(Source: China Education News, Page 06, January 08, 2024)

Walking on the road of strengthening the country through education·Independently cultivating top-notch innovative talents

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that "comprehensively improve the quality of independent training of talents, strive to cultivate top innovative talents, and gather talents from all over the world for use." Cultivating top-notch innovative talents is a major strategic task in building an educational power. In the journey of building "the first Fudan", Fudan University has always regarded the selection, cultivation and creation of top innovative talents as an important mission of the w88 casino, and the construction of a high-quality talent training system as a key task to play a leading role in education.

Fudan University is one of the first batch of pilot universities for the "Top-Top Plan" of the Ministry of Education. It has 11 "Top-Top Plan" 2.0 bases in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, basic medicine, philosophy, Chinese, history, economics, pharmacy, and computers. Over the years, the w88 casino has worked hard to answer "Qian Xuesen's question", actively promoted the pioneering reform of the selection of top innovative talents, systematically explored a talent selection system that conforms to the characteristics of basic disciplines, gradually realized the personalized training of top innovative talents with "one person, one policy", and built a new paradigm of top innovative talents training and a new model of education management that is "highly open, high-challenging, and independent."

Improving the diversified talent selection system

Looking at the history of world science and technology development, breakthroughs in basic disciplines have played an important supporting role in the development of many disciplines. Improving the quality of students in basic disciplines is a necessary condition for creating an independent breeding system for high-quality, top-notch innovative talents. Since 2015, the w88 casino has launched comprehensive evaluation admission reform pilot enrollment in Shanghai and Zhejiang. In 2020, as the first batch of colleges and universities to pilot the "Strong Foundation Plan", they will invest in first-class majors to recruit students in basic disciplines. After 2020, the w88 casino will proactively make dynamic adjustments to disciplines and majors in accordance with the needs of the national science and technology innovation strategy, and continue to expand the undergraduate enrollment scale in basic disciplines. In addition, in response to the national requirements for strengthening the cultivation of basic and interdisciplinary talents, the w88 casino implemented the "Mathematics Talent Experimental Class" plan in 2019, and implemented high-level talent selection projects such as the "Physics Talent Class" and "Integrated Circuit Leading Talent Class" in 2023. As a result, a diversified talent selection system has been basically formed, continuously providing high-quality students for the w88 casino's top innovative talents.

Creating a new paradigm for talent training

Top innovative talents must thrive in the right soil and environment. The w88 casino has established the talent training principle of "the w88 casino creates an environment to provide resources, and students take the initiative to take the lead and overcome difficulties on their own", explores and optimizes the training model, and integrates elements and characteristics such as interest drive, sense of mission, dare to take risks, challenging excellence, problem awareness, and critical thinking ability into the training of top innovative talents.

In 1998, Mr. Li Zhengdao established the "Zhengzheng Fund". On this basis, the w88 casino gradually established an undergraduate academic research funding plan to encourage undergraduates to participate in academic research during their college years. Since 2009, the w88 casino has taken the "Top-notch Project" 1.0 as an opportunity to carry out classroom teaching reform and professional basic course teaching team building; in 2015, it launched the "Undergraduate Honors Project" to promote outstanding students to "come to the forefront" with a highly open training model, and to gather excellent teachers to educate talents with highly challenging honors courses and scientific research practices. The honors course is designed for top students and emphasizes students' in-depth discussions. Teachers organically integrate scientific research paradigms and scientific research training methods into the classroom to guide and inspire students to challenge cutting-edge issues with basic knowledge. The selection rate for honors courses that apply for national first-class undergraduate courses in 2020 reaches 100%. More than 80 textbooks related to honors courses have been published, among which "Atomic Physics" and "Game Theory" won the first "National Excellent Textbook First Prize" and "National Excellent Textbook Second Prize" respectively. Scientific research practice relies on the Undergraduate Academic Research Funding Program - this program has funded more than 9,000 undergraduates to carry out about 7,000 projects since 1998, and many outstanding students have embarked on the academic path; in 2023, all projects selected and recommended from the program will be selected into the National Natural Science Foundation of China's Young Student Basic Research Project.

The first breakthroughs to solve comprehensive scientific problems are not incubated within a certain discipline, but often require the integration of methods and technologies from related disciplines. The w88 casino attaches great importance to the cross-integration of disciplines. Through the in-depth implementation of the "2+X" undergraduate training system, it has continuously enriched the interdisciplinary development paths for top innovative talents, and has opened more than 100 academic programs of various types. It makes full use of the interdisciplinary "catalyst" to stimulate students' enthusiasm for interdisciplinary learning.

