Since the reform and opening up, the awareness of liberal arts development in China's science and engineering universities has gradually increased. According to incomplete statistics, among the 302 undergraduate colleges of science, technology, agriculture and medicine in China, 290 colleges offer undergraduate majors in humanities and social sciences. However, due to various reasons, the development level of liberal arts in colleges and universities is uneven. Some colleges and universities overcome difficulties and go hand in hand with arts and sciences; Some colleges only regard liberal arts as a subsidiary of the development of science and engineering; Some colleges even regard liberal arts as a burden for overall development.
At present, is it necessary for universities of science and engineering to further promote the construction of liberal arts? What kind of art development strategy should be implemented in the future? With these questions, our reporter recently interviewed a number of liberal arts construction leaders, researchers and higher education researchers in science and engineering colleges.
The "flower" of liberal arts in HKUST.
Shanghai in August is extremely hot. Guo Qiang, deputy director of the liberal arts office of Tongji University, and his colleagues are not in the mood to idle away their summer vacation. During the holidays, they will hold at least eight meetings to discuss the development of liberal arts in Tongji University. In order to develop liberal arts, Tongji University stripped off the liberal arts office originally belonging to Tongji University's Science and Technology Department before the summer vacation and set up a new liberal arts office at the same level as the Science and Technology Department. Tongji University attaches great importance to the development of liberal arts.
Tongji University, founded in 1907, has gradually developed into the largest and most comprehensive engineering university in the field of civil construction in China. After the reform and opening-up, Tongji University is determined to restore and develop into a multidisciplinary university with the characteristics of economy, management, arts and sciences, and law, and to build an overall framework of "a comprehensive, research-oriented and internationally renowned high-level university". However, among the 29 colleges in the school, the College of Arts and Sciences only holds 6 seats.
The development track of Tongji University is representative in most universities of science and engineering in China. After the founding of New China, influenced by the Soviet higher education model and responding to the call of socialist industrialization to serve the country, science and engineering education received strong support from the state. After two rounds of teacher adjustment in 1950s, China's universities of science and engineering presented a "unique" discipline development situation. After the reform and opening up, social development has quietly returned to the liberal arts needs of science and engineering colleges. Especially in recent years, they began to actively explore various paths to make up for the shortcomings of liberal arts development.
Shanghai Jiaotong University has gained experience in the construction of liberal arts. Jiang Hong, director of the liberal arts construction department of the school, told reporters that the establishment of the liberal arts construction department is the strategic deployment of the school to develop liberal arts.
According to Jiang Hong's summary, the experience of liberal arts development in Shanghai Jiaotong University includes: first, long-term accumulation, step by step, expanding basic liberal arts; Second, focus on the development direction of social science and realize brand leadership; Third, give full play to the advantages of science and engineering, speed up scientific research in liberal arts, adhere to the goal of developing emerging and interdisciplinary disciplines, and realize leap-forward development.
The substantial increase in funds has promoted the rapid development of liberal arts construction. According to Jiang Hong, Shanghai Jiaotong University invested 65.438+0.3 billion yuan in the third phase of "985", more than five times the total amount in the second phase of "985". The investment of funds has brought rich returns: the number of first-class doctoral programs in liberal arts in the school has developed from two in the second phase of "985" to six at present. In the evaluation of liberal arts by the Ministry of Education in 20 12, among the 1 1 liberal arts who participated in the school evaluation, 10 was in the top 20, and 10 was in the top 6. In 20 12, the school applied for six major projects of the national social science fund. In the latest selection of outstanding achievements in humanities and social sciences research in China universities, the university won the first prize of 1, four second prizes and three third prizes.
The liberal arts development of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has always been a model of science and engineering colleges. Under the leadership of educators Zhu and Yang Shuzi, as early as 1993, its liberal arts development has reached a certain scale. According to Liu Xianjun, deputy director of the Academic Committee of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, by 2008, there were 2 national key disciplines, 26 doctoral programs and 6 post-doctoral mobile stations.
Huazhong University of Science and Technology's liberal arts development experience has been affirmed by the education sector. "Although Huazhong University of Science and Technology is an engineering university, its humanities and social sciences such as news dissemination, public management and philosophy have developed well." Qingshan Xu, a professor at the School of Education Science of Wuhan University, said in an interview with this reporter that the outstanding achievements in the development of liberal arts not only greatly promoted the development of engineering, science and medicine in this school, but more importantly enhanced the overall academic status of this engineering college.