The forum, from 14thto 18thJuly, was attended by the university key administrators, heads of the departments concerned and the leading members of the university’s 23 affiliated colleges. It centered on deepening the reform of the management system and accelerating the construction of a high-level university. It is a timely meeting held at the critical time when the university is deepening the comprehensive reform and accelerating strategies of building a high-level university, on which the participants analyzed school situations, boosted morale in reform and development and deployed strategies of building the first-class university.
A single thread can’t make a cord, nor a single tree a forest. Colleges are the mainstays of the university. Thus, only when colleges are filled with passion and vitality, can the university pool effort and power to develop dynamically. The forum highlighted problem & goal-oriented reform. Colleges were encouraged to start on “College-prioritized in Running University” and endeavor to set fresh targets, fulfill new tasks, and take innovative measures to build their colleges in the light of overall analysis of the current situation. All the 23 college chiefs shared their views on the existing problems and main impediment to college development, simultaneously, presented their prospects for development.
A good beginning is half-done. To have a good beginning, key administrators of the university, focusing on reform and development, analyzed problems and pinned down to-the-point requirements with respective colleges. The more one knows, the more firmly one knows where to go. Thus, for the development of colleges, four points were emphasized by the university leaders:
I. Accurate Strategic Judgment
Colleges should reflect on education from the perspective of an outsider and have a clear understanding of their own situation and development priorities by combining the development of society, economy, higher education and cutting-edge disciplines.
II. Precise Strategic Positioning
Colleges should design their future by more precisely positioning the goals, service targets, styles, disciplines and talent cultivation on the combination of their own conditions, trend and potentials.
III. Reasonable Choice of Strategies
Colleges should balance the relationship between “to do” and “not to do” and between “the urgent and the less urgent”. They should also reflect on the main direction to be developed and major fields to be cultivated. Therefore, colleges could exploit their particular advantages and develop their features.
IV. Steady and Solid Promotion of the Strategies
Colleges should plan the future with a strong sense of mission, maintain and strengthen the confidence in strategies and make sure of the roadmap for development and innovation, so that they could propel the growth of the university according to the set schedule.
Only reformers will advance, reformersflourish, and innovators succeed. The forum between FNU and its affiliated colleges carried their mutual dream, brought together their collective wisdom, united their common pursuit and reflected their further understanding of regularities of education development, discipline construction, talents growth and scientific research. Looking back at the glorious journey of 110 years, generation after generation of FNU are passing the baton when preserving the history and creating the future. At this critical period when the university is promoting the construction of “a high-level university” and “first-class disciplines”, the forum further strengthens colleges’ consciousness of responsibilities. Doing their job well will become the driving force and the steady accumulation of this force will lay a solid foundation for constructing a high-level comprehensive university with distinctive features.
(Translated by Chen Fang Reviewed by Lin Bin & Lin Mingjin)