About

The Overall Development Plan of Hubei University during the 13^th Five-Year Period (2016-2020)

(Simplified Version)

According to the Recommendations for the 13^th Five-Year Plan for the Economic and Social Development issued by the China’s central government and Hubei provincial authorities respectively, and in line with the general goal, basic tasks and requirements proclaimed in the Outline of Medium and Long-term Educational Reform and Developmentat the national and Hubei Provincial levels, The Overall Development Plan of Hubei University during the 13^th Five-Year Period (2016-2020) is made in order to attain the strategic development goal of the second stage in accordance with the “Three-Step” development strategy so that Hubei University will be pushed ahead with steady, scientific and innovative pace in the next five years.

1. Achievements and Aspirations

Thanks to the concerns and support from Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Hubei Provincial Government and the strong support and active participation from alumni and people from all walks of life, Hubei University (hereinafter referred to as “the University”) has achieved remarkable success and accomplished major development tasks during the 12^th Five-Year Plan period with joint efforts by all the teaching staff and students, so more solid foundations have been laid and favourable conditions have been created for future development in the following fields during the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, such as bigger construction space for the university campus, swifter improvement of university teaching and researching sources, expansion of university students enrolment scale, the optimization of discipline structure, and what’s more, there is a significant boosting effect of the quality-oriented education and teaching reforms and other related reform programs, the consolidation of supporting and secure conditions, and the shaping of pioneering university spirit and campus culture.

However, there still exist some problems and difficulties in the University’s development. First, the progress is a bit far from satisfactory due to the underestimate of the state of development, and towards the situation of the medium and long-term competition. Second, there lacks powerful promotion to some reform projects or sustained in-depth advancement to some important reform visions out of temporary difficulties. Third, major opportunities have been taken insufficiently and room has been left for the integration and utilization of high-level platforms; some high-level projects and platforms need adequate maintenance and development. Fourth, the effect of discipline development is not remarkable, resulted in the failure to shape prominent, steady competitive advantages and development features, and in the modest improvement in terms of overall level. Fifth, the deficient strategic expectation in the scale and structural adjustment of teaching staff, in addition to the shortage of high-calibre talents, does not well live up to the University’s general development goal. Sixth, the competitive advantage in scientific research is rather limited and the number of key and major scientific research projects is fairly small; national scientific research platform construction has not yet made breakthrough. Seventh, there lacks capacity of fund-raising for university-management, and the existing resources potential and performance has not been fully activated; the budgetary structure requires improvement and there is an urgent need for the increase of educational provision.

2. Opportunities and Challenges

It is imperative for us to understand new situations, to seize new opportunities, to set new goals and to fulfil new missions for the design of the macro strategy in the University’s development during the 13^th Five-Year Plan period.

The University’s development is facing new tasks with the entry into the decisive period to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and to realize the strategic goals of national and Hubei Provincial Outline of Medium and Long-term Educational Development. The University’s orientation of development and realization of goals is confronted with new challenges as the nation’s higher education framework has been dramatically transformed and the existing strength pattern of universities has been basically formed. The University’s management is facing new challenges and requirements as the Chinese educational administration reform is deepened with the education governance by law, university-management by regulations and information transparency. The University’s advancement is confronted with missions in the new era as the 13^th Five-Year Plan is guided by innovation, coordination, green, opening-up and sharing development concepts, and significant urgent issues are presented for the building of an innovative country. With the help of integration with modern information technologies and cooperation with enterprises, Hubei University’s governance capacity is expected to be promoted to a higher level so that we can enhance the university-management level and university graduates cultivation quality, and live up to the expectations from people including teachers and students in particular.

Facing new development climate and strategic opportunity, we shall well learn from the past experiences and lessons, bearing in mind the University’s motto “renew wisdom by daily reflection; refine action with lofty ambition”. Meanwhile, we will carry forward the “Perseverance of XikanSpirit” with determined aspiration for self-improvement, and forge ahead for the scientific plan and painstaking implementation of the sustainable strategic plan for development during the 13^th Five-Year period and all prospective undertakings.

