Five years of reform and the "Chen Eleven era" of defeating South University of Science and Technology

Chen Xie officially took charge of the South University of Science and Technology in January 2015. CFP for the picture

On April 17, it was the fifth anniversary of the founding of Southern University of Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as “Southern University of Science and Technology”). It was approved by the Ministry of Education for the past six years from the end of 2010.

After experiencing the absence of Zhu Qingshi and the short-term principal, Chen Xie officially took charge of the South University of Science in January 2015. The new principal’s educational ideal is to make South University of Science and Technology "Oriental Stanford."

Different from Zhu Qingshi's "self-granting degree", "self-granting degree" and "de-administration" reform concept, Chen 11 emphasizes the reform of the system, the executive execution and the unification of professors, and the support of universities for urban development. “Like the University of Chicago in New York, Stanford University in Silicon Valley, and South University of Science and Technology to run a top-ranking university, it must be combined with the characteristics of Shenzhen.”

This is in line with the original intention of Shenzhen to create Nankeda.

President Chen’s sincerity

Before meeting with Chen, Fu Xinyuan looked for a scientific research platform. He considered taking the Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University in Shenzhen. But after breakfast with Chen, he listened to him for 5 hours and Fu Xinyuan changed his mind.

Fu Xinyuan is an internationally renowned molecular biomedical and biochemist. He was known to the international scientific community in the 1990s for discovering the enormous role of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway in life and disease. In 2016, after six years of research at the National University of Singapore Cancer Research Center, he decided to return to China to start a business, transforming the scientific research results obtained in the field of precision medicine into industrial applications. After receiving the investment from the Happy Land Investment Group, he turned his target to Shenzhen and began to look for partners.

On April 5th, the opening ceremony of the South University of Science and Technology Institute of Precision Medicine was held in Shenzhen. The world-famous "father of DNA" - DNA structure discoverer, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, James Watson, came to the scene to witness this moment with Chen Yi, Chairman of the Institute of Precision Soil Medicine, Ma Weihua and others. Fu Xinyuan will be the dean of the institute, and he will set up a research team at the Watson Life Science Center. In addition, the Ledong Investment Group donated 110 million yuan to the South University of Science and Technology Education Foundation to support and promote the construction of relevant disciplines and talents in the life sciences and medicine of Nanke University.

This means that South University of Science and Technology not only receives funding, but also participates in this research project. More importantly, with the entry of top scientists such as Watson, South University of Science and Technology has gained a great reputation internationally.

Fu Xinyuan is a key enabler of this cooperation. However, he did not know Chen 11 before, only know that he founded the Peking University Institute of Technology. "It took only one day to make such a decision. He touched me with sincerity and ability." Fu Xinyuan recalled to the Times Weekly reporter the choice of the South University of Science and Technology.

In March 2016, the first International Precision Medical Summit was held on the eve of the event. Ma Weihua, Chairman of the Ledong Investment Group, Liu Ruyin and Fu Xinyuan, and other delegations met with Ma Xingrui, then deputy secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and expressed his return to Ma Xingrui. The idea of ​​starting a business. "He asked at the time, did you really want to go back to China? If you want to go back to China to do scientific research, you must work with Shenzhen's scientific research institutions. Nankeda is the son of Shenzhen." Fu Xinyuan recalled. This is the first time he has heard people mention South University.

Later, his old friend and Chinese biologist Rao Yi also mentioned to him about Nankeda. "You should go see Chen X." So, on the day of seeing Ma Xingrui, Fu Xinyuan passed the news of his own in Shenzhen to Chen Eleven. "As a result, he immediately called me."

Chen eleven said on the phone that because there was a meeting the next morning, he could only meet at breakfast time. The next day, Chen eleven arrived early in the morning to stay at the hotel. "After talking for an hour, both parties are very interested." In the afternoon, Chen Xing sent a car to Fu Xinyuan to the Southern University of Science and Technology. "He took the vice president and the head of the biology department to accompany me around the school and introduced The school situation, from one and a half minutes until 6 pm, talked for a full five hours."

Fu Xinyuan recalled that more than a year ago, he still lamented. "After the talk, I immediately decided that it was Nankeda." Fu Xinyuan pulled up the sleeves of Chen Eleven and said, "President Chen, let's talk about specific things."

Five years of reform and failure

"Look at the level of a university in the long run, see the degree of social acceptance, and see how students contribute to society. As a newly created university, we mainly focus on the academic level of teachers, the quality of innovative talents, and the results of production, education and research. Three aspects of transformation, such as the development of our own, we must form a comparative advantage in these three aspects." A year ago, Chen 11 said in an interview with the media.

From these indicators, Nanke University has made great progress in the past two years: among the 357 teachers who signed the contract, including 14 academicians, 36 national “Thousand Talents Program” candidates, and 13 “National Natural Science Foundation Outstanding Youth Funds”. The winners, 60 “Youth Thousand Talents Plan” were selected, and 147 were selected for the “Peacock Project” in Shenzhen. 90% of them have overseas work experience and 60% have experience working or studying in the top 100 universities in the world. Its internationalization level and research faculty level even exceeds many 985 colleges and universities.

