CONSTRUCTING AND INNOVATING RESEARCH-TEACHING
COMMUNITIES DRIVEN BY INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Xiangbiao Liao I *
Dezh Zheng I
Qi Chen I
Ping Li II
Jing Yang I
Minghui Yang I
Ao Zhang I
I School of Interdisciplinary Science,
Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China
✉ liaoxiangbiao@bit.edu.cn, 6120230097@bit.edu.cn, qic@bit.edu.cn, jingyang@bit.edu.cn, yangmh17@bit.edu.cn, ao.zhang@bit.edu.cn
II Beijing Institute of Technology (Zhuhai), Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Zhuhai, China
✉ liping85@bit.edu.cn
* Corresponding author: liaoxiangbiao@bit.edu.cn
JEL Classification: A29
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16876513
Received: 02/07/2025
Accepted: 10/08/2025
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the major challenges
faced by universities both domestically and internationally in cultivating
top-notch talent, primarily characterized by rigid disciplinary barriers and
the weak integration of research and education. To implement the guiding
principles of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China and the National Education Conference, and to
establish a holistic “grand education perspective”
that synergizes education, science and technology, and talent development, to
advance the “scientifically organized talent
cultivation”, the School of Interdisciplinary Science (SIS) at Beijing
Institute of Technology (BIT) is moving
towards establishing a physical Advanced Interdisciplinary Research and
Education Center (AIREC). This initiative aligns with BIT’s
strategy to deepen the “integration of
research and education” and the main approaches involve leveraging first-class interdisciplinary
research teams to build first-class teaching capabilities and utilizing
top-tier interdisciplinary research platforms to shape first-class educational
platforms. It can help foster a virtuous cycle among education, science and
technology, and talent development, and cultivate doctoral graduates with
comprehensive interdisciplinary capabilities. Hereby, these objectives will be
achieved including advancing BIT’s high-quality development of its “Double First-Class” disciplines, providing a solid foundation for
cultivating original leading talents urgently needed for national strategic
priorities, including scientists, entrepreneurs and chief
designers for national defense, as well as incubating and nurturing
globally impactful and original scientific research innovations within China.
Keywords: interdisciplinarity, theory of research-education integration, practice
of research-education synergy, multidisciplinary integrated cultivation,
successive Undergraduate-Postgraduate cultivation
Resumen
Palabras clave: interdisciplinariedad,
teoría de la integración entre investigación y educación, práctica de la
sinergia entre investigación y educación, formación integrada
multidisciplinaria, formación sucesiva de pregrado y posgrado.
Introduction
The Report to the 20th National Congress of the
Communist Party of China instructs “education, science and technology, and
human resources” as foundational and strategic support for comprehensively
building a modern socialist country, explicitly calling for strengthened
interdisciplinary development.1 Against the backdrop of intensifying
global technological competition, strategic contests in emerging domains such
as maritime rights, low-altitude economy, and meteorological preparedness are
becoming increasingly fierce. Traditional single-discipline training models
struggle to meet the demands of complex system innovation.
Research indicates that over 50% of more than 600
major discoveries across multiple fields were contributed by interdisciplinary
talents holding two or more degrees.2 However, China’s doctoral
training cycle is 2.8 years longer than the international leading standard,
resulting in an innovation output density during the prime window period for
innovation (25-35 years old) that is only one-sixth that of the United States.
In this context, structural reform of the top-notch talent cultivation paradigm
has become the central mechanism for breaking through bottlenecks in developing
interdisciplinary talent.
This paper provides a
detailed analysis of the major challenges faced by universities both
domestically and internationally in cultivating top-notch talent, primarily
characterized by rigid disciplinary barriers and the weak integration of
research and education.
Challenges and Practices in Interdisciplinary
Development
Currently,
interdisciplinary programs in higher education institutions are confronted with
three deeply entrenched contradictions.3 Firstly, disciplinary
fragmentation is rigid, and interdisciplinary institutionalization is
insufficient. Traditional disciplinary classifications and the allocation model
of departmental resource hinder cross-disciplinary collaboration. For instance,
an internal survey at a “985 project” university reveals a 34% failure rate for
engineering doctoral students in cross-disciplinary courses, while papers
involving three or more disciplines face a 52% higher rejection rate compared
to papers concerning single-discipline.
