Zhang Zongyi
Zhang Zongyi, currently president of Chongqing University and deputy secretary of CPC CQU Committee, was previously a standing member of CPC Committee and president of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Zhang is a “cross-discipline talent” who has shifted from engineering to economics. He believes that discipline integration is the inevitable trend of development of times. With profound and long-term ties with Chongqing University, Zhang Zongyi hopes to keep Chongqing University as a first-rate and innovation-oriented university.
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The past unprecedented 40 years have witnessed quality enhance and efficiency improvement of higher education.
Chen Zhiwen: How would you describe the changes that have occurred in the 40 years since the reform and opening up of China in one word?
Zhang Zongyi: I would say it’s astonishing. The changes of the Chinese society have been beyond our imagination. Back then, we never imagined a university with such good conditions. Such a development path is difficult to reproduce in the future.
Chen Zhiwen: In the past 40 years, universities and colleges in China have improved substantially in terms of both scale and quality. How do you think of the development potential of higher education in China in the future?
Zhang Zongyi: At present, China already has a large university scale. In some areas, we have already reached the world leading level. However, in my opinion, China’s higher education still has an enormous development space and immense potential. There is still a long way to go to improve the level of higher education. It is hard for us to imagine how it would be like when universities and colleges of China reach the world leading level.
Chen Zhiwen: In recent years, colleges and universities have gradually shifted their focus to quality enhancement and efficiency improvement and connotation construction. How do you think about this trend?
Zhang Zongyi: At present, China’s economic development is characterized by steady growth, structural adjustment, power transition and quality improvement. Given such a context, higher requirements are imposed on development goal, development method and governance system of China’s higher education. Universities and colleges are now facing challenges with respect to their school running ideas, development thoughts, talent cultivation mode, disciplinary settings and resource concentration strategy.
As for the higher education, the core mission is to improve the quality, enhance the global competitiveness and rise people’s satisfaction degree when it comes to the development goal. The specific reflection is the contributions to construction of an innovation-oriented country, realization of the Chinese dream to bring about a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and inheritance and creation of human beings’ intellectual civilization.
As for the development method, considering the increasing popularization of higher education, the focus should be shifted from scale expansion to connotative development, in an ultimate effort to achieve harmonious improvement higher education in terms of scale, structure, quality and efficiency. As for the governing method, the traditional management system and management method are no longer able to provide constant power for higher education. As such, governing method and capacity of higher education are both in urgent need of modernization.
Chen Zhiwen: What is the point for colleges and universities to stick to quality-oriented development?
Zhang Zongyi: China’s higher education is currently in the long-term development stage that centers on quality improvement. As such, colleges and universities have to hold a long-term vision and broad view on the improvement of school running quality, particularly when it comes to deepening of understanding of how universities should respond to the realistic needs and future trend of economic-social development.
On one hand, by focusing on quality-oriented development, Chongqing University could better meet the long-term need of transformational development of economy. In this era of knowledge-based economy and globalization, the economic-social development is growing increasingly reliant on universities that serve as important bases for knowledge creation, technical innovation and talent cultivation. At present, China’s economic development mode is going through substantial reform from a factor-driven and investment driven one into an innovation-driven one. Innovation means uncertainties and unpredictability. As such, colleges and universities should nurture talents that are creative and highly adaptive to the future environment, and create ideas, knowledge and technology that could better serve the economic-social development.
On the other hand, by focusing on quality-oriented development, Chongqing University could better meet the objective need of comprehensive education reform. The management, affairs handling and evaluation should be further separated, and thus should be strictly observed as the basic thought on educational reform. “Affairs handling” subjects should take the initiative to adapt to the change of thought on “management” and principle of “evaluation”. At present, the “management” methods in the higher education sector are going though gradual changes, and are posing an increasing impact on quality improvement of “evaluation”. As such, for the “affairs handling” subjects, i.e., colleges and universities, the awareness of quality-oriented development should be rebuilt radically.
