"Auspicious clouds herald grand plans; brilliant light adds new splendor." As Fudan celebrates a year of achievement and welcomes the year 2019, we would like to extend our sincere wishes to all students, faculty members and retired staff, alumni from home and abroad, and all those who have been offering their unwavering support to the development of Fudan university all along. Happy New Year!
In 2018, we started taking guidance of the 19th CPC National Congress and celebrated the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up. The year also marked the midpoint of the 13th Five-Year Plan and the full-scale commencement of the "Double First-Class" initiative. At this new starting point in history, the word "reform" is foremost in the minds of everyone at Fudan, and we are determined to give our all in order to achieve it.
In the past year, guided by "Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics For a New Era" and the National Education Conference, we successfully held the 15th university Party Congress and announced the goal to "step up fostering the students’ virtues and carry forward reform and opening-up". We also embarked on a new journey of building a world-leading university with Chinese characteristics on all fronts.
In the past year, we deepened reform in all aspects, revising the University Constitution and continuing administration reform at both university and faculty levels to build a better modern university system with Chinese characteristics. We were selected by the Ministry of Education as one of the first batch of pilot institutions for the "Three-Whole Education" reform initiative in which the entire society contributes to the educational sphere to help students achieve holistic development. We have also received affirmation of our efforts, with reforms in ideological & political education as well as general education winning the top prizes of National Teaching Achievement Awards. The decision by the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission and Shanghai Municipal Government to jointly run Shanghai Medical College and its affiliated hospitals also marked a major breakthrough in the reform of medical education management systems.
"Knowledge gives people confidence in their action." In 2018, the development of the university gained heartening momentum. Our Party affairs as well as ideological and political work have entered a new stage. We adhered to the "Three-line Coordination" concept—which refer to the synergies among the university-level Party committee as the central line, Party leadership at schools and departments as the middle line and Party branch at primary level as the lifeline—to ensure that the importance of Party building lies deep in the heart of the people and the Party maintains its strong leadership. Steady progress was made in the "Five-Dimension Education Project", which focuses on moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetics and labor education to groom students into individuals who can shoulder the great undertaking of national rejuvenation. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, we launched "The Communist Manifesto Exhibition Hall" to revisit the origins of our guiding philosophy. By participating in various social activities and lectures, members of the Fudan community got to learn about the struggles and achievements over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, and gathered tremendous strength to forge ahead in the new era. We continued to learn from the late Comrade Zhong Yang, our fellow scholar and biologist who dedicated his life to environmental studies. We were proud to present the "10 Distinction and 100 Merit" titles, a university-level award given to scholars and practitioners in different subject areas. Our teaching staff acted as beacons of moral integrity and academic excellence, taking the lead in demonstrating the spirit of Fudan in this new era.
As part of the latest effort to enrich our campus culture, we held the 5th Nationwide University Student Art Festival. The "former presidents" series, which were original works by Fudan, received wide acclaim and the play "Seeds Paradise" was awarded "Outstanding Show" accolade at the China Campus Theater Festival.
We implemented the “Double First-Class” Initiative and launched nearly 100 key projects. An additional four disciplines were added to the list of “Top Disciplines” at the Shanghai municipal level. Fudan’s pharmacology and toxicology made it to the top 0.1 % of ESI while earth science advanced to within 1% of ESI. In addition, a total of 21 papers were published in CNS, an increase of 75% from the previous year.
We have built a more comprehensive talent system following a rigorous evaluation of our undergraduate education. Seven departments launched "2+X" pilot programs which are designed to nurture talent and inject new impetus into undergraduate education. We continued to carry out reforms on graduate education and received a special grant for cultivating urgently-needed doctoral-degree holders who specialize in core technologies in key areas. Assessed by China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Center affiliated to the Ministry of Education, all our five subject categories received the top grading during the first nationwide evaluation. We also saw a record number of students take home prizes from the Chinese Mathematics Competitions.