3. Development Principles and Goals

3.1 Cardinal Development Principles

We will spare no efforts to turn Hubei University into one of the Top 100 Universities in China. Specifically, we must adhere to the following principles by holding high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, by following the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development and by putting into practice thoroughly the guiding principles from General Secretary Xi Jinping’s major policy addresses, and from the third, the fourth, and the fifth plenary sessions of the 18^th CPC Central Committee. Also, we will implement the educational policy from the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as “the Party”) and adhere to the socialist orientation for managing universities in a comprehensive way to strengthen the University’s management and governance by law and by modern administration structure framing to enhance the capacity and quality of university-management. Hence based on the program of “Universities Co-sponsored by Hubei Province and Ministry of Education” and driven by the “Double First-rate”[1] Project and the thought of development through transformation, we must take moral value establishment and talents cultivation as the fundamental task centring on quality improvement, oriented towards academic forefront, strategic demand and regional development powered by deepening the comprehensive reform.

3.2 Development Strategies

We will pay close attention to the development trend in higher education worldwide and keep pace with China’s higher education reform; we will face up to the status quo of the University, aiming towards the goal of “Qualities Education Promotion, Academic Ranking Elevation, Top 100 University Seat”, and will stick to the strategy of reinforcing the University through talents, invigorating the University through science, developing the University through service, and vitalizing the University through openness. We will also keep to strategic force, adhere to the idea of development by deepening reform to build up development momentum, by assembling talents to establish solid development foundation, by innovating models to enrich development connotation, by highlighting features to create development advantages, by opening up and integrating to broaden development pathways, and by serving the society to create a brand-promoting development concept. We will secure innovation in the steady development and paint a favourable landscape for the University’s sound development.

3.3 Development Theme

We will build a high-level leading university in China with wide social recognition, huge contribution and popular satisfaction from both the teaching staff and students. We will bring up generations of students who enjoy a solid expertise foundation, who unite ambition with action and who are willing to take responsibilities. We will shape teaching staff ready to strive relentlessly, overcome obstacles and advance bravely, and dedicate themselves to their missions.

3.4 Development Goals

It is our goal to build a high-level teaching-based and research-oriented university with distinctive characteristics, scientific management, notable contribution, full maturity and high efficiency and sustainable development. By the end of 13^th Five-Year Plan period, we will have achieved the objectives of producing superior, more socially influential and internationalized students, pushing some key indexes into the Top 100 Universities in China, and forging ahead into the Top 100 Universities in terms of overall strength in university-management and performance in order to lay a solid foundation to make the University a high quality one with a larger influence upon the world and a major contribution to China at the centenary of the founding of the University.

3.5 Strategic Vision

Orientation: A high-level leading comprehensive university

Programs: The University administration will focus on the four-year undergraduate programs, expand the postgraduate programs and the international students’ education programs gradually, and reform the in-service education mechanism innovatively.

Scale: The number of registered students on campus will total 30,000, including 20,000 full-time four-year undergraduates, 6,000 master and doctoral candidates, 1,000 international students and 3,000 students at other education levels.

Vision: Based in Hubei Province, we will make contribution to national and local development in a globalized context.

4. Major Missions

4.1 Improve Talents Cultivation Quality

We are committed to every student’s versatile and personalized development with the belief that “each student can live beyond himself and achieve self-realization”, and with more explicit talent-fostering orientation that “each student should be well-rounded, solidly-based, innovative, enterprising, ambitious and practical, responsible, law-abiding, reasonable, grateful and dedicated”.

4.2 Promote the Teaching Staff-building

Aiming at the staff’s overall structure optimization and quality improvement, we will equip the University with sufficient key personnel to adapt to its development objective by introducing, nurturing and collecting a batch of high-level minds to build a team of administrative officials who are capable, experienced, efficient, resourceful, ambitious and who have strong awareness for service, great ability in service and high level of service.

