By Wen Caifei, China Science Daily
As an expert in brain mapping, scientist Luo Qingming, also known as the "brain spatial informatician", has taken on the role of president at Hainan University. He is now drawing a blueprint for the University, exploring a leapfrog development path to drive a transformative reform.
Hainan University is currently undergoing comprehensive reforms, involving the implementation of a full credit-based system, establishment of collaborative innovation centers, and practice of a residential college system. However, implementing individual reform in Chinese universities is no easy task, and some institutions are hesitant to embark on any changes. What drives the coordinated implementation of these "three pillars" of reform? What impact does Luo’s bold thinking and actions have on the process?
"Sustainable growth is more important than the initial capabilities"
China Science Daily: In implementing these comprehensive reforms, what factor do you prioritize?
Luo Qingming: Talent development is the most important factor among other things.
Knowledge can be divided into two categories: explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be expressed and disseminated through language, text, and charts, while tacit knowledge can only be perceived and cannot be explicitly transmitted. The latter is often manifested as ability of people. In the information-based era, the ways in which young students acquire knowledge are vastly different from previous generations. There are now numerous means and methods for acquiring explicit knowledge that may render traditional university education unnecessary. So why should students still attend university? What value does university education bring?
If we continue with traditional teaching modes, students are likely to become disengaged and lose interest. Talent development should adopt a problem-oriented approach and be tailored to national needs and the positioning of universities. This readjustment involves all aspects in education. How can teachers and students interact most effectively? How can we create an environment that promotes both in-class and extracurricular learning? Since the academic abilities of students vary when they are admitted, should capable students be allowed to pursue two or even three majors simultaneously? We did very careful analysis and concluded that personalized education is the most crucial factor for students to become professional talents.
In the past, large-class teaching was designed to meet the needs of majority of students while neglecting the fact that the same curriculum wasn't sufficient for top students, whereas those with relatively poor performance struggled to keep up. When I was in college, one of my fellow classmates failed to obtain a graduation certificate for his failure to pass necessary courses. But 10 or 20 years later, he won a national award in the field of science and technology. Wasn't he intelligent? The fact was that we started our university education with different educational backgrounds. Some provinces and regions were relatively weak in primary education, leading to significant disparities in performance in learning the same curriculum in university. However, this doesn't mean that one will not succeed. With decades of hard work, success is still achievable. This experience has inspired me greatly. We need to highlight the importance of personalized cultivation in university education. As long as a student has the potential for growth, they will become somebody someday. In comparison, ensuring sustained growth is more vital than solely focusing on their initial capabilities.
China Science Daily: Why did Hainan University choose to prioritize the full credit-based system, collaborative innovation centers and residential college system in its comprehensive reform?
Luo Qingming: One of the main goals of our comprehensive reform is to achieve personalized education. To accomplish this, we have implemented the full credit-based system, allowing students to choose core courses based on their own needs. By completing these core courses, students can obtain a degree in their chosen major. This enables them to engage in interdisciplinary studies across multiple majors.
If we continue with traditional class-based management, personalized learning will become challenging. Therefore, we have also established the residential colleges, where students from different majors live and interact together based on their interests. This fosters individuality and allows for students' ideological and political education, as well as non-curricular teaching, to be handled by the colleges. The focus is on cultivating tacit knowledge.
Furthermore, we have established collaborative innovation centers as a means to convert high-quality scientific research findings into teaching resources. These centers break down barriers between disciplines and between colleges, prioritizing problem-oriented scientific research and talent development.
Take the Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Civilization as an example, we integrate various disciplines, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and management, to address ecological issues. By breaking down disciplinary boundaries, we are able to achieve integration among the three reforms.
China Science Daily: In your opinion, what are the key elements of comprehensive reforms in higher education?
Luo Qingming: Comprehensive reforms in higher education involve two key aspects. First, it is important to enhance the ability and quality of talent cultivation. Second, universities must also serve national and regional economic and social development. These two aspects are interconnected. In the past, some universities focused solely on talent cultivation and neglected their roles in serving the broader society, which hindered their own development.
In addition to the psychological development of learners, higher education typically has two main functions: the pursuit of knowledge and service to society. Globally, many universities, local universities in particular, prioritize their function as serving economic and social development, as this is vital for their survival and growth.
University can be categorized into different types, and one type is known as a service-oriented university. In my understanding, improving the quality of talent cultivation requires the ability to serve national and regional economic and social development. It is essential to nurture high-quality talents while fully utilizing the scientific and educational resources of universities to provide direct social services.
How to achieve the full credit-based system effectively?
China Science Daily: It is still rare for domestic universities to implement the full credit-based system. How can its effectiveness be ensured?
Luo Qingming: The residential college system plays a crucial role in ensuring the effectiveness of the full credit-based system.
In the past, the curriculum for a major was almost the same for all students. However, in the residential college system, students have different schedules and they have time to access diverse courses. This allows for various course combinations, enabling students from different majors or even different grades to attend the same course. Graduation requirements are simplified, with students only needing to complete the core credits. Nevertheless, this poses higher requirements for teachers and facilities and management of universities.
