Foster Virtue through Education, Open up New Prospects for First-Class Undergraduate Education

Secretary Chen Chunsheng presided over the conference.
 

President Luo Jun delivered a keynote report entitled “Foster Virtue through Education——Open up New Prospects for First-Class Undergraduate Education”.
 

President Luo Jun said that we should regard it as a priority political task to study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important remarks on education. We should always regard “fostering virtue through education” as the fundamental task of the university, and highlight three clarifications, i.e., clarify “which kinds of talents to nurture”, "how to nurture talents”, and “for whom to nurture talents”. We should uphold three principles: adhere to the socialist orientation of education, uphold the goal of nurturing a new generation of capable young people who are well-prepared to join the socialist cause, and uphold the standard of education: to nurture students who have well-rounded moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetical grounding with a hard-working spirit. We should promote four constructions, i.e., strengthening primary-level Party organizations, faculty development, talent cultivation systems, and management teams to achieve substantial effects.

President Luo Jun pointed out that since 2015, the university has focused on the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, set the goal of building a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, and transformed ideas of development in talent cultivation, scientific research, social service, and cultural inheritance. We have pushed forward the university cause to achieve a leap-forward in development, formed the geographical layout concept of “five campuses in three cities”, as well as the disciplinary layout of integrated development of the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medical sciences, and engineering. The university has entered a new era of pursuing excellence and striving for world-class status, thus opening up good prospects for the work of fostering virtue through education.

President Luo Jun stated in the report that SYSU has ushered in a historic new era of accelerating the construction of a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, embarked on a new journey from ordinary to first-class, from excellent to outstanding, and from staying among the top to taking the lead. Next, SYSU will continually implement the task of fostering virtue through education, improve the quality of talent cultivation, and implement the four projects of casting the soul, fortifying the root, enhancing the foundation, and improving efficiency in the new era.

The project of casting the soul refers to upholding and consolidating overall Party leadership. It is to cast the soul for SYSU’s accelerating the building of a world-class university with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and it is also the biggest advantage, essential feature and fundamental assurance for our university cause. President Luo Jun required that Party committees take primary responsibilities, strengthen primary-level Party organizations, enhance ideological and political work, and meanwhile implement five concrete measures, i.e., ensure ideological safety, construct teams for ideological and political work, enhance reform and innovation of ideological and political theory courses, promote integration of ideological and political work with Party building, and promote comprehensive reform of the all-member, whole-process and all-round education.

The project of fortifying the root refers to strengthening faculty development in the new era. First, strengthening the professional ethics of teachers. President Luo Jun stressed that the “virtue” for teachers means political awareness, loyalty, attainment and pursuit. Teachers should be worthy of the title “people’s teachers”, be loyal to the people, be loyal to the Party’s educational cause, be loyal to the university cause, and be loyal to the mission and responsibility of education. Teachers should strive to improve comprehensive competence and become good teachers, excellent teachers and outstanding teachers. This is an important core of the SYSU spirit and culture.

The project of enhancing the foundation refers to establishing a high-level talent cultivation system. We should focus on rebuilding the talent cultivation system based on the “five integrations”, and make it more scientific, complete and competitive.

The project of improving efficiency refers to building a high quality professional management team, and improving management effectiveness. On the one hand, focus on strengthening cadre development, and on the other hand, focus on training administrative staff members, and build a management team with firm political footing, high professional competence and outstanding service.

In the afternoon, Deputy Secretary Lin Dongwei, Vice President Li Shanmin, Deputy Secretary Yu Minbin, Vice President Wang Xuehua, Director of the Office of the President Yang Jianlin, Professor Tong Yexiang, and student Zhou Zixun presented special reports on the theme of “Cultivating Talents, Fostering Virtue through Education”.

On April 21, the 2019 Spring Work Conference of SYSU closed on Zhuhai Campus. President Luo Jun presided over the meeting in the afternoon. Members of the university leadership, heads of schools, functional departments and affiliated hospitals, teacher representatives including various leading academics and researchers and committee members attended the meeting.
 

A scene of the meeting
 

In the afternoon, Secretary Chen Chunsheng delivered a concluding speech entitled “Consolidate Responsibilities at Each Level, Gather Strength in Fostering Virtue through Education”. The report put forward requirements on the three aspects of deepening the sense of responsibility, perfecting the chain of responsibility, and promoting the implementation of responsibility. The report also made it clear how to consolidate responsibilities at each level to fulfill the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education.

 

Secretary Chen Chunsheng delivered a concluding speech entitled “Consolidate Responsibilities at Each Level, Gather Strength in Fostering Virtue through Education”.
 

Secretary Chen Chunsheng stressed that the spring work conference was a conference which returned to the fundamental task of the university, with the hope to gather wisdom and consensus of faculty members and students on talent cultivation and fostering virtue through education, especially undergraduate education. We should make efforts to implement at each level, and strive toward realizing the fundamental objective of the university.

Secretary Chen Chunsheng said that President Luo Jun’s report on behalf of the university detailed the significance and rich contents of fostering virtue through education. It analyzed the work of fostering virtue through education at the university in the past four years, emphasized the scientific, complete and competitive features of talent cultivation system, and embodied theoretical thinking on the talent cultivation system of a socialist university with Chinese characteristics in the new era; it also made arrangements for strengthening the work of fostering virtue through education with the four projects of casting the soul, fortifying the root, enhancing the foundation, and improving efficiency. The report will act as a guide to implementing the task of fostering virtue through education and improving the quality of talent cultivation at the university in the next stage. All schools, departments, and functional units should be clear about our own responsibility and mission in the grand undertakings of talent cultivation and fostering virtue through education.

Secretary Chen Chunsheng pointed out that new ideas lead to a new era, and a new era calls for new acts. All faculty, staff and students should remember Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s instruction “I hope you will shoulder the responsibility of the revitalization of China”, remain true to our original aspiration, and keep our mission firmly in mind. Rooted in China, and guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we should implement the spirit of the national and provincial education congress, uphold the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, and consolidate the responsibility of talent cultivation at each level. We should gather strength to overcome difficulties, make continuous efforts to foster a new generation of young people capable of shouldering the mission of national rejuvenation, and those who have well-rounded moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetical grounding with a hard-working spirit, and work tirelessly to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.　

President Luo Jun gave comments on group discussion reports.
 

During the conference, six groups held two discussion sessions respectively on students’ ideological and political work, professional ethics of teachers, talent cultivation systems, logistics support, ideological and political theory courses, and education through scientific research. The group conveners reported their discussions at the plenary meeting. President Luo Jun commented that the group reports were clear and objective-oriented, with understandings as well as future plans and arrangements, thereby attesting to the the effect of the conference.

The 2019 Spring Work Conference was once again held on Zhuhai Campus, which provided an opportunity for the attendees to experience the rapid construction and development on the campus, providing a backdrop of inspiration and confidence for the conference.