4.3 Enhance Discipline and Subject Level

Targeting at the development of top and high-level disciplines and distinctive majors, we will implement classified discipline and major development plans and explore the development system and mechanism of discipline groups and majors; we will also make dynamic adjustment toward disciplines and majors to further optimize their structure and proportion. Furthermore, we will highlight the characteristics of disciplines and majors to create their comparative advantage and promote the connection between major groups and transformation of manufacturing chain to develop much-needed talents for modern industry.

4.4 Boost Ability in Scientific Innovation and Social Services

Rooted in fundamental research and oriented to application and technology research and social service, we will boost our ability in scientific innovation and social services to a significantly higher standard; we will also increase constantly the impact of our think tank’s achievement and contribution to make a breakthrough in national research platforms. Meanwhile, we will integrate ourselves with national, Hubei provincial and Wuhan municipal strategic planning programs and accelerate the applicable transformation of scientific and technological achievements to make ourselves part of the economic and social development, and to increase service innovation-driven development capacity by undertaking major projects and by making significant achievements.

4.5 Make More Efforts in Opening-up and Cooperation

We will enhance the level and standard of international cooperation in university-management, expand the scale of teachers’ academic visits, advanced studies and student exchanges, achieve leap development in international students’ education, and make much more progress in international collaborative research. We will also deepen profound domestic cooperation with local governments, enterprises, and other universities for a strong and sustained relationship. Moreover, we will establish outstanding alumni-sponsored enterprises and industry pool to open up new areas for the University’s educational and social services.

4.6 Boost University Culture and Spirit

Bearing in mind the University’s motto to “renew wisdom by daily reflection; refine action with lofty ambition” and with the core “HUBU Spirit”[2]of “determined aspiration for self-improvement to forge ahead”, we will shape the unique university cultures of environment, institution, behaviour, academia by strengthening the cultivation of the university spirit, teaching ethics, academic atmosphere, work style to drive the University’s educational development led by cultural soft power. We will also strive for more distinctive cultural activities, more consolidated cultural position, more diversified cultural carriers, more comprehensive cultural platform, successively-emerging cultural brands and thus remarkably-growing cultural influence.

4.7 Improve University-management Security System

We will develop our campus creatively for more scientific and perfect function and layout in the main campus and branch campuses with more beautiful and optimal environment as well as more highlighted educational function. We will facilitate the improvement of public service system and infrastructure including stadiums, gyms and logistics for the supply and service at a higher level. We will make greater efforts to allocate library document resources, digital resources and database resources for a significant progress in “Smart Campus” building with not only the informatization of education and administration but also integration and innovation of education and teaching at a prominent higher level. Additionally, we will improve the financial security and support for managing the University through the acquisition of university-management resources via all possible means.

4.8 Advance the “Happy HUBU” Project

We will deepen the reform administrative system, operation mechanism, personnel and distribution system, logistics management and operation system to carry out the implementation of Charter of Hubei University in order to reinforce the University’s governance by law and democratic administration. We will also improve the housing and healthcare system and enhance the management level of primary and secondary schools affiliated to the University. Furthermore, we will establish the safeguard mechanism for teaching staff’s income growth synchronized with the advancement of the University to raise their happiness index.

5. Key Projects

During the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, Hubei University will focus on the following seven key projects: the Talent Cultivation Quality Improvement Project, the Talent Pool Accumulation Project, the First-rate Disciplines Development Project, the Scientific Research Enhancement Project, the International Cooperation Expansion Project, the Smart Campus Construction Project, and the University Culture Nurture Project.

5.1 The Talent Cultivation Quality Improvement Project

Holding the belief that “let every student continuously surpass himself and realize his self-value”, we will place talents cultivation at the core of the University’s development, aiming to improve the comprehensive quality of both undergraduates and postgraduates, broaden their international perspective, strengthen their ability in scientific research and innovation and arouse their entrepreneurial awareness. We will deepen the undergraduate programme teaching reform to bring our undergraduate education to the top level in China; we will advance the reform of postgraduate programme cultivation system to build a “Six Excels” postgraduate education system which will excel in the level of mentoring, the quality of enrolment, the process of cultivation, the ability of innovation, the quality of employment and the capacity of social service. With a specialty-free recruitment system, we will carry out a dynamic adjustment of professions with an early warning system, work on the development of brand courses, establish an honour system for teachers concerning their teaching proficiency and try to develop and bring out National Teaching Awards. We will adopt cooperative education mode to improve students’ innovative and entrepreneurial competence and guarantee the undergraduate education quality. Also, we will develop professional degree education programme and work on the improvement of its quality.