Secondly, there exists
a deficiency in the integration of research and education, and a lack of
vertical coherence across different educational levels. For example, on the
national scale, laboratory equipment is seldom utilized in undergraduate
instructional settings, the transformation of research findings into
pedagogical cases remains progressing at a sluggish pace, which contributes to
technological generational gaps; additionally, bachelor’s, master’s, and
doctoral curricula exhibit a fragmented structure, delaying students’ exposure
to cutting-edge research topics until an average age of over 26.
To tackle these
bottlenecks, global universities are implementing pioneering solutions through
organizational restructuring and institutional innovation.
(i) International
Frontiers: Hybrid Models and Successive Undergraduate-Postgraduate Cultivation
Programs
Universities
in America implement synergistic physical platforms and virtual organizations.
MIT’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences employs a “hybrid
physical-virtual model”: leveraging AI and quantum computing as traction, it
establishes physical laboratory operating independently of traditional
departmental structure (e.g. the Center for Quantum Engineering) while building
cross-institutional virtual research networks, attracting companies like
Microsoft and Google to co-develop courses.4 Although this model has
yielded breakthroughs like quantum chips and cryptography, it demonstrates a
notable “limitation in sufficient pedagogical transformation”, characterized by
the limited integration of research findings into educational curricula and
teaching resources.
European
universities promote successive integrated experiments. “Doctoral Factory”
program at Delft University of Technology allows qualified Master’s students to
join 4-year doctoral programs, carrying out industry-university collaborative
projects (e.g. collaboratively conducting drone airworthiness certification
with Airbus) through labs like the “Intelligent Transport Systems Laboratory”,
which reduces the training duration by 1.5 years. Imperial College London has
launched a “Cross-Disciplinary Seed Funding”, subsidizing young scholars to
form interdisciplinary teams. “Climate and AI” project of the college has
incubated a carbon emission prediction model that has been adopted by the
European Environment Agency.
(ii) Domestic Practices:
Institutional Innovation and Reconstruction of Platform
In institutional
innovation, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) established a “Fundamental and Frontier Interdisciplinary Course Center”,
directly managed by the Vice President, with 33% external faculty (including
academicians and overseas professors), developing 28 Problem-Based Learning
(PBL) courses.5 Its hallmark is a dual-module design of “0→1 basic
research + 1→0 engineering translation”, exemplified by its “Metamaterial
Physical Modeling” course feeding back the domestic stealth material R&D.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) implemented a talent recruitment plan,
that is, “Directly Contract Principal”. Its Zhangjiang
Institute for Advanced Study recruited 74 leading scientists in three years,
forming platforms like the “Research Center for Mathematical Foundations of
AI”, promoting significant and groundbreaking research outputs, including the
detection of liquid xenon dark matter.6
In cultivation model
reform, South China University of Technology (SCUT), leveraging its Guangzhou
International Campus, established 10 new engineering schools,7
pioneering the “Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering” interdisciplinary major
and securing China’s first doctoral degree-granting authority in Integrated
Circuit Science and Engineering. Its core breakthrough is the “Enterprise
Mentor Residency System”, where Huawei engineers co-teach courses like “Chip
Design Practice”, with students participating in the tape-out of the Kirin 9010
chip. Dalian University of Technology (DUT) constructed a “Five-Cross” system
integrating specialization and innovation
(cross-discipline/program/college/undergraduate-postgraduate/time-space), which
offers more than 500 interdisciplinary courses. Collaboration between
Mechanical and Chemical Engineering tackled carbon fiber composite processing
and developed 13 sets of high-end equipment effectively, which helps overthrow
foreign monopolies in aerospace composite processing, and advance the
technology to reach international standards.8
For resource
aggregation, Qilu University of Technology (QLUT), leveraging the National
Supercomputing Center in Jinan, created a “Disciplinary Development System
Similar to the pattern of V-Shaped Wild Geese”: a system led by Computer
Science (top 9% in Soft Science ranking), drives AI and Marine Information
Science forward.9 Its distinctive feature is transforming the