Furthermore, focusing on quality-oriented development is the inevitable way to expedite and facilitate development of colleges and universities. Quality improvement is a shared challenge of higher education across the world, and is also the basic lifeline of development of colleges and universities. Practice has proved that colleges and universities should stick to quality-oriented development, and position themselves on a higher level and compete with other colleges and universities in order to sustain their school running reputation and improve their school running level in this era of intense market competition, where market conditions determine choice. As for colleges and universities in China, further improvement of quality is the priority among priorities.
Chen Zhiwen: How do you think we should achieve the innovative development of higher education and improve the quality of education?
Zhang Zongyi: Given the new normal, to grasp the “quality” connotation of higher education, we have to adapt ourselves to the change of times, and have a clear view of the evolution course of quality outlook of higher education, follow the essential law of development of higher education, and establish a science-based quality outlook based on the actual situation of the colleges and universities.
Firstly, we have to pay close attention to the dynamic evolution of quality outlook of higher education. The quality outlook of higher education has gone through three correlated stages, namely, “regulations guided stage”, “demand guided stage” and “development guided stage”. In the “regulation guided stage”, the products and services provided by higher education should be in accordance with the national or industrial technical standards. Since the beginning of the 21st Century, with constant intensification of external competition, the colleges and universities have had to meet the development demands of different subjects to improve their competitiveness. This is called the “demand guided stage”. In this stage, the quality was judged by the subjects’ ability to meet the demands. Now, it is no longer sufficient for higher education to meet the social development needs. It is also expected to criticize, lead and transform social development. As such, in the “development guided stage”, innovation capacity becomes a key index of the quality of higher education.
Secondly, colleges and universities have to build up a science-based quality outlook with their specific conditions taken into consideration. A science-based quality outlook that is in accordance with the actual development conditions is a key part of quality-oriented development. The following principles should always be followed: Firstly, we should observe the law of education by focusing on the present while making efforts to adapt to the future; secondly, we should seek for long-term development by utilizing local resources and having an international view; thirdly, we should take the actual development conditions into consideration by attaching equal importance to the pace and quality of development.
Zhang Zongyi, president of Chongqing University
Disciplinary integration is inexorable trend and efforts should be made to develop students’ “interdisciplinary thoughts”.
Chen Zhiwen: You were admitted to the power system and its automation program of University of Science and Technology of Chengdu after the college entrance examination and obtained your bachelor’s degree in 1985. Then you obtained your master’s degree and doctoral degree at Chongqing University. Could you please let us know how has the studying experience in the two universities influenced you?
Zhang Zongyi: University of Science and Technology of Chengdu was founded through merger of the School of Engineering and other schools of Sichuan University in the period of department and school adjustment in the 1950s. Now it has already been integrated into Sichuan University. The study experience at University of Science and Technology of Chengdu has laid a solid foundation of science and engineering for me. Back then, there were not many college students. The students had to be rather diligent to enter colleges and universities. I was one of the diligent ones.
After my graduating from University of Science and Technology of Chengdu, I went to Chongqing University and studied there as a postgraduate majoring in power system automation. After that, my supervisor Yang Xiutai was transferred to the electric power technologic economics program, a new program of the Department of Management. I followed her to this new program. The study experience at Chongqing University has built me up, broadened my horizon and substantially changed me.
Chen Zhiwen: After that, you obtained your doctoral degree in economics at the University of Portsmouth. How has this experience in the UK changed you?
Zhang Zongyi: I studied in the UK for about 8 years. From 1998 to 2001, I studied for the doctoral degree in economics at the University of Portsmouth, and studied at London School of Economics as a visiting scholar for one year.
It was an eye-opening experience. I felt in person the difference between higher education in China and that in the UK, and I learned know what world level universities are like. I also got to know the westerns’ way of thinking.
For me, the most essential change is that I gradually got to know the economics, politics and social systems of western countries, and understood that different theories have different social compatibility and origins.
Chen Zhiwen: You transferred from electric power automation to economic management, two totally different disciplines. Could you tell us what made you do so?