By the end of the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, we will have added 2-3 pilot projects of comprehensive reform of specialties at national level, 10 model specialties of comprehensive reform at provincial level, 10 undergraduate programmes under the “Strategic (Pillar) Industry Talents Cultivation Programme” and 5 programmes of international cooperation at undergraduate level or above. We will have added 2-4 and 15-20 excellent MOOCs at national level and at provincial level respectively; for academic degree postgraduate programme, we will have built 2 more pilot projects of curriculum development under the programme of Ministry of Education and publish 3-5 more national planning teaching materials. Moreover, we will have added 2 pilot programmes under the national “Top-quality Cultivation Programme”, 10 programmes under the Hubei provincial “Cooperative Cultivation Programme of Jingchu Talents”[3]. We will have built 2 more demonstration centres for experimental teaching and virtual experimental teaching at national level, 3-5 more centres at provincial level, establish 2 more off-campus practicing bases at national level, 10 more internship training bases and 10 more workstations for postgraduates at provincial level. Besides, the employment rate of undergraduates and postgraduates will have amounted to no less than 92% and 90% respectively. We will have won 15 more Teaching Achievement Awards at national and provincial levels and will have produced 5-8 more Excellent Doctoral Dissertations; we will also have added 300 Training Programs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at national and provincial levels and will have obtained 1,000 awards for scientific innovation and competitions at provincial level or above.

5.2 The Talents Pool Accumulation Project

We will adhere to the initiative of strengthening university with talents and highlight the core role of talents in the development of the University, aiming at a moderate expansion of teaching staff and a great leap in their teaching proficiency to break the bottleneck of talents shortage. We will build a talent resources pool in which the “Yangtze River Scholars” distinguished professors, the national “A Thousand Talents Programme” scholars and the “Ten Thousand Talents Programme” scholars take the lead; the laureates of National Science Foundation for Distinguished (Outstanding) Young Scholars, the National Prominent Teachers and Accomplished Teachers act as the pioneer; the candidates of Hubei “A Hundred Talents Programme” and “ChutianScholars Programme”[4]play as the backbone and the outstanding young teachers in the University function as the body. As a result, the pool will help to nurture leading talents and support the work of young talents and innovative groups; it will also help to attract and recruit talents and carry out international cooperation and communication programmes.

By the end of the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, we should strive to build a teaching staff of 1,700 members among which the proportion of teachers with senior title and doctoral degree will have amounted to over 70% and the proportion of teachers with overseas research experience will have amounted to 60%. There will have been 30 top talents at national level such as the “Yangtze River Scholars” distinguished professors and the laureates of National Science Foundation for Distinguished (Outstanding) Young Scholars while the number of top talents at provincial level such as the candidates of Hubei “A Hundred Talents Programme” and “Chutian Scholars Programme” will have amounted to 150. In addition, we will strive to add 2-3 national innovation groups, 2-3 National Prominent Teachers, 3-5 provincial innovation groups, and over 10 Provincial Prominent Teachers.

5.3 The First-rate Disciplines Development Project

To ride the tide of national “Double First-Rate” Construction Program, we will highlight the leading role of discipline in the University’s development. We will carry out the project of first-rate discipline development to further optimize the discipline structure, deepen the cross-disciplinary integration and make salient improvement in disciplinary innovation. We will launch the programmes for discipline groups to optimize degree structure and to advance discipline development classification, aiming to develop 2-3 internationally famous first-rate disciplines, 2-3 nationally famous first-rate disciplines, 7-10 nationally influential disciplines and 15 comparatively influential disciplines which stand out in the related fields. We will strongly support the development of engineering and applied liberal arts with their own characteristics to better serve Hubei in its striving for the goal of “to be one of the first to step into a moderately prosperous society, to be among the top in its comprehensive competitiveness in China and to lay a solid foundation for the next centenary goal.”

