A two-day training programme on implementing ‘student-centred’ education and support attracted more than 40 staff and senior managers from Jiaxing University to Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
The training was organised by the Institute of Leadership of Education Advanced Development (ILEAD) at XJTLU.
XJTLU’s vice president, Dr Minzhu Yang, shared XJTLU’s practical experiences of implementing student-centred education, emphasising especially the structure and operation of the University’s student affairs system.
Jin Xu, deputy head of the Student Affairs Office at Jiaxing University, said he was impressed by XJTLU’s information systems, such as student portal ICE, which provide services for learning and teaching. He said that XJTLU’s experiences had provided good examples for their own reform.
Head of the Student Affairs Office at Jiaxing University, Yuhong Hu, added: “XJTLU’s student support system is comprehensive. In comparison, ours, which is in progress, lacks overall planning and its efficiency needs to be improved.”
Chi Lu, deputy head of the Student Affairs Office at XJTLU, spoke about the approach and practice of XJTLU’s mental health and development centre.
He said: “XJTLU’s psychological consultation service is targeted at XJTLU students, staff and parents. We take the initiative to understand customer need and provide specialised and targeted consultation.”
Qiuchen Qian from XJTLU’s career team shared information about the University’s career guidance services, focusing on initiatives including the external mentors’ programme.
Deputy party secretary of the College of Humanities and Law at Jiaxing University, Jueliang Bu, was impressed by XJTLU’s external mentors’ programme, saying it “fully used external resources to serve students and this is very worthwhile for us to learn.”
Xiangyang Zhang, party secretary of the College of Mathematics, Physics and Information Engineering at Jiaxing University, added: “XJTLU’s professional service teams have achieved great success and their practical experience is a very good reference for us.”
Deputy director of ILEAD, Dr Xiaojun Zhang, said: “We hope to provide career development guidance to people who work in the field of higher education, improve their leadership, professionalism and lifelong learning abilities.
“We also hope to help to push education reform and innovation for universities who have participated in our training programmes, and help them to set up student-centred education.”