Chinanews.com, Beijing, September 3 (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue) "Have you all noticed! Now our official abbreviation has another China University of Science and Technology." The official WeChat account of Huazhong University of Science and Technology announced a few days ago.

　　Recently, the Ministry of Education approved Huazhong University of Science and Technology's amendment to the school's charter, which mentioned that the second article was revised to: "The school name is Huazhong University of Science and Technology, referred to as Huazhong University, Huazhong University..."

Screenshot of the official website of the Ministry of Education

　　Since then, the school has a "new" abbreviation.

　　However, in fact, many people who are familiar with Huazhong University of Science and Technology have always been more accustomed to calling it "Huake" or "Huagong", "Huake University", so that some netizens ridiculed, "The official finally admitted that he is called Huake".

Weibo screenshot

Controversy over college abbreviations

Huazhong University of Science and Technology is no longer stubborn?

　　In fact, the controversy over the abbreviation of colleges and universities has been going on for many years.

　　In 2014, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Formulation, Approval and Implementation of the Constitution of Institutions of Higher Education", requiring all local education departments to complete the approval of all the bylaws of colleges and universities before December 31, 2015, and objectively state the school in the bylaws. The organizational characteristics and positioning of the university, and promote the comprehensive reform of colleges and universities through the construction of the charter.

　　Immediately, many colleges and universities revised the college constitution, which also triggered the "abbreviation dispute".

　　On the one hand, a university has multiple abbreviations, or the official abbreviation is not recognized by the people, such as Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

　　In 2014, in the "Articles of Association of Huazhong University of Science and Technology" approved by the Ministry of Education, the school's official abbreviation is clearly "Huazhong University".

However, the use and awareness of the acronym has been low.

　　In June 2017, Wuhan Rail Transit Line 2 "Huake University Station" was renamed "Huazhong University Station", which also caused heated discussions.

　　According to media reports, Huazhong University of Science and Technology once specially sent a letter to Wuhan Metro Group, requesting that it be named after the official abbreviation "Huazhong University".

Wuhan Metro Group has studied, adopted its recommendations and approved them.

　　However, this name change has been opposed by many citizens. Some people think that Huazhong Normal University and Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan have the words "Huazhong University" in their names, which is easy for foreign tourists and first-time students to Wuhan. Newborn confusion.

　　After some discussion, the station was finally named "Huazhong University of Science and Technology Station".

Data map: Wuhan, Hubei, the campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, known as the "Forest University".

　　Now, Huazhong University of Science and Technology has finally included "Hua University of Science and Technology" in the university constitution.

Some netizens also wondered whether the college abbreviation is suitable or not, who has the final say?

　　Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, vice-chairman of the China Local Educational History Research Association and chairman of the school history branch, believes that the Ministry of Education's "approval for the revision of some provisions of the constitution of Huazhong University of Science and Technology" is in fact an approval of the constitution of the university. , is not the abbreviation for approving them.

Therefore, whether the abbreviation of colleges and universities is suitable or not can not be based on the approval of the Ministry of Education.

　　In addition, some educational scholars have said that the abbreviation of a university is generally based on its own school-running characteristics and folk conventions, and the establishment of the abbreviation is the university's own business.

screenshot

Disputes over abbreviations for colleges and universities are frequent

How to avoid it?

　　The dispute over the abbreviation of colleges and universities is more common in the phenomenon of collision of college abbreviations in different regions. A typical example is the debate between Nanjing University and Nanchang University over who should be called "Nantah University".

　　In addition, it is well known that Henan University and Hebei University are both referred to as "He University", Hunan University and Hubei University are both referred to as "Hu University", Shandong University and Shanxi University are referred to as "Shan University", South China Normal University, Central China Normal University, East China Normal University is called "Hua Shi", and so on.

　　The reporter noticed that the official abbreviations of colleges and universities in different regions still overlap, but some colleges and universities just collide in terms of social names, and their official abbreviations do not overlap.

　　For example, in the articles of association of Nanjing University and Nanchang University, they insist on being referred to as "Nanda" for short.

In the constitutions of Hunan University and Hubei University, it is also clearly referred to as "Hu University".

　　The abbreviation of "Heda" is reserved in the constitution of Henan University, but the abbreviation is not mentioned in the constitution of Hebei University.

Similar to Shandong University and Shanxi University, the former's charter is clearly abbreviated as "Shandong University", and the latter has no relevant content.

　　As for South China Normal University, Central China Normal University, and East China Normal University, they are referred to as "South China Normal University", "Central China Normal University" and "East China Normal University" respectively in the articles of association, and "China Normal University" is not an official abbreviation.

Data map: The "green tree house" photographed on the campus of Nanjing University.

Photo by China News Agency Rao Guojun Photo source: CNSPHOTO

　　How to avoid a crash for short?

Chu Zhaohui believes that the abbreviation of colleges and universities should follow some basic principles, one is to include the basic elements of the school, and the other is to not confuse the name with other schools.

If these two points are not met, the abbreviation should not be used in the general context.

In addition, language habit and sense of language should also be considered.

　　For the popular name, Chu Zhaohui believes that if it is an abbreviation written into the constitution of a university, it should take the whole into consideration. In any time and space environment, the abbreviation should have no repetition, no ambiguity and misunderstanding, and no lack of elements. Only in this way can the abbreviation of colleges and universities be relatively “simple and complete”.

　　In addition, some experts suggest that, on the one hand, history and authority should be respected, such as the abbreviation determined in the university charter approved by the Ministry of Education in advance, and schools that apply later should be avoided.

On the other hand, now everyone has accepted three-syllable words and four-syllable words, and the college abbreviation is not necessarily reduced to two-syllable words.

Data map: Peking University welcomes 2022 undergraduate freshmen.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Yi Haifei

Why do colleges care so much about "title"?

　　Why are names so important to colleges?

Xiong Bingqi, dean of the 21st Century Education Development Research Institute, once pointed out that the competition for university abbreviations reflects the pursuit of school-running characteristics.

　　For example, a college teacher once said that when Huazhong University of Science and Technology adopted the abbreviation of "Huazhong University", it may be intended to "build a comprehensive first-class university with a real name, a legitimate name, and a veritable name."

　　Actually, not just abbreviations.

In recent years, there has also been a wave of "university renaming" in China. Many "XX colleges" have changed their names to "XX University", or the geographical name in the school name has been expanded to move closer to the "Tao Da Shang" with a higher level and a wider range of disciplines. .

　　In 2017, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on the Establishment of Colleges and Universities during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" Period", which also specifically mentioned that some colleges and universities have unclear positioning, are keen to upgrade their level or change their names, blindly add disciplines and majors, and weaken the characteristics of running schools. The homogenization tendency is obvious.

Data map: College students participate in a tug-of-war competition.

Photo by Yang Bo

　　In Chu Zhaohui's view, the "university renaming tide" has caused some confusion.

"For example, before 2000, there was a 'XX Normal College' in a certain place, after 2000, the school was changed to 'XX College', and after 2010, another local secondary normal school was changed to 'XX Teachers College' ', then it is difficult to distinguish the two schools in history, so this kind of name change not only caused a lot of confusion, but also caused the lack of historical and cultural elements of some schools."

　　He believes that in the process of higher education development, the cultural elements of each school should still be preserved, and their inheritance should be as consistent as possible while being distinguishable from each other.

(Finish)