We will strive to improve the comprehensive ESI ranking of the University to be among the top 100 universities in China and promote 2-3 disciplines with their ESI ranking among the top 1% in the world, 2-3 disciplines with their CDR ranking among the top 30% or the top 20 in China, 7-10 disciplines with their CDR ranking among the top 50% or top 30 in China. Our first-level disciplines for doctoral degree granting will reach 10 and first-level disciplines for master degree granting and professional degree (in engineering) granting will reach 50.

5.4 The Scientific Research Enhancement Project

We will attach great importance to scientific research and bring to full play its supportive role to the cultivation of top talents, the development of top disciplines and the advancement in terms of overall strength of the University. Guided by the principles of “innovation driven by focusing on the conversion of scientific research achievements and tracing of sources for the development of the University”, we will work on a series of programmes and projects: nurturing key and major programmes, building high-level research platforms, promoting the ability of winning national awards, leading in landmark achievements, cultivating scientific talents and innovation groups, deepening the integration of production, teaching and research, building new-model think tanks. Eventually, we aim to achieve a breakthrough in national key and major programmes, produce high-level landmark achievements and win prominent national awards. Our comprehensive scientific research strength is expected to be in the forefront among provincial-administrated universities in China and some research fields are expected to be nationally leading and globally famous.

By the end of 13^th Five-Year Plan period, our total scientific research funding will reach RMB¥ 0.8-1.0 billion (approximately USD$ 118.0-147.5 million) with over 2,000 vertical and crosswise scientific research projects. We will have established 1-2 more research bases or think tanks of humanities and social sciences of Ministry of Education to make a breakthrough in national platforms of science and technology. We also aim to introduce 7 more national and provincial key laboratories and research bases of humanities and social sciences, 4 more national and provincial engineering research centres. We will strive to win 1-2 National Science and Technology Prizes with the University as the hosts of the projects and 3 Prizes with the university as the participants; we also strive to win 3-5 social sciences awards issued by the Ministry of Education, 5 first prizes of science and technology and 15-25 social science awards at ministerial or provincial level. We aim to publish no less than 2,900 SCI and EI papers with 30 or more highly cited papers; we will also strive to publish original papers in top academic publications in the world such as Science or Nature or in top academic publications widely accepted in relevant fields. It is expected that our patents will surpass 1,500 and our applied technology and achievements in intelligent design transformation will rank top among universities in Hubei province. We will strive for a breakthrough in National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (excluding introduced talents) with 6 more laureates of National Science Foundation for Outstanding Young Scholars.

5.5 The International Cooperation Expansion Project

In line with the effective, efficient and mutual-beneficial principle, we will deepen the international cooperation to promote internationalization of university-management and openness to the world, thus enhance the University’s fame and influence worldwide. To achieve that, we will carry out a series of programmes such as development of students’ and teachers’ competence for internationalization, “International Students in HUBU” programme, brand popularization of Confucius Institutes, and international cooperation in science and technology. We will advance in the depth and width of international communication and maintain a high-level international cooperation in talent cultivation. We will make prominent progress in scientific research and greatly enhance the level of international cooperation in university-management with the expansion of scale and level in international education.

By the end of the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, the number of the international students in Hubei University will amount to 1,000 and the overseas exchange students to study abroad will amount to 1,200. We will set up a stable academic cooperation with 30 world Top 500 universities based on substantial programmes and projects, build 2-3 cooperative research platforms, establish 1-2 union colleges, initiate 1-2 majors with international accreditation and 5-10 cooperative international projects in science and technology. Annually, we will select 50 teachers to conduct academic visits in high-level universities worldwide for a year or above, invite 50 distinguished scholars from the world Top 500 universities as the visiting professors and another 50 international experts. We will hold 10 or more high-level international or cross-strait conferences centring on discipline development and scientific research. We will also work for 20 granted talents-introducing projects. The students attending Confucius Institutes (classes) will amount to over 5,000.

