Marking the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening-up, 2018 has become a wonderful and memorable year in the development of Sichuan University. Over the past year, SCU has made new achievements in the construction of the “double first-class” status, talent training, and faculty development. This issue reports on the ideas, measures and achievements of the construction of "double first-class" status in our university.
Sichuan University Conference on Promoting World-Class University Construction opened on January 12, 2018. Around 2,000 cadres, teachers and students attended this conference. They forged a powerful Sichuan University force, launching the construction scheme of a world-class university. The conference called on the rank and file SCU faculty, staff and students to contribute to the great Chinese dream of national revitalization by upholding the ideal of “stay rooted in the west, reinforce characteristics, innovate and lead, build world first-class”. After one year of hard work, SCU has achieved outstanding results in the initial stage of the construction of a “double first-class” university.
Constructing a more scientific and rational evaluation method, mechanism and self-adjustment mechanism
SCU adheres to an evaluation and assessment system that incorporates self-assessment, evaluation of the Ministry of Education, and third-party evaluation. Promoting construction through evaluation, SCU uses evaluation and assessment as basis and guidance for the scientific construction of disciplines. In the meantime, SCU would adjust its enrollment size, discipline deployment and fund allocation in accordance to the evaluation results, the overall construction objectives of the school and social needs. A regular evaluation system of academic subjects has been established. SCU has issued the “double first-class” construction reports, organized “Dachuan Forum-Construction of World First-Class University”, arranged collaboration between discipline research institutes, and conducted diagnoses of academic subjects in order to improve SCU construction, research and evaluation of academic subjects.
Dachuan Forum-Construction of World First-Class University
Establish and improve the discipline self-adjustment mechanism.
Our university has formulated the Rules for the Implementation of Dynamic Adjustment of Academic Degree Authorization in Sichuan University (Trial Implementation). At the same time, SCU has set up the initial "Program for Optimizing and Adjusting the Structure of Disciplines" to optimize and adjust the existing disciplines so as to concentrate resources and increase investment in the dominant disciplines, promoting the construction of dominant disciplines into top-notch disciplines.
Highlighting the traditional advantages and characteristics, SCU has further optimized the discipline deployment and intensified the interdisciplinary integration. Given the advantages and characteristics of its own development, SCU has put forward the reform path of discipline development which is characterized by "outstanding liberal arts-advanced sciences-reformed engineering subjects-strong medicine". SCU takes the interdisciplinary integration as an important means in the competition for a world first-class status.
2018 launched the construction of the first 12 key disciplines (groups) and 19 frontier disciplines geared toward the future. Fruitful results have been obtained in the training of top-notch innovative talents, high-level faculty, scientific research and achievement during the one-year construction. These achievements have raised the overall core competitiveness of the university. For instance,Professor Shichuang Zhan, a chief project expert of the subject group of Chinese Language, Literature and Global Communication of Chinese Culture, undertookthe compilation and publishing project of "Compendium of Taoist Works (Zhonghua Xu Dao Cang)" in the capacity of an executive editor. This project was included in the outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the "Protection Plan of Chinese Ancient Books". Chinese History, the main subject of regional history and frontier science, ranked second and Archaeology ranked fourth in China according to ARWU of Shanghai Ranking. The college hosted an international academic seminar to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Mr. Zhongshu Xu’s birth.The National Tianyuan Mathematics Southwest Center, founded on the discipline of Mathematics and Information Science and Technology, was approved as the National Center of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Breakthroughs have been made in terms of chemistry of the "Chemistry and Green Chemistry" discipline group. This discipline made it to the top 0.5‰ of ESI and ranked 20thin Nature Index. The Biomedical Engineering subject group led by “tissue inducing regeneration” successfully hosted the 21st Century Global Consensus on the Redefinition of Biomaterials, a milestone in the development of biomaterial science. The consensus standardized the definition of contemporary biomaterials and planned the future development of biomaterials. Material Science and Engineering characterized by advanced macromolecule received a scientific fund in the amount of 209 million yuan, and their scientific research achievements won five awards at the national, provincial and ministerial level. The discipline group of "Deep Rock Mechanics and Groundwater Conservancy Engineering" was granted the large scientific instrument project by the National Natural Science Foundation in 2018 (with a funding of 68.2 million yuan). The discipline group of "Advanced Light Industry Technology and Environmental Protection" has made a series of original achievements in key technologies and integrated applications of low-carbon and eco-artificial leather manufacturing. More than 30 enterprises have adopted integrated technologies, with a new output value of 3.644 billion yuan and a new profit of 429 million yuan.