“Supercomputing Internet” platform into teaching scenarios, where students
directly participate in building Shandong Province’s government cloud platform,
serving over 1,000 institutions. Chongqing Jiaotong
University established the “Frontier Technology Interdisciplinary Research
Institute”, focusing on strategic scenarios like polar transportation and
air-space integration. Its “Center for Intelligent Construction and Maintenance
of Extreme Environment”, collaborating with Tsinghua University on suspended
tunnel technology, propels traditional transportation disciplines toward the
eco-friendly and intelligent transformation.10
Analysis of Problems in Traditional
Research-Education Models
Under the circumstance
of intensifying global technological competition, industrial upgrading, and
rapid development of strategic emerging fields, systemic flaws in traditional
university disciplinary training models are increasingly prominent. Higher education
institutions worldwide commonly grapple with two deep-seated contradictions:
the institutionalization dilemma in organizational structure and the absence of
successive undergraduate-postgraduate cultivation systems, severely
constraining the cultivation efficacy of high-tech innovation talent.
(i) The
Institutionalization Dilemma in Organizational Structure
This dilemma reflects deep contradictions in
disciplinary governance. China’s long-standing “university-college-department”
hierarchical structure is essentially an institutional legacy of 20th-century
specialization logic.11 This management structure solidifies rigid
disciplinary boundaries through catalog controls, resource allocation
mechanisms, and spatial segregation. However, against the backdrop of quick
development of interdisciplinary science and technology, the traditional
management system results in insufficient institutionalization of
interdisciplinary research entities, leaving them in a state of “institutional
suspension”, which means that the traditional pattern is unable to breach
traditional departmental resource barriers and cannot gain independent
institutional identity.12
The underlying mechanism involves three tensions:
·
Power Allocation: University-level interdisciplinary
platforms lack independent hiring authority and financial autonomy, rendering
them perpetually dependent on traditional disciplinary units, which further
results in power and autonomy deficits.
·
Institutional Design: rigid disciplinary catalog
systems can brute force the categorization of knowledge production into static
classifications, constrain frontier technology development and erect high
barriers among interdisciplinary fields.
·
Spatial Organization: physical segregation and
disciplinary territorialism continuously reinforce the psychological boundaries
of academic communities.
These structural contradictions reduce
interdisciplinary platforms to resource coordination intermediaries rather than
innovation actors, their operational efficiency persistently eroded by the
difficulties of effective cross-departmental coordination, ultimately leading
to systemic decay in knowledge integration capacity.
(ii) The Absence of
Successive Undergraduate-Postgraduate Integrated Cultivation
This absence exposes
the paradigm lag in the current education system. Traditional segmented
cultivation, based on Taylorism management philosophy,13
mechanically decomposes knowledge transmission into discrete units through the
linear separation of undergraduate liberal education and postgraduate
specialization. However, this segmented design fundamentally conflicts with the
non-linear knowledge construction required for interdisciplinary innovation,14
manifesting in three fractures:
·
Vertical Coherence: Structural redundancy between
undergraduate and postgraduate curricula cause inefficiency.
Students are forced to repeat foundational content during advanced studies,
which doesn’t quite match with the critical period for capability leaps.
·
Horizontal Integration: Disciplinary-bound credit
recognition standards and course modules create institutional barriers to
transference of interdisciplinary knowledge, which distracts students from
their study.
·
Temporal Sequencing: Delayed exposure to frontier
topics leads to premature cognitive rigidity, hindering the development of
cognitive flexibility that is essential for interdisciplinary innovation.
A deeper contradiction
lies in the single-discipline dependence of the academic guidance system. The
combination of single-supervisor mentorship and discipline-bound evaluation
criteria gets the development of interdisciplinary thinking into an institutional
dilemma. When interdisciplinary research breaches established paradigms, its
innovative value is often misjudged by traditional quality standards. This
cognitive conflict creates persistent blockages in teaching, degree conferral,
and the recognition of research findings.