The full credit-based system can greatly enhance flexibility in learning in terms of explicit knowledge. For example, once a student obtains credits for English, they are not necessarily required to take English courses exclusively at their own university. By introducing a winter mini-semester and taking advantage of Hainan's warm climate in January and February, the university provides the students with good opportunities to engage in additional courses. Meanwhile, we plan to establish a credit recognition mechanism with other universities, allowing students to take excellent courses offered by those institutions during their spare time. If they pass the exams, their home university will recognize the corresponding credits. In this case, students might complete their credits within three years.
China Science Daily: Universities commonly face the challenge of excessive credit requirements. Some students have to earn 150-170 credits. How to create extra room for educational reform?
Luo Qingming: If we base our calculation on class hours, 150-170 credits would be approximately equivalent to 2,600 class hours, which has already been reduced by half comparing with 4,000 class hours we had when I was in college. Even now, the current credit and class hour systems still provide sufficient self-study and internship opportunities for students. The time can be utilized not only for theoretical learning but also for social practice, scientific research, internships, and more. Therefore, there should not be a problem with tight study schedules. As long as young people are willing to learn, there will always be enough time available.
Integrating future education into the comprehensive reforms.
China Science Daily: How to achieve comprehensive reform in promoting personalized education?
Luo Qingming: There are some common problems in universities, such as teachers being burdened with teaching and research tasks unrelated to their main responsibilities, and counselors having to deal with non-student work. It has always been a major topic of internal governance in universities to allow teachers to focus on their main duties.
When the full credit-based system is implemented, the competition for courses will be intense. But with the residential college system, it is more helpful for teachers to focus on their main responsibilities. We have introduced the "Responsibility Professors System". The responsibility professors are responsible for discipline development and curriculum systems. The number of students choosing that major, employment rates, and admission rates will also be included in the assessment criteria. In the future, universities will make assessment of majors based on ranking, and those with lower rankings may be discontinued. In this way, responsibility professors have to make all possible efforts to develop their majors and disciplines so as to attract more students, and help students find better ways for their future.
In addition, we set different standards for different positions in universities. Counselors, while doing a good job in ideological and political work, should also guide students to engage in creative activities. Academic advisors should help students choose majors and achieve their goals, allowing students to focus their energy on their learning. All these efforts will help teachers focus on their main responsibilities, where each teacher knows their own area of expertise and does not encroach on other teachers' territory but instead cultivates their own.
China Science Daily: How does comprehensive reforms relate to future education?
Luo Qingming: There are many possibilities for future education, but we will undoubtedly focus more on the development of each student and strengthen the application of digital and information technology. Taking the full credit-based system as an example, to achieve personalized learning for each student, there must be sufficient course and teachers, and the student-to-faculty ratio should not be too high. This poses much pressure on us, but compared with the past, we are making progress, approaching to the goals. It cannot be said that Hainan University has fully implemented the full credit-based system now; it is more like a goal guiding everyone to go in this direction.
Information and digital technology can also better support the implementation of the full credit-based system. HNU has five campuses in different locations. If a course at one campus is popular but inconvenient for students from other campus to travel back and forth, can we use digital technology to allow students to attend class wearing headsets and make them feel like they are in the same classroom? We can even have them wear headsets to study outdoors while experiencing the tropical scenery of Hainan University.
Moreover, there are many open online courses available, and many of them are not owned by Hainan University. But we encourage students to choose these courses from the internet for credits. The job of the university is to organize standardized exams and give corresponding credits to students who pass the exams. I believe this will be an important model for higher education in the future.
China Science Daily: The issue of "overspending" has always been a major controversy faced by universities in the establishment of residential colleges. What is your perspective on this?
Luo Qingming: Many people believe that establishing residential colleges requires a large investment, but I don't believe that is the real problem. Hainan is a beautiful place, and universities already have classrooms, libraries, and other public spaces. Instead of creating luxurious VIP rooms, why not create a comfortable environment where students can exchange their ideas with fellow students or teachers? There are various societies and seminars that require spaces for activities, so why is it not adequate for the establishment of residential colleges?
Strictly speaking, residential colleges have two main characteristics: a centralized physical location for students to organize various activities, and students from different grades and majors can get together in the same location. The main responsibility of the college chief is to organize activities for students outside class, allowing students from different grades and majors to interact with each other. The University has tens of thousands of students, while each residential college has just two to three thousand students, which is more advantageous in inviting professionals and alumni to exchange with students.
In my visit to a university in Hong Kong, I once asked the question, "What are the benefits of residential colleges?" I was told that the biggest benefit is that students in the same major often engage in excessive competition when they are together, while students from different majors have a better atmosphere for mutual assistance. Building connections across different majors provides students with an additional social circle. If this can be achieved, I believe the purpose of residential colleges has been largely accomplished.
