Library of Sichuan University of Foreign Chinese. Photo by Sun Kaifang Bright**.
The staff carried out drone simulation experiments in the State Key Laboratory of Public Big Data jointly built by the province and the ministry of Guizhou University. Xinhua News Agency.
In the "Winter Vacation School" in Sixi Village, Maoping Town, Zigui County, Yichang City, Hubei Province, college student volunteers help children do their homework. Photo by Wang Huifu Bright**.
[Building a strong country in education, writing on education].
In his 2024 New Year's message, the general secretary stressed that "it is necessary to comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, further boost confidence in development, enhance economic vitality, and make greater efforts to run education, promote science and technology, and cultivate talents". Yin Yin entrusts, urging people to forge ahead. In the new journey of building a strong country in education, colleges and universities should play a leading role, take the initiative to advance the layout, effectively respond to changes, strive to open up a new situation, strive to be an explorer in promoting the integrated development of education, science and technology and talents, and strive to answer the proposition of the times of "what is a university in the construction of a strong country".
Deepen the integration of science and education, and help high-level science and technology to become self-reliant and self-reliant
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China made a strategic decision to "implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and strengthen the support of qualified personnel for modernization". At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution is advancing by leaps and bounds, the speed of scientific and technological innovation has been significantly accelerated, and the paradigm of scientific research has undergone profound changes. The integration of science and education is the only way for colleges and universities to promote the integrated development of education, science and technology and talents, and it is also an urgent need to cultivate top-notch innovative talents.
Under the new opportunities and challenges, higher education should aim at the world's frontier of science and technology, strengthen the forward-looking layout, condense key scientific issues, be good at grasping the laws of science, play the role of the main force of high-level research universities, carry out original and leading scientific research, strive to improve the ability of science and technology to curate sources, and strive to achieve a breakthrough in major scientific and technological innovation from "0 to 1". Basic research usually takes a long time, but it nurtures the future and hope of the country and the nation. As the main force of basic research, colleges and universities need to have the will to "forge a sword for the country" and the spirit of "dedication to the people", and persist in it for a long time.
In the face of major national strategic needs, research-oriented universities should consciously fulfill the mission of promoting high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance, rely on high-level scientific research platforms such as national key laboratories, actively build national strategic scientific and technological forces, promote basic research and original innovation, and serve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance. National laboratories, national scientific research institutions, high-level research universities, and leading scientific and technological enterprises are all important components of the national strategic scientific and technological forces. While focusing on their own construction, colleges and universities should also actively carry out collaborative innovation with the above-mentioned institutions to strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength.
Colleges and universities should break the boundaries between teaching and scientific research, take the integration of science and education as an important starting point for improving the quality of education and teaching and the ability of scientific and technological innovation, integrate advantageous discipline resources, high-quality educational resources, high-level scientific research platforms and other resources, promote the integration of science and education, actively transform scientific research advantages and discipline advantages into educational advantages, strengthen the cultivation of scientific spirit, innovation ability and critical thinking, and collaboratively cultivate top-notch innovative talents.
Deepen the integration of industry and education, and improve the innovation of key core technologies
Deepening the integration of industry and education, and promoting the organic connection between the education chain, the talent chain, the industrial chain, and the innovation chain are the urgent requirements for promoting the structural reform of the supply side of human resources, and it is a strategic measure to promote the priority development of education and the interconnection, coordination and promotion of industrial innovation and development. Facing the needs of industrial innovation and development, it is necessary to accelerate the integration of industry and education, establish a mechanism conducive to tackling key core technologies, and promote the formation of a development pattern of education and industry integration.
Focusing on the layout and key directions of leading industries and future industrial development, colleges and universities should rely on advantageous disciplines to build an innovation consortium led by leading enterprises, supported by universities and institutes, and coordinated by various innovation subjects. Focus on solving the key core technical problems of "stuck neck", abstract theoretical problems from application, find technological innovation "from 1 to 10" in scientific experiments, and then test the results in application. University researchers often pay more attention to the frontier hotspots in their own academic fields, but lack a full understanding of market demand and enterprise problems. It is necessary to establish a mechanism and platform for collaborative research, break down the "barriers" between universities and enterprises, and eliminate the barriers between academic research and technology application.
Leading the construction of a modern industrial system with scientific and technological innovation is an important task of national and local economic work. Colleges and universities should continue to strengthen the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the incubation of innovative enterprises, and serve the transformation and upgrading of regional economic development. The National University Science and Technology Park can be used as an important carrier, focusing on the leading industries, the layout and key directions of future industrial development, and expanding school-local cooperation and school-enterprise cooperation. Through the joint construction of infrastructure such as pilot industrialization bases, proof-of-concept is carried out in the early stage of R&D, high-quality projects are selected and cultivated in the mid-term, and business incubation is helped in the later stage. At the same time, in the process of cooperation, we will focus on the bottlenecks that restrict the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and take practical measures to optimize policy supply and integrate resource allocation in the reform of management system, service model and evaluation mechanism.
Colleges and universities should take talent training as the starting point, improve students' scientific literacy and research ability in a targeted manner, and continuously send outstanding engineering talents to the society, so that they can become the backbone of the market and enterprises. To serve the needs of regional economic and social development, colleges and universities should closely connect with the industrial chain and innovation chain, continuously optimize the layout of disciplines and majors, improve the demand-oriented talent training structure adjustment mechanism, and closely coordinate with industry backbone enterprises, small, medium and micro entrepreneurial enterprises, actively build a community of integration of industry and education, and explore the collaborative training system of "enterprises solve problems and colleges and universities solve problems".
Promote interdisciplinarity and provide high-quality development of talents
Problems are the voice of the times, and answering and guiding the solution of problems is the fundamental task of theory." The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China condensed "adhering to the problem orientation" as one of the important contents of the worldview and prescription of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Problem-orientation is the driving force to promote the development of interdisciplinary integration. Colleges and universities should focus on the major strategic needs of the party and the country, strengthen top-level planning, optimize the layout of the discipline system, vigorously support the cross-integration between basic disciplines, between basic disciplines and applied disciplines, and between natural sciences and humanities and social sciences.
The construction of "double first-class" is not only an important task for all colleges and universities, but also a major opportunity. In the process of discipline construction, how to balance the relationship between laboratory research and social needs, how to achieve disruptive innovation, and break through the path dependence of planning and demand-oriented? In the face of great changes in the world unseen in a century, we need to pay attention to the creation of basic platforms common to all disciplines, including major scientific and technological infrastructure, collaborative innovation research platforms, talent training bases, and international cooperation and exchange platforms.
In order for colleges and universities to become a "strong magnetic field" that gathers talents from all over the world, they need educators and scientists, as well as leading talents with forward-looking judgment, interdisciplinary understanding, and leadership ability in the combat organization of large corps. Colleges and universities need to build a team of high-quality professional teachers with noble morals and superb professional skills. Education is both relay and inheritance, and it is necessary to establish an interdisciplinary scientific research and innovation team, give full play to the value driving force and strategic traction of system construction, and form an organized scientific research model through the team, so as to help talents grow in the team and cultivate problem-solving ability in the interdisciplinary.
The construction of a strong country requires first-class higher education, and universities are facing many challenges in the process of building world-class universities with distinctive characteristics. Colleges and universities should insist on serving the needs of national and regional development, seek innovation in inheritance and development, and cultivate talents to promote social development, so as to become the most dynamic source of innovation, the most effective place to put forward solutions, and the most influential place to generate ideas.
(Author: Liu Changsheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, president of Shanghai University).