In recent years, we often see various "wonderful performances" of some university presidents from the media. Some sing karaoke, and more often take advantage of the opening and graduation ceremony to say something affectionate to the students. It seems that they only think of getting close to the students on these two occasions every year. Some principals expressed some specious views, such as attaching some unimaginable conditions to "academic freedom", claiming that China's education is generally successful, and what "Analects of Confucius" and "English" are important. There is also the newly popular "lecturer" of Central South University who has not attended classes for 6 years and concentrate on research; As long as there is a project, you can take graduate students "is puzzling. So far, only at the beginning of taking office, the president of Hunan University has made a "solid" move, claiming that he does not take postgraduates, does not do specific scientific research projects and does management wholeheartedly. This statement at least tells the world that he will be determined to serve the school and the students. No matter what the final result is (and the management of the school does not entirely depend on the principal), this attitude is enough to impress us.

Many scholars have expressed many opinions on what kind of president we need, especially some Chinese studying and working in Europe and America, and vigorously promote the modern management concept of western universities. However, I do not agree with this. This is not to say that the school running concept of western universities is not good, but that it is unnecessary for modern higher education in China to learn from the West and Europe and America. Because our system and cultural background are so different from them that we have to learn (especially copy) to be "acclimatized". Second, since our country has its own modern universities (about a hundred years), there have been many presidential models enough for western universities to study. Their university management thoughts and ideas are no inferior to the presidents of famous universities in modern western developed countries. The essence and ideas of these presidents' exemplary management of Universities: Professor governance, academic freedom and democratic management, which are the same as the school running ideas of university presidents in western developed countries, and cultivate some world-famous undergraduate students. These principal models have put forward many wise sayings, which have been handed down to this day. Mei Yiqi, the well-known president of Tsinghua University, is known as one of the models of Chinese University Presidents. His "so-called university is not a building, but a master"; Cai Yuanpei, President of Peking University, wrote "including the grand ceremony, gathering all families, freedom of thought and inclusiveness"; Zhang Boling, President of a private university, said that "education should not only enable students to read and learn Chinese characters, but also cultivate a complete personality, morality, intelligence and physique should not be neglected"; The "Peking University Spirit" summarized by President Ma Yinchu: independent personality, free thought, advocating truth, seeking truth and pragmatism. Are these presidents' exemplary ideas of higher education backward compared with advanced western universities? In fact, most of our principal models also returned from studying in famous European and American schools. Their academic philosophy is "used in Western learning and in line with international standards". Some of our university presidents have also studied in famous European and American universities, but they are not better than each other in managing the University.

When it comes to many problems of China's higher education, we (including myself) always attribute to the weakness of the system. However, after careful and rational thinking, this understanding is not completely reasonable. Does the academic philosophy of the above-mentioned principal models conflict with the current system? Where is the conflict? In my opinion, the first conflict is with the impetuous society and utilitarian society. Within the framework of the current system, our university presidents should take the model of their predecessors as an example, take their own university as the base, and practice the effective higher education ideas and ideas of their predecessors. In fact, according to my long-term experience as a teacher in Colleges and universities, in addition to the cultural revolution, from the "60 articles of higher education" in the last century to the current national education department has given colleges and universities a lot of autonomy in running schools. Although the current proposal of the competent education department is "Professor governance" (professors only manage teaching and scientific research), it does not prevent specific university managers from implementing "Professor governance" and allowing professors to participate in the decision-making and management of the University. Isn't some universities trying according to media reports? In my opinion, the biology colleges of two famous universities in China are the professors' colleges.

We can sort out that when implementing the three major tasks of modern universities (teaching, scientific research and social services), our university president can make a difference as long as he wants to do it and as long as he is less affected by some social impetuosity. As a rational university president, learn from the model of previous presidents with an open mind, start from your own university, create a healthy and positive university environment, and start with some specific things conducive to cultivating students with independent thought and personality. For example, establish a scientific and reasonable evaluation mechanism in the school; Establish a fair, fair and free competition mechanism; Establish a mechanism to serve students wholeheartedly, such as standardizing the communication mechanism and measures between teachers and students. Let teachers deeply understand that their work in serving students is not limited to classroom teaching, but must pay full attention to guiding and serving students outside the classroom. The president of Harvard University said: college students should gain more outside the classroom than in the classroom. I think it makes sense.

This blog post involves a major issue of higher education. Due to the limited space and my limited level of knowledge, please criticize and correct me.