The combined effect of
these two problems constitutes a systemic predicament for frontier
interdisciplinary education. Insufficient institutionalization directly
constrains resource integration, hindering the implementation of foundational
conditions like cross-disciplinary course development and shared experimental
platforms. Concurrently, the fracture in successive undergraduate-postgraduate
integrated cultivation impedes innovative talent cultivation, preventing
synergy between talent development and research innovation, thereby weakening
the sustainable development capacity of interdisciplinary platforms.
The institutional root
lies in a dual logic conflict within disciplinary governance: Traditional
disciplinary systems maintain knowledge production order through catalogs,
structures, and evaluations designed for specialization, while the new paradigm
represented by interdisciplinary research demands the dissolution of
interdisciplinary boundaries and the establishment of problem-oriented,
networked collaboration. This conflict manifests operationally as power
struggles concerning the allocation of resources—traditional disciplinary
clusters often leverage performance accounting and spatial strategies to
safeguard established interests, whereas interdisciplinary platforms remain
occupying a peripheral position within academic power structures due to a lack
of institutional grounding. To address this issue effectively, it is important
to fundamentally reconstruct disciplinary governance paradigm by establishing
flexible organizational structure and implementing a coherent paradigm of
talent cultivation. This represents not only an inevitable adaptation to
evolving modes of knowledge production but also a crucial institutional
innovation for fostering innovation-driven talent.
Theoretical Innovation in Research-Education
Integration Driven by Interdisciplinarity
Concerning
the “disconnection between virtual and real” and the insufficiency of
institutionalization (i.e. separation of teaching and research resources) in
traditional schools, the core of theoretical innovation lies in reconstructing
teaching organizations based on physical research platforms, so as to realize
“platform as classroom, project as course”.
Its breakthrough points manifest in three aspects:
1. Institutionalized
Organizational Mechanisms: Unlike traditional schools that struggle with the
dichotomy between laboratory/project work and teaching system, integrated
physical platforms can effectively unify these elements. For instance, Xi’an Jiaotong
University’s (XJTU) Aerospace Propulsion and Intelligent Manufacturing Platform
employs a “dual-chief-commander + dual-chief-engineer” model that fosters the
collaboration between university and industry. Experts from the Sixth Academy
of Aerospace Science & Technology co-lead with professors in university,
facilitating instruction within the “real combat environment” of project
development. With dedicated R&D bases, testing facilities, and mentorship
teams, students engage directly in five national major projects (e.g. aerospace
propulsion), illustrating the principle that “where the mission is, the
classroom is”.15
2. Deepened
Resource Integration: Physical
Platforms Break down “Four-Chain Integration” Barriers:
·
Education Chain: There is the credit reciprocity
between Undergraduate/Postgraduate (UG/PG) courses and research projects.
·
Industry Chain: Enterprises provide real-world
projects and funding (e.g. Guizhou’s Industry Mentor Program driving >¥10
million in collaborative funding).16
·
Innovation Chain: The outcomes of platform are integrated back into teaching
practice (e.g. Beihang University has developed 480
teaching cases based on its aerospace project repository).
·
Talent Chain: “Academician-Industry Mentor-University
Mentor” echelon has been established (e.g. dual-mentor groups at Beihang University led by 19 academicians).
3. Immersive
Learning Scenarios: Reshaping learning paradigms through “learning by doing”.
