Date: April 19, 2022

Source: JNU Development Planning Department

JNU held the 2022 High-Level University Discipline Construction Dean's Conference on April 8. The meeting introduced changes in the development environment; orientation of the new round of double-first-class construction; the third phase of Guangdong's improvement promotion plan; the adjustment of the ideas, and specific rules of JNU’s discipline construction and talent work. Sixty university leaders, directors of relevant departments, and deans of colleges and institutes attended. 

At the meeting, directors of the departments of Development Planning, Human Resources Development and Management, and Finance and State-Owned Assets Management presented the arrangement of special funds for 2022; the current situation of talent work and ideas for future progress; and requirements for using special funds. The School of Basic Medicine and Public Health shared its experience on the construction of university-level sharing platform.

President Song Xianzhong emphasized the work ahead in three aspects. The first is the general principle and vision guiding discipline construction. He affirmed that respecting the past, factoring in the present situation and working for the future should be held as three general principles in widely and profoundly developing all disciplines of liberal arts, business, science, engineering, medicine and information. Second, Song said, JNU's endeavor to cultivate talents has significantly contributed to its speedy progress, further clarifying the relationship between talent cultivation and discipline construction, and expanding on how to address the dual structure problems well when carrying out the cultivation strategy. Third, Song encouraged JNU to map out its new development mechanism at such a stage with a philosophy. To better promote discipline construction, he said, its world-class discipline--pharmacy--should be the top priority, while construction of interdisciplinary and featured disciplines deserves more solid efforts. 

In Song's view, to better cultivate talents, the recruitment mechanism should be more targeted according to JNU's outstanding disciplines. To invest resources better, a platform should be built to connect individual researchers' study with their schools' development. To optimize the institution and mechanism, the school should be the basic unit of reform; all departments should coordinate more effectively; and the idea of budgeting and accounting within JNU's limits should be well practiced to allocate the resources in a more efficient, united way.