In order to further promote the study of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech spirit on July 1 and the high-quality development of undergraduate ideological and political education program, the Seminar of Studying General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Speech Spirit on July 1 and the 9th Collaborated Construction Seminar on Undergraduate Ideological and Political Education Program in National Key Institutions was held in Chengdu, Sichuan on October 29, 2021. Participants were Chen Xiaohong, Director of the Higher Education Division of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education; Lu Yan, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Harbin University of Science and Technology and Editor-in-Chief of Ideological and Political Education Research; and Shen Huoming, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Southwest Jiaotong University. Experts and scholars from more than 100 colleges and universities across the country discussed the program construction of ideological and political education online and offline based on General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech spirit on July 1. The conference was hosted by the National Joint Conference on Ideological and Political Education Programs in Key Universities, undertaken by the School of Marxism, Southwest Jiaotong University, and co-organized by the editorial office of Ideological and Political Education Research, the editorial office of School Party Building and Ideological Education, and the Sichuan Colleges and Universities Marxist Theoretical Program Education Steering Committee.
Shen Huoming delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the Southwest Jiaotong University. He pointed out that cultivating professional talents in ideological and political education was crucial to the development of ideological and political work, the long-term stability of the country, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. For this seminar, he put forward three expectations: the first was to dig deeper into the historical experience and laws of ideological and political work and talent training; the second was to build a new model for ideological and political work in the new era; the third was to build a community for the construction of the ideological and political education program and promote the connotative development of the ideological and political education program in the new era.
Chen Xiaohong delivered a speech on behalf of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education. Chen Xiaohong said that Southwest Jiaotong University attached great importance to ideological and political work and established a warm, dynamic, and effective ideological and political model of Southwest Jiaotong University, which was a model and an epitome of strengthening and improving ideological and political work in universities in Sichuan. Chen Xiaohong emphasized that this conference was an academic event to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech spirit on July 1 and discuss the reform and innovation of the undergraduate ideological and political education program, hopfully, the conference would make contributions to promoting the high-quality development of the undergraduate ideological and political education program.
After the opening ceremony, Professor Wang Xuejian from the School of Marxism of Lanzhou University and Professor Sun Qi’ang from the School of Marxism of Hohai University respectively reported on The Party’s Educational Policy and Ideological and Political Education in the New Era and Social Responsibilities of Undergraduate Ideological and Political Education Program. Professor Wang Xuejian proposed that the implementing of the Party’s educational policy in the new era should be based on the following aspects: figuring out which spirits should be cultivated and the relationship between cultivation and education; focusing on guiding students to adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as serve the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities; improving the ideological and political education’s ability of serving the people, serving the CPC in governing the country, serving the consolidation and development of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and serving the reform and opening up and socialist modernization. Professor Sun Qi’ang pointed out that for the cultivation of undergraduate ideological and political education program talents, we should attach importance to cultivating the social responsibility, integrate social responsibility into undergraduate ideological and political education program construction contents and missions, and carry out practice related to social responsibility to improve students’ social responsibility.
Afterwards, the seminar was divided into three topics based on the theme and conducted an offline and online discussion, in which 23 experts gave speeches one after another. The first forum was hosted by Zhang Xiaofei, Dean of the School of Marxism at Southwest Petroleum University, and commented by Luo Jia, the executive editor of the editorial office of School Party Building and Ideological Education. Experts focused on the construction and theoretical innovation of the undergraduateideological and political education program, and exchanged ideas on the problems and theoretical innovations of the basic theories of ideological and political education; meanwhile, they focused on educational issues about the ideological and political education program to discuss how to construct a scientific and effective ideological and political education curriculum system. The second forum was hosted by Li Xueyong, Deputy Dean of the School of Marxism, Southwest Jiaotong University and was commented by Fan Xiwen, Deputy Dean of the School of Marxism, Sichuan Normal University. Experts gave speeches around General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech spirit on July 1 and Party building. They believed that the key to studying and implementing the spirit was to apply what has been learned and promote practical innovation in combination with actuality; they also conducted extensive discussions on the construction model of ideological and political education, and talent training and innovation based on the actual characteristics of local universities, research, and analysis. The third forum was hosted by Liu Zhanxiang, Party Secretary of the School of Marxism, Southwest Jiaotong University, and commented by Li Jianhua, Deputy Dean of the School of Marxism, Sichuan University. Experts conducted extensive discussions on issues such as the construction and development of the ideological and political education program, the characteristics of running universities in science and engineering, and the particularity of the ideological and political education program in frontier ethnic areas. In the over 9-hour seminar, the participating experts expressed their opinions and insights around the topic of the speech. The whole conference included both in-depth theoretical explanation and practical exploration in a warm atmosphere. Experts agreed that as an important part of ideological and political work in colleges and universities, the undergraduate ideological and political education program was facing challenges in many aspects. As ideological and political workers, we must be brave enough to face these problems and solve them. With student growth and talent development as its core, we must strive to cultivate talents with responsibility and theoretical literacy, and promote the connotative development of undergraduate ideological and political education program.
At the closing ceremony, Lin Bohai, Dean of the School of Marxism, Southwest Jiaotong University, made a summary of the seminar. He said that the three news and four depths were significant features of this seminar. The three news were the new opinions, new content, new practices and measures of the experts. The four depths were the meeting fully demonstrated the ideas’ height, theoretical depth, emotional temperature and newness of methods. It was a feast of thought and academy. Subsequently, Cai Wencheng, Dean of the School of Marxism of Lanzhou University, on behalf of the next organizer the School of Marxism of Lanzhou University, issued a warm invitation to experts and scholars to participate in the seminar next time. The closing ceremony was presided over by Li Xueyong, Deputy Dean of the School of Marxism.
The seminar received a total of more than 100 papers, from which 29 papers were selected. More than 3,200 people watched the live broadcast online. This seminar is not only an academic seminar for ideological and political education program construction, but also a work exchange and experience sharing conference for program construction practice. The conference has absolutely important theoretical and practical significance for comprehensively promoting the high-quality development of undergraduate ideological and political educational program construction.
