Retrospect and Prospect for Constructing World-class Disciplines in Business Administration
????The systematical and incisive discussion of ????President Luo Jun about the construction of Double First-class in the University fallmeeting which was held in the middle of this month is a battle call for SunYat-sen University to construct a world-class university. On behalf of theUniversity, he elaborated on the goal, foundation, strategic path, measure and methodfor constructing a world-class university, filled the teachers and students ofour School with confidence and power. In the latest Double First-class listannounced by the State, Business Administration has been officially included inthe world-class discipline construction list recommended by the Ministry ofEducation, bringing all teachers and students of Business School, includingalumni and domestic and international partners with flooding exhilarations andcongratulations.While beingencouraged, confident and motivated, we are more aware of our mission,responsibility and pressure. To build a world-class discipline, we need to havea higher-level framework and philosophy, visions and measures with owncharacteristics. Certainly, we need the consensus and inheritance of all thestaff, students, alumni and partners.
At the moment, people may be more concerned about thespecific initiatives for constructionof world-class disciplines for BusinessAdministration, such as how to allocate resources, how to reform teaching, howto carry outscientific research, how to assessteachers and other specific issues. These issues are certainlyimportant, but we should first think abouta more important and more central question: whatkind of purpose and inheritance supportthe rapid development of Business School so far andcan it continue to lead the discipline of BusinessAdministration into aworld-class discipline. To answer this question, we must review the history ofthe development of the School where inspirationand answers are documented. Sun Yat-senUniversity is the earliest college and universityin China to carry out professional education of business administration. Theestablishment of business administration disciplines originated from the tide flow of national economic reform and opening upin the early 1980s. Being located in the forefront of reform and opening up inGuangdong, huge management practice needs continuedto support and promote the development of business administration science of theUniversity.With the full support of the patriots from Hong Kong, the State Education Commissionformally approved the establishment of the Business School of Sun Yat-sen University in 1985. Being rooted in China, serving national strategicneeds and local economic construction, building a teaching and researchenvironment of open, enterprising, independent, inclusive, harmonious andservice system of efficient, professional and personalized, Business Schoolcontinuously improves its own discipline level and influence step by stepsure-footedly. The visions of “Huangpu in Business” have been engrained. In thelast three rounds of assessment about level 1 discipline of businessadministration by the Ministry of Education, it ranked from the ninth to the eighththen tied for the second, and has successfully been included into the DoubleFirst-class construction disciplines.
To summarize the past 32 years’ developmenthistory, the following four main linesare particularly interesting:
1. Posit moralityeducation as the first place of discipline construction
Talenttraining is the primary task of discipline construction, and morality education is the key to talent training. The School has always carried through values and social responsibilityeducation in all aspects of talent training.On the basis of a regular class teacher and acounselor, the School equips each undergraduate with a full course mentor andarranges academic tutors, thesis tutors and industry tutors in a phased mannerfrom entrance to graduation. They are responsible for undergraduate’s valueeducation and professional guidance in the whole course. A series ofextracurricular activities such as “100 eulogize China”, enterprise practicesurvey, poverty alleviation support, president forum and so on help thestudents fully understand their important responsibilities and obligations inthe national development and national rejuvenation. The School puts “practicesocial services” into action from mission. Business ethics and socialresponsibility has always been a characteristic course, also the compulsorycourse from undergraduate to doctor. The School’s MBA program has beenreelected as “China’s Most Socially Responsible MBA program” for many years. Asa base of cadre training of Central Organization Department, the School’ssenior management training center organizes trainings for hundreds of cadres ofdepartment level or above for the central and western regions each year.
As a socialistuniversity with Chinese characteristics, answering“for whom to preparetalents and what kind of talents aregoing to be prepared” is the core ofdiscipline construction. PartyCommittee has played a global and principal role in the School’s disciplineconstruction and has coordinated the ideological and political work of thefaculty, staff (including retired ones) of the School and students of allcategories at all levels. The Party and government joint meeting has alwaysbeen the decision-making body for development strategy and major matters of theSchool.Give full play tothe exemplary and the main force roleof party members in the disciplines construction by strengthening theparty-building work of branches of the faculty and student and allocatingadequate resources. The School’s party committee not only achieves thepolitical and ideological leadership, but also effectively plays the role ofparty groups and trade unions by closely contacting with teachers and studentsand solving the practical problems in work and life for them. By means ofpromoting righteousness, increasing cohesion and reaching consensus, focus theSchool work closely on the core task of discipline construction.
