Responding to "Qian Xuesen's Questions", "Top-notch Plan" still needs to work hard
More innovations occur in interdisciplinary fields. Schools can provide students in the "Top-notch Program" with more multi-disciplinary courses to help them learn and understand different disciplinary paradigms.
Such a course is very difficult to design and requires the input of teachers from different faculties, especially smart and effective organization and coordination.
—— Liu Ji'an, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
◎Reporter Zhang Galun
Recently, the Ministry of Education announced the list of the third batch of top-notch student training programs in basic disciplines (hereinafter referred to as the "Top-notch Program") 2.0 bases, and 89 bases were selected.
According to the previous layout, from 2019 to 2021, the Ministry of Education will select and build 260 top-notch student training bases in basic disciplines, including about 190 science bases, about 60 liberal arts bases, and about 10 medical bases.
The purpose of the construction of these bases is very clear-to focus on cultivating future outstanding natural scientists, social scientists and medical scientists, to enhance the country's hard power, soft power, and health, and to lay a talent foundation for building my country into a major science center and innovation highland in the world.
The "Top-notch Plan" has been launched for more than ten years and has entered the 2.0 stage.
However, how to identify top talents and how to create a good growth environment for them is still a topic that needs continuous research.
97% of "Top-notch Program" students continue their studies
"Why is our school always unable to cultivate outstanding talents?" In response to "Qian Xuesen’s question", the Ministry of Education launched a pilot program for training top-notch students in basic disciplines in 2009. Physics, chemistry, biological sciences, computer science and other disciplines have established a number of national basic discipline talent training bases to explore the key training system and mechanism for top-notch students in colleges and universities.
Top-notch is a requirement for the students of the “Top-notch Program” and it also defines the direction of talent training.
But what is top notch?
Liu Ji’an, an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Management of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has done research on the cultivation of innovative talents for many years. She told the reporter of Science and Technology Daily that the definition of top talents is not a single dimension. Sexual thinking, innovative and creative ability, leadership, exploration spirit that is not afraid of failure, self-confidence, psychological toughness, etc. are all key qualities of top-notch talents and should be considered. At the same time, the focus on top-notch talents should not be limited to individuals. In terms of ability, it also includes the value and emotional dimensions, such as sense of responsibility, mission, and feelings of striving for the well-being of mankind. "The top not only lies in mastering profound professional knowledge, but also in having a strong academic interest, perseverance, and courage. The quality of breaking conventions, being brave to explore and innovating, as well as having a broad sense of family, country and the world." Liu Ji'an said.
In 2018, according to official data, the "Top-notch Program" has trained a total of 9,800 undergraduates and more than 5,500 have graduated.
Among them, 98% of graduates continue to study for postgraduates, and 97% of them continue to study in basic disciplines and related fields; among the first batch of 500 PhD graduates of the "Top-notch Program", 40 students have become world-class university faculty.
In 2018, Li Manli, a professor at the Institute of Education of Tsinghua University, and others reviewed the training and effectiveness of the "Top-notch Program".
They found that, from the perspective of graduation, students currently participating in the "Top-notch Program" in various schools basically choose to continue their studies after graduation.
Moreover, the students of the "Top-notch Program" participated in a large number of academic research and papers during their undergraduate studies, indicating that the students of the "Top-notch Program" of various schools actually participated in the scientific research process during the undergraduate period, and began to become a new force in academic research and knowledge creation. .
Let students participate in research training at the undergraduate level
In 2018, the Ministry of Education held the National Undergraduate Education Work Conference for Higher Education Institutions in the New Era to formally implement the "Six Excellence and One Top" Program 2.0.
The upgraded version of the "Top-notch Plan" further expands the scope, increases the quantity, improves the quality, and innovates the model.
In the scope of disciplines, it adds astronomy, geography, atmospheric science, marine science, geophysics, geology, psychology, basic medicine, philosophy, economics, Chinese language and literature, and history.
Although it is called a "plan", the Ministry of Education does not stipulate a unified training model for the shortlisted universities.
However, there are several key words that often appear in the materials of the "Top-notch Program", such as challenging courses, learning communities and undergraduate scientific research. At the same time, schools also attach great importance to cultivating the spirit and humanistic sentiment of students to serve the country through scientific research.
Liu Ji'an said that generally speaking, the "Top-notch Program" of each pilot university has gathered a group of first-class teachers and formed a teaching and training team led by first-class teachers.
