Late last month, the Humanities Center at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) held a teaching & research conference ahead of the new academic year. The conference sought to examine its plans for the Writing and Communication classes in 2019-20, following the review that took place in July. Deputy Director of the Humanities Center Yang Guo chaired the meeting that was attended by several members of the Humanities Center.

After two semesters, the compulsory course “Writing and Communication” offered by the Humanities Center is now offered to all freshmen. This semester, the course will continue to use the small-class teaching mode, with a total of 32 hours across 16 weeks of teaching. The class will focus on student’s oral communication, practical writing and academic paper writing.

Oral Communication will adopt the embedded teaching method to intersperse the training in the application of the text and the academic papers in order to achieve the overall improvement effect.

The original intention of the “Writing and Communication” courses was to encourage students to communicate more effectively and develop as individuals. The majority of students found significant benefits in this course, and every space was taken within a few short hours of the elective being made available. It has become a media darling, with more than ten outlets reporting on the course including Xinhua, Guangming Daily, China Education Daily and Nanfang Daily.

The curriculum has led to considerable interest from other domestic universities and wider society. Students have seen dramatic improvements in their writing and communication skills, which has resulted in improvements in other aspects of their daily, scientific and professional lives.