Due to historical reasons, China has followed the specialized talent training path of the former Soviet Union, which still has a great influence on the current university talent training system.In other words, the emphasis on professional education and neglect of general education have always had deep roots.
For a long time, China's higher education has attached too much importance to professional education, which has led science and engineering students to know too little about humanities and social sciences.In the view of Shao Chien-jun, vice president of Ningbo University, the fundamental reason for the above problems is that the quality of undergraduate talent training is not high and the general education is not paid enough attention."Higher education should pay more attention to the quality improvement of college students, enhance general education, innovative and entrepreneurial education."”
Higher education satisfaction presents a "double day"
China Science Journal: How do you evaluate the quality of talent training in our higher education?
At present, China's higher education has two different aspects, on the one hand, the people are quite dissatisfied with the quality of higher education, and on the other hand, Chinese universities have made great strides in the global university rankings.The improvement of Chinese universities in the rankings is mainly due to the rapid improvement of academic standards, which is a great event for universities and cannot be blamed.But the contradictory situation, behind the exposure of the shortcomings in the training of talents in universities, the fundamental reason is that the quality of talent training is not high.
China Science Journal: In your opinion, what is the reason for the poor quality of undergraduate training?
Shao Qijun: From the perspective of university managers, there are three main reasons why the quality of undergraduate talent training is not high: one is that university management emphasizes academic orientation too much.In other words, university administrators pay more attention to scientific research and dominant indicators, but pay less attention to hidden indicators such as the quality of undergraduate talent training.Second, after the expansion of university enrollment, the number of teachers has not kept up with the number of students, the ratio of students to teachers is high, the task of teaching and research is heavy.At the same time, the students in the classroom are large in scale, many large classes and few small classes, and the attention of individual students is not enough.Third, the university's evaluation system for students has not been fundamentally changed, and the evaluation system is not strict enough, and the selection and training mechanism of talents have not been realized.
Colleges and universities should pay attention to quality training.
China Science Journal: What is the breakthrough in changing the quality of undergraduate training?
Shao Qijun: According to a survey of graduates by relevant departments in Zhejiang Province, the professional relevance of college graduates in the province after one year of employment is only about 60%.It can be seen that a considerable number of students are employed in non-professional fields, and there is a trend of further enlargement.According to the changing situation, universities should raise general education to a more important level.
Due to historical reasons, China has followed the specialized talent training path of the former Soviet Union, which still has a great influence on the current university talent training system.In other words, the emphasis on professional education and neglect of general education have always had deep roots.Of course, the quality training we are talking about today means that we should pay attention to both professional literacy and general education.
For example, engineering certification in the United States requires students to master 11 basic skills, which basically represents the basic qualities that an engineering student should have.From the perspective of professionalism, the students trained in our universities are mainly deficient in three aspects: first, the knowledge span in engineering field is insufficient, the expertise is too narrow, it is difficult to solve complex engineering problems.
There are still many problems in general education at present, mainly because the curriculum span and depth are not enough, and students have difficulty adapting to future changes.In addition to the basic knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering, students should also master the knowledge of economy, sustainable development, environment, ethics, society, politics, health and safety.My school has put forward five major goals for the general education of all students: scientific literacy, humanistic sentiment, broad vision, communication and expression, critical thinking, etc.At the same time, we should pay more attention to the education, popularization and inheritance of traditional excellent culture for students.
China Science Journal: As a group of Chinese universities moving toward a modern university system, how can we pay attention to and improve the quality of college students?
Shao Qijun: I think I can start from four aspects: first, from the perspective of management, focus on building a quality assessment system for talent cultivation, mainly reflected in teacher assessment, budgeting and performance evaluation.
Innovation and entrepreneurship are valued as specialized capabilities
China Science Journal: Innovation and entrepreneurship are now regarded as an important part of improving the quality of college students.In your opinion, what kind of abilities and spirit does it expand?What support should the university provide?
Shao Qijun: In the new historical period of development, innovation and entrepreneurship education has been raised to a new level.Although innovation and entrepreneurship education is integrated into general education and professional education, it can also be valued as a special ability.Innovation is not a fantasy, but based on a good knowledge system and professional quality improvement, and put forward new products, new methods, new paths.In addition, the spirit of innovation should focus on the cultivation of the spirit of exploration and critical thinking.Throughout the successful college entrepreneurs at home and abroad, their starting point is mainly innovation, but also with professional integration of innovation.Therefore, we advocate that college students should have good products, good technology, and good service models, and should have certain leading advantages in the market.
Entrepreneurship may also require some basic knowledge and capabilities, including technology, markets, and taxes.Therefore, universities should provide three aspects of services to promote college students' entrepreneurship: First, to provide students with opportunities to innovate, so that students have a certain degree of advanced technology or products in the market.
China Science Journal: While universities attach importance to innovation and entrepreneurship education, how should they view the entrepreneurial behavior of college students?
Shao Qijun: Colleges and universities should not only pay attention to innovation and entrepreneurship education, but also treat college students' entrepreneurship rationallySome universities blindly replace performance with quantity, and even open online stores as a typical entrepreneurial model.I think it is necessary to encourage entrepreneurial teams to pay attention to product innovation, business model innovation, supply chain innovation, so that innovation drives entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship to realize their dreams.
College students do a good job of entrepreneurship, one is to look at the advanced or irreplaceable products or technologies, the other is to look at the overall ability of the team, and the third is to look at the market links, especially the surrounding supporting ability.Therefore, colleges and universities in this part of entrepreneurship education, focusing on innovation education, innovation as the source of motivation for students' entrepreneurship.Entrepreneurship-related courses are also offered so that students can learn and use them.At the same time, the school should provide the basic conditions for entrepreneurial practice, including places, venture capital, entrepreneurial mentors, etc.