[Southeast University News Network, Dec. 28] (Correspondent: Tang Tang, photographer: Hang Tian) On Dec. 28, Chen Baosheng, CPC Secretary and Minister of the Ministry of Education, when accompanied by Song Demin, Director of the General Office of the Ministry of Education, Liu Changya, Director of the Department of Development Planning, Hong Dayong, Director of the Department of Academic Degree Administration and Graduate Education, Ge Daokai, CPC Secretary and Director of Jiangsu Province Department of Education surveyed Southeast University. Zuo Wei, CPC Secretary of Southeast University, Zhang Guangjun, President of Southeast University, Wang Baoping, Managing Vice President, Zheng Jiamao, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Ren Lijian, Vice Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee, and Jin Baosheng, Vice President of Southeast University, accompanied the delegation of survey.
The delegation of Minister Chen Baosheng first visited Liuchaosong (the pine tree of six dynasties) and Mei An. Minister Chen nodded frequently when knowing that Mei An, as the site where the 2nd National Congress of the Chinese Socialist Youth League was convened, has left a strong mark in the history of the Chinese Youth Campaign.
In the History Museum of Southeast University, Director Liu Yunhong introduced the history and affections of Southeast University. He mainly introduced the four “Ones” of Nanjing Higher Normal University, the “Four Balances” school-running policy of National Southeast University, the history regarding the number of professors, colleges and students ranked first nationally during the time of Central University. Chen Baosheng affirmed the glorious revolutionary tradition and tortuous westward story of Southeast University. He praised the demeanor of such masters as Xiong Qinglai and Ye Qisun. At the same time, Chen Baosheng felt very impressive of the first robot as manufactured and the famous textbook developed by Nanjing Institute of Technology.
Subsequently, the delegation of Chen Baosheng visited Zhongda Hall. Leng Jiawei, CPC Secretary of the School of Architecture, reported on the college’s history and development. He introduced the school’s ideological and political education throughout the students’ undergraduate and graduate studies, which may benefit both the teacher and the students, deepen the ideological and political construction of courses, implement the fundamental assignments of morality establishment and talent education. Besides, the college has incorporated the “genetic” ideological and political elements such as patriotism into the teaching system. In teaching, the teachers seek truth from history, seek facts from theory, seek innovation from design and seek refinement from practice. It is expected that the teaching ideology and political curriculum can be recorded and the teaching achievements can be represented so as to create a featured brand in this regard. Chen Baosheng watched with interest the professional design work “Sound Hunting” which was accomplished by the fourth-year undergraduate students of the School of Architecture. In this work, the students integrated the computer technology and the automatic control technology into the architectural design to explore the possibility of smart buildings. The work achieved a three-dimensional sinusoidal undulating ceiling by combining the eccentric wheels of different speeds in two directions. The ceiling utilized various sensors such as sound to sense the number of people below, and then would change the shape in real time according to the distribution of the crowd below so as to provide a suitable height and reduce energy consumption. Chen Baosheng acclaimed it “quite interesting”.
In the afternoon of Dec. 28, the seminar of Southeast University, Hohai University, Nanjing Agricultural University and China Pharmaceutical University, etc. was convened at Nanjing Agricultural University. Main leaders from these four universities reported on their relevant work.
Zuo Wei made a special report focusing on “implementing the spirit of the National Education Conference, fulfilling the fundamental mission of morality establishment and talent cultivation to cultivate leading talents with Chinese characteristics”. Zuo Wei said at the meeting that Southeast University would study and implement the spirit of the National Education Conference and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of important speeches on education, has organized a half-year discussion on educational ideas throughout the school, and has achieved a high degree of consensus on fundamental assignments, fundamental missions, practical significance and consciousness of action, etc. regarding the morality establishment and talent cultivation of a first-class university. The results of discussions on major adjustments of talent cultivation objectives have been formed. More efforts would be devoted to cultivating leading talents with national patriotism and international views, who can lead the future and benefit the mankind. At the same time, in order to better fulfill the mission of “Four Services” (serve the people, serve the Chinese Communist Party to govern the country, serve the consolidation and development of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and serve the reform and opening up as well as socialist modernization) and practice the “Four Returns” (return to common sense, return to duty, return to original intention, and return to dream), the school is striving to accelerate the transformation and development in an all-round way. Zuo Wei introduced the status quo and a series of highlights of Southeast University in terms of morality establishment and talent cultivation from seven perspectives.
