On March 2, CUEB held a conference themed “Study the Spirit of the Party’s 20th National Congress, and Take the Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Construction as a Grip and Implement the Fundamental Task of Fostering Virtues Through Education”. In the conference, we reviewed the achievements, experiences, and practices in the past three years to reform the “Broader Ideological and Political Education” system through curriculum-based ideological and political construction. We also aimed to put forward suggestions for future work as CUEB embarks on a new journey and heads towards a new goal.

The conference was attended by Han Xianzhou, Secretary of the Party Committee, Li Xiaomu, the Vice President, Sun Haozhe, and Yin Zhichao, members of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President. The conference was hosted by Xu Fang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee.

During his speech, Han Xianzhou emphasized that the conference marked the beginning of work in 2023, showing the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress. Moreover, it was a re-learning and restarting of the fundamental task: to foster virtue through education.

Han noted that the conference theme should be fully understood, with comprehensive studying, comprehending and implementing the new requirements of the 20th CPC National Congress. He stressed the importance for educators to study and apply the spirits outlined in the 20th National Congress, and to deepen their understanding of higher education, professional development, and moral education under new circumstances.The conference was an important initiative to implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education. Naturally, CUEB has consistently prioritized the implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s call to “constantly implement the mechanism of fostering virtue through education” and united strength to improve the “Three-Wide Education” system (which means all educational workers strive to foster students in all processes and in all respects). With guidance from Xi’s important speeches on “making good use of revolutionary resources and sustaining revolutionary legacy” and “making good use of the ‘Broader Ideological and Political Education’”, the school has made continuous efforts to improve the new paradigm of “Broader Ideological and Political Education”, which encompasses “ideological and political courses, ideological and political curriculum, and daily ideological and political education”, and then form a synergistic effect through collaboration. Han Xianzhou stressed that this conference shows the effectiveness of the school’s practice in curriculum-based ideological and political construction as there exerts positive influence and further produces spill-over benefits. He stressed that a thorough comprehension of the conference’s theme and significance embodies our political steadfastness, clarity of understanding, and proactive approach to action.Additionally, he emphasized the need to focus on the construction of the “institutions and mechanisms”, the continuous implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and his important discourse on fostering virtue through education. Finally, he called on teachers to play an important role in keeping firmly in mind the principles and putting it into practice.

Han Xianzhou stressed the need to improve the mechanism of “Three-Wide Education”. It is the new mission of high-level education in the new era and the responsibility of educators, which is in line with the pathway of the development of high-level education and the inherent requirements of independent training system for talents in the new era. The establishment of the mechanism is conducive to the synergy effect of each unit and department of the university. By improving the mechanism, the school has achieved sound effects in the increasingly strong atmosphere of education. On the one hand, the building and the design of the mechanism are improved with clear goals and pathways, and the implantation of the mechanism is successful. Teachers have reached a high degree of consensus on the idea of ideological and political education. All units are organized, launched and promoted in an orderly manner, with certain achievements and boosted morale. On the other hand, the ideological and political construction has been better integrated in every course and explored more deeply by every teacher. We integrate design and implementation of curriculum-based and major-based ideological and political construction. Major-Based Ideological and Political Construction Version 1.0 is completed, and actively explore "discipline thinking".

Han Xianzhou emphasized that we need put more efforts into the “Three-Wide Education” system. According to the latest two documents issued by CUEB on major-based ideological and political construction and the improvement of the "Three-Wide Education" system, we need study them thoroughly to enhance our minds, guide our practice and promote our work. All units must strengthen the sense of duty, the main responsible department must pay attention to the implantation with a strong hand, and other departments must take the initiative to fulfill their duties. We should grasp the essence of the discipline-based ideological and political construction with higher capability, building the Major-Based Ideological and Political Version 2.0 through improving the educational competence of our teachers, constantly optimizing the pattern of “ideological and political courses, curriculum-based ideological and political construction, and daily ideological and political education”, forming a synergy effect with the proceeding exploration.

Xu Fang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of CUEB, presides over the report meeting.

The meeting was divided into two parts. The first part reviewed and summarized the vivid practice of the fundamental task of fostering virtues through education from the perspectives of university, schools, departments, party branches, teachers, and other levels in the past three years.

