On January 11th, SCU held a conference on undergraduate education in the lecture hall of Duxing Building, Wangjiang Campus. Focusing on promoting first-class undergraduate education and building a world-class university, this conference summarized the work of undergraduate education, commended and rewarded the advanced work units and individuals of undergraduate education in 2018. Chairman Jianguo Wang of the university council, President Yanrong Li, other university administrators, academicians, outstanding professors, award-winning teachers and student representatives attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Vice-President Lin Zhang.
SCU had remarkable achievements and made high-quality breakthroughs in the teaching practice of first-class undergraduate education during 2018.
At the conference, Hongwei Zhang, director of the Dean’s Office, reviewed the undergraduate education in 2018. In 2018, the key work of undergraduate education in our university has progressed smoothly. SCU created the spirit of loving teaching and teaching well in order to build a teaching team with academic excellence. Centering around students development, SCU promoted substantially the reform and innovation of education and teaching. The accreditation and evaluation of undergraduate academic subjects made new headway. The highlights of 2018 SCU undergraduate education are listed as follows: the national new era undergraduate education conference was held in our university, and SCU undergraduate education was highly acclaimed. The evaluation and assessment of the undergraduate teaching by the Ministry of Education was a success. Great achievements were made in innovation and entrepreneurship education. SCU wonits first Special Award of National Teaching Achievement Prize, which was the first special award that a university had won in southwest China. The first winner was elected for the special prize ofDistinguished Teaching Prize. Generous rewards stimulated and promoted the construction of an outstanding teaching team. What’s more, SCU faculties garnered 72 positions in the new Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, which was a record high.
A large number of work units did an outstanding job with their teaching practice in the undergraduate education in 2018. Yongmu Jiang, dean of College of Economics, Bing Hu, party secretary of College of Mathematics, Youjie He, dean of College of light Industry, Textile and Food Engineering, and Lin Ye, dean of West China School of Stomatology delivered a speech one after another, reporting on the achievements in the training of innovative talents and their plans to further accelerate the cultivation of first-class undergraduate students. SCU achievements in the undergraduate education were attributed to the hard work of all faculty and staff in 2018. Many teaching units and teachers produced outstanding results in promoting the undergraduate teaching, becoming advanced units and individuals. Using short videos, the conference showcased and reviewed the good deeds of winners of the Fourth “Five-Grain Liquor Outstanding Teaching Prize for Youth Teachers”, the Fourth “Sparkling Alumni Teaching Reward”, the Fifth “Distinguished Teaching Prize” and other national teaching achievement prizes.
The university administrators Shijing Yan, Taiping Hou, Xufeng Li, Ping Cao, Bin Liang, Rongjun Li presented awards to winners of Advanced Work Units in Undergraduate Teaching, Advanced Organizations of Students Academic Associations, “Inquiry-Small Class” Excellent Teaching Awards. They also issued awards to the supervising teachers of gold medal and silver medal winners of the Fourth China College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, winners of the National Youth Teaching Competition, advanced individuals of supervising and teaching management, winners of the Fourth ““Five-Grain Liquor Outstanding Teaching Prize for Youth Teachers”, the Fourth “Sparkling Alumni Teaching Reward”, and winners of the first prize, the second prize and the third prize of the Fifth “Distinguished Teaching Prize”.
The first ever special prize of the “Distinguished Teaching Award since 2014 went to Professor Jian Shi of College of Foreign Languages and Cultures. President Yanrong Li issued the award to Professor Jian Shi.
“During the 41 years of work at Sichuan University, I have witnessed the teaching reform that puts SCU in the forefront of all universities nationwide. I am an ordinary teacher, and excellence is what individual SCU teachers strive for in their teaching posts. This honor and award belongs to the outstanding SCU faculty.” Standing on the podium to receive the special prize of “Distinguished Teaching Prize”, Professor Jian Shi indicated humbly, “Excellence is what teachers expect of their students, and excellent teaching is the life-long pursuit of teachers in the career to cultivate talents and uphold moral standards. It is the students pursuit of truth, their exploration of knowledge and pursuit of beauty that compels us to become dedicated to study, cultivate talents and uphold moral standards and keep moving forward.”
On December 27th, 2018, the Ministry of Education publicized the “Approval of winners of 2018 National Teaching Achievement Prize”. Sichuan University has won six national awards for teaching achievements in higher education, including one special award and one second-prize for independent achievements at SCU, two first-prize achievements and two second-prize achievements in cooperation with sister universities. Being a project led by Professor Heping Xie, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, “The SCU teaching practice of first-class undergraduate education centering on classroom teaching reform” has won the Special Award of National Teaching Achievement Prize. This is the first special award that a university in the southwest has ever obtained since 1997 when the National Teaching Achievement Prize changed its award plans. This award indicates that SCU has become a leader in the reform of classroom teaching, and got recognized by the higher education community.
Chairman Jianguo Wang presents awards to Academician Heping Xie, who represents winners of theSpecial Award of National Teaching Achievement Prize, and Professor Jiuping Xu, a second prize winner of National Teaching Achievement Prize.
Academician Heping Xie delivered a speech on behalf of winners of National Teaching Achievement Prize. He said that to build the best undergraduate education is an on-going process. Being a gas station on our journey toward (the best undergraduate education), the winning of this award is recognition of the hard work we have put in searching for a Sichuan University model of undergraduate education. It is an encouragement and incentive. He indicated that the undergraduate education is the cornerstone of the university development. Being a distinctive feature of Sichuan University, the undergraduate education exemplifies the level and characteristics of teaching. Sichuan University. It is our first competitive edge in the construction of a world first-class university.
At the conference, Yanrong Li, on behalf of the university, Chairman Jianguo Wang and all the university administrators, thanked the teachers for their outstanding contributions to the university over the past year and congratulated all the individual teachers and work units of “Distinguished Teaching Prize” awards and other teaching awards of education and teaching. In the past year, Sichuan University's undergraduate education has finally achieved fruitful results on the basis of long-term accumulation. The National Conference on Undergraduate Education was conducted in Sichuan University. Sichuan University has won the first Special Award of National Teaching Achievement Prize for the first time. Besides, the undergraduate teaching investigation and evaluation has been successfully completed. What is more, the first special prize of “Distinguished Teaching Prize” has found its first winner of the past five years. All these achievements have exerted resounding impact across the country. President Yanrong Li further stated that Academician Heping Xie initiated the“Inquiry – Small Class” model for classroom teaching, and it has been put in practice for over ten years. This is an achievement that SCU is proud of. He said that Jian Shi was a good teacher with both virtue and professional competence. He persisted in giving good lessons to undergraduates for 41 years, setting a good example of teaching and educating people in the new era.
Yanrong Li said that in the next academic year, the university will hold a series of special seminars on undergraduate education. It will spend half a year discussing, scrutinizing and forming a consensus on how to build an upgraded version of Sichuan University, running the best undergraduate education. On the one hand, the university will focus on bringing up more university graduates with a mindset of “The ocean contains every river”. On the other hand, the university will nurture in-depth learning and insightful thinking skills in students based on modern network information technology.
In summary, Lin Zhang stressed that in the past 40 years of reform and opening up, the connotative development centered on improving quality has become the new norm of higher education. Specialty and curriculum are the two core elements of higher education. To further enhance the quality and quantity of curriculum is our duty and the focus of this year's work. I hope that we can lead teaching with excellent academic knowledge in accordance with the requirements of the university, so that the quality of education and teaching in the university and the level of personnel training can reach a new height.