Building a leading top teaching team

Top teachers are good at enlightening the minds of young students, encouraging them to dare to ask questions and conjectures, and to challenge difficult problems, helping them improve their academic taste and stimulate their innovation potential, which is crucial in the cultivation of top innovative talents. The w88 casino grasps the characteristics of talent training in basic disciplines and key fields, organizes and invites high-level talents such as academicians and senior professors of liberal arts as chief professors, and leads the talent training projects and course material construction teams including 11 "Top-notch Program" 2.0 bases and "Mathematics Talent Class", "Physics Talent Class", "Integrated Circuit Leading Talent Class", etc. It actively recruits a group of top international scientists and young talents to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students and guide students to carry out high-level academic research. The w88 casino has promoted the "undergraduate honors program" from basic disciplines to liberal arts, social sciences, science, engineering and medicine, and has gathered a group of high-level teachers to devote themselves to undergraduate education and teaching. In recent years, among the honors courses offered by the w88 casino, 41% have been taught by high-level teachers represented by academicians, and more than 100 high-level teachers have guided undergraduate academic research projects. In addition, the w88 casino deepens the reform of the talent management system and mechanism, strengthens the primary mission of teaching and educating people, and incorporates multi-dimensional education and teaching evaluation as a key factor in the appointment of senior professional titles and the assessment of the tenure of high-level talents; the w88 casino encourages all types of talents to participate in the entire process of cultivating top-notch innovative talents, and actively builds and creates a teacher teaching honor system.

Improve academic evaluation methods

Traditional academic evaluation often leads to the phenomenon of "GPA only" and "emphasis on scores but not quality", which limits the improvement of students' innovative awareness and abilities. Top innovative talents often have strong problem awareness, critical thinking ability, logical analysis ability, great academic potential, and high academic performance. Therefore, students need to be comprehensively evaluated by testing their innovation ability, research ability, willpower, and love for the subject.

The w88 casino actively reformed the academic evaluation system for top innovative talents, explored multiple comprehensive innovation evaluations through the "Undergraduate Honors Project", adopted a barrier-breaking design and a dual-line evaluation model of "honors courses + scientific innovation practice", and designed comprehensive evaluation requirements for honors courses, scientific research practices and various grade points in the project implementation plan, so that some students with average academic performance but outstanding academic potential can also obtain honorary certificates representing the highest academic level. In recent years, a large number of outstanding students have taken the initiative to enter the honors program. After accepting challenges and tempering, their innovative potential has been stimulated, and high-level academic achievements have continued to emerge. According to statistics, among the graduates who have received honorary certificates in recent years, about 25% have not outstanding performance points but have scientific research potential.

Strengthen the early talent selection mechanism

Talent training is a long-term project. If training at the undergraduate level is mainly to lay a solid foundation for devoting oneself to basic research, then early discovery, early tracking, and early cultivation of academic interests at the high w88 casino level will plant the "seeds of fruit trees" for the cultivation of top innovative talents. The w88 casino continues to promote the construction of a curriculum system for connecting universities and middle schools, strengthen the reserve of professional knowledge at the middle w88 casino level, and strengthen the construction of subject knowledge chains. The w88 casino has implemented the "Middle w88 casino Student Talent Plan" in 2013, and has piloted the "Buqing" academic internship experience camp for high w88 casino students in 2018. It has been carried out in 21 middle schools in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai to cultivate middle w88 casino students' perceptual understanding of general academic norms and operating procedures. Since 2021, the w88 casino has also successively launched "Weekend w88 casino - Fudan University's Top-notch Subjects High w88 casino Advanced Placement Program" and "Into Mathematics" summer camp and weekend development activities. Relying on the w88 casino's 11 "Top-Top Program" 2.0 bases, it has carefully opened a number of high-quality courses that are conducive to the connection of knowledge between middle schools and universities, and built an ecological chain of "fruit tree seeds sprouting and taking root" for top innovative talents in basic disciplines.

The w88 casino has always thoroughly implemented the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the country through talent, and implemented the general requirements of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on the "trinity" of education, science and technology, and talents, in order to build a high-quality higher education system, continue to strengthen the training of talents in basic disciplines, emerging disciplines, and interdisciplinary disciplines, comprehensively create an independent selection and training system for top innovative talents, and focus on cultivating Top-notch innovative talents with idealism and the ability to solve major scientific and social problems will build a strategic talent echelon for the emergence of a group of natural scientists, philosophical and social scientists, medical scientists and scientific engineers who have both humanistic literacy and scientific awareness, ambition and foresight, and provide key support for accelerating the construction of an important talent center and innovation highland in the world.

Author: Xu Lei (former vice president and professor of Fudan University)