5.6 The Smart Campus Construction Project

To advance the thorough integration of modern information technology with higher education, we aim to build a learner-friendly smart campus featuring smart service, smart administration and smart teaching context so that the campus network and the public service infrastructure will be continuously improved. We will focus on the improvement of the application service, building up application and teaching resources to create an information environment based on the cloud service featuring digitalized resources, integrated application and intelligent dissemination. We will push forward the thorough integration of information technology with teaching and research to enhance teachers’ and students’ knowhow in informationalizaiton. We will carry out the development programme for “one-stop” virtual office, mobile information service platform, smart cloud and big data platform to build a highly integrated, personalized, and modern informationalizaiton system suitable for the University.

By the end of the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, we will have improved the information infrastructure and optimized network architecture to guarantee a stable network service with a whole-campus coverage wireless network. We will have provided information resource services such as cloud computing, cloud storage and bandwidth. We will have established and perfect the individual cloud space service system and set up a “one-stop” virtual office. In addition, we will have established an evaluation and decision platform based on big data, as well as a cloud-based teaching environment and a digitalized learning resource base. We will also set up a unified “MOOCs teaching centre” for the University, design digitalized intercollegiate exchange courses, improve the copyright management of teaching resources and facilitate the transformation of the most advanced scientific research achievements into excellent teaching resources.

5.7 The University Culture Nurture Project

Adhering to the cultivation and practicing of core socialist values, we will carry on with the University’s fine tradition and promote its spirit distilled in the motto “renew wisdom by daily reflection; refine action with lofty ambition”. Aiming at a fine university spirit with good teaching and learning atmosphere and a leading role in talents cultivation, academic development and social services, we will focus on the shaping of cultural carrier, cultural brand, cultural achievements and campus cultural environment to accelerate the University’s culture shaping and to promote the University’s cultural soft power in a comprehensive way. Besides, we will carry out a series of programmes for a leading “HUBU Spirit”, optimization of institutional culture, booming of academic culture, fine environmental culture, construction of culture base, nurturing of culture brand so as to create strong campus culture atmosphere, unique campus culture taste, cultural products with characteristics of the times, culture carriers with our own features and culture brands which can embody the University’s spirit. Finally we will cultivate healthy, elegant and unique spiritual culture, institutional culture, behavioural culture, academic culture and environmental culture.

By the end of the 13^th Five-Year Plan period, we aim to shape campus culture with characteristics of the University. Specifically, we will hold 100 influential cultural activities and win 30 provincial or above relevant awards; we will develop 100 cultural groups with 10-20 of them influential inside and outside Hubei province, create 10 cultural brands with provincial or national fame; we will also open 20 culture-related courses, publish 5 or more nationally influential cultural works. We will make greater progress in the shaping of a fine university spirit, especially the “HUBU Spirit”; we will boost the cultural awareness, cultural confidence and cultural self-reliance of teachers and students; we will give culture a more prominent role in cultivation of talents and development of the University. Consequently, cultural attainments of teachers and students will be greatly improved and cultural soft power of the University will be significantly enhanced.

6. Supporting Measures

To guarantee the smooth implementation of the Overall Development Plan of Hubei University during the 13^th Five-Year Period, the University administration will adopt scientific and sustainable measures in cooperative and effective manner so that the corresponding projects and programmes will be conducted and the development goals will be realized.

6.1 Activate the Catalytic Role of Party Building and Ideological Orientation

In accordance with CPC Hubei Provincial Committee’s Suggestions on How to Enhance the Party Leadership in Universities, we should establish the president responsibility system under the leadership of the Party committee of the University, improve and strengthen grass-root Party building, give full play to the cohesiveness of Party members among teachers and students. We should set up and perfect the key body responsibility system of improving the Party conduct and building a clean government in higher institutions to guarantee the advancement of Party members’ ideology and work style among teachers and students. We should advance the projects on Party building to forge Party building brand with considerable national or provincial influence which will facilitate talents cultivation, scientific research, social service and cultural inheritance and innovation.