Through organizing activities and caring for each student, the residential colleges can collect information about what students have in their minds with regard to ideological and political preference. Some universities often have eyes on the "top" students and “bottom” students- the high achievers and those who are struggling academically. The "average" students are left to manage themselves. However, these “average” students may be much energetic and strong in learning, so efforts should be made to guide them and provide them with sufficient development opportunities. It should not happen that students enter the university only to find that they fail to learn anything.
Addressing the real issue, "reaching the sky" and "being grounded" are not contradictory.
China Science Daily: Hainan University aims to build first-class disciplines and build itself into a first-class university by addressing the local needs. However, some universities may put serving major national strategies on top agenda, paying less attention to the service for local economic development. How do you think of this?
Luo Qingming: I used to teach at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. For a long time, the University achieved its survival and development by serving the local social and economic development. Now, the University's research has been improved significantly, and its influence in China is growing. It is not accurate to claim that to serve the local needs means the university is not qualified to serve national strategies.
When it comes to serving local economic and social development, as long as we address the real issues, we need not to worry about the failure to reach the national goals. "Reaching the sky" and "being grounded" are not contradictory. For example, in Hainan Province, there are still unresolved problems such as tropical fruit preservation and agricultural ecological environment protection. To solve these problems requires supports from significant scientific research.
Specifically, Hainan has many lagoons like inland seas, where fishermen like to breed fish. However, this has led to severe pollution. If we force the fishermen to stop breeding fish there, the rooted environmental pollution will not be addressed. We sent teachers to talk with the relevant government department, convincing them to fund a pollution control project and finally achieving a win-win situation. What we should do is to guide teachers to identify key scientific topics for research by solving practical problems.
If we categorize the problems into two types: major scientific problems and engineering technical challenges, we will realize that solving a scientific problem requires advancements in engineering technology. Without breakthrough in engineering technology development, even if the scientific problem is identified, it remains unresolved. Once the scientific difficulty is overcome, engineering technology problems will be solved easily. Alternatively, we can also solve engineering technology problems first and then deal with the scientific problems.
Sometimes, a change in mindset is necessary. It is similar to mountain climbing. While everyone starts climbing Mount Everest from the southern slope, is it possible for people to climb it from the northern slope? As a matter of fact, as long as we reach the summit, the route we take will become insignificant.
China Science Daily: Hainan University's comprehensive reforms are characterized by a problem-oriented approach. What role of the Collaborative Innovation Center plays in it?
Luo Qingming: Talent development in Hainan has unique features shaped by the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Hainan Free Trade Port". Hainan's economy differs from other provinces, and thus, the required talents also differ in some ways. Moreover, meeting the diverse demands of local economic and social development often requires collaboration across multiple disciplines.
With these demands in mind, HNU can provide a direction for talent development and opportunities for students to join research and innovation teams. This allows them to receive comprehensive training spanning basic research to industrial application, facilitating the integration of industry and education as well as the convergence of science and education.
Hainan University has established seven Collaborative Innovation Centers. All are dedicated to addressing major needs in Hainan. With demanding objectives, these centers are designed to tackle concrete issues. For instance, the process of converting durian into food involves a wide range of disciplines. Traditionally, crop science, plant protection, and soil research would be studied separately. However, the Collaborative Innovation Centers are designed to align with the industrial chain, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration. We classify demands as significant scientific problems or engineering challenges, and organize research teams to study and solve them. In doing so, we ensure that every link in the chain receives sufficient attention. If the existing team is unable to solve the problem, we can also address it through talent recruitment.
Through the Collaborative Innovation Centers, we have significantly enhanced the faculty's level of expertise. Local universities previously lacked a proper understanding of this. Recruiting more professional people alone does not necessarily solve the problem. A high-level faculty member can not only tackle research challenges but also substantially improve the quality of talent development. Over the past few years, Hainan University has recruited nearly 1,400 full-time teachers, equivalent to the faculty size of an average university. Among them, over 40% of them have studied or worked overseas.
More importantly, we need to retain talents by offering them career development opportunities only found in Hainan. Compared with other regions like the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, Hainan does not offer competitive remuneration. However, there are many tasks that can only be accomplished or performed better in Hainan, such as research on island ecology and tropical agriculture. Talents who grow and feel a sense of accomplishment by addressing "real problems" are the ones who truly shine.
Whether the Collaborative Innovation Centers have achieved their goals depends not solely on the university but also on external evaluation. If the local government and enterprises do not grant projects or funding to the Centers, the Centers will be a failure. If the local government and enterprises seek to establish research institutes in cooperation with the university, or set up projects in the Centers with funding, and invite teachers to join the research, it can be regarded as a success. In recent years, the number of research projects of HNU keeps growing and the yearly funding granted is also on the rise. This demonstrates that HNU’s service for local economic and social development is widely recognized.
Translated by Chen Chuanxian
Reviewed by Yang Jie
Source from https://paper.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2023/12/513613.shtm
