【November 9, 2020, Gansu Daily】

On October 29, an academic forum was held at School of Management, particularly for undergraduates. 10 students, after the strict review and evaluation, got the opportunities to deliver their reports on stage and face up to the questions from the panel.

To host undergraduate academic forum is a new thing for the School, but it is not new when talking about its tradition of their participation in the scientific research. By the end of 2019, totally 972 projects out of 1,628 ones have gained the financial support from the School, involving 8,319 undergraduates. That fully demonstrates the reason for those national awards won by these students.

The “Success Plan”, a 14-year practice for the purpose of training undergraduate innovative talents, has attached great importance on the participation into scientific research.

A student is delivering her report on the forum.

I

School of Management was established in 2004. Ever since its first day sailing out, how to keep the first-class undergraduate education in western China has been the primary task faced by it. 

In 2006, after exploring its own education philosophy, process, as well as the approach, the School launched the “Success Plan”, containing three elements as “Eagle Series of Presentations” (hereafter as ESP), “After-class Scientific Innovation Program” (hereafter as ASIP), and “Mentorship Plan” (hereafter as MP), all designed to develop the innovative abilities and comprehensive qualities for students. 

From 2006 to date, there has been more than 170 experts from the research and practice fields home and abroad participating in the ESP, totally delivering more than 200 presentations, regarded as the guidance for undergraduates on the research path.

Prof. Ma Liang from Renmin University of China delivers a presentation online.

The ASIP, launched in 2007 and considered as the approach supplementing the ESP, focuses on the research practice. Undergraduates are encouraged to build a team by themselves based on the choices of research topics issued by the School institutes. Those projects passing the oral defense could be approved and enter into the practice under the guidance of corresponding instructors.

In 2011, the MP was initiated, mainly for absorbing outstanding undergraduates with potential research capabilities into the team led by a postgraduate supervisor. Through the close connection and exchanges with the postgraduates and the doctoral students in the team, the selected undergraduates could be trained in a comprehensive way in their research awareness and innovation capacities. Till now, more than 300 undergraduates have been in this program, and 243 of them choose to stay in LZU to further their postgraduate studies.

In this way, a talent training chain has been formed in the School, knitting together the interest cultivation, motivation stimulation, independent practice, in-depth research and ability formation (thought guidance). 

II

The “Success Plan”, not only underpins the training for research capacities, but also directs the attention of students onto the national development and people’s livelihood through the instruction from their teachers as well as peer groups.    

A word frequency analysis has been conducted by the School towards 995 projects from 2008 to 2019, and has identified140 key words of this kind. Among the key words in field of public administration, the word “Policy” appeared 53 times, and then the words like “Government”, “Rural Areas”, “Poverty Alleviation”, “Resources”, “Governance”, and so on. 

It is easy to conclude that, through the “Success Plan”, undergraduates have been led to be more concerned about social hotspots and livelihood issues during the practice of their scientific research. 

In 2019, Yang Jusheng, the undergraduate from class of 2019, won the nomination prize of the 14th National Undergraduate of the Year. He has participated in several projects including 3 university level projects on entrepreneurship and innovation, 1 project funded by NSSF, 1 project funded by Hui-Chun Chin and Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese Undergraduate Research Endowment, 3 Challenge Cup project, and 1 Internet Plus project. 

When talking about these shining spots in his life as an undergraduate, Yang said, “It is the ‘Success Plan’ that leads me on the way to scientific research. Four-year professional training has not only upgraded by capacities on research, but also give me a window to view the national conditions, people’s life as well as the social development.”

Yang Jusheng, the undergraduate winner for the nomination prize of the 14^th National Undergraduate of the Year.

III

With the progress of the Plan, the School decided to add it into the Talent Cultivation Plan on Undergraduate Level, and set it as a required session for an integrated student training system.  

15 years passed by, more and more students have demonstrated their great potential on scientific research. By then end of 2019, basing on the projects supported by the Plan, undergraduates from School of Management have published 46 papers on domestic and international journals as Journal of Public Management, Chinese Journal of Management, and so on; 126 projects supported by National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, as well as Hui-Chun Chin and Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese Undergraduate Research Endowment; 42 awards in innovation and entrepreneurship competition like Challenge Cup and Internet Plus, including 15 on national level and 27 provincial level. 

As an innovative and effective model for talent training, featuring the integration of full coverage, full support and full process, “Success Plan” has been awarded the first prize teaching achievement both on university and provincial levels in 2013, won the second prized of 2018 National Teaching Achievement Award, and been selected into the first batch of MOE Ideology-related Quality Programs for Higher Education.

Papers collections of “Success Plan”

For this year, 95 projects have been approved. More and more undergraduates are involved in. The “Success Plan” enables them to serve the society and train themselves during the research, and leads them to pursue their dreams with steady steps.