in the “Model class” are waiting for various competitions. Winning the champion of 37thMiss Tourism World in China, PANG Panpan, a student of this school majoring in fashion show, said: “Competition is more like exam. It is a comprehensive evaluation of what they have learned in school.”
Host: Local universities uphold the educational philosophy with unique characteristics, which presents a growing need for students to go beyond the classroom and the textbook to connect with industry and social needs out of the campus, and motivate students’ inner driving force. What kind of educational and cultural philosophy can local universities and colleges use to cultivate talents that satisfy society’s needs?
HUANG Guoxiong: Differentiated development is the major trend of running universities. Differentiated development means competition on different levels, and collaborative development with their own characteristics. The college entrance examination reform established skill and academic modes of college entrance examinations to break inertia of thinking of “vocational colleges inferior to ordinary universities” in the society. The country is speeding up the construction of modern vocational education system. In the future, the pros and cons of these two education modes will no longer be obvious, but their emphases are different on talent training. Universities must seize the opportunity and identify the position to serve the social needs with its own educational characteristics. Universities that need to transform should dilute the definition of disciplines and strengthen professions to connect with business needs and positions.
SHANG Gang: Different levels of colleges and universities can run at a high level. The key is that the differences of level lie in service objects and the differences of rank in service quality. It won’t work for local universities and colleges to seek splendid, large and all-round development. The breach of their development lies in serving economic and social development with special majors and personnel. Local colleges and universities should focus on promoting the reform of the credit system and provide students with more space for self-learning and personalized development; Also, to pay attention to educating people with practices and make efforts to establish an open multi-level practical education system so as to promote the development of students’ practical ability and ability of innovation and entrepreneurship; Finally, to strengthen the construction of second classrooms to improve students’ personality and their overall quality.
WANG Hanqing: At present, there are still local universities and colleges running for governments or by copying from each other. To solve these problems, on the one hand, the government should fully respect and effectively protect the decisive right of universities and colleges, and guide them to change personnel training modes through a series of related policies at the macro level to meet the market demands for talents; on the other hand, universities per se should change their concepts to dock with the market actively and form their own characteristics of talent cultivation. We want students select courses of their interests according to their own career planning. DING Zhaozhong, the Chinese who winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, said: “Interest is more important than talent”. To cultivate and develop interests could make every student have a distinct personality and individuality, and this is a unique method to fully stimulate students’ inner motivation.
ZHANG Jinlong: Local universities and colleges should strengthen their cooperation with local government, industry and large enterprises and promote the school-running with their own characteristics in multiple channels. Universities and colleges should understand regional economy and social needs to elevate schools’ response to environment and survivability. Meanwhile, we should actively seek and find personnel fitting with the school’s characteristics. Quality of universities is directly proportional to selection of talents. Yale University has been committed to looking for students who could become leaders in his field whatever he pursues under cultivation of the school. Universities with their own characteristics surely could not lack featured talents. Although the economic background might cause students to accept higher education in different levels, universities, especially, could optimize students’ competitiveness with unique strategies. The “key” of selecting talents of universities with unique characteristics lies in “never pick the top in the list blindly, but select the most special”.
BIE Dunrong: Our country is undergoing an important period of transition of developing higher education. Popularization of higher education constantly makes progress. Various colleges and universities at all levels are developing with distinctive and high-level features. This is the requirement of the times and the main choice of universities and colleges. It is inevitable choice of the era to guide and build local universities for different classifications to develop modern vocational education with a number of application-oriented colleges and universities. Where should local new universities go? This requires the government to play a role in policy guidance, and requires colleges and universities to give full play to subjectivity and enthusiasm, exploring bravely to develop a transitional development road in line with actual conditions.
Guidance and Upholding
Lively school-running, Quiet scholarship
[Snapshots]
Last year, two news reports about higher education caused widespread concern: First, ZHANG Kaiyuan, a “senior professor” of Central China Normal University, resigned from the position of academician in Chinese Academy of Science, breaking the lifelong tenure of academic title; Second, Xinhua News Agency reported three times on academic corruption of Xiamen University, which made social image of Xiamen University swaying in the midst of a raging storm. It is reported that Xiamen University is so bureaucratic that many scholars feel unmotivated to do research.
