On March 26, the School of Business Administration held an external expert reviewing meeting on the professional training programme in conference rooms 304 and 307 north of Wenquan buliding. Professor Qi Shaozhou, Professor Li Yanping, and Professor Wangtao from Wuhan University, Professor Wang Zongjun from Huazhong University of Science and Technolog, Professor Li Chongguang from Huazhong Agricultural University were invited to be evaluation experts, and professor Li Zhisheng, Assistant to the President and Head of Academic Affairs Department of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, relevant leaders of the College, heads of departments and reporters of training programmes attended the opening ceremony and review meeting. The meeting was held by the Professor Qian Xuefeng, Dean of School of Business Administration.
On the opening ceremony, Professional Li Zhisheng expressed warm welcome and thanks to all experts present at the review. To start with, he introduced the development process of the “Deep Integration Program of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law” and achievements made thereby over the recent 20 years. Meanwhile, Professor Li provided an overview of measures taken by the university to boost subject construction and talent development against the backdrop of “new liberal arts”, “big data era” and “internationalization”. While recognizing the important role of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in the university’s talent development, Professor Li hoped that all experts present could contribute their precious suggestions to the amendment of programs of the School of Business Administration.
At the end of the opening ceremony, the review was organized in two meeting rooms by two major subjects, Applied Economics and Business Administration, synchronously.
First of all, the review invited representatives of different majors to elaborate on their program amendment from the perspective of development objectives, graduation requirements, course arrangement and credit structure. Following the introduction, external experts gave their comments on the amendment, mainly pointing out existing shortages and providing suggestions for improvements. First the logic of program curriculum system settings and the connection of curriculum presentation stages are calling for further strengthening, which should further highlight the characteristics of different majors. Second, the program objective description should ensure its consistency with the standards of the university, college and major, do a good job in correlating itself and distinguishing with and from relevant majors, and understand the correlation matrix between the curriculum system and graduation requirements. Third, attention should be paid to differences between international accreditation and program amendment as well as differences between undergraduate and master-PhD programs. Particularly, some relevant majors should be integrated with the platform curriculum and create their own characteristics based on the university’s competitive subjects in economics, law, and administration.
The head of the supervisory team of each postgraduate program introduced the concept and characteristics of the cultivation program of each major from the aspects of cultivation objectives, research and innovation ability, cultivation methods, curriculum setting, graduation requirements, etc. The external experts made the following suggestions: firstly, the master’s degree training programme needs to be clearly academically oriented and reflect a research orientation; secondly, the professional literature needs to be further updated to keep up with the forefront of the discipline; thirdly, some curriculum setting lacks scientific justification; fourthly, doctoral courses can be prefaced for students who are engaged in both master and doctoral studies and direct doctoral studies. At the same time, the experts pointed out that, unlike undergraduate teaching which is based on course teaching, the cultivation of postgraduate students needs to be diversified, and the role of supervisors as the first responsible person in postgraduate training must be given full play, with emphasis on academic ability training and strict adherence to academic ethics in order to cultivate qualified postgraduate talents.