Our focus on cutting-edge technologies and national strategies has yielded achievements. For example, we spearheaded the establishment of the National Integrated Circuit Innovation Center and the National Clinical Medicine Research Center of Radiology and Therapy (Interventional Therapy). Fudan’s Frontier Science Center of Brain Science became the first of its kind to be included in the "Everest Project", a national project which aims to cultivate top scientists at prominent universities. Other notable achievements include the launch of the Shanghai Center for Mathematical Science and receiving a grant from the municipality’s Science and Technology Major Project Fund for our research project on the transfer and application of brain and brain-inspired intelligence. In the past year, our spending on scientific research exceeded 3 billion yuan for the first time, and more than 70 projects, a record high in recent years, were supported by the National Social Science Fund. Our "General History of Chinese Administrative Divisions" book series won the grand prize of Shanghai Philosophy & Social Science Outstanding Achievements awards.
The "Excellence 2025" talent recruitment plan, which is aimed at shaping a talent cultivation system centered on knowledge, insights, excellence and distinction, has been gaining steady progress. In the past year, 278 high-level personnel and young talents including Nobel Prize winners and professionals from new engineering sectors, joined the university. The establishment of the Zhuhai-Fudan Innovation Institute and the Zhongshan-Fudan Collaborative Innovation Center represented our latest efforts to seek new ways of cooperation between the university and local authorities. We contributed “Fudan wisdom” to national governance by releasing high quality research papers that offer insights and recommendations regarding political issues. We also implemented a three-year action plan to alleviate poverty in Yongping County of Yunnan Province.
Shanghai Brain Disease Center was officially put into operation in 2018, and we continued to deepen the reform of affiliated public hospitals. With regard to international collaboration, our regional medical partnerships have proved beneficial and other hospitals followed suit. We jointly initiated the Shanghai-Hong Kong University Alliance, launched the "seed funding" for Fudan-Latin America University Consortium, opened the first overseas classroom in Budapest, completed the construction of a number of overseas centers doe Chinese studies and Confucius Institutes, co-established the Institute for Global Public Policy with the London School of Economics and Political Science and kicked off collaborative projects with Harvard Medical School.
The University’s revenue last year was in excess of 8.3 billion yuan, and this has given us the financial means to overhaul and upgrade campus facilities. Some of the projects we have undertaken include the renovation of the "Xiang Hui Great Hall" and building experimental teaching centers that leverage modern teaching concepts and advanced technology. Meanwhile, the project to set up the Fudan International Innovation Center in Zhangjiang campus was approved by the authorities; the structure of Zhangjiang International Brain Imaging Center was completed; and our campus planning and land ownership settlement affairs progressed smoothly. We have also pushed forward projects to improve the study, working and living conditions of students and faculty members, including inking a strategic partnership with Shanghai Real Estate Group to carry out a number of housing projects.
"Everything changes with the passage of time." The year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China and the 100th anniversary of the May 4th Movement, which called for the restoration of Chinese independence and sovereignty. It is the decisive year we are on course to accomplishing the first century goal of "building a moderately well-off society". It is also a critical year for implementing the decisions made at the 15th University Party Congress and continuing with our endeavors to develop Fudan into a world-class university with Chinese characteristics in the world. We will carry out the President Xi’s important instructions on education, strengthen the Party’s leadership throughout the university, infuse socialist principles into our education, step up ideological and political education, adhere to reform and opening-up, boost development with innovation and achieve the full potential of higher education. We will continue to push forward development in the following eight areas to speed up our "Double First-Class" initiative: modern governance, teaching and education, disciplinary excellence, teaching staff, scientific innovation, social services, international cooperation and comprehensive support. These will jointly contribute to modernizing the education systems, boosting the nation’s education sector and providing quality educational services.
"A boat faces the strongest currents in the middle of a river; the journey from the midpoint to the mountain top will only get steeper.” Dear colleagues and students, the relay baton of our great cause has been handed to us from generations of the Fudan family. Let us unite more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, stay true to our original purpose, keep our mission in mind and hold fast to our ambitions and beliefs to achieve higher goals. Let the torch of reform and innovation illuminate the path ahead as we embark on a new journey of development and prosperity. As we pass down the relay baton from one to another, we will, with great resolve, advance toward our shared Fudan dream and the Chinese dream!
Original Article From: http://www.fudan.edu.cn/en/channels/view/123/
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