Zhang Guangjun reported on the school’s development path and development strategy in recent years, especially the internationalized integration strategy. He believed that the construction of a world-class university, talent cultivation, scientific research, school-running philosophy and goal pursuit must be considered on the basis of the “Community of Human Destiny” as proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping. It is of extreme importance to promote the international integration and strengthen foreign exchanges and cooperation. In combination with SEU’s internationalization strategy, he focused on the status quo of Sino-British Engineering Education and Research Alliance as initiated and promoted by Southeast University. This alliance, founded in May 2017 and initiated by Southeast University and Queen ’s University of Belfast, is right now composed of 9 Chinese universities and 9 British universities highlighting engineering education. This alliance is the first university alliance of its kind featuring engineering education and research as established by China and the U.K.. In the latest over two years, the alliance universities have conducted in-depth cooperation and achieved fruitful results in personnel training, mutual visits of teachers, scientific researches and cultural exchanges, etc.. Zhang Guangjun also introduced the target positioning and progress of the construction of Wuxi International Campus of Southeast University.
Ge Daokai, CPCSecretary and Director of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, said at the forum that Jiangsu is a province featuring a large population, prosperous economy, advanced manufacturing and agricultural production. The development of Jiangsu should demand higher education. The higher education universities including these four universities in Jiangsu Province must make greater contributions to the economic and social development of Jiangsu Province and the country as a whole through the implementation of the Yangtze River Education Innovation Belt. The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education would fully support the development of colleges and universities under direct administration of the Ministry, and support the platform established by these colleges and universities to take the lead in the field of their respective disciplines.
After the report, Minister Chen Baosheng fully affirmed the achievements of these four universities made in terms of strengthening the party’s overall leadership of the school work, reinforcing and improving the ideological and political work in universities, strengthening the building of leadership teams, promoting the construction of staff, optimizing the discipline construction and professional development and forging ahead with joint efforts. He emphasized that the education system in 2020 would demand further efforts from the following four aspects.
First of all, efforts should be made to push learning to a new height. It is necessary to deeply study Xi Jinping’s thoughts of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, read the original books and learn from the original perspective to reach the height of reading; understand the core essence and understand the principles to reach the height of understanding; flourish the philosophy and social science, and promote the constant emergence of theoretical innovations regarding the Chinese Communist Party to reach the new height of research. In addition, we still have to thoroughly understand the spirit, the reality and the process, and keep practical to achieve the new height of integration; consciously practice and implement such theories by following the speech of the General Secretary, the requirements of the Central Party Committee and the people’s expectations so as to achieve the new height of practice.
Secondly, efforts should be made to promote reform to achieve new breakthroughs. It is prerequisite to grasp the implementation and improvement of existing reform measures, further deepen the reform and strengthen the Party’s system mechanism of overall leadership in education, fully promote the reform of the education model, comprehensively advance the reform of the evaluation system, and promote the reform of the governance system and capacity.
Thirdly, efforts should be made to promote development to a new stage by following the requirements of building a well-off society in an overall manner, implementing the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”, realizing the “three endings” of national mid- and long-term education reform and development planning outline (Year 2010-2020), and implementing the high-quality connotative development of higher education. Under the background of the historical intersection of “two-centennial” objective, we must identify our historical positioning, define the development orientation, educate the talents for the Party and the country, find the focus and difficulties of development under the situation of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of China and the unprecedented centennial transformations of the world to break through the “bottlenecks”. Meanwhile, efforts should be also made to determine the tasks and roles of higher education around the “two major themes” of fairness and quality. Starting from the “two objectives” of constructing a powerful country by education to the people’s satisfaction, we should advance the education modernization, optimize the development thinking and identify development measures.
Fourthly, efforts should be made to promote the implementation of new measures. It is necessary to promote the implementation of the theme-based educational achievements of “Never forgetting the original intention and keeping in mindthe mission”, implement the “first-line rules”, change the work style, and effectively solve the hot and difficult issues in the reform and development of education, and finally strive to achieve a better education in the new era.
Zheng Jiamao, Ren Lijian, Huang Dawei, Jin Baosheng, Liu Pan and other school leaders, as well as party committee members, president assistant and relevant comrades in charge of the departments concerned attended the symposium in the afternoon.
(Editor-in-charge: Li Zhen; reviewed by: Song Xiaoyan)
