With the reform of the academic department system, more universities have begun to exert their efforts. In just one month, two departments of Sun Yat-sen University – the Department of Economics and Management and the Department of Medicine – were “online”. This is also the first

Sun Yat-sen University. Image source: When the

division of Sun Yat-sen University was established, Li Shanmin said that the establishment of the division is conducive to coordinating talent training standards, academic standards and academic evaluation of the same and similar disciplines, realizing one entrance and one exit, promoting cross-department and cross-disciplinary collaboration, and enhancing the internal synergy of high-quality development .

"CUHK Medical Department has built up a huge body, accumulated a large number of high-quality medical resources, saved the lives of thousands of difficult and severe patients, and created many medical miracles in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area." Song Erwei said that the medical department should improve the level of medical education, build a strong medical research platform, and establish disciplines and integrate high-quality medical resources through the establishment of specialized disease committees.

What is the academic department system?

The so-called "faculty system" is to classify departments according to subject categories or subject groups, and add an academic organization or administrative management structure between schools and departments to further coordinate the discipline construction of departments and scientific research units to form comprehensive advantages in disciplines.

Academic circles generally believe that the university department system originated in the European Middle Ages. The University of Paris took the lead in establishing an independent four-department governance system, which later became popular in universities in the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries. Academic departments are more of an academic organizational concept and have more academic powers. Of course, this is not a general rule. Some academic departments will have administrative powers to coordinate the coordinated operation of different departments and scientific research units.

The reform of the domestic university academic system does not have a long history, only more than 20 years.

Peking University took the lead in exploring the reform of the academic department system in the country in 1999 and established four academic committees. The following year, Peking University merged with the original Beijing Medical University, and the original Beijing Medical University became Peking University Medical School.

started from this, and the academic system entered the field of domestic universities. launched the reform of the academic department system, and the first university in Guangdong to launch it was Shenzhen University.

Shenzhen University. Image source: Shenzhen University

Shenzhen University established the Faculty of Medicine as early as 2013, the Normal College (Faculty of Education) five years later, and later the Faculty of Arts.

South China Normal University also has 4 departments. In 2018, the Department of Teacher Education was established, with 4 institutions under it; the Department of Engineering was established on the Nanhai campus, with 3 colleges and 1 research institution; it also has a Department of Psychology and a Department of Physics to coordinate and plan discipline construction.

The reform of the academic department system is in the ascendant.

After the establishment of Shenzhen University Normal College (Faculty of Education), it consists of three colleges: School of Education, School of Psychology, and School of Physical Education and affiliated education groups. Under the coordination of the academic department, education, psychology, sports science, and other disciplines carry out exchanges and cooperation, jointly apply for research projects, build interdisciplinary research institutes, and explore and strengthen cross-disciplinary integration.

In January this year, Shenzhen University Normal College (Faculty of Education) was restructured into the Faculty of Education of Shenzhen University, which consists of the School of Education, the Education Research Institute, and the Teacher Development School. "After the restructuring, the Faculty of Education not only carries out talent training, but also undertakes educational research and teacher training." said Li Jun, executive director of the Faculty of Education of Shenzhen University.

Shenzhen University. Image source: Shenzhen University

There are naturally deeper reasons for the reform of the academic department system. In the domestic university governance structure, it is generally divided into three levels of management: "school-college-department". However, this kind of management structure also has obvious shortcomings. The same discipline is often distributed in multiple colleges and institutions.

The discipline is the leader in the reform and development of the university. Only when the leader dances can the university's vitality be better stimulated.

In the construction of " double first-class " in recent years, the construction of discipline connotation, characteristic development, and quality level are top priorities. Therefore, the reform of the academic department system has also become an important attempt to promote cross-disciplinary integration, resource integration, and impact on the first-class. More and more universities are aiming at this breakthrough, establishing as few as one academic department and as many as nine academic departments.

, like Zhejiang University , Wuhan University , Jilin University , Xiamen University , established 7, 6, 9 and 6 departments respectively, reorganized departments, established new departments, and carried out school-wide reforms. However, more universities are piloting it first. For example, Tsinghua University only has a medical department, and other reforms have not yet been carried out.