Host: Power of university is ultimately reflected in leading the society. “De-administration” becomes a hot topic in recent years, because the public hold many expectations to colleges and universities. It is a great hope that universities become more academic and less bureaucratic; more tranquil and less noisy. At present, universities have increasingly close relations with the society. How do local universities and colleges choose between upholding and reform?
HUANG Guoxiong: The power of university comes from its own educational philosophy, from creation of knowledge, from students’ achievement, from servicing the society. To expand the power of university, we, first of all, should emphasize problems in the development of university. Universities exhibit high dependence on government, since the government holds the resources to run a university, from arrangement of disciplines and majors to budgets, enrollment and other specific matters. The government should understand concepts of managing and running universities, because school-running can only be supervised rather than being operated, namely, returning to Small Government Big Society.
SHANG Gang: We should have dialectical understanding of relationship between universities and society, and the external expression of “quietness” and “liveliness”. As for the “academic community”; scholarship requires “quietness”; as for university governor, the open education is “lively” and needs to uphold “awe”. We should respect and maintain the long-standing school-running characteristics. Any innovation must be established on the basis of respect for tradition. We should know what to do and what not to do. Many industries linked with distinctive majors in local universities and colleges have volatility in their development, so universities should have a firm belief in their own school-running philosophy, surviving with unique characteristics and developing with service. With an open mind and effective means to achieve educational goals, universities could hold characteristics others don’t have at a high level. As a result, competitiveness becomes essential and eternal.
WANG Hanqing: The most fundamental requirement of constructing modern university system is respecting academy and serving teachers and students. But in recent years, the academic ethics has been heavily criticized: leaking exam papers, plagiarism, making research projects profitable tool, and so on. Influenced by this trend, many young students no longer find passion and dedication in the pursuit of truth. Some universities seem to be flourishing on the surface, but there is an undercurrent “backward” tendency. National Southwestern Associated University in Anti-Japanese War period was chased and bombed by the Japanese troops. Though the situation was critical, but the National Southwestern Associated University steadfastly stood on its ground. In the school, teaching was going on, and students were still studying hard. The whole school was in an orderly manner, with presence of mind in the face of disasters. Quiet and calm teachers and students were everywhere in the classrooms, the library, and even lectures on Democracy Square. After all, the most important thing that cannot be discarded in terms of “respecting academy, serving teachers and students” is the “quietness”. Still water runs deep, and quiet scholarship develops to greatness.
ZHANG Jinlong: Currently, the reform of national economy has run deep, and various benefit structures are undergoing major changes. Some serious social problems continue to emerge. In this context, universities should not only perform functions of personnel training, education and teaching, scientific and applying research, and social service, but also gain insights into social problems, leading ethics construction and foster a stronger sense of civic responsibility. Indeed, such an obligation needs a relatively free and serious speech platform. Local universities and colleges in second and third tier cities should make more efforts to explore quiet and free space, and protect rights of free expression for scholars, in order to create a better atmosphere of academic freedom. Derek Bok, the president of Harvard University, believes that the academic freedom and academic autonomy is essentially the same, since the extension of the academic freedom covers the academic autonomy. Only in this way, universities can have a high degree of guidance.
BIE Dunrong: It is a special kind of power of university to maintain social ethics, communicate and practice positive values, and promote social equity and justice. Today, the positive energy delivered by universities is somewhat weak, which does not match the nature and identity of universities. The reason lies in utilitarianism and administration. Utilitarianism in universities becomes increasingly popular; consequently, the purpose of research and teaching, linking with bonuses and titles, does not seem so pure. Administration is not only reflected in administrative levels, and bureaucracy does not only exist in administrative procedures, for they are more reflected in personnel training and core areas of scientific research, including determination of personnel criteria, evaluation of personnel quality, assessment of research level and quality, all of which are dominated by administration. How can we eliminate the complicated procedures and make university teachers and students explore and grow in a quiet and free environment of scholarship? There is no doubt that eliminating utilitarian tendency and administration are urgent problems for universities in our country to return to the essence and march towards a high level of education.
From: [China Education Daily] March 2nd, 2015. The 10th edition.
