Why build a world-class university?
Is to improve the teaching and scientific research level of domestic universities,
Better serve social and economic development.
If you like it,
It's sunny.
How many world-class universities will be built in 2050, and the personal ranking seems to be gone. However, your university ranking is very important. Is it 985? Is it 2 1 1? If so, you will be happy, otherwise you will lose your family. The figures of these red tape articles actually represent an impulse of GDP growth figures: building a world-class university. 2 1 1 is the 265438+ 100 university of the 20th century, and 985 is training.
Now many colleges and universities have proposed to build a "world-class university". What standards do you think a "world-class university" should meet? World-class universities mainly refer to universities with strong cultural and educational strength, great world reputation and ranking among the world-class universities. At present, recognized world-class universities have two characteristics: first, they have world-class professors; Second, there is a set of systems and policies (so-called soft environment) to support professors to cultivate talents and carry out cutting-edge scientific research.
In addition, the criteria for judging whether it is an Ivy League university, a member university of association of american universities (AAU), Russell University Group and a member university of Australia's eight major leagues are also one of the criteria for judging whether it is a world-class university.
First of all, what indicators should be used to guide and evaluate the construction of world-class universities, and ESI indicators should be used in the evaluation of scientific research, because this is an internationally accepted indicator. To build world-class universities and disciplines, we must use world standards, otherwise, how can we call them world-class? I believe that the university I want to build will also have this confidence. This is also the standard of each province.
Second, the construction funds should also be mainly based on this indicator (say 75%) or the world university rankings (note that it includes ARWU in China). These indicators are easy to collect now, and the annual funding is ranked according to the ESI of each university in the previous year. No longer divided into first-class universities and first-class disciplines. Subjects entering 1‰ are allocated according to a quota, so that they can compete with the world's top 100, top 50 and top 10, and those entering 1% are allocated according to a quota, so that they can complete the top1‰; In addition, subjects entering the top 5- 10% will be given an indicator to let them go to the top 1%-5%. The Ministry of Education can easily solve the problem of lobbying and making trouble. The other 25% is based on the characteristics of China, such as student training, humanities and social sciences with China characteristics and so on. In this way, many schools in China will get resources from relatively equal for the same subject. The more first-class disciplines, the more funds and the higher the goal. If the number of first-level disciplines exceeds a certain number and the ranking of the whole university (at least the research part) reaches a certain number, rewards will be given according to the number of disciplines entering the world-class and the specific ranking of disciplines (1% 1‰, 0. 1‰) (refer to the indicators of world-class universities now). When the number of world-class disciplines reaches a certain number, it will naturally become a world-class university.
What is the construction path of a world-class university? First, realize a number of first-class disciplines, and find out which disciplines in our school are promising and key to support. Capital investment (insurance and construction), talent introduction (academicians, Changjiang, Jieqing and thousands of people), three major achievements (national awards, major national projects and top papers), and base construction (national laboratories, state key laboratories, ministerial laboratories and international cooperation bases). It's actually quite simple. It will take less than 5- 10 years to produce shoes containing cat fruit.
Focus on "double first-class": what is the construction path of world-class universities? First, realize a number of first-class disciplines, and find out which disciplines in our school are promising and key to support. Capital investment (insurance and construction), talent introduction (academicians, Changjiang, Jieqing and thousands of people), three major achievements (national awards, major national projects and top papers), and base construction (national laboratories, state key laboratories, ministerial laboratories and international cooperation bases).
It's actually quite simple. Without 5- 10 years, the effect will not come out.
How to Build a World-class University "Overall Plan for Promoting the Construction of World-class Universities and First-class Subjects as a Whole" was adopted at the 15th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform on August 15, which is an important guiding principle for China's university education to reach a high level. The Overall Plan for Overall Planning and Promoting the Construction of World-class Universities and First-class Disciplines proposes that we should fully implement the Party's educational policy, follow the educational laws, take moral education as the foundation, take China characteristics as the guide, support the innovation-driven development strategy and serve the economy and society as the guide, and push a number of high-level universities and disciplines into the world-class ranks or forefront, enhance the comprehensive strength and international competitiveness of China's higher education, cultivate first-class talents and produce first-class results. It is necessary to guide and support universities to optimize the discipline structure, concise the development direction of disciplines, highlight the key points of discipline construction, and stimulate the endogenous motivation and vitality of universities through institutional mechanism reform.
