The Stanford Dream of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology

> The Stanford Dream of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology (Contributed by Yang Qiwei, Guangzhou) After five years of unremitting efforts, Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology finally received an approval from the Ministry of Education...

The Stanford Dream of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology (Contributed by Yang Qiwei, Guangzhou) After five years of unremitting efforts, Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology finally received an approval from the Ministry of Education: "Agree to establish." From being approved for preparation to being successfully "regularized", the school's software and hardware construction has made phased progress. Within this year, part of the teaching buildings of the new campus project will be delivered for use. The school is expected to welcome a new group of students and more outstanding teachers. SUSTech is moving forward step by step, and its future prospects are exciting. Domestically, many cities are determined to build "China's Silicon Valley." However, compared with Silicon Valley in the United States, the most inferior place for Shenzhen people is the lack of a Stanford University. The historical fact is that Stanford came first and then Silicon Valley. It was Stanford’s innovative spirit and innovative resources that nurtured Silicon Valley. In the 1990s, Shenzhen, which did not have Stanford, borrowed the resources of college graduates from other places in the country, and its high-tech industry continued to advance rapidly and ranked first in the country. As time goes by, people of insight have keenly realized that in the development stage where imitation and catching up are the main forms, the presence or absence of Stanford does not seem to be very important. But when it comes time to compete at the highest level in the world with original technologies and products, the presence of Stanford becomes the decisive factor. From a historical perspective, the pioneers of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone are already extraordinary. At the very beginning of the special economic zone, they founded Shenzhen University with outstanding foresight. However, due to various historical reasons, Shenzhen University has basically lost the opportunity to grow into Stanford. When Shenzhen's subsequent policymakers decided to create their own Stanford, they discovered that it was not a question of how much money to invest. Without fundamental reforms, it would be impossible to grow Shenzhen's Stanford under the current system. Not to mention Shenzhen, Zhongguancun in Beijing, which has unique resource conditions in China, how much influence of Silicon Valley can you see so far? Therefore, under such a general background, policymakers made the decision to establish a Southern University of Science and Technology based on the school-running path of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and thus started the Stanford dream of Shenzhen people. Since June 2009, the founding president of SUSTech, Zhu Qingshi, has been recruited through global recruitment. With his firm will to reform and brilliant personality, he has led his team to work hard, pursue persistently, and make unremitting efforts, making SUSTech's mission closely linked to the future of Shenzhen from the beginning. It is conceivable that from now on, the Southern Science and Technology Conference will quickly achieve the basic finalization of its scale and operation and management model. In this process, there are at least 10,000 forces of inertia at every moment, making SUSTech a mediocre school with no essential difference from other domestic universities. Ignoring this risk is the greatest danger at the moment. Resolving this risk is the most urgent task at the moment. In an interview with the media, President Zhu Qingshi said that the subject establishment of SUSTech follows four principles. First, it responds to the urgent needs of the country's economic and social development; second, it is committed to contributing to the overall transformation and development of the economy of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region, and provides basic research guarantee for its industrial development; third, it focuses on building SUSTech into a first-class scientific research base in Asia and cultivates top innovative talents; fourth, it sets up the first batch of disciplines of SUSTech based on the actual situation of talent introduction. It is understood that the first batch of subject establishment plans of SUSTech were completed in accordance with scientific procedures and after brainstorming. First, recruit talents from all over the world to lay the foundation for the subject setting; secondly, the teaching team has held many seminars to discuss the direction of subject setting; thirdly, held a symposium of representatives of subject construction entrepreneurs to discuss the interdisciplinary setting; and then invited some key provincial universities to hold symposiums to pool ideas and efforts for the subject construction of SUSTech. Currently, SUSTech has established 5 departments and 6 majors in the first batch of three major categories: science, engineering and economics, and has formed corresponding teaching plans. The five departments are the Department of Physics, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Biology, the Department of Micro-Nano Materials and Devices, and the Department of Financial Mathematics. Among them, the Department of Biology has two majors, and other departments currently have one major. SUSTech strives to build an international high-level research university, and its subject setting has significant characteristics and advantages: First, it has established a training mechanism based on research centers. Plan to build 9 research centers and strive to create a world-class scientific research and innovation platform. It will promote the interaction between scientific research and teaching, cultivate interdisciplinary and cross-field teams that combine scientific research and teaching, and accelerate the cultivation of top innovative talents. The second is to focus on building interdisciplinary and emerging disciplines. Focusing on the construction of interdisciplinary and emerging disciplines, we will establish a number of interdisciplinary research centers on the basis of various departments and majors to support the development of large-span and highly integrated disciplines and strive to achieve major breakthroughs in related academic fields. In terms of enrollment, SUSTech insists on reforming conventional enrollment methods and adopting different measures, but this needs to be approved by the Ministry of Education. Since SUSTech did not have a formal status, this year's independent enrollment has not yet started. If you want to catch up with this year's enrollment, time is very tight. However, SUSTech is still formulating a plan for 100% independent enrollment and is working hard to obtain approval from the Ministry of Education as soon as possible. It is reported that the number of full-time students at Southern University of Science and Technology is tentatively set at 8,000, which is the school’s long-term goal. SUSTech must first build a quality research university. It will not recruit many students this year. Currently, students are still attending classes at the start-up campus. The campus area is limited and cannot accommodate too many students. The total enrollment is expected to be less than 200. "The Ministry of Education's approval does not mention the recruitment of graduate students by SUSTech, so the school still needs to apply for the right to recruit graduate students. This is the direction of SUSTech's future development. Without graduate students, SUSTech would not be SUSTech," President Zhu Qingshi said.