The School of Environmental Science and Engineering of Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) held its 2018 strategic planning meeting last week. SUSTech President Chen Shiyi warmly welcomed the members of the Advisory Board and special guests of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, including Prof. Mary Anderson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Prof. Steve Gorelick from Stanford University, Prof. Michael Hoffmann from California Institute of Technology, Prof. Fu Bojie from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Zhang Dongxiao from Peking University, Prof. Shlomo Neuman from the University of Arizona, Prof. David Lerner from the University of Sheffield, and Dr. Charles Andrews from S.S. Papapdopulos & Associates, Inc. Chair Professor Zhang Youkuan, Executive Dean of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, presided over the meeting.
Chair Professor Zheng Chunmiao, Vice Provost for Global Strategies and Founding Dean of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, welcomed the attendees on behalf of SUSTech. He briefed the audience about the current state of SUSTech, including faculty, student body, research, international reputation and rankings.
Zhang You-Kuan reported the School’s scientific research achievements, along with its talent pipeline development, the expansion of scientific research platforms, and its curriculum progress over the past 12 months. He said that the work of talent recruitment, student training, and research platform development would be accelerated in the future.
Professor Liu Junguo, Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, spoke about “How to Build a First-Class Undergraduate Major,” where he introduced the undergraduate teaching and provided a SWOT analysis of the School’s undergraduate education. Professor Deng Baolin talked about “How to advance Environmental Science education with New Engineering Standards.” Using the School of Environmental Science and Engineering undergraduate program as an example, he discussed the training objectives, credit requirements, research training and curriculum and other aspects with the experts in attendance.
The School of Environmental Science and Engineering faced a number of issues, including the requirements of teacher assessments, the challenges faced by young faculty members, the adaptation of students to the language of courses taught, and whether the curriculum model mode should remain “2+2” or move to “1+3”. These issues were explored and dissected during the meeting.
Toward the end of the meeting, the members of the Advisory Board and special guests met with the senior leadership of the School of Environmental Science and Engineering to provide feedbacks on the school’s progress and recommendations for future development.
