Cultivating Innovative Talents in Higher Education

蔣姣榮 王少陽

【Abstract】This paper presents the topic of higher education， massification of higher education in China， development of higher educations decisive role on Chinas great-leap-forward development， educational reform to foster innovative talents， all of these research and conclusions shed light on why and how to conduct educational reform in China.

【Key words】educational reform; innovative education

【作者簡介】蔣姣榮（1988-），湖南邵東人，英國南安普頓大學市場管理專業碩士研究生，湖南工業大學，菲律賓亞當森大學教育哲學博士生;王少陽（1988-），安徽蒙城人，現就職湖南工業大學招生與就業指導處，湖南工業大學藝術碩士（MFA），菲律賓亞當森大學教育哲學博士生。

【基金項目】2016年度湖南省教育廳科學研究項目，《創新驅動發展戰略下湖南高校文化創意產業人才培養研究》;項目主持人：王少陽;立項單位：湖南省教育廳;項目編號：16C0493。

Ⅰ. Introduction

Chinas celebration of 70th anniversaries of National Day parade has successfully demonstrated Chinas strength to the whole world; Huaweis founder， Ren Zhengfei has repeatedly spoken in public that Chinas future lies in its educational development， he said， in which teachers incomes and treatment should be improved so that top talents are willing to be teachers and let those top talents foster better talents to become men of tremendous promise. These two mentioned draw attentions to topics of China rise and educational reform.

Chinese government has set the strategy of “Revitalizing the Nation Trough Science and Education”， obviously， the whole country of China has elevated education to a strategic level.

Ⅱ. Massification of higher education in China

China is a big country in higher education， the number of college students and postgraduate students is about 7 million every year， and the number of postgraduate students is about 800，000， which predominantly occupies the largest number in the whole world （Niu etc. 2019）. With massification of higher education in China， a larger number of students could have opportunities to be recruited by university， the number and size of universities have a quick and enormous increase （Gao， 2018）. However， educational quality does not necessarily increase with the number of students enrolled， it can be said that massification of higher education reduces the quality of schooling.

Ⅲ. The key to realizing great-leap-forward development in China lies in innovative education

According to Ikenberry （2008）， the rise of China has attracted the worlds attention in recent years with its extraordinary economic growth， active diplomacy， massive foreign reserves and rapid and powerful military， which it was said will “reshape the rules and institutions of international system to better serve its interests” and would be a growing security threat， which it was called “China-rise-threat theory”.

Especially in the past two years， the Sino-US trade war has been escalating， the United States has taken various ways and means to defeat and destroy Chinas economy. In April 2018 ZTE was sanctioned by the United States and in May 2019 Huawei suffered “cutting off supply” from USA， which makes China deeply realize that it is easy to get “stuck” if not mastering core technology and this will threaten both the survival of enterprises and national economic security.

In business American scholar Clayton M. Christensen first proposed the concept of “disruptive innovation” which means an innovation that creates a new network or a new market that can eventually disturb or displace the existing one. Also， in some areas and domains， China still has， which called “neck-jamming” technologies， such as chips， sensors， high-end materials and equipment， system software and special software， which highlights a passive situation; Furthermore， Xiao （2019） stressed the importance that “grasping the disruptive technological innovation is to get a head start ”and “conquering the ‘neck-jamming technologies is to make up the shortcomings”， the two complement each other and promote each other so as to drive and support Chinas technological innovation and development.

In a word， the establishment of creative country need cultivate a great many creative talents.

Ⅳ. Educational reform of cultivating innovative talents

In order to change this present situation， an educational reform is needed， it is necessary to change the current assessment criteria for teacher from a focus on academic publications to the quality of teaching; Students attitude towards study should be changed by raising the standard to graduation and adopting rule of “easy entry， hard exit” rather than “easy entry， easy exit”. Also， government should give more budget and funding for education especially for those poor regions， and vocational institutions should be developed accordingly （Gao， 2018）.

Zhu Chongshi， president of Xiamen University， pointed out that the universitys contribution to society is mainly realized through the cultivation of talents， especially the responsibility for those research universities is to cultivate innovative talents （Zhu， 2011）.

Zhu Qingshi， former president of University of Science and Technology of China and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhu（2006） said that in the coming years， key to decide whether Chinas economy succeed or fail is can it successfully cultivate a large number of innovative talents; Innovative ability cannot gained by merely taking a class or reading a book， the best way to foster students innovative ability is to let them “comprehend， think， and experience” by themselves， and immerse students in a strong atmosphere of innovation. The worlds top universities are research-oriented universities， through the combination of teaching and scientific research and creating a strong research atmosphere to promote the growth of students innovative quality. In particular， these top universities have many academic masters， students have opportunity to communicate directly with them. The exchanges of knowledge and thinking is good for developing students insight and intuition into science and great thoughts （Zhu， 2006）.

Ⅴ. Conclusions

Chinas educational reform of cultivating innovative talents， grasping disruptive technological innovation and conquering “neck-jamming” technologies， whether these could be successful can directly determine the future of Chinas development.

References：

[1]G. John Ikenberry （2008）， The rise of China and the future of the west. Can the liberal system survive？ Foreign Affairs， http：//www.foreignaffaris.org.

[2]Niu Xiaoyan， Dong Yuchao， Zhang Heli and Yang Yuanyuan （2019）， Research on the cultivation of innovative talents for college students， Education Teaching Forum （China）， July 2019 NO.29.

[3]Xiao Guangling （2019）， Driving Innovation-based Development by Disruptive and “Neck-jamming” Technologies， （C） 1994-2014 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House.

[4]Ying Gao（2018），Massi?cation of Higher Education in China： Problems and Solutions，School of Foreign Languages， Northeast Normal University， Changchun， Peoples Republic of China.

[5]Zhu Chongshi （2011）， The Responsibility of Research Universities： Cultivating innovative talents， China Higher Education， （C） 1994-2011 China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House.

[6]Zhu Qingshi （2006）， How to Cultivate Innovative Ability， copy right 2006-2011 University of Science and Technology of China all rights reserved.