First of all, the "Three-Wide Education" feature film showed the history of education of the school over the past three years and the promising changes produced by integrating the ideological and political work into the educational system.

In the exchange and sharing part, with a themed speech of "Holding tight on curriculum-based ideological and political construction and advance the mechanism of Three-Wide Education of the new era", Fu Lin, the Administrative Vice Minister of the Party Committee Publicity Department, shared the sound practice of the school proceeding the construction of ideological and political education and the "Three-Wide Education" system in the past three years. With a themed speech of “Advancing major-based ideological and political construction to create a new pattern of high-quality education", Liu Qiang, Director of the Academic Affairs Office, summarized the achievements and further explained the essence of major-based ideological and political construction, and mapped out the future work.

Liu Xuexin, Dean of the College of Business Administration shared the “characteristic exploration of major-based ideological and political construction” of their school, introduced the designing ideas of the construction of the school and the objectives of different majors as a whole, and shared the specific practices and effectiveness of major-based ideological and political construction with the major of business administration (corporate finance) as an example. Li Xue, Party Branch Secretary of Department of Finance, School of Finance, introduced the theoretical research, educational practice and the combination of Party building and virtue-fostering of their Party branch on major-based ideological and political construction and curriculum-based ideological and political education with the speech themed “Being rooted in major and based in curriculum”. Feng Xiliang, Deputy Party Secretary of the School of Labor Economics, introduced the new ideas and explorations of their school on passing the revolutionary spirit with the characteristic of the new era, infusing activeness to long-built major and the service to the capital with the speech themed “Adhering the idea of common prosperity in education, advancing labor science with Chinese characteristics”.

In the demonstration section, the representatives winning the 2nd Curriculum-based ideological and Political Teaching Competition and the teacher team of the Overseas Chinese College shared their own insights and gains of curriculum-based ideological and political construction.

“I feel more responsibility on myself. And I am not merely a knowledge disseminator. I’ll strive to become a better-qualified teacher to shape students’ character, conduct, and taste.” In the presentation, Chen Lei, teacher from the School of Law, and Li Xiaoman, teacher from the School of Labor Economics, demonstrated some parts of their competition, and shared their thinking and gains in practicing the ideological and political education by reviewing their experience of the competition and summarizing their own changes.

“ ‘57, 47, 37, 27’, a series numbers ended with ‘7’ hint at the persistence and inheritance of our teachers from the old, the middle-aged generations to the young generations.” This comes from the teachers from the Overseas Chinese College, our first teaching unit to carry out curriculum-based ideological and political construction. 

With the theme of “conducting curriculum-based ideological and political construction with great vitality”, the teacher team of the Overseas Chinese College showed their active discussion and mutual inspiration in the 2nd Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Teaching Competition, and showed the great passion of the old, middle-aged and young educators in promoting the construction through competition and improving the education level.

At the second part of the conference, we made a comprehensive arrangement in a bid to learn and implement the spirit of the Party’s 20th National Congress, further improve curriculum-based ideological and political construction, and upgrade the mechanism of “Three-Wide Education”.

On behalf of the Party Committee of CUEB, Xu Fang made a detailed illustration of the Opinions on Further Implementing the Fundamental Task of Fostering Virtue Through Education and Upgrading the Mechanism of “Three-Wide Education” issued at the end of 2022. All departments were required to implement the Opinions in accordance with their own condition, clarify teachers’ responsibility, to keep it into their mind. 

At the meeting, the opening ceremony of the Digital School of Marxism Studies was held. A short film introduced the achievements in the first phase of the construction of the Digital School of Marxism Studies. As one of the first member units of the “Digital School of Marxism Studies” alliance of national colleges and universities, the School of Marxism Studies of CUEB has spent nearly two years to build the “interactive sharing platform of Digital School of Marxism Studies teaching resources”, becoming an important institute to conduct curriculum-based ideological and political construction.

Xu Fang and Li Xiaomu jointly launch the Digital School of Marxism Studies sharing platform.

Cadres at the level of deputy director, secretaries of the Teachers’ Party Branch, teacher representatives, and all counselors attended the conference.