2. Takeroot in the Chinese scene and the research and teaching with Chinese characteristics
The researchand teaching of Business Administration disciplines have a remarkable practicalsignificance. Management practice-oriented research and teaching, especiallyclosely focusing on the Chinese sceneand Chinese characteristics, is the key factor of successfor the School to be domestic leadingand international well-known. The greatachievements for more than 30 years’reform and opening up, thesuccessful experienceof thePearl River Delta and various types of enterprises of the whole country in theinternational competition and fresh cases of business development ofmultinational companies in China provide us a wealth of material for carryingout scientific research and teaching of business administration. Research andteaching on business administration disciplines rooted in the Chinese scene andChinese characteristics has further enhanced the practice towards “be confidentin our path, in our system, in our theory as well as our culture”, has beenmore competitive in the discipline construction and brought greater social andeconomic benefits for the management practice. In recent years, the School’steachers and students have published a series of influential research resultswith “Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese manner” and won morethan a dozen national research and teaching awards. The vast majorities of theresults are derived from the management problems of China. They guide and areapplied to management practices, and have made positive contributions to thecountry’s major strategies and local economic development.
3. Establishdomestic and international cooperation widely in the mode of opening, sharing and win-win
The Schoolhas experienced a change from themode of one-way learning and introduction offoreign advanced scientific research and teaching results to the mode of establishing opening, sharingand win-win cooperation with domesticand foreign teaching and research institutions and the industry. Throughintroduction, absorption and promotion, the School has transformed intobilaterally high-level cooperative research and teaching from traditionallyoverseas student-studying, overseas teacher-training, overseasteacher-introduction and other overseas research and educational resourcesinput. Meanwhile, the School actively carries out export of research andeducational resources and enjoys an increasing awareness and level of partnersin domestic and overseas.
Open cooperationis not the ultimate goal, but the path and means to improve the quality.Therefore, open cooperation is not simply to pursue the number of partners,international students or international teachers and the awareness, but upgrade the teaching and research quality and achieve a teachingand research resources sharing and win-win situation with the partnersthrough different levels of cooperation.“Integration of Chinese and Western” is one of the missions of the School. “Integration” is not one-way following and copying, but integrativedevelopment of ideas, theory and practice of Chinese and foreign businessadministration education and research, as well as showing the world the moreadvanced business administration teaching and research results with Chinesewisdom.
4. Constant innovation and reform, introducing new things, leading the change
“Entrepreneurship and innovation” is the cornerstoneof China’s rapid economic development for more than 30 years, also the key engine to further enhancenational strength and realize the overtaking of Chinese economy. Being located in the forefront of reform andopening up, the School itselfhas a powerful innovation gene. Having the courage to reform, pioneering andnever-ending improvement are unanimous recognition on the School from domesticand overseas counterparts. The School has become the “pilot college” ofnational higher education reform, first batch of professional degree educationreform pilot units of the Ministry of Education and the first batch ofundergraduate professional certification unit of the Ministry of Education. Weare the first domestic business school that have achieved the “equal pay forequal work” for administrative staff of both establishment andnon-establishment, achieved the decoupling of teacher resource allocation andperformance appraisal with seniority and title, achieved the implementation ofwhole course mentor system for undergraduates, achieved the flat management oftwo-tier structure “School-Teacher” from the three-tier structure“School-Department-Teacher”…The continuous reform and innovation driven bystrategies constantly gives the School new vigor and vitality.The Dean of the School was elected to the AsiaPacific Advisory Committee of AACSB International this year. The recommendedwords are described as “Management School of Sun Yat-senUniversity is a vibrant, innovativeand well-known business school. Its systematic and sophisticated new ideas andpractices in institution and mechanism are well worth learning by the world’sbusiness schools, especially the business schools in Asia-Pacific.
In April this year, President Xi Jinping made an important instruction of“adhering to the party’s leadership, adhering to the path of socialism withChinese characteristics, adhering to new development philosophy and adhering tothe reforms and opening up” for the development of Guangdong.The achievements of Business School are attributedto the reform and opening up and economic development of Guangdong. The“four-adhering to” is not only a high-degree summary of the driving forcebehind the development of Guangdong, also the cornerstone and heritage ofdiscipline construction. It will continue leading us into a new journey ofworld-class disciplines of business administration.
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