For instance, Beihang University’s Astronautics
Research Institute repurposes engineering sites (satellite design, remote
sensing instrument development) into dynamic teaching environments. Students
can complete four-tiered project modules (“Explore→Advance→Challenge→Innovate”),
effectively mastering interdisciplinary knowledge by dealing with authentic,
real-world problems.17
The
Table 1 shows the comparison of
traditional schools versus integrated platforms of Research-Education, que
constituted as one conceptual innovation, named Institutionalized Research
Platforms as Carriers.
|
Dimension |
Traditional
School Model |
Research-Education
Platform Model |
|
Teaching Entity |
Sole University Faculty |
Dual University-Industry
Mentors (Academician + Engineer) |
|
Course Carrier |
Fixed Textbooks/Experiment Kits |
Major Engineering Projects
(e.g. Lunar Exploration Program) |
|
Resource Support |
Simulated Laboratories |
National Key Labs/Leading
Industry Enterprises |
|
Competency Certification |
Credits + Exam Scores |
Project Contribution +
Patent/Paper Output |
Table 1. Comparison of Traditional Schools vs. Integrated
Platforms of Research-Education
Source: own
elaboration
Mechanism Innovation: Project-Driven
Multidisciplinary Integration of Successive
(i) The
Institutionalization Dilemma in Organizational Structure Undergraduate-Postgraduate
Cultivation
To
address the issues of “segmented stages” and “disciplinary barriers” (i.e.
absence of coherent integration), the primary innovation involves defining the
curriculum system based on project requirements, and this approach reconstructs
the traditional sequence of “discipline→student→course”
into a reverse design logic of “project→competency→course”:
1. Reconstruction
of Interdisciplinary Curriculum:
·
Needs-Driven Course Generation: for instance, the
School of Future Aerospace Technology at Beihang
University has divided spacecraft development into 30 secondary technical areas
(including material mechanics, intelligent control, space physics). This
structure allows students to shape modular courses tailored to specific project
needs.
·
Dynamic Adjustment Mechanism: AI knowledge graphs
(e.g. Beihang University’s “Xiao Hang” platform) analyze project competency gaps in real time and
dynamically recommend courses to eliminate irrelevant coursework.17
2. Successive
UG-PG Capability Progression: Designing “research competency ladders” to break
segmentation of education levels:
·
Vertical Integration: Beijing Jiaotong
University’s Jeme TienYow
Honors College implements a “3+5” UG-PhD system: three years of foundational
instruction in mathematics and physics, followed by five years of customized
research in specific area (e.g. aerospace equipment R&D). The program
features tiered course difficulty with offering “Space Propulsion Technology”
available at UG Intro/MSc Advanced/PhD Frontier levels).
·
Horizontal Integration: Beijing Jiaotong
University provides access to high-quality courses across various disciplines
(e.g. interdisciplinary “AI + Traditional Discipline” gold courses delivered by
cross-college teams).18
3. Collaboration
of Multidisciplinary Mentorship:
·
Cluster Configuration of Mentors: Each project group
is supported by mentors who encompass the entire technical spectrum. For example, an aerospace vehicle project necessitates
mentors specializing in propulsion, materials, and information science. This
kind of synergy enhances professional innovation capabilities by exposing
students to a variety of perspectives both within and across disciplines; besides, it
overcomes the limitation of compartmentalization of knowledge and intellectual
rigidity related to the single-supervisor model, which can foster a broader
academic vision and promote collaborative innovation.19
·
Integrated Evaluation:
The recognition of research outcomes keeps a balance between academic
innovation and engineering value. For example, Harbin Institute of Technology
requires that doctoral candidates to achieve demonstrate innovative outcomes in
practical applications (e.g. addressing significant engineering challenges and
promoting industrial upgrades), which are validated by technical assessment
reports recognized by enterprises or the specific industry.20
The Table 2 shows the multidisciplinary
support in Project-Driven Curriculum, taking aerospace equipment R&D as an
example.
|
Requirements of Project |
Supporting Disciplines |
Core Course Modules |
|
Lightweight Structural Design |
Materials Science / Mech. Eng. |
Composite Materials /
Structural Optimization |
|
High-Precision Orbit Control |
Control Science / Celestial
Mech. |
Space Navigation / Nonlinear
Control |
|
Reliability Verif.
