Party Secretary Chen Xin Had an Interview with Southern Daily: to energize the university of science and engineering via the deep integration with industry

After five years being in the ‘Guangdong High-level University Construction Plan’, Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT) has achieved an impressive record. Its tagline, "growing together with the rise of Guangdong and making contributions to the development of Guangdong", is becoming more and more convincing.

Recently, Chen Xin, Party Secretary of GDUT, accepted an exclusive interview by Southern Daily and South + reporters and revealed the wonderful story of the university's leap-forward development.

After 25 years of association with GDUT and 10 years as its President and Party Secretary, Chen, as the ‘steering wheel’ in the construction of GDUT into a high-level university, said, ‘The achievements of Guangdong High-level University Construction Plan are beginning to emerge, but this is an arduous and prolonged battle. Only by continuing to push forward, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can function well for gathering talents, encouraging innovations, and be a mighty force in the future international competition.’

Southern Daily, South +: As one of the first 7 high-level key construction universities, what are the major changes in GDUT in the past 5 years?

Chen Xin: Compared with 5 years ago, GDUT has taken on a new look in spirit, and has strengthened its competency:

It enters the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2020 for the first time and ranks 42th among universities in mainland China. In the USNews2020 Best Global Universities (Engineering), it ranks 268th in the world and 45th in China.

15 majors have passed the national professional certification/evaluation, which ranks the first in Guangdong province. Member of the academician team has achieved the breakthrough of zero and the number of national high-level talents has exceeded 100, an increase of 183% over 2015. In addition, the quality of discipline has risen to higher level, and five disciplines rank among the top 1% of ESI.

Southern Daily, South +: Regarding to the 2019 National Science and Technology Awards, announced earlier this year, GDUT has achieved the best performance ever.

Chen Xin: As the first unit, we won two Second-class prizes of the National Science and Technology Award in 2019, which is a manifestation of the leap-forward development of the research competence of GDUT since the construction of a high-level university.

In 2019, the State Key Laboratory of Precision Electronic Manufacturing Technology and Equipment jointly built by Province and Ministry was approved, which filled the blank of state key laboratory of GDUT.

Southern Daily, South +: At this very moment, we are very interested in the answer to this question: Have you realized the aspiration you had 10 years ago when you came back to GDUT as the President?

Chen Xin: The goals set 10 years ago have been basically completed. My commitment to teachers and students has also been fulfilled. I am generally satisfied with myself. Of course, there are also things too late to be done, or not perfectly done. However, I am very glad that with the development of university, the confidence of both teachers and students in GDUT has also been significantly improved. Therefore, I would say that my aspiration has been essentially realized.

Due to the influence of epidemic, this semester is coming to an end. And I really want to cheer the students up: GDUT is a university full of the future. When dealing with challenges, students must be confident, try their best to make their dreams come true and meanwhile, contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream - the great rejuvenation of the nation.