Tsinghua University held its Spring semester Faculty and Staff meeting on February 25.
The meeting, combining virtual and on-site participation, coincides with the university’s two-month countdown to its 110th anniversary, which will fall on April 25, 2021.
University leaders Qiu Yong, Chen Xu, Ji Junmin, Yang Bin, Li Yibing, You Zheng, Guo Yong, Zheng Li, Xiang Botao, Peng Gang, and others attended the conference. Jiang Shengyao, Vice Chairperson of Tsinghua University Council, presided over the meeting.
"The meeting is being held in the first week of the new semester, which embodies our spirit of seizing the day and working hard, and our pursuit of continuing to strive and achieve better results," said Chairperson of the University Council Chen Xu.
As Ms. Chen mentioned, facing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, all teachers, students, faculty and staff of the school have passed the test with exceptional results. In 2021, when the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 110th anniversary of the school will be celebrated, Tsinghua will make an even bigger success.
Ms. Chen set the requirements for the upcoming activities and events, emphasizing that they should be "humble, warm, pragmatic and sharing". Taking the opportunity of the 110th anniversary, it's necessary to comprehensively summarize the school's achievements and experience of the past 110 years, condense intelligent ideas, and make scientific goals for 2030, laying a solid foundation for the second decade of Tsinghua’s new century.
In 2021, Tsinghua will implement the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and step onto a new stage, moving towards the forefront of world-class universities, said Ms. Chen.
She added that Tsinghua will further deepen reforms, formulate and implement a new phase of the "Double First-Class" (First-Class University & First-Class Discipline) development plan, adhere to intensive development, and improve its management and service capabilities and standards.
"Tsinghua has demonstrated its spirit of self-improvement through meticulous deliberation and actions taken in 2020," Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong said, adding that Tsinghua takes teaching and educating people as an indispensable responsibility together with its international colleagues in higher education.
He reviewed the development and achievements of Tsinghua in talent training, scientific research, international exchanges and cooperation, campus construction, and school management over the last year.
For instance, Tsinghua's Spring semester 2020 took place on schedule. Tsinghua also conducted anti-epidemic scientific research, jointly launched a large-scale online job fair with universities in Hubei province, established the Vanke School of Public Health, and convened an online COVID-19 response experience-sharing dialogue with alliance members and other university partners as the chair of the Asian Universities Alliance.
Moreover, Tsinghua and UNESCO convened a special dialogue attended by global university partners, held an online graduation ceremony and co-hosted the China-US University Presidents' Online Forum with Yale University. The 2020 Advisory Board Meeting of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and the first Global MOOC Conference were also initiated by the university.
President Qiu believed that it is necessary to take a historical view of Tsinghua's development and achievements in 2020. He mentioned the comprehensive reform of Tsinghua, saying that conscious responsibility for the mission of the university is a powerful endogenous driving force for reform.
"Culture, Self-confidence and Composure" were three key words shared by President Qiu. He stated that, leading up to 2030, Tsinghua will improve the quality of talent training, raise the level of academic innovation, and enhance international exchanges and cooperation with higher standards.
At the meeting, President Qiu also introduced the preparations and activities for the 110th anniversary. Tsinghua’s Global Forum of University Presidents 2021 (GFUP 2021) will be held from April 19-24. A series of other activities such as the 110th anniversary conference, the anniversary party, and the school history exhibition will also take place.
Editors: Li Han, Cassie, John Olbrich, John Paul