Taiyuan University of Technology has just launched the reform of the academic department system, integrating 30 departments into 8 departments at a time, hoping to create "an open interdisciplinary organization with a higher starting point, higher standards, and higher requirements beyond the college level."

promotes the development of interdisciplinary integration, which is also the core focus of the reform of the university academic system.

A year ago, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Education clearly established the new " interdisciplinary " category, which is the 14th subject category in my country. " Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering " and "National Security" are the first-level disciplines.

From ministry-affiliated universities to local universities, the reform of the academic department system has become a new hot spot to stimulate new vitality in disciplines, teaching, and scientific research. Only if the subject of is large enough and strong enough, can it carve out a new path in the new round of competition between and in universities across the country.

"In the past, the reform of the academic system divided departments into more and more detailed ones, which was not conducive to the cross-integration of disciplines and increased management difficulties." In Li Jun's view, the reform of the academic system can correct to a certain extent the shortcomings of the past reform of the academic system that was too hasty and too detailed. However, the reform of the academic department system cannot only mean the establishment of one academic department, but should also reflect the functions of interdisciplinary construction, cultivation of top innovative talents, and strengthening of the academic power of grassroots units.

What role will the academic department play in the university's governance system? The departments of University have the same name, but the tasks they undertake are not quite the same.

Gao Song has been teaching at Peking University for a long time and once served as executive vice president. After taking over as the president of CUHK more than a year ago, when he visited the Shenzhen campus for investigation, he proposed that relevant disciplines on the campus should adhere to staggered development, complement each other's advantages, create distinctive features, and promote the development of cross-disciplinary integration. It is necessary to use information technology to strengthen collaborative management between campuses and strengthen the sharing and collaborative development of educational resources between colleges.

promotes interdisciplinary integration, realizes cross-campus collaboration, and improves governance efficiency. is one of the important topics in the reform of the governance system of CUHK.

In the past few years, CUHK has experienced rapid reform and development, doubling its size.Now it has "three campuses and five campuses", including the Guangzhou campus with three campuses in the south, north and east; the Zhuhai campus opened in 2000, and has invested more than 7 billion yuan in "incremental" construction in recent years; in 2015, it signed a contract with Shenzhen to jointly build the Shenzhen campus, deploying new medical and engineering disciplines, and accelerating its entry into world-class universities.

Sun Yat-sen University Shenzhen Campus . Image source: Sun Yat-sen University

After it has grown in size, how can it achieve connotative and high-quality development?

“Steadyly advancing the reform of the academic department system, the purpose is to improve the academic governance system, stimulate the vitality of departments, and promote interdisciplinary interdisciplinary.” In May this year, Gao Song clearly stated at the Spring Work Conference of CUHK that departments will be set up according to the principles of similar disciplines, and efforts will be made to build a three-level academic governance system of “school-department-department”. The information released by

is very obvious. The department is similar to a cross-department platform, which can break the limitations of campus space and the barriers between different departments, fully integrate first-level subject resources, and promote the development of interdisciplinary integration.

The Faculty of Economics and Management of CUHK has five schools, among which Lingnan College and School of Management are located on the south and east campuses of the Guangzhou campus respectively, while the School of Tourism, School of International Finance and School of Business are located on the Zhuhai campus. The Department of Medicine is even larger in size, including 8 schools including the old medical school Zhongshan Medical College on the North Campus and the newly established CUHK Medical School on the Shenzhen campus, and 10 directly affiliated hospitals, located in Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen.

Taking the School of Medicine as an example, Gao Song proposed a plan that will be conducive to coordinating talent training standards and improving the level of talent training in the same and similar disciplines; it will be conducive to coordinating the academic standards and academic evaluation of the same and similar disciplines, building a team of high-quality teachers; it will be conducive to promoting cross-department and interdisciplinary education and research cooperation, and improving the overall level of discipline construction.

Due to the different purposes of reform, naturally, the manifestations and construction results of the academic department system are also different.

The construction of the academic department system of China Normal University adopts a "combination of virtual and real" methods. For example, the Department of Teacher Education does not have traditional departments, but four institutions: New Normal College, Teacher Education Training Center, Teacher Development Evaluation Institute, and Teacher Development College. The purpose of the reform is to stimulate the vitality and self-development capabilities of grassroots academic organizations in teacher education based on resource integration, and promote the construction of a "new normal school."