Zhang Zongyi: I once participated in the cross integration of disciplines by chance. But I believe it is an inevitable trend of development of times, and is closely related to the reform and opening up of China.
After launch of the reform and opening up of China, the market-oriented economy emerged. My supervisor Yang Xiutai very soon realized that the power system should be transformed to meet the needs of market-oriented economy. This means that many people in the power sector were expected to be engaged in market related work. New disciplines should be established to cultivate talents specialized in economics related to electric power. Her ideas were recognized by the Ministry of Electric Power. The electric power technologic economics program of Chongqing University was approved to be established with funds of 900,000 yuan under the School of Management.
Ms. Yang asked if I would like to transfer to electric power technologic economics program. I have always believed in new things and so I said yes. Afterwards I started to study economics.
Chen Zhiwen: We have already realized that disciplines will go through large-scale cross integration in the future. What are your judgments or suggestions with this regard?
Zhang Zongyi: In my opinion, knowledge should not be divided by disciplines. In the past, many scholars were interdisciplinary, and their knowledge structure was rather comprehensive. Then, with explosion of knowledge, branches appeared gradually, forming three-like discipline classification. There are first-class disciplines and second-class disciplines, and each discipline comprises various directions.
In the past couple of years, disciplines have been developing rapidly. Division of knowledge facilitates further and professional study. Study by disciplines is the foundation and important characteristic of modern science. In the past, it was regarded as steps for people to scale the heights of science. Now, it has become obstacles that hinder further development of sciences in some ways.
Disciplinary systems are established by human beings to cope with increase of knowledge. However, the realistic problems are too often complicated and comprehensive, and are not to be solved with knowledge of a single discipline. Interdisciplinary cooperation is thus needed to tackle the problems.
Therefore, we have to think about new modes of disciplinary development. Given the knowledge explosion, despite the fact that different disciplines have different research directions, in-depth study and development of disciplines should be maintained. Furthermore, integration of disciplines should be highlighted with problems as the guide, so as to encourage engagement of people of different disciplines. By strengthening horizontal cooperation, problems could be solved jointly.
In terms of organizational form of colleges and universities, this does not mean the existing school and department system has to be broken. The longitudinal system that includes the school-department-program should be sustained, with interdisciplinary research institutes established to enhance the horizontal connection between schools. Take space power generation as an example. Interdisciplinary cooperation and separate work are both needed to tackle various challenges including power generation, transmission, microwave, equipment and control.
Chen Zhiwen: With development of times, students are increasingly expected to have interdisciplinary knowledge and comprehensive ability. What do you think about the general education provided by colleges and universities?
Zhang Zongyi: Based on the feedback from graduates after they start to work, the general education of colleges and universities needs further enhancement. General education includes diversified content. The knowledge to be learned during the higher education period covers core content accumulated by the human society in thousands of years.
The first part is the knowledge of historic culture, including world civilization and history, and Chinese civilization and history. The key point is not the knowledge of history itself. It lies in the context, causes and environment of historic development behind the knowledge.
The second part is development of logic ability. Clear expression allows others to better understand your ideas, and people with logic thinking ability tend to do things more precisely. This is of great importance for future development of students. Furthermore, ideological and moral quality is equally important.
Chen Zhiwen: You talked about logic. Students majoring in science usually have better logic thinking ability, while students of liberal arts have more divergent thinking.
Zhang Zongyi: Yes. The rigorous logic thinking equips science students with the ability to do things right and precisely. The divergent thinking ability allows liberal arts students to think boldly. Students of science and engineering emphasize logic but are not so good at communicating with others; students of liberal arts stress on divergent thinking but are not precise.
As such, we should develop students’ “interdisciplinary” thinking ability, so that they will be able to think out of the box. The knowledge learned by a student at school constitutes only a branch of the human beings knowledge system. Limited by their discipline, their thinking and understanding are also constrained. We should encourage students to take in the crystallization of human civilization and progress. They should be both “experts” and “generalists”.
Chen Zhiwen: How do you think of the general education of Chongqing University?
