Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Council Chairperson Guo Yurong was invited to attend the People’s Daily Online, 2018 University Presidents Forum in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. While she was there, she accepted an exclusive interview with People’s Daily.

The 2018 University Presidents Forum operated under the guidance of the People’s Daily. It was jointly sponsored by the People’s Daily, Taiyuan Municipal Committee and Taiyuan Municipal People’s Government. The theme of the forum was “Return, Innovation, and Education.” More than 60 chairpersons and presidents from universities across the country have joined in promoting first-class undergraduate education, cultivating new people of the times, and serving places for universities. They discussed topics such as “Promoting First-Class Undergraduate Education,” “Cultivating Newcomers In The Era,” “University Serving Local Economic And Social Organizations,” and “Building Of A New Era Of Teachers.” The university leaders also spent time brainstorming and seeking common development goals, while gathering wisdom for China’s higher education reform and development. They pledged to work together to develop world-class universities and first-class academic disciplines with Chinese characteristics. Senior leadership from the Taiyun Municipal Party Committee, Shanxi Provincial Party Committee, the People’s Daily and the China Higher Education Society all attended the forum.

During the main session about “How To Promote First-Class Undergraduate Education In Colleges And Universities,” SUSTech Council Chairperson Guo Yurong reported to Beihang University, Tianjin University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, East China University of Science and Technology, Chang’an University in Xi’an and Beijing Forestry University. She spoke how to accelerate the shortcomings of education, promote education reform, and first-class undergraduate education.

Guo Yurong shared the experience of SUSTech in promoting first-class undergraduate education. She pointed out that the most important task of the university is to train people, and undergraduate education is the basis for cultivating people. Improving the quality of university education is important for training first-class undergraduates as a whole, which is the foundation of higher education. SUSTech is a new university in the new era. Since its inception, it has been given the dual mission of exploring a modern university system with Chinese characteristics and exploring the training model of top-notch innovative talents. In the course of development, SUSTech has always placed the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents at the core of running a university and determined to answer Qian Xuesen’s question in practice. SUSTech seeks to take the lead in exploring and experimenting in the whole process of enrollment and training.

Guo Yurong pointed out that SUSTech has always adhered to the core position of building morality and cultivating people. It has done a good job in cultivating “national feelings, global vision, comprehensive quality, and innovative ability.” The goal of top-notch innovative talents is to focus on all-around collaborative education and trust-based education. SUSTech has taken the lead in implementing the comprehensive selection and admission mode based on the college entrance examination for all undergraduates recruited, which made a useful exploration for the reform of the college entrance examination system.

SUSTech adheres to the training idea of ​​ “broad foundation + fine professional” and implements the whole process of “general knowledge-professional-innovation.” SUSTech has a high-quality, high-level teaching team, and gives full play to the main role and strength of teachers in personnel training, laying a solid foundation for the overall development of the university. SUSTech focuses on creating international cooperation and exchange platform. Many courses in SUSTech adopt bilingual teaching. SUSTech provides students with a large number of international exchange learning opportunities to help students build a more comprehensive international perspective.

Chairperson Guo Yurong emphasized that first-class universities must have first-class undergraduate courses. To do a good job in undergraduate education is to adhere to the student-centered philosophy, adhere to the principle of “being based on this principle, and cultivate “newcomers of the times” who are responsible for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Later that day, Guo Yurong accepted an exclusive interview with the People’s Daily. The interview focused on the study and implementation of the spirit of the National Education Conference. She introduced the characteristics, advantages, and experience of the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents at SUSTech.

The forum announced the results of the selection of “The Spirit Of Storytelling Communication In Universities – 2018 Excellent Campus News Work.” Two news stories from SUSTech won prizes; “Everyone is ready for Typhoon Shanzhu,” and “SUSTech in the storm.” SUSTech Director of Communications and Public Relations Zhang Ling took the stage to receive the prize on behalf of the University.

As a national-level large-scale annual education forum, the People’s Daily University President’s Forum has been successfully held for four years. It has focused on hot issues such as university development, personnel training, enrollment system reform, and internationalization of universities, colliding ideas, sharing experiences, and publishing insights for China. The reform and development of higher education made suggestions and achieved constructive results, which caused strong repercussions in the industry.