South China Normal University. Image source: South China Normal University

The academic department system of Shenzhen University is "real". The Department of Medicine, the Department of Education, and the Department of Art all accurately correspond to disciplines, departments, and majors.

“The existence of academic departments is related to the historical tradition of the development of the school.” Lu Xiaozhong, dean of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Educational Development Institute of South China Normal University, said that there is no unified model for the reform of the academic department system, but we must grasp the general direction and sort out how to cultivate talents across disciplines and across disciplines from an academic perspective to truly maximize the benefits of establishing academic departments.

Since the birth of the domestic university academic system, there have been different voices: adding academic departments between schools and departments is suspected of "stacking the same bed," increasing management levels and management costs, which may affect the governance efficiency of the university, and may not activate the reform vitality of departments.

Ultimately, the reform logic of the academic department system is how to allocate resources. Should the school delegate power to academic departments or strengthen departments?

"In the reform of the academic department system, the power among schools, departments and colleges must be redistributed. If corresponding reforms are not carried out, blindly adding departments will only increase the management level." Li Jun said that the academic department system reform is not simply to set up a department, but requires the school to understand the academic department system from an ecological and global perspective and perspective, make overall systemic reforms, redesign the school's governance system, and clarify the rights and obligations of the academic department through institutional design.

South China Normal University. Image source: South China Normal University

Lu Xiaozhong believes that the reform of the academic system needs to solve efficiency problems by decentralizing autonomy. schools need to empower departments so that they should have higher academic power than colleges.After empowerment, the same and similar subjects can be developed as a whole in the school department, which is more conducive to improving administrative efficiency than in the past when different subjects had to compete for resources at the school level.

Regarding this problem, more universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are exploring effective methods.

On September 1 this year, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) officially opened its semester and welcomed its first batch of 500 master's and doctoral students. Unlike traditional universities that set up departments, this young university does not have departments. Instead, it sets up "hubs" and "academic fields" to build the world's first integrated discipline university. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) has established four major academic hubs: Function, Information, System, and Society. Each hub points to a comprehensive system problem, and multiple academic fields are aggregated under it for cross-integration, involving a total of 15 academic fields.

"We will be committed to developing integrated disciplines and vigorously develop emerging disciplines and cutting-edge disciplines." Ni Mingxuan, President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), said.

“We cannot ‘educate departments for the sake of departments’.” Lu Xiaozhong proposed that the reform of the academic department system should truly respond to the new technological revolution’s new needs for the cultivation of top innovative talents and respond to the new trend of interdisciplinary integration.

There is no fixed model for university reform, and we cannot follow the same pattern. Just make progress, so you will be new every day.

[Open the column]

Universities are an important symbol of the development level and development potential of a country and a region. What kind of universities are needed for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? Starting today, Nanfang Daily and Nanfang+ client launch the "Bay Area University Knowledge" column, visiting universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to explore the logic of reform and unearth wonderful stories.

[Reporter] Wu Shaomin Ma Limin Bian Delong Wang Xiangbo

[Design] Peng Xiao

[Author] Ma Limin; Wu Shaomin; Bian Delong; Wang Xiangbo

Guangdong Education Headline

The reform of the academic department system is in the ascendant.

After the establishment of Shenzhen University Normal College (Faculty of Education), it consists of three colleges: School of Education, School of Psychology, and School of Physical Education and affiliated education groups. Under the coordination of the academic department, education, psychology, sports science, and other disciplines carry out exchanges and cooperation, jointly apply for research projects, build interdisciplinary research institutes, and explore and strengthen cross-disciplinary integration.

In January this year, Shenzhen University Normal College (Faculty of Education) was restructured into the Faculty of Education of Shenzhen University, which consists of the School of Education, the Education Research Institute, and the Teacher Development School. "After the restructuring, the Faculty of Education not only carries out talent training, but also undertakes educational research and teacher training." said Li Jun, executive director of the Faculty of Education of Shenzhen University.

Shenzhen University. Image source: Shenzhen University

There are naturally deeper reasons for the reform of the academic department system. In the domestic university governance structure, it is generally divided into three levels of management: "school-college-department". However, this kind of management structure also has obvious shortcomings. The same discipline is often distributed in multiple colleges and institutions.