"Cell therapy and other series of scientific and technological achievements" of "Biotherapy-oriented frontier basic medicine and innovative pharmacology" discipline group, valued at 823 million yuan, has become a shareholder of eight companies. Relying on the "Precision medical-oriented Clinical Medicine and Nursing" discipline group, "Disease Molecular Network Frontier Science Center" has been approved as the frontier science center of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, Stomatology is ranked the first in Nature Index for stomatology in China, as well as the best in stomatology in Shanghai Ranking in China. Professor Zeshui Xu, the discipline group of "Management Science and National Governance", was elected as the first Chinese mainland scholar to win both the honors of "IEEE Fellow" and "IFSA Fellow" in 2019. He has been listed as the "highly cited scientists" in the world for five consecutive years.
Planning and strengthening the infrastructure construction of discipline, providing strong support for discipline construction
The school builds beautiful campus, humanistic campus, green campus, intelligent campus and harmonious campus of "academic palace type", which lays a solid foundation for realizing the goal of a world-class university.
SCU holds a conference on the “double first-class” construction of key disciplines (groups)
In terms of infrastructure, the school integrates the resources of the Museum of Sichuan University and the Natural Museum to build an open museum of humanities and nature. To build a world-class cutting-edge medical research center featuring "new medicine". West China Science Teaching Building of Biotherapy Collaborative Innovation Center, Polymer Science and Engineering Innovation Center and other projects are under construction in an orderly manner.
SCU has finished and put into service the Excellent Engineer Training Center and Deep Science Experiment Center. In the whole year, 115 million yuan of central repair and purchase funds and 37.5 million yuan of school self-financing funds were completed, providing a conditional guarantee for discipline construction. The school has implemented the comprehensive promotion plan of campus informatization to build a smart campus. The implementation of "1-2-5 Project" and the construction of "smart campus demonstration area" provide advanced information guarantee for the construction of world first-class discipline system in Sichuan University.
Drawing upon the Sichuan University Analysis and Testing Center, the school has built a multi-disciplinary sharing analysis and testing public platform of internationally advanced level, which has played an important role in promoting high-level scientific research, first-class discipline development and high-level personnel training.
Promoting the construction of first-class university libraries in an all-round way, SCU has substantially improved the efficiency in the use of literature resources, and digital resources in particular. In the past three years, the amount of electronic resources downloaded and the amount of paper books borrowed have ranked among the top five universities in China.
By virtue of the development of specialized institutional knowledge bank "Dachuan Think Tank" and customized resource service system "Mingyuan Post" and other services, SCU provides intellectual support for discipline construction, scientific research management and talent introduction.
Being down to earth and taking the lead have produced fruitful results in the “double first-class” construction
In 2018, according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education and the planning of the school, the special "guiding" fund of the double first-class construction is divided into five sub-projects. Among them, the "training of top-notch innovative talents" project is used to train top-notch talents with international competitiveness. "Teachers team building" project is to build a world-class university faculty with noble moral character, academic excellence and excellent teaching skills; and "Promoting independent innovation and social service ability" project is to build the first-class discipline system and international first-class scientific research and innovation system using world first-class universities as the benchmark.
The "Cultural Inheritance and Innovation" project is to build a world class cultural heritage and innovation system with Chinese characteristics and Sichuan University style. In addition, the "International Cooperation and Exchange" project is to build a talent training system with global vision and international competitiveness.
The one-year first-class construction of Sichuan University has produced distinctive achievements. Since January 2018, two SCU subjects (Psychiatry/Psychology, Immunology) have made it into the top 1% of ESI disciplines. With 16 disciplines, SCU ranks ninth among Chinese universities. The number of ESI top1‰ disciplines has increased by one (Clinical Medicine), reaching three, which ranks ninth nationwide. In terms of the performance at Nature Index, SCU has done a good job, ranking 55thin the world. SCU is ranked the 189thin Academic Ranking of World University (ARWU) in 2018.
Sichuan University's Nature Index ranking has steadily improved, ranking 55th in the world's universities in 2018, up 26 places from last year.
Sichuan University ranks 189th in the world and 10th in the whole country in the ARWU of 2018.