Xiong Bingqi, an education scholar, believes that looking at Nankeda from any angle is directly related to the evaluation of Chen. “In the beginning, the society expected Nankeda to embark on a completely different path from the institutions in the system. However, if it was evaluated from a university within the system, the achievements of a series of schools in Nankeda were obvious.”

Fu Xinyuan, who went abroad in 1982 and has studied abroad for more than 30 years, does not think so. He admitted that he was not optimistic about Zhu Qingshi’s reforms. "He understands Chinese education, but his education for internationalization is still lacking. He is very enthusiastic, but after all, he is an old-school indigenous intellectual."

After the establishment of the South University of Science and Technology Institute of Precision Medicine, Fu Xinyuan, in addition to the preparation of the Institute, also served as a lecturer at the Department of Biology, and a special advisor to the principal.

Chen Xeng was the head of the Department of Physics at Princeton University. Fu Xinyuan is the head of the Department of Biochemistry at the National University of Singapore School of Medicine. Chen Eleven founded the Peking University School of Engineering. Fu Xinyuan returned to China to form the Human Genetic Research Institute of Tsinghua University in 1999. The similar experience made Fu Xinyuan fully agree with Chen's educational philosophy and acting style. But what he admires most is: "He is not only good at management, but also has a very good relationship with his superiors."

Fu Xinyuan admits that South University of Science and Technology has chosen to be a partner. On the one hand, because it is young and young, it has changed very quickly. Another reason is Chen. "China needs to be a world-class international school. I hope that Nankeda can become a jewel in the crown." He also revealed that the South University of Science and Technology Institute of Precision Research is planning to establish a branch in Boston or New York to attract talents to come back and cooperate. .

"weak administrative" university

With overseas popularity, in the past few months, Guo Yurong, secretary of the Party Committee of the South University of Science and Technology, led a team to visit international universities to discuss scientific research cooperation: John Hopkins University, Royal College of London, Hong Kong University... Nankeda University in Nanshan District, Shenzhen On campus, the first laboratory in Shenzhen led by the Nobel Prize winner, the Grubbs Institute, has been established. The building of the Jotun Precision Medical Research Institute is under construction. The medical school co-founded with Johns Hopkins University will start the next year. Batch enrollment.

Nowadays, South University of Science and Technology seems to have bid farewell to the confusion and clear direction. However, there is still a distance from the dream of Chen’s “world-class research university”.

In response to the controversy over the effectiveness of the South China University of Science and Technology in the implementation of administrative reforms, Chen Yi emphasized that “de-administration is not to remove administrative execution, but to remove administrative intervention from academics and achieve the unification of professors’ management and executive execution”. . He said that the professor of Nanke University has done a very good job.

As the highest academic institution in the school, the Academic Committee of Nanke University was established five years ago. It was mainly managed in accordance with the Interim Measures for the Administration of Southern University of Science and Technology. The leading professor and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tang Shuxian, served as the director. “The school was small at the time, and there were no more than 10 committee members. In terms of the evaluation of teacher titles, there were more cases in which the academic committee did not pass.” In 2013, the school’s academic committee of the University of Science and Technology of the South University of Science and Technology, Jia Qing told the Times Weekly reporter. .

In November 2015, South University of Science and Technology re-enacted the "Academic Committee Charter", stipulating that 20% of the members of the academic committee of the school were appointed by the principal and the rest were democratically elected by the professors. The academic committee of the school has formal functions such as formal decision-making, deliberation, evaluation and consultation in academic affairs such as teacher appointment and job title evaluation. At present, the Academic Committee of the University of South University has a total of 23 members, Chen 11 serves as the director of the committee, and the vice presidents Tang Tao and Wu Chuanyue serve as deputy directors.

He Jiaqing introduced to the reporter of Time Weekly that the academic committee of the school is mainly used as the advisory body of the principal in decision-making academic affairs and does not have decision-making power. “The principal may veto the results of the deliberations of the academic committee, but must give reasons.” He said that so far, there has been little disagreement between the academic committee and the principal of the school.

He Jiaqing is more willing to use the "weak administration" to evaluate the "de-administration" reform of the South University of Science and Technology in the past two years. “Compared with traditional domestic public universities, Nankeda has done a lot in this area, but compared with the management of foreign universities, the administrative service awareness needs to be strengthened.”

In addition, the biggest constraint between Yokohama’s dream and reality in South University is the independent qualification of graduate students. At present, the South University of Science and Technology still adopts the graduate enrollment method jointly developed with Harbin Institute of Technology and Peking University. "According to normal regulations, it takes at least 5-8 years for Nankeda to meet the requirements." In South University of Science and Technology, there are a large number of teachers who have many years of master's and doctoral training experience overseas.

Zhou Juexiao, a freshman in the bioinformatics major, said that after graduation, he would consider going abroad for further study. “Southern University of Science and Technology has provided a good foundation for scientific research. It is easier to apply abroad.” According to the official website of the South University of Science and Technology, 60% of the 2016 graduates chose to study abroad.

In terms of knowing, people are asked every year to ask: What is the current situation of South University of Science and Technology? In response to the fact that the university, which was born in the long-awaited expectation and once lost in confusion, has gradually embarked on the right track of running a school, people are most concerned about the success of its "reform". The answer from a netizen was praised: "It is becoming an ordinary and excellent university, but ordinary is not necessarily a bad thing."