We should strengthen morality education, improving the effectiveness of ideological orientation and political education among teaching staff and students. Guided by the development and research of Marxist Theoretical Discipline with versatile activities in ideological orientation and political education among teachers and students, we should persevere in the cultivation and practicing of core socialist value among teachers and students in all fields and at all times to arouse and enhance sense of commitment from teachers and sense of social responsibility from students.

6.2 Activate the Executive Force of Party Officials

Abiding by the Party’s policies toward the officials, we should strengthen Party discipline and carry out strict managements toward officials to build a clean and efficient team of diligent officials with firm belief and strong commitment. In accordance with the requirement that leaders must be “resourceful, decisive, capable, motivated, farsighted professional and good at administration” etc., we must attach great importance to their knowledge structure, their experience in leadership and work, and the compatibility of their temperaments to organize the whole leading body and to optimize their structure and function. We will push forward the “Young Officials Development Project”, build a normalized sound system in the selection, cultivation and appointment of outstanding young officials. Their achievements and their competence in the administration of different positions and relevant experiences of practice will be the yardstick in their selection. We will optimize the assessment system of middle-level officials, evaluating their performance on the post based on “objective facts” rather than “subjective judgement”. In addition, we will emphasize the result of assessment so that it will be a yardstick as well as an impetus to their future performance.

6.3 Activate the Guiding and Problem-solving Force of Comprehensive Reform

To achieve the strategic goal, we should persist in carrying forward the “pilot project of comprehensive reform” under the “Two Cities, Two Universities” Project[5]of Hubei province, following a problem-shooting, effective, open and fair principle. In addition to the relevant aspects in the plans of talents cultivation, discipline development, scientific and technological innovation and service, we will also focus on the following three aspects:

---- Establish an advanced modern university system and optimize the mode and pattern of university administration. Based on the institutional reform, we will keep harmonious relationships between the University and the government as well as other social sectors. We will also coordinate the right-and-responsibility relationship between the Party committee and the administration body, between the Party committee, the administration body and the academic committee, between the University and the schools to build a scientific and democratic modern university system. We will also improve the University’s administration, regulate and balance all rights and duties, emphasize democratic supervision and participation to build a modern and democratic administration system under the leadership of the Party committee with the president as the responsibility body and the professors as the main force of scholarship. We will ensure that the system is coordinated and orderly with a focus and a clear distribution of duties and responsibilities. We will carry forward the implementation of Charter of Hubei University to guarantee a scientific and effective standard administration system.

---- Deepen and optimize the personnel management and the income distribution system. Following the principles of the national public institutions official management and income distribution system reform, we will deepen the reform of multi-tiered employment system for teaching posts, managerial posts, as well as diversified income distribution system to give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of the teaching staff in university-management. With due emphasis on efficiency, we will motivate them with incentives and ensure that their talents will be fully invigorated with the principle that better performance will be better paid.

---- Push forward the reform of financial system. We will make full use of the university-management expenditure and the stock of resources to improve the operation efficiency. We will regulate the macro budget system and strengthen budget management and the performance evaluation system. The financial resources of the University and the schools will be divided according to the appropriate ratio of administration power and fiscal power. Following the fiscal regulations of the University, we will give more power to the schools with their own financial management and fortify their right in financial management.

6.4 Activate the Macro Policy’s Impetus for the Development

With the platform of “Universities Co-sponsored by Hubei Province and the Ministry of Education”, we will manage to win the support of favourable policies from the Ministry of Education on the following projects: the comprehensive educational reform, establishment of experimental zones and training bases for talents cultivation, building of off-campus practicing and training bases, expansion on postgraduate enrolment, high-level talents programmes, research bases of humanities and sciences, key laboratories and engineering research centres.

Riding the tide of “Two Cities, Two Universities” Comprehensive Reform Pilot Project in Hubei province, we will strive to win the support of favourable policies from Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Hubei Provincial Government on the autonomy in university-management, the reform of students admission system, reform of talents cultivation system, reform of scientific research management and evaluation system, reform of administration system and operation system.