Zhang Zongyi: Chongqing University is by and large doing a good job on a nationwide scale. In the period when Lin Jianhua served as the president, a great number of outstanding scholars participated in the general education curriculum system of Chongqing University. Chongqing University also became one of the major members of the “Chinese College General Education Alliance”.
Chongqing University released the 2029 Action Plan for Undergraduate Education of Chongqing University in 2018. The general education curriculum system was reorganized and optimized, and five modules including scientific spirit and innovation exploration, philosophical review and speculation and pursuit for truth, cultural inheritance and communication, social cognition and cooperative undertaking, and natural life and self-shaping centering on the “5C” core ability developing goals (Creativity，Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Continuous learning ability). The 2.0 version of general education of Chongqing University was built up, laying a solid foundation for disciplinary integration, large-category cultivation and general-special integration.
Students of Chongqing University are mostly science and engineering students with rigorous logic thinking and insufficient divergent thinking. The general education of Chongqing University actually aims to improve the thinking mode of science and engineering students. The practice of Chongqing University in the past years has proved that the students cultivated with enhanced general education tend to have greater development potential.
Chongqing University
A university’s president is the guide and poses an impact on development of the university.
Chen Zhiwen: You used to act as the president of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and now you are the president of Chongqing University. Could you describe the respective characteristics of the two universities and the difference between them?
Zhang Zongyi: The Southwestern University of Finance and Economics is an industry-based characteristic university, with distinct discipline and specialty features. Its scale is not that large. Chongqing University is a comprehensive university, with a large scale and an inspiring environment for research.
In terms of management, the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has fewer discipline categories and first-class disciplines. I, as president, only need to know finance and economics and other related disciplines to set clear goals for disciplinary construction and talent cultivation; Chongqing University has a great number of specialties and disciplines. As president, I have to learn a great deal of things and the management is more difficult as well.
Besides, the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has an emphasis on liberal arts. Totally 2/3 of its students are girls, who often have better language competence than boys. Chongqing University lays a particular stress on engineering and science, and has as many boys as girls. Students there mostly have precise and rigorous logic thinking and relatively weaker willingness of language expression. In my opinion, management of universities has to have a sound understanding of different between students of different types of universities, and decide the curriculum systems based on such understanding, so as to allow students to have balanced knowledge structure.
Chen Zhiwen: During your term of president at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, the University achieved leap-forward development. Now you are back in Chongqing University. What’s the difference between Chongqing University at present and your impression about Chongqing University when you first came here in 1985?
Zhang Zongyi: The most remarkable difference lies in the scale. In the past, Chongqing University was rather small in scale, and only several hundreds of students were enrolled each year. In 1999, after increase of the enrollment, the scale was expanded and the number of enrolled students increased accordingly.
The second change is seen in the infrastructure. In the past, the canteens, classrooms and libraries of Chongqing University were quite simple and crude. The infrastructures now are world leading.
The third change is reflected by the improvement of teaching quality and research conditions. Due to tight budget of colleges and universities and the limited collections in libraries in the past, it was difficult to find a good book and the cutting-edge materials were in serious shortage. People had to look up cards or magazines for information. Most of the textbooks used at that time were compiled in 1950s and 1960s.
The fourth change is that the connection and affection between teachers and students have grown weaker. In the past, the dorms of Chongqing University were poorly equipped and dorm spaces were quite limited. New instructors had to live in a students’ dorm.
Chen Zhiwen: By now you have served as the president of two universities, Chongqing University and the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. How do you think your role as a president? What are the job duties of a president?
Zhang Zongyi: A university president is a challenging job for me. President is a member of the leading group, and his political accomplishments and moral quality, school running concepts and horizon, and thinking mode and ability pose a significant impact on the development of the university.
In my opinion, the basic job duties of a university president include:
The first one is inheritance of the university’s fine tradition. Fine tradition refers to firstly the common tradition of universities, such as talent nurturing, scientific research and social services; and secondly the unique tradition of the university. A university with profound historic deposits has its distinct fine tradition. For instance, the motto of Chongqing University that highlights “hardworking, simplicity, diligence and patriotism” is a reflection of the unique fine tradition of Chongqing University.
