Source: Information Times 2013-03-08 PageA8
Written by: Xiang Xian’e, Zhu Xiaoyong, Li Nannan, Jiang Juan
Translated by: Wang Xue

"Over a long period of time, Guangdong will develop electronic manufacturing industry, yet we cannot find talents at our doorstep.” During yesterday’s interview, Xu Ningsheng, President of Sun Yat-sen University and an NPC Deputy, expressed that Sun Yat-sen University, which is famous for its humanities and medical sciences, will do its utmost to catch up in engineering and to cultivate applied talents.

It is the first time for Xu Ningsheng to attend the two sessions. “Guangdong will carry out industrial development for a long time, mainly in the manufacturing industries. It’s a pity that enterprises in Guangdong cannot recruit qualified talents at their doorstep,” said Xu Ningsheng during the panel discussion of Guangdong delegation. He told the journalists that now SYSU has the humanities, science, medicine and engineering in its specialty setup, with traditional prestigious disciplines in medicine, science and the humanities. In order to cultivate urgently needed talents for the industrial development in the Pearl River Delta region, SYSU will devote more efforts to developing engineering disciplines in the future.

According to the introduction, now SYSU and Guangdong provincial government have jointly started the “Guangdong Science and Technology Plan of Action”, which will establish a research base for each manufacturing industry. “For example, Sun Yat-sen University has built an LED research center in Guzhen, Zhongshan City, which is famous for its lighting industry.”

Speaking of university construction, Xu Ningsheng thought that each university should make clear about its distinctive characteristics, rather than “do what others have done”. He introduced that an important change of SYSU is the greater importance attached to undergraduate education in improving teaching quality. Last year, its input to undergraduate education was increased by 17%. A batch of senior professors and distinguished professors began to teach courses to undergraduates. At the same time, strict classroom discipline was also emphasized. Taking Lingnan College as an example, it used to focus on MBA and EMBA programs in the past, but now it starts to put more efforts in undergraduate education.”

In fact, the reforms in SYSU are not merely limited to specialty setup and undergraduate education. The president, who had studied and worked in the U.K. for many years, has brought the open style from abroad to SYSU. Among them, the “l(fā)unch meeting with the president” made a splash among students. He said with a smile that the lunch meeting with the president was a small innovation in SYSU. “It feels a little bit like the CPPCC meeting. If there is a problem, we can sit down and talk about it.” There is no barrier between teachers and students.