More than 240 faculty members and staff gathered together for a weekend seminar, from 9 to 10 March, to discuss the strategic plans for the university for the upcoming semester. The University leaders delivered the planning reports on Saturday, and attendees included the university’s senior management, faculty members, and leading scholars. The attendees broke into separate groups to discuss the planning on Sunday.

Saturday

There were six special reports to guide the university regarding its strategic direction. These reports included:

1. Learning From 19th Congress Spirit and Rooting in Chinese Culture;

2. How to Build A World-Class University;

3. 2018 Postgraduate Work Report;

4. Development Strategy of Undergraduate Cultivation;

5. The Improvement Of Campus Culture For Students And Faculty Members;

6. Enhancing the University’s Ranking

University leaders presented the reports, showing the importance of SUSTech and how it fits into the broader development of China.

Under the University Council’s leadership, SUSTech registered a good performance last year in improving the quality of its education and research. University Council Chairperson Guo Yurong presented the 2017 University Council Work Report and showed the numerous improvements made by SUSTech since the last strategic planning session.

Chairperson Guo also introduced “the Spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress”, which is a report on the country’s governance philosophy and primary strategy. She urged all SUSTech members to get a deeper understanding of the Congress Report, especially to get a clearer perspective in the education sector.

To further meet the needs of future development in China and the University, Chairperson Guo also released the Council’s 2018 Work Plan in her report. It addressed the targets of university governance and system construction to how to attract high-quality talent to SUSTech.

President Chen Shiyi’s report fully summarized the overall performance of the University last year, from attracting and cultivating talent, fund management, space construction, equipment and On-Campus Startup management, discipline building, teaching, among other matters. Students and faculty members experienced a better learning and research environment in 2017.

“The core problem is that constructing a variety of disciplines is the leading requirement, talent cultivation is the foundation, scientific innovation is the key, the teacher team is the core, the institutional mechanism is the driving force, and the resource mechanism is the guarantee,” said President Chen.

Various problems must be solved to lead SUSTech into the company of world-class universities. President Chen highlighted six core issues spanning from the building of the medical school, building additional disciplines, provincial level research team building, cultivation system and teaching quality improving, high technological outputs and national level research platform, and improvement of input and performance management.

“In 2018, the building of a world-class medical school and the further implementing of the world-class university and discipline building will become the prime strategic target of the year,” said President Chen.

Vice Provost Huang Kefu spent time talking about undergraduate education, while Vice-President of Research and Dean of the Graduate School Tang Tao supported him, in his summary of graduate education. In 2017, SUSTech was approved by the Ministry of Education to confer masters and doctorate degrees.

University Vice Chairperson Li Fengliang highlighted campus culture development, citing Harvard, Stanford, and MIT as examples of the campus culture he wanted SUSTech to find similarities. Later, Associate Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Lu Chun pointed out the importance of the University to participate in the first-class university ranking.

As Saturday’s meeting ended, the best teachers of the semester received their awards.

Sunday

On Sunday, attendees broke up into smaller groups to discuss the topics from the previous day. The debate in each group was lively and in depth, showing the clear knowledge and enthusiasm of all participants. The rich range of constructive comments and ideas reflects the passion that the faculty and staff have for the university. Later, representatives from each group reported the results of the debate separately.

SUSTech President Chen Shiyi closed the group session and the overall meeting with an inspiring speech that spoke to the expectations of the university in Shenzhen and indeed across the country.

President Chen said “As a new university, there is great potential and space. The rate of development at SUSTech has been especially rapid in the last three years, like that of Shenzhen City. However, this is not enough for the requirements of the development of our university. Now it’s time to transfer from speed improvement to quality improvement.”

He added, “In the future, offices and departments should enhance their communications, so multiple areas can consider how to solve the problems. Only in this way, can we put the theory we have learned into practice.”

The weekend-long session provided a lot of information and many ideas, resulting in university leadership being extremely satisfied in its semi-annual strategic meeting.

 

Text Xia Yingying/Chris Edward