The second one is promotion of the university’s modern spirit. As a social organization, the university is able to stay unfailing for nearly one thousand year because it always manages to keep pace with the times and change with times. This modern spirit involves humanistic spirit and critical thinking.
The third one is to guarantee the best future of the university. The university president is always entrusted with great expectations. Whether he/she is able to lead the university to a bright and best future is a measure of his/her success. To this end, two prerequisites have to be met, a shared vision and an action plan.
Chen Zhiwen: As you have said, a university president is a challenging job. How do you think a university president should perform his duties and stay competent for the job?
Zhang Zongyi: In my opinions, firstly, a university president should have both ability and political integrity, of which the latter is more important. Ability is the source of political integrity; political integrity is the leader of ability. One should have political integrity to be convincing, and have ability to achieve success. Universities are where social morality is highly emphasized. Even a small error would spark intense criticizing from the society. Ability and political integrity are therefore the basic criteria for a university president.
Secondly, the president should be familiarized with laws and stick to what he believes in. In history, extraordinary university presidents were always independently-minded educators. In my opinion, a university president should be familiarized with the law of development of higher education in the world and with the teaching, scientific research, disciplinary construction and administrative management of colleges and universities. In addition, the president should stick to advanced school running concept and have rich experience in school governance, and the courage to hold fast to his ideas and measures and confront challenges and doubts.
Thirdly, the president should discover able people and let them fully display their talents. A university president is the implementer of education policy, the protector of university spirit, and the planner of university management, but is not necessarily the performer. As such, he should be able to enhance unity of the leading group, mobilize the middle management, and count on the initiative of teachers and students, so as to ensure they are motivated, enabled, and willed. It is the essential ability and quality of a university to be able to discover talents and use them wisely.
Fourthly, a university president should hold an international horizon and foresight. With rapid internationalization of higher education, universities are now competing on a global stage. Given such a context, university presidents should have a global view and keep pace with the international development trend of higher education. Universities should try to come up to world top ones in terms of internationally comparable key indexes. Furthermore, higher education is currently undergoing reorganization and differentiation, with a new pattern being formed. This means that the president should make planning and arrange the distribution in advance.
Fifthly, a university president should think quickly and focus on real practice and solid work. Modern spirit of universities should advance and change with times. A president must think quickly and get hold of the front-line information on university development, and have in mind the overall trend of economic-social development. This way, he would be able to adjust the school running and governance measures according to the external situations. At the same time, he would be able to have the vision and goals fulfilled and measures implemented. The focus should be on real practice and solid work. Any fickleness and impatience should get out of the way.
Setting great goals and solving development problems during development
Chen Zhiwen: The year of 2019 is the 90th Anniversary of Chongqing University. What goals do you expect Chongqing University to achieve under your guide on a macro level?
Zhang Zongyi: People of Chongqing University have been making noticeable contributions to development of China, national rejuvenation and social advancement by sticking to the initial intention and missions and working hard unremittingly generation after generation.
In the future, I believe Chongqing University is going to remain among the top universities in China. In addition to this, Chongqing University will make further contributions to implementation of the major strategies of China and Chongqing.
Chen Zhiwen: How would you describe the relation between a university and the city?
Zhang Zongyi: A city gives birth to the university while the university, in turn, nourishes the city. Secretary Chen Min’er has always attached great importance to universities, and expected universities to lead development of a city. Chen personally visited colleges and universities and delivered speeches to students, and encouraged them to dedicate themselves to the service of the country with words of President Xi. Tang Liangzhi, mayor of Chongqing Municipality, described the relation between a university and the city as follows: “a university determines the upper limit of a city” and “the quality of a university determines the taste of the city”.
President Xi Jinping proposed “two-point” positioning and “two-place” and “two-high” goals for Chongqing, and instructed Chongqing to play “three roles”. This means that Chongqing should play a leading role in development of west China. Chongqing University has to come forward and do its part, because it is the universities, rather than skyscrapers, that determine the upper limit of a city.