Editor's Note: Both authors of this article are overseas young scholars who have made outstanding achievements in their respective research fields. With the heart of serving the country, now they return to China wholeheartedly; With eager anticipation of China's prosperity, they set their sights on areas where they are not "professional". The experience of studying and teaching in world-class universities has made them more aware of creating their own China.
How important it is to become a world-class university. History: The youngest tenured professor, full professor and chair professor since the establishment of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Now he is a tenured professor of Tsinghua University (left).
Rao Yi: tenured professor of Peking University, dean of School of Life Sciences. Before returning to China, she was ElsaSwanson, a professor at Northwest University and deputy director of the Institute of Neuroscience (right). ● Throughout the modern history of the world, no big country can truly become an all-round leading world power in the case of backward higher education.
● If China wants to build a world-class university, it must follow international standards, not domestic standards.
Judging from today's historical conditions and China's overseas talent pool, it is possible for China to complete the centennial rise of American higher education in 20 or 30 years. What about the backwardness of higher education and the world power?
Establishing a world-class university is the fundamental prerequisite for a country to rise in an all-round way on the world stage. If there is no world-class university, a big country can make a breakthrough in a certain respect, and a small country can also achieve national prosperity. However, looking at the modern history of the world, no big country can truly become an all-round leading world power in the case of backward higher education.
The dominant position of British universities has played an important role in leading the world, which once turned it from an island country with a small population into an empire that dominated the world. Today, it still surpasses many countries with richer population and local resources and stands among the world powers. People all over the world who have received modern education are still obsessed with Newton and Maxwell of Cambridge University.
/kloc-The research universities founded in Germany in the early 20th century played an important role in the rise of Germany, and their influence spread all over the world. Although the popularity of Nazism partially offset the promotion brought by German universities in the first half of the 20th century, Germany's powerful universities can still help Germany rise again after World War II, despite the serious brain drain.
/kloc-many universities were established in Japan in the 20th century, such as Keio University 1858, Tokyo University 1877, Waseda University 1882 and Kyoto University 1897. These universities not only laid the foundation for Japan to win in the competition with China and Russia, but also provided the necessary conditions for Japan's development in the next century.
In the process of the rise of the United States, people often notice that a large number of scientific and technological talents flocked to American universities after World War II. In fact, before this, the United States has established and developed a number of world-class universities, laying a solid foundation for the rise of the United States. At the end of 19, a number of established universities were not only supported to transform into modern research universities, but also a number of excellent universities were built. For example, in 1876, Hopkins University and Hospital funded by banker Hopkins became the first German-style research university in the United States, which greatly promoted the popularization of American research universities. 1890, Rockefeller, the oil magnate, established the University of Chicago, which not only made important scientific decisions such as building the world's first nuclear reactor, but also vigorously developed theories that affected the world economy in the economic field, so that many people in the same department won the Nobel Prize in Economics. 189 1 year, the railway king Stanford founded Stanford University, which reached the world leading level in many disciplines and became one of the main forces in establishing Silicon Valley and establishing modern biotechnology industry. 1900, Carnegie, the king of steel, founded the Institute of Technology, which is the predecessor of Carnegie University, the most advanced computer science in the world. After decades and hundreds of years, the strength of these universities has been constantly presented, laying the necessary foundation for the United States to continue to lead the world. The promotion of first-class universities to the country.
World-class universities are not only the cradle of science, technology and education, but also the main source of modern human culture and thought. The culture produced by world-class universities spreads the world, affecting human thoughts and leading social changes. World-class universities gather outstanding talents from all walks of life, think about the future of the country and the nation, explore the goals of national development, put forward ideas for national development, and open up the road of national development. University is not only the base of theoretical thinking, but also can directly train and provide talents to achieve these goals, so that theory can become a reality.
World-class universities are the main force of cutting-edge scientific research and technological development, and also an important source of knowledge creation. Universities in western developed countries generally shoulder the main responsibility of scientific research, and first-class universities also play a leading role in the establishment and development of cutting-edge science and technology industries.