The discipline is the leader in the reform and development of the university. Only when the leader dances can the university's vitality be better stimulated.

In the construction of " double first-class " in recent years, the construction of discipline connotation, characteristic development, and quality level are top priorities. Therefore, the reform of the academic department system has also become an important attempt to promote cross-disciplinary integration, resource integration, and impact on the first-class. More and more universities are aiming at this breakthrough, establishing as few as one academic department and as many as nine academic departments.

, like Zhejiang University , Wuhan University , Jilin University , Xiamen University , established 7, 6, 9 and 6 departments respectively, reorganized departments, established new departments, and carried out school-wide reforms. However, more universities are piloting it first. For example, Tsinghua University only has a medical department, and other reforms have not yet been carried out.

Taiyuan University of Technology has just launched the reform of the academic department system, integrating 30 departments into 8 departments at a time, hoping to create "an open interdisciplinary organization with a higher starting point, higher standards, and higher requirements beyond the college level."

promotes the development of interdisciplinary integration, which is also the core focus of the reform of the university academic system.

A year ago, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Education clearly established the new " interdisciplinary " category, which is the 14th subject category in my country. " Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering " and "National Security" are the first-level disciplines.

From ministry-affiliated universities to local universities, the reform of the academic department system has become a new hot spot to stimulate new vitality in disciplines, teaching, and scientific research. Only if the subject of is large enough and strong enough, can it carve out a new path in the new round of competition between and in universities across the country.

"In the past, the reform of the academic system divided departments into more and more detailed ones, which was not conducive to the cross-integration of disciplines and increased management difficulties." In Li Jun's view, the reform of the academic system can correct to a certain extent the shortcomings of the past reform of the academic system that was too hasty and too detailed. However, the reform of the academic department system cannot only mean the establishment of one academic department, but should also reflect the functions of interdisciplinary construction, cultivation of top innovative talents, and strengthening of the academic power of grassroots units.

What role will the academic department play in the university's governance system? The departments of University have the same name, but the tasks they undertake are not quite the same.

Gao Song has been teaching at Peking University for a long time and once served as executive vice president. After taking over as the president of CUHK more than a year ago, when he visited the Shenzhen campus for investigation, he proposed that relevant disciplines on the campus should adhere to staggered development, complement each other's advantages, create distinctive features, and promote the development of cross-disciplinary integration. It is necessary to use information technology to strengthen collaborative management between campuses and strengthen the sharing and collaborative development of educational resources between colleges.

promotes interdisciplinary integration, realizes cross-campus collaboration, and improves governance efficiency. is one of the important topics in the reform of the governance system of CUHK.

In the past few years, CUHK has experienced rapid reform and development, doubling its size.Now it has "three campuses and five campuses", including the Guangzhou campus with three campuses in the south, north and east; the Zhuhai campus opened in 2000, and has invested more than 7 billion yuan in "incremental" construction in recent years; in 2015, it signed a contract with Shenzhen to jointly build the Shenzhen campus, deploying new medical and engineering disciplines, and accelerating its entry into world-class universities.

Sun Yat-sen University Shenzhen Campus . Image source: Sun Yat-sen University

After it has grown in size, how can it achieve connotative and high-quality development?

“Steadyly advancing the reform of the academic department system, the purpose is to improve the academic governance system, stimulate the vitality of departments, and promote interdisciplinary interdisciplinary.” In May this year, Gao Song clearly stated at the Spring Work Conference of CUHK that departments will be set up according to the principles of similar disciplines, and efforts will be made to build a three-level academic governance system of “school-department-department”. The information released by

is very obvious. The department is similar to a cross-department platform, which can break the limitations of campus space and the barriers between different departments, fully integrate first-level subject resources, and promote the development of interdisciplinary integration.

The Faculty of Economics and Management of CUHK has five schools, among which Lingnan College and School of Management are located on the south and east campuses of the Guangzhou campus respectively, while the School of Tourism, School of International Finance and School of Business are located on the Zhuhai campus. The Department of Medicine is even larger in size, including 8 schools including the old medical school Zhongshan Medical College on the North Campus and the newly established CUHK Medical School on the Shenzhen campus, and 10 directly affiliated hospitals, located in Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Shenzhen.