In order to promote the in-depth learning of top-notch students and fully stimulate the vitality of top-notch students to explore independently, universities have fully studied and borrowed from the training programs and curriculum settings of top foreign universities, set up challenging courses, and adopted small-class teaching methods with discussion as the core. .
Another important feature of the talent training of the "Top-notch Program" is to allow students to participate in scientific research training at the undergraduate level, and to equip top-notch students with mentors.
For example, the physics class of Tsinghua University has six "Tsinghua School Physics Class Scientific Research Practice Bases", including cold atom physics, quantum transport, quantum computing, functional thin film, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, and electronic momentum spectroscopy, to provide students with independent research and exploration experiments. platform.
The internationalization of talent training is also an important part of the "Top-notch Plan".
Li Manli pointed out in the aforementioned research paper that since the implementation of the "Top-notch Program", various schools have been actively expanding cooperation with world-class universities to build a diversified international academic exchange platform: on the one hand, international talents participate in the entire process of talent training; on the other hand, On the one hand, students are encouraged to exchange and study in top foreign schools.
Still need to improve the environment for training top talents
Liu Ji'an said that the "Top-notch Project" 1.0 focused on basic disciplines and achieved remarkable results, cultivating a group of outstanding talents with academic ambitions.
However, there are also some common problems in the implementation of the "Top-notch Plan".
In terms of credits and curriculum design, there is not enough room for students to develop independently.
"There are too many classes for students, and it is difficult for them to have enough space and time to explore the direction they are interested in. What is the biggest characteristic of undergraduates? They have great possibilities and flexibility, so they have to give They provide a relaxed environment so that they can discover the field they really love." Liu Ji'an was impressed by the path of a student from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Sheng Nan, a chemistry major in 2015, received a double degree in physics and visited the University of California, Berkeley.
Based on scientific research interests, he has participated in scientific research practice in many research groups and is currently studying for a doctorate at the University of Chicago.
"Walking around in multiple disciplines, he finally decided on the research direction he particularly liked and wanted to pursue in the future." The school's loose professional and course selection policies and undergraduate research and training opportunities provide students with free exploration. , To help them gain the ability to cross-discipline.
The curriculum for students of the "Top-notch Program" must be challenging.
"Innovation occurs more in interdisciplinary fields. Schools can provide more multi-disciplinary courses for students of the'Top-notch Program' to help students learn and understand different subject paradigms. Such courses are very difficult to design and require the input of teachers from different faculties and departments. In particular, wisdom and effective organization and coordination are needed.” Liu Ji’an said, “This puts high demands on the management of colleges and universities.”
Liu Ji'an believes that the focus of cultivating top-notch talents is first to identify and screen out students with talents and great development potential, to open up special channels, to provide these students with an environment and resources to teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and to support and guide them to develop their talents.
In addition to the high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination, it is also necessary to provide channels and development paths for the selection and training of top students, so that their talents will not be buried.
The cultivation of top-notch talents does not start at the undergraduate level, let alone the undergraduate level.
In order for top-notch talents to come to the fore smoothly, the connection and integration of higher education and basic education is very important.
Developed countries have made many useful attempts in this regard.
For example, many national laboratories in the United States have generally set up various programs for teachers and students in primary and secondary schools while undertaking major scientific research tasks; universities have set up prerequisite courses and bridging courses in high schools, and opened university laboratories in summer to allow middle school students to participate in scientific and technological innovation activities. .
Liu Ji'an said that in the process of linking up and connecting with basic education, colleges and universities can also find those "good seeds" with enthusiasm and potential for scientific research.
The convergence of different stages of higher education is also very important. It is necessary to build a training system that integrates undergraduates, masters, and doctoral programs, especially a coherent curriculum system to attract outstanding students and improve the efficiency of talent training.
"Top-notch talents are the country's strategic resources." Liu Ji'an said, but what exactly can we do to cultivate more top-notch innovative talents that meet the country's strategic needs?
This is not a question that can be answered simply, and requires more in-depth and solid research and exploration.
The "Top-notch Program" 2.0 also points out that universities and related experts are encouraged to focus on the growth law of top scientists, the cultivation of top-notch student research interests and research capabilities, international training, tutorial system, student growth tracking and evaluation mechanism, top-notch student training model and institutional reform , Carrying out special research on the evaluation criteria of the top talent training effectiveness, and forming a batch of quality and weighted theoretical and practical results, providing reference for the in-depth implementation of the "Top-notch Plan" and promoting reform and practice.