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Linchpins for Academic Organizations

Oct 13-2021   



From his experience as a founding professor of the NSD and subsequently as the founding dean of PHBS (Peking University HSBC Business School), Prof. Hai Wen has distilled five key components underpinning the innovation and development of academic organizations in his speech on the occasion of the inauguration of Cheng Ze Garden as the new campus of the NSD. He is also the Deputy Director of PKU’s University Affairs Committee and was previously Vice President of PKU.

 

Reflecting on the early days of CCER, the predecessor of the NSD, Prof. Hai says that rigorous academic standards are of the foremost importance for an academic institution. Of the CCER’s first cohort of ten graduate and two doctorate students, one graduate and one doctorate student failed to obtain their degrees, a shocking result at a time when graduation was taken for granted in other universities. Moreover, CCER was the first in China to adopt a tenure system for its teachers, thereby keeping pressures on them to maintain high academic and teaching standards.

 

The second linchpin is top-notch administrative services. At CCER, administrative staff were tasked to support pedagogy and academic research and were required to have high efficiency and positive attitudes, even down to such details as the tone and language for answering phone calls. Prof. Hai recalls that what drew Prof. Lu Feng, now a well-respected scholar in macroeconomics and trade, to join CCER in 1995 was none other than the warm and professional responses from the administrative team. Prof. Hai says that like CCER and the NSD, PHBS also prides itself on first-class administrative services.

 

Another lynchpin that sets CCER and the NSD apart is democratic decision-making procedures, with the professoriate at the core. Each and every teacher will have their application for promotion voted and commented by all professors; all important strategies and policies must be discussed at the professoriate.

 

Given that CCER is not merely a research institute but also an educational institution, it highly values equal communication between teachers and students. Prof. Hai recalls how this helped solve a thorny issue related to a degree diploma and how teachers and students used to sweep and scrub Lang Run Garden (the old campus of the NSD) together, a well-cherished tradition that he hopes will carry on in Cheng Ze Garden.

 

One more lynchpin that makes Prof. Hai proud is CCER’s track record in innovation. It was China’s first academic organization founded by a group of economists who had all been studying abroad. The introduction of important foreign textbooks, another trailblazing undertaking, has had profound impacts on the development of economics in China. The teaching mode was innovative, too, requiring new students to build a solid foundation in macroeconomics, microeconomics, and quantitative economics, the fruition of which can be seen in the academic achievement of CCER graduates. Also new for China at the time as the launch of double-degree programs, initiated by Prof. Yi Gang (currently Governor of the PBOC), which have gone on to be adopted countrywide. Other groundbreaking initiatives include the establishment of China Economics Annual Conference in 2001 and endowed professorship.

 

Linchpins for Academic Organizations

Oct 13-2021   



From his experience as a founding professor of the NSD and subsequently as the founding dean of PHBS (Peking University HSBC Business School), Prof. Hai Wen has distilled five key components underpinning the innovation and development of academic organizations in his speech on the occasion of the inauguration of Cheng Ze Garden as the new campus of the NSD. He is also the Deputy Director of PKU’s University Affairs Committee and was previously Vice President of PKU.

 

Reflecting on the early days of CCER, the predecessor of the NSD, Prof. Hai says that rigorous academic standards are of the foremost importance for an academic institution. Of the CCER’s first cohort of ten graduate and two doctorate students, one graduate and one doctorate student failed to obtain their degrees, a shocking result at a time when graduation was taken for granted in other universities. Moreover, CCER was the first in China to adopt a tenure system for its teachers, thereby keeping pressures on them to maintain high academic and teaching standards.

 

The second linchpin is top-notch administrative services. At CCER, administrative staff were tasked to support pedagogy and academic research and were required to have high efficiency and positive attitudes, even down to such details as the tone and language for answering phone calls. Prof. Hai recalls that what drew Prof. Lu Feng, now a well-respected scholar in macroeconomics and trade, to join CCER in 1995 was none other than the warm and professional responses from the administrative team. Prof. Hai says that like CCER and the NSD, PHBS also prides itself on first-class administrative services.

 

Another lynchpin that sets CCER and the NSD apart is democratic decision-making procedures, with the professoriate at the core. Each and every teacher will have their application for promotion voted and commented by all professors; all important strategies and policies must be discussed at the professoriate.

 

Given that CCER is not merely a research institute but also an educational institution, it highly values equal communication between teachers and students. Prof. Hai recalls how this helped solve a thorny issue related to a degree diploma and how teachers and students used to sweep and scrub Lang Run Garden (the old campus of the NSD) together, a well-cherished tradition that he hopes will carry on in Cheng Ze Garden.

 

One more lynchpin that makes Prof. Hai proud is CCER’s track record in innovation. It was China’s first academic organization founded by a group of economists who had all been studying abroad. The introduction of important foreign textbooks, another trailblazing undertaking, has had profound impacts on the development of economics in China. The teaching mode was innovative, too, requiring new students to build a solid foundation in macroeconomics, microeconomics, and quantitative economics, the fruition of which can be seen in the academic achievement of CCER graduates. Also new for China at the time as the launch of double-degree programs, initiated by Prof. Yi Gang (currently Governor of the PBOC), which have gone on to be adopted countrywide. Other groundbreaking initiatives include the establishment of China Economics Annual Conference in 2001 and endowed professorship.