In the past, Chongqing University has provided a great number of outstanding talents for Chongqing University. Those talents are serving as supporting and leading forces for Chongqing to drive development of west China. In the future, Chongqing University is going to concentrate efforts on nurturing of outstanding talents and improving comprehensive quality and innovation capacity of talents. At present, Chongqing is devoted to fighting the “three tough fights”, and implementing the “eight action plans”. Chongqing University responded in no time and submitted the Service Program to the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and launched its implementation.
CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee has released the related Support Program in response to the Service Program Chongqing University submitted. It is aimed to drive the innovative development of University Town, strengthen scientific and technological innovation supply, enhance cultivation of specialized talents, expedite construction of top-grade think tanks, and improvement of internationalization of school running. Totally 17 specific tasks have been chosen as the focus of support. This is the reflection of the close attention and substantial support of the municipal government and CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee to Chongqing University.
Chen Zhiwen: How is Chongqing University planning to accelerate the innovative development of Chongqing University while serving high-quality development of Chongqing?
Zhang Zongyi: Chongqing University will definitely seize this opportunity and work hard to achieve development. People as the core, development as the substance and excellence as the soul, we will focus on layout of new growth points, concentration of school running resources, improvement of systems and mechanisms and practical work related to livelihood, according to the requirements for “taking first-rate universities as the benchmark, pursuing excellence, serving development and shaping the future”. We would also concentrate efforts on guiding idea transformation, practical innovation and system reform, in a bid to expedite “double-first-rate” construction, drive connotative development and run a university that comes up to people’s expectation.
The first one is to promote adjustment and optimization of disciplines. Specific measures include strengthening engineering disciplines, consolidating science disciplines, promoting liberal arts, expanding medical disciplines and facilitating interdisciplinary integration. The ultimate goal is to deepening innovative construction, building disciplinary peaks and creating a sustainable first-rate discipline system.
The second one is to improve quality of talent nurturing. Chongqing University is going to carry on reform of talent nurturing mode and build a first-rate undergraduate education system with Chinese characteristics and style of Chongqing University; strengthen quality guarantee of postgraduate education and improve the innovation awareness and ability of postgraduate students.
The third one is to enhance scientific and technological innovation capacity and level. Specific measures include promotion of integration of innovation capacity, concentration of resources and space expansion. The ultimate goal is to build a “1+5” scientific and technological innovation system with diversified types, multiple levels and high standard, and facilitate output of high-level scientific research achievements with an all-new system and mechanism.
The fourth one is to build a high-standard faculty. A quality-first and performance-oriented rule should always be followed to formulate a performance pay scheme, and revise the professional title evaluation criteria and methods, and improve the talent team construction system. The ultimate goal is to build a system, an environment and culture that are “liked by insiders and appealing to outsiders”.
The fifth one is to deepen international exchange and cooperation. Substantial support will be granted to undergraduate students studying abroad. Material cooperation between schools of Chongqing University and world-first-rate scientific research institutes will be promoted and research institutes or centers will be built with joint efforts. In addition, full-time foreign teachers will be employed as a way to force promotion of internationalization.
Archived picture
Chen Zhiwen: What in your opinion is the priority of Chongqing University at present?
Zhang Zongyi: Chongqing University has a quite solid foundation, and the teachers are also highly skillful and specialized. I believe that in the current stage, the most important thing is to set up great goals, so as to inspire teachers. We will concentrate efforts on building an appealing environment, in which teachers enjoy ease of mind and need to worry about nothing while working hard.
As for teachers, Chongqing University is going to offer guide and other needed services, to stimulate their patriotism and great aspiration. I don’t want teachers to do unchallenging things and passive things. Chongqing University is now included as a type-A university under the “Double-First-Rate” Construction Program. In this sense, it is one of the leading universities of China. We should work in response to the major need of the country, and work hard for China and for the Chinese nation.
