12
JunChina’s Education Modernization 2035 issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council clearly sets the direction and objectives of China’s future education. As an integral part of education modernization, higher education modernization serves as an important foundation and engine supporting, pushing forward and leading economic modernization and national modernization.
The development level of higher education is a key factor determining whether an economy can get through the middle income stage
Higher education plays an irreplaceable role in the transformation from the middle income stage to the high income stage and underlies high-quality economic development. After years of reform and development, China has become the world’s largest industrial manufacturer and commodity trader and the world’s second largest economy. Over the next decade or more, significant changes will be observed in global political and economic patterns and developing countries represented by China will rise in an all-round way. Existing international experience indicates that higher education will play a vital role in the stage of economic development by leaps and bounds. The Endogenous Growth Model proposed by Paul M. Romer, the winner of the 2018 Nobel Economics Prize, suggests that the size of human capital is of great importance and in order for faster economic growth, a country has to expand its stock of human capital at full stretch. Research on the correlation between higher education and socioeconomic development also indicates that through production, diffusion and transfer of old and new knowledge, higher education can increase labor productivity and then raise the level of social human capital. Meanwhile, in view of historical experience of countries throughout the world in economic development, most countries have witnessed sharp economic slowdown and even stagnation after they entered the middle income stage, failing to successfully shifting from middle-income to high-income economies for a long time and getting caught in the so-called “middle income trap”, for example, most Latin American countries and some Southeast Asian countries. This phenomenon has complicated causes and differences in political system, cultural traditions and even geographical condition are an important factor determining whether different countries can achieve sustained economic growth. Some scholars find through empirical studies that a key lesson from some countries and regions in East Asia that have successfully overcome the “middle income trap” is that these countries have invested heavily in education and continuously in labor skill training, as high-level human capital can notably lower the possibility of economic slowdown in the middle income stage. In other words, the development level of higher education is a key decisive factor of whether an economy can get through the middle income stage.
China is now transiting from the stage of traditional quantitative “demographic dividends” to that of qualitative “human resource dividends”. In the critical period of economic development, China has to move towards medium- to high-level economic development whilst maintaining medium- to high-speed growth. The general requirement of accelerating the transformation of economic development mode and achieving high-quality development also underscores the responsibility that must be assumed by higher education. We must give full play to the fundamental and crucial role of higher education in improving human resources, facilitating increases in the value of human capital and advancing innovation-driven economic development.
The modernization drive requires the establishment of a new outlook on higher education development
The core of the modernization drive is the modernization of human and promoting and realizing the modernization of human and training all kinds of high-quality professionals are important missions of higher education modernization. A modern higher education system is a sophisticated and modern tertiary education system that meets economic and social development, satisfies diversified needs of students and reflects the idea of lifelong learning. The system not only fits in with national and social development priorities, but also fully safeguards the basic right of the masses to education. The modernization drive requires establishing a new outlook on higher education development, re-examining the missions and responsibilities, objectives and tasks of higher education development from the perspective of comprehensive economic, social and human development, and breaking the traditional closed idea of considering higher education as it stands. Functions of higher education should turn from traditional instrumental rationality, utilitarianism and elitism into modern concept of educational development, and we should deeply understand that fairness and quality are equally important, so are innovation and integrity, human development and economic functions. Higher education modernization should serve the strategic purpose of promoting human development, since human is not only a means but also the purpose of development. The most fundamental role of higher education is to train various high-quality professionals and then promote comprehensive development of human. Therefore, we should attach important not only to the role of higher education in social development, but also to its significance to human development, combine the social value of higher education with its individual value and lay stress on coordinated development of higher education and society as a whole and individuals.
Train a variety of high-quality professionals and promote and achieve the modernization of human
How?