World-class universities attract outstanding talents and leaders from all over the world. The gathering of talents from all over the world not only promotes the development of culture and ideas in the countries where universities are located, but also brings these influences back to their own countries through talents who have returned from studying abroad, thus affecting the society and culture of other countries. For example, Britain not only has world-class universities such as Cambridge and Oxford, but also selectively supports outstanding students from all over the world (such as former US President Bill Clinton) to study in Britain through positive measures (such as setting up Rhodes Scholarships), which has influenced the ideological formation of elites in many countries and thus the world pattern. The United States also supports and attracts a large number of outstanding foreign students and potential leaders to study and further study in the United States in various ways.
World-class universities are of great significance to building national self-confidence and pride. Without world-class universities, a considerable part of a country's elite talents will be trained by foreign universities. A considerable number of them may have a student mentality in their hearts and cannot have enough psychological self-confidence. Building a world-class university must conform to international standards.
To build a world-class university, China must follow international standards, not domestic standards.
All recognized world-class universities have two common characteristics: first, they have a world-class faculty, and second, they have a set of systems and policies (so-called soft environment) that support the faculty to cultivate talents and conduct cutting-edge scientific research. Therefore, these universities can continuously and steadily produce a number of world-class scientific discoveries and technological inventions, and constantly cultivate world-class students and young talents, rather than a flash in the pan. We believe that the above two points are the goals that China must pursue in the process of building a world-class university.
Both Tsinghua and Peking University have outstanding undergraduates who have made breakthroughs in some disciplines and reached the leading position in the world, but they are not recognized as world-class universities. The fundamental reason is that there is no strong team of world-class professors in China, and the system and policies supporting the team of world-class professors need to be improved. The rapid development of foreign universities has also brought great pressure and challenges to the construction of world-class universities in China.
Facing the grim reality, we should not resort to domestic standards to reduce the pressure on our universities, but face the reality, formulate effective policies and guidelines, and establish necessary strategies to catch up. A comprehensive university should have world-class multidisciplinary leaders and leading figures, cultivate world-class talents and do influential work, and be able to compete with world-class universities for professors and students, instead of replacing international standards with domestic honors. Characteristic universities should be ahead in certain fields or directions, rather than pursuing perfection and greatness.
Our country must catch up.
At present, there is no world-class university in China, but we must intensify our efforts to promote the construction of world-class universities in all directions. One hundred and fifty years ago, there were no world-class universities in the United States, and the strength of universities was far behind that of European powers. In the next century, the United States will make full use of its abundant financial resources and national strength to develop the university system. Fifty years ago, American higher education had dominated the world ahead of other capitalist powers. We believe that, judging from the current historical conditions and the reserve of overseas talents in China, it is possible for China to complete the centennial rise of American higher education within 20 to 30 years.
After nearly 30 years of continuous efforts after the reform and opening up, China's university construction has made considerable achievements. Professors and scientific research have also made great progress, and individual disciplines have achieved world-leading results. However, there is still a considerable gap between the overall level of professors and western developed countries.
In view of the present situation of universities and scientific research in China, in the future, China should focus on introducing a group of first-class full professors from world-famous universities who are in the leading position in the research field, so that they can return to China to work full-time and give full play to their leading role in talent training and scientific research in first-class universities in China. At the same time, China should vigorously attract the best young people with world-leading academic level, such as postdoctoral fellows and assistant professors, so that they can make world-class achievements in China and link their growth with the development of China.
In order to ensure the introduction of world-class talents, the state should formulate corresponding effective policies to create a truly internationally competitive research environment and living environment for them, so as to fundamentally improve the competitiveness of China University. It should be pointed out that in order to ensure the smooth development of these world-competitive scientific research, teaching and education work, China universities must improve the existing administrative management system or even formulate a brand-new administrative management system, and support the corresponding policies.
Mei Yiqi, a famous educator, once pointed out in his speech when 193 1 became the president of Tsinghua University that the size of a university is not the size of a building, but the greatness of a master. (Feng Jie contributed)
What are the construction paths for world-class universities?
It's hard to say.
But attracting and retaining talents,
Is the key.
If you like it,
It's sunny.