With the present disciplinary and academic advantages, we will facilitate the communication and cooperation with local governments; upgrade the cooperation between the University and enterprises, between the University and local governments, trying to win more financial support from local governments on talents cultivation and scientific researches.

6.5 Activate the Coordinative and Catalytic Role of the Main Body in University Management

Facing the present challenging situation of Chinese higher education reform, we will comply with the principle of enhancing our high-challenging disciplines and maintaining the less-challenging disciplines, some optimal adaptations should be made on the disciplinary configuration, specialty distribution and intra-school structure for better efficiency and outcomes. The administrative conception of “Big or small, best is all” is outdated and should be abandoned; we will ensure that each discipline programmes or specialty programmes should have a clear discipline orientation and strategic focus so as to bring its strengths and advantages to full play.

Given the increasing “popularization” of higher education, various demands of reform and need for the University to play its part, we must have an overall planning and a considerate examination on the present campus in terms of their functions and connection. We plan to have a 4-campus layout with Wuchang campus as the core functional campus while the other campus serve for specific functions of vocational education, undergraduate education reform, innovation and startup practice. We will coordinate the relationship between the main function of university-management and the subordinate functions such as joint or affiliated modes. We will gradually regulate, control, eliminate or separate from those subsidiary forms of university-management which are inconsistent with the main function and which might impede the advancement of the University.

6.6 Activate the Supporting Force of Resource Allocation by Raising Fund and Revitalizing Assets

Based on a thorough analysis of the University’s financial income and expenditure, we will increase income and reduce expenditure to enhance the University’s ability to raise fund and donation. We will take advantage of the new mechanism of fiscal appropriation from the government and strive to obtain more specially-designated government subsidy and fund. We will promote the market-oriented standardized operation of Hubei University Education Development Foundation to improve its function in fund-pooling. We aim to realize a 5-8% annual increase rate in university-management expenditure with a step-by-step regulation scheme and an optimized budget plan on university-management expenditure.

We will revitalize and enhance the stock of resources to push forward the market operation of business assets and the conversion of scientific and technological achievements to improve the contribution of business assets for the increase of university-management expenditure. We will set up an appraisal system and a restriction mechanism to evaluate and control the utility of assets and to improve the effectiveness of funds and resources in the development of the University.

6.7 Activate the Safeguarding Role of Mechanisms by Strengthening Implementation and Diagnostic Supervision

We will set up a sound system of leadership organization in the implementation of the Overall Development Plan of Hubei University and the subordinate projects. We will establish a leadership group to push forward the Overall Development Plan from the top and to carry out evaluation in each period. We will set up a coordinate office affiliated to the leading group which will focus on the implementation and execution of the Overall Development Plan.

We will implement a multi-tiered management responsibility system of strategic key tasks to enhance the distribution and coordination of the approved development programs. Chancellors and vice-chancellors of Hubei University will be responsible for the promotion of the first-level priority development projects while directors of relevant departments and divisions will be responsible for the implementation of the second-level key projects. The management responsibilities will be specified to posts which will not be subject to personnel adjustment and they will be run under public supervision. A negative-list of management tasks and liability mechanism will be established in case of a failure in grasping key opportunities or in committing serious errors in the work.

The University Administration will set up a consultancy and supervision experts committee to offer scientific feasibility, evaluation and diagnosis on the socio-economic effects of the university development plans and projects at their initial, medium and terminal phases.

Appendix:

1. The Sub-Plan of Talents Cultivation in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

2. The Sub-Plan of Teaching Staff Development in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

3. The Sub-Plan of Disciplines and Majors Development in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

4. The Sub-Plan of Scientific Research in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

5. The Sub-Plan of Internationalization for University-management in the 13^thFive-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

6. The Sub-Plan of Informatization Development in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

7. The Sub-Plan of Campus Culture Nurture in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

8. The Sub-Plan of Campus Construction in the 13^th Five-Year Overall Plan of Hubei University

Original Editor: Guilin GAO

Translators: Qi SHANG   Wenbo SHAN    Qi LYU    Shudan DENG

Reviewers: Yuangang YANG    Qi LYU

Proof-reader: Qi LYU