In the first place, we should set the right direction, fully put into practice the fundamental task of strengthening moral education and cultivating people, and bring into play the role of higher education in guiding values. Moral education and people cultivation are the foundation of universities and basic requirements for personnel training. “Moral education” means establishing and fostering lofty ideas and morals while “people cultivation” refers to training high-quality talented personnel. In his speech at the conference to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that Chinese youth should temper their morals and conduct in the new era. No man can live without morals, which are the foundation of human. Young people should combine correct moral cognition, conscious moral acquisition and proactive moral practice, continue to improve their moral standards and lay a solid moral foundation, so as to go further with higher integrity on the path of life. Renmin University of China (RUC) is the first new and formal university founded by the Communist Party of China and has been advancing bravely in the forefront of the times, with a consistent mission of training builders of the republic. Recently, RUC has launched the “ten-one” series activities to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, including “one down-to-earth team” “one youth dream-building stage”, “one batch of aggressive and virtuous examples” and other seven characteristic personnel training brands, run a patriotism education campaign with themes such as “writing youth on the land of China” and “committing limited youth to the homeland”, and elaborately organized a range of activities from perspectives of organizational education, cultural education, practical education and online education, with a view to better help young students develop correct world outlook, outlook on life and values and fasten the first button of life. RUC has organized “Thousands of People and Hundreds of Villages”, “Streets and Lanes of China” and other social practice projects for students for consecutive years, whereby young students commit their youth to their motherland China by paying visits to farmlands and households all over China, working in a realistic manner, keeping the country in their mind, integrating the love for the country, the aspiration for a stronger country and actions to serve the country into the struggle for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the modernization drive and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and unifying establishing a lofty ideal and doing solid work.
Secondly, we should focus on enhancing the capability of cultivating first-class talented personnel and put emphasis on fostering students’ innovation spirit and capacity. China’s Education Modernization 2035 proposes to build a number of world-class colleges and universities by category, establish a sound policy system for development of colleges and universities by category, and guide scientific positioning and characteristic development of colleges and universities. Efforts should be made to strengthen cultivation of innovation personnel, especially outstanding innovative personnel, and increase the proportion of applied, compound and technical personnel cultivated. Diversification of colleges and universities is an inevitable requirement of higher education modernization. A modern higher education system should be one of multiple types of colleges and universities, which should have their respective value propositions and mission characteristics, have their own service orientations and meet social needs through their distinctive services. High education will definitely develop from “homogenization” to “diversity” and over the next decade or more, with the construction of world-class universities and disciplines, transformation of common universities offering bachelor degree programs into universities of applied technology and the establishment of a modern vocational education system, China will gradually form research-oriented universities represented by world-class universities and disciplines, application-oriented universities offering bachelor degree programs represented by universities of applied technology and higher vocational and technical colleges represented by demonstrative higher vocational colleges, and on this basis, build a higher education classification system with Chinese characteristics. Colleges and universities, regardless of type, should undertake the fundamental mission of training high-quality professionals, focus on how to improve the capability of cultivating top-notch talented personnel and, in particular, lay stress on fostering students’ innovation spirit and capacity. RUC has introduced the “Profound Talent Development Program”, which consist of 23 innovative personnel training projects including Qiushi Siyuan, Qingma Yingcai, Mingde Renwen and Houzhong Jingying. Students participating in these projects are tutored by RUC and external supervisors, thus forming a professional and trackable innovative personnel training model which combines advantages of school teaching and those of social practice, and providing students with wider access to interdisciplinary learning whilst focusing on their majors for in-depth development.
Thirdly, we should establish a student development-centered educational and teaching philosophy. China’s Education Modernization 2035 systematically puts forward eight basic concepts that we should “focus more on”, namely moral education first, all-round development, education for all, lifelong learning, individualized teaching, knowledge-action unity, integrated development and co-construction and sharing. The eight basic concepts conform to laws of education and personnel growth, and also follow the trend of international educational development. Implementation of the eight concepts on the higher education front aims at establishing a student development-centered educational and teaching philosophy for personnel training. To cultivate innovative personnel, higher education modernization must change the traditional educational concept and develop modern views of education, students and learning. As indicated by modern educational concept, students are no long passive receivers of knowledge or simply consumers of education services, but independent learners. Exploring ways of forming a personnel training philosophy with Chinese characteristics with student development at its core is the fundamental requirement of higher education modernization cultivating top-notch innovative personnel. In 2013, RUC launched a comprehensive reform of undergraduate personnel training, issued the roadmap for this purpose and pushed forward the reform of undergraduate personnel training system and model in all aspects. The roadmap involves five parts, namely interest cultivation, objective management, primary path, conditional support and value guidance, and is intended to build a “research-oriented learning system” through eight systems such as lean courses, studying abroad, famous teacher salons, extensive support, full tutorial system, research practice, double credit certification and public services. Meanwhile, it is supplemented by 16 key personnel training projects, like history and classics reading, social research and innovation training, social practice and volunteer services, so as to fundamentally change undergraduate personnel training at the basic level and complete a number of important changes: from focus on teachers to focus on students, from focus on knowledge teaching to focus on problem exploring, from focus on classroom teaching to a combination of classroom and extracurricular teaching and of knowledge learning and research practice, and from focus on knowledge and ability teaching to comprehensive personality development.
Opinions