Source: SYSU News Center
Written by: SYSU News Center
Translated by: Yang Qing
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On the morning of April 4, Hu Chunhua, Secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, inspected SYSU. He paid a visit to East Campus Library, Guangzhou Supercomputing Center, and State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, accompanied by Chen Yunxian, Vice Governor of Guangdong Province; Chen Jianhua, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Guangzhou Municipal Committee and Mayor of Guangzhou; Liu Kewei, Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and Director General of the General Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee; Zhang Jinsong, Director of Policy Research Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee; Luo Weiqi, Director General of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province; Guo Yuewen, Deputy Director General of the General Office of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee; Zheng Detao, Secretary of SYSU Party Committee; Xu Ningsheng, President of SYSU; and Chen Chunsheng, Executive Deputy Secretary and Vice President of SYSU.

At the Department of Special Collections located on the fifth and sixth floor of East Campus Library, Secretary Hu Chunhua visited The Hilles Collection donated by The Hilles Library of Harvard University, SYSU’s motto written by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and a collection of precious cultural relics and ancient books, and listened to the introduction and explanation with great interest. Then, Secretary Hu Chunhua came to Guangzhou Supercomputing Center. He viewed the achievement exhibition of SYSU’s 90th anniversary, and learned about SYSU’s achievements in disciplinary construction, talent cultivation and scientific research, and SYSU’ active role in promoting the economic and social development of the country and the region through science and technology innovation, cultural inheritance innovation and medical services. He also visited Tianhe-2, and inquired about the application of supercomputer and the progress of relevant construction projects. Finally, Secretary Hu Chunhua came to the State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies. He listened carefully to the report on scientific research innovation and transformation of industry-university-research collaboration, and encouraged the scientists to continue to support Guangdong’s two strategic emerging industries and promote Guangdong’s economic and social development.

After the visit, Secretary Hu Chunhua chaired a meeting at the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center Campus of South China University of Technology. SYSU leadership including Zheng Detao, Xu Ningsheng, Chen Chunsheng, Li Ping, Li Mengfeng, Wei Minghai, Guo Yaping, Li Shanmin and Zhu Xiping attended the meeting.

President Xu Ningsheng made a report at the meeting and pointed out that SYSU has a solid foundation and a large scale, and its key indicators of school-running quality are among the first array of universities nationwide. SYSU has prominent disciplinary influence, strong faculty team, high-quality talent cultivation and ever-increasing research capacity. Walking at the forefront in international cooperation and exchange with first-class universities, acting as a bridgehead for higher education collaboration with Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, with its medical sciences ranked among top three in universities across the country, SYSU has played a leading role in Guangdong’s higher education development for a long time. In the future, with the goal of building the University into a world-class academic institution with Chinese characteristics, SYSU will explore a new model of development for modern comprehensive universities, deepen reform and opening-up, implement comprehensive innovation, strive for “six world-class” (world-class interdisciplinary cluster platforms, world-class disciplines, world-class laboratories, world-class research institutes, world-class teams and world-class talents). Through first-class management, SYSU will facilitate the transformation of discipline development, talent cultivation, scientific research and internationalization from plateau to peak, push forward the formulation of modern university charter and the establishment of modern university system, promote “dedication to learning”, strive to be included in the normalized construction of national first-class universities in five years, make its key indicators reach the level of first-class universities before SYSU’s centenary, and hand in a satisfactory answer sheet to the people in Guangdong Province and the whole country.

Secretary Hu Chunhua affirmed SYSU’s achievements and important contributions to the sustainable and healthy development of Guangdong’s economy and society through capitalizing on the advantages of scientific research and taking the initiative to serve local construction. He believed that SYSU has seized the historic opportunity, realized good development and formed distinctive characteristics of running schools. He hoped that SYSU will further improve the quality and level of education and endeavor to build a world-class university. He also put forward four requirements for higher education reform and development. First, adhere to the correct political direction and the correct direction of running schools, and cultivate qualified builders and reliable successors for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Second, cultivate high-quality talents, innovate talent cultivation mode, and enhance students’ innovative awareness, entrepreneurial spirit and practical abilities; attach importance to improving students’ innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities, and cultivate a batch of talents with entrepreneurial spirit; adapt to the new features of college students and help them better integrate into the society and grow healthily. Third, strengthen discipline development and put emphasis on knowledge creation; universities should become important bases of original innovation and core technological research; optimize discipline structure, reinforce industry-university-research collaboration, improve the innovation capacity of scientific research to boost Guangdong’s economic and social development. Fourth, improve the quality and level of running schools, develop distinctive characteristics and build more high-level universities through deepening reform.