In the past one year, Chongqing University has introduced a number of reforms to the specific policy management measures and implementation rules. For instance, Chongqing University has built up a comprehensive incentive system for talent evaluation, including spiritual incentive and physical incentive. I hope teachers devote themselves to original, revolutionary and pioneering works, rather than expansive, supplementary and repeated works. In general, I expect them to do first-rate works.
As for students, I hope they have a sound personality, great ambitions, lofty ideals and strong patriotism. They are expected to love our party, and love China and its people. On one hand, we are going to strengthen general education; on the other hand, we are going to lay more stress on development of students’ professional ability. With the general-special integrated cultivation mode, students’ adaptability to the society will be improved and their future development space extended. This way, they would be prepared to cope with any uncertainties encountered in their work in the future 40 to 50 years.
The fundamental mission of a university is to nurture talents. Students are the future of the country. Chongqing University should look ahead and pay more attention to cultivation of students. I hope that with lofty ideals, students of Chongqing University are able to make extraordinary contributions to the country in a lasting and sustainable manner.
Chen Zhiwen: Chongqing University is known for its achievements in science disciplines. How do you plan to highlight the characteristics of Chongqing University? What is your planning about disciplinary construction of Chongqing University?
Zhang Zongyi: Chongqing University is a university with distinct characteristics. It has many plateau disciplines but has no peak discipline. In the past 90 years since its founding, Chongqing University has always been oriented to serving the national and regional economical-social development. In this process, two advantageous disciplinary systems with characteristics that are closely related to industrialization and urbanization have been established. They are providing substantial intelligent support for development of China and Chongqing.
The first advantageous disciplinary system is closely related to the industrial system, and it involves machinery, electrical engineering, power, mining, metallurgy, material, automation, communication and computer. The second one is closely related to urban construction system, and it involves urban-rural planning, architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, water supply and drainage, urban environment, construction and real estate management.
Chongqing University should give priority to development of its advantageous disciplines and achieve a leading role in science and technology by constantly producing revolutionary and creative scientific and technological achievements. One on hand, it should develop applied science, so as to influence and guide development of industries and the society; on the other hand, it should develop basic sciences and improve its basic research level. Such directional requirements and goals will be integrated into the specific disciplines, including electrical discipline, mechanical discipline, civil discipline, artificial intelligence, law, economic management and journalism.
Zhang Zongyi (left) and Chen Zhiwen (right)
Chen Zhiwen: Speaking of scientific research, most colleges and universities in China “stress on scientific research and overlook teaching”. What are the main reasons in your opinion? How could we get rid of this bias?
Zhang Zongyi: In my opinion, this phenomenon is logically reasonable and is a natural one in the transformation period. Previously, universities and colleges in China had to cultivate the most excellent teachers and students to be rated excellent. In fact, it is difficult to achieve the two at the same time. There should be an order of priority.
A teacher without experience in scientific research would find himself short of lecturing materials, making heuristic teaching impossible. Only outstanding teachers are able to produce outstanding students. To become a good teacher, one should devote himself to scientific research. I still hold this firm belief that young teachers of Chongqing University should devote themselves to scientific research.
Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that the ultimate goal of carrying out scientific research at a university is to cultivate top-notch innovative talents and to provide innovative platforms for talent nurturing, and provide a stage for young students to release their innovation potentials.
Objectively, “stressing on scientific research and overlooking teaching” is also a result of insufficient investment in education and incomplete evaluation system during the transformational period. Generally, a teacher has to prepare for 4 hours for a lecture of 1 hour. Now teachers spend less time on preparing for lecture and more time one scientific research. This is because with scientific research findings it is easier for them to obtain academic titles and awards. Besides, the government invested a small amount in education of universities, and the amount of funds available for distribution was insufficient. Scientific research projects have therefore become a way to increase funds.
In my opinion, with increase of investment from the central government, and success of transformation, we’ll see improvement in “stressing on scientific research and overlooking teaching”.
Chen Zhiwen: I completely agree with you. Development problems should be solved during development.