Taking the School of Medicine as an example, Gao Song proposed a plan that will be conducive to coordinating talent training standards and improving the level of talent training in the same and similar disciplines; it will be conducive to coordinating the academic standards and academic evaluation of the same and similar disciplines, building a team of high-quality teachers; it will be conducive to promoting cross-department and interdisciplinary education and research cooperation, and improving the overall level of discipline construction.

Due to the different purposes of reform, naturally, the manifestations and construction results of the academic department system are also different.

The construction of the academic department system of China Normal University adopts a "combination of virtual and real" methods. For example, the Department of Teacher Education does not have traditional departments, but four institutions: New Normal College, Teacher Education Training Center, Teacher Development Evaluation Institute, and Teacher Development College. The purpose of the reform is to stimulate the vitality and self-development capabilities of grassroots academic organizations in teacher education based on resource integration, and promote the construction of a "new normal school."

South China Normal University. Image source: South China Normal University

The academic department system of Shenzhen University is "real". The Department of Medicine, the Department of Education, and the Department of Art all accurately correspond to disciplines, departments, and majors.

“The existence of academic departments is related to the historical tradition of the development of the school.” Lu Xiaozhong, dean of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Educational Development Institute of South China Normal University, said that there is no unified model for the reform of the academic department system, but we must grasp the general direction and sort out how to cultivate talents across disciplines and across disciplines from an academic perspective to truly maximize the benefits of establishing academic departments.

Since the birth of the domestic university academic system, there have been different voices: adding academic departments between schools and departments is suspected of "stacking the same bed," increasing management levels and management costs, which may affect the governance efficiency of the university, and may not activate the reform vitality of departments.

Ultimately, the reform logic of the academic department system is how to allocate resources. Should the school delegate power to academic departments or strengthen departments?

"In the reform of the academic department system, the power among schools, departments and colleges must be redistributed. If corresponding reforms are not carried out, blindly adding departments will only increase the management level." Li Jun said that the academic department system reform is not simply to set up a department, but requires the school to understand the academic department system from an ecological and global perspective and perspective, make overall systemic reforms, redesign the school's governance system, and clarify the rights and obligations of the academic department through institutional design.

South China Normal University. Image source: South China Normal University

Lu Xiaozhong believes that the reform of the academic system needs to solve efficiency problems by decentralizing autonomy. schools need to empower departments so that they should have higher academic power than colleges.After empowerment, the same and similar subjects can be developed as a whole in the school department, which is more conducive to improving administrative efficiency than in the past when different subjects had to compete for resources at the school level.

Regarding this problem, more universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are exploring effective methods.

On September 1 this year, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) officially opened its semester and welcomed its first batch of 500 master's and doctoral students. Unlike traditional universities that set up departments, this young university does not have departments. Instead, it sets up "hubs" and "academic fields" to build the world's first integrated discipline university. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) has established four major academic hubs: Function, Information, System, and Society. Each hub points to a comprehensive system problem, and multiple academic fields are aggregated under it for cross-integration, involving a total of 15 academic fields.

"We will be committed to developing integrated disciplines and vigorously develop emerging disciplines and cutting-edge disciplines." Ni Mingxuan, President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), said.

“We cannot ‘educate departments for the sake of departments’.” Lu Xiaozhong proposed that the reform of the academic department system should truly respond to the new technological revolution’s new needs for the cultivation of top innovative talents and respond to the new trend of interdisciplinary integration.

There is no fixed model for university reform, and we cannot follow the same pattern. Just make progress, so you will be new every day.

[Open the column]

Universities are an important symbol of the development level and development potential of a country and a region. What kind of universities are needed for the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area? Starting today, Nanfang Daily and Nanfang+ client launch the "Bay Area University Knowledge" column, visiting universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to explore the logic of reform and unearth wonderful stories.

[Reporter] Wu Shaomin Ma Limin Bian Delong Wang Xiangbo

[Design] Peng Xiao

[Author] Ma Limin; Wu Shaomin; Bian Delong; Wang Xiangbo

Guangdong Education Headline