Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) Professor Shen Hong came to Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in mid-November. She was invited to give the 196^th lecture of the SUSTech Lecture Series. Prof. Shen brought a report about “Chinese Undergraduate Proficiency Assessment Based on NSFC Higher Education Value-added Project.”

Shen Hong is a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Director of the Institute of Educational Economics. She is also the director of the Regional Higher Education Development Research Center of the Humanities and Social Sciences Key Research Base of Hubei University.

In her lecture, Shen Hong spoke about the skills that undergraduates gain while they are at university. She specifically pointed out their critical thinking, interpersonal and problem-solving skills, as well as improvements in their creativity. Shen Hong then went into the tests that are used by the research institutes and pointed out that they are developed by international and domestic experts in an interdisciplinary fashion. She found that most undergraduate students sit in a range of 54 to 70 points within each of the four general skills. Shen Hong explained that she used over fifteen thousand data points, using 83 schools in 16 provinces to compile her data.

Shen Hong said that the research shows that higher level institutions generate higher value students. She pointed out that engineering students have stronger creative and problem-solving skills. It was also shown that medical students have higher critical thinking skills in higher level institutions. The ultimate results of the assessment proved that most Chinese universities provide a positive impact on the growth of the skills of their undergraduates. Shen Hong did acknowledge that the value-add proposition did need to be improved going forward.

Shen Hong analyzed the challenges and problems of undergraduate education, posed by the audience.