of Extreme Env. |
Physics / Electrical Eng. |
Space Env. Simulation / Fault
Diagnosis |
Table 2. Multidisciplinary support in Project-Driven
Curriculum in aerospace Equipment R&D
Source: own
elaboration
(ii) Practical Efficacy
and Universal Value of Theoretical Innovation
This
dual-dimensional innovation has demonstrated significant efficacy:
1. Platforms
Enhance Talent Competitiveness: graduates from XJTU platform actively
participated in 5 national major projects, winning 2 national science/tech
awards; students from Beihang University secured 69
awards in provincial and ministerial-level innovation competitions.5
2. Project-Driven
Efficiency: Jinan Changqing University Town
Experimental School implemented “vertically integrated STEM courses”, boasting
a 40% increasing in student’s innovation practice abilities; Guizhou’s Industry
Mentor System facilitated the co-development of 329 new products.6
This theory provides a
replicable methodology to overcome the “virtual-real disconnect” and
“integration gap” by anchoring resource integration through physical platforms
and reconstructing curricula along project lines, ultimately achieving an
integrated “Education-Science-Talent” virtuous cycle.
Practical Pathways for Research-Education Synergy
Driven by Interdisciplinarity
To implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th
Central Committee and the National Education Conference, and to establish holistic “grand education perspective”, advance scientifically organized talent
cultivation, and execute BIT's strategy for deepening research-education
integration, BIT’s School of Interdisciplinary Science (SIS) plans to
collaborate with Zhuhai Campus, XUTELI School, Jinggong
College, Graduate School, and Academic Affairs Office to establish the physical
AIREC. AIREC integrates research, pedagogy, education, teaching, and talent
development, promoting a research-driven approach that empowers and integrates
into educational practice, thereby enhancing the quality of autonomous talent
cultivation comprehensively. Guided by the aforementioned theory, this section
details BIT's pioneering practices: the establishment of AIREC and the
development of a vertically integrated UG-PG curriculum system.
(i) Advanced
Interdisciplinary Research and Education Center (AIREC)
AIREC leverages major
national platforms like the State Key Laboratory of Environment Characteristics
and Effects for Near-Space, the Complex Environment Sensing Center, the
Low-Altitude Technology Innovation Institute, and major projects like “Blue
Eye”. It focuses on emerging strategic domains (e.g. marine, meteorological)
and interdisciplinary clusters centered on information disciplines, initially
setting research directions in Aerospace Information, Smart Energy, and
Low-Altitude Technology. Top undergraduates will be selected annually from the Jinggong College to form AIREC pilot classes for vertically
integrated UG-PG-PhD cultivation.
Cultivation Model: A
“2+1+4” seven-year UG-PhD integrated program. Students complete UG coursework
during the first two years and initiate integrated coursework in the third
year. Upon fulfilling the UG credit requirements by the end of the third year,
they earn their bachelor’s degree and complete remaining PhD coursework in the
next four years. Mentors progressively engage with students’ cultivation that
starts in the first year (e.g. course guidance/research training), and assume
full responsibility for research supervision from the third year onward.
Curriculum Reform:
Leveraging Zhuhai Campus’s role as an international “bridgehead” and the
advantages of the Greater Bay Area, AIREC adopts a flexible approach to hiring
international faculty (“Bring In”), integrates AI-empowered online
international courses with offline assessments (“Virtualize”), and facilitates
student placements in partner enterprises/universities for practical and public
elective courses (“Send Out”). This strategy overcomes resource constraints and
helps build an internationally co-developed curriculum system, comprising
high-quality general and foundational courses, frontier-tech-empowered
core/interdisciplinary courses, and problem-oriented research-industry-practice
courses, so that a model of “AI + International Faculty Co-Guiding” can be
achieved.
Innovation Practice:
Guided by practical courses, theses, and innovation competitions, AIREC
establishes collaborative learning environment grounded in research projects.
It refines mechanisms that connect projects/competitions to courses and
credits, allocates specialized funds and innovation spaces, encourages
cross-disciplinary teams, and cultivates innovation, practical, and
problem-solving skills through real-world challenges.
Platform Construction:
AIREC aggregates a multidisciplinary team of mentors (including dedicated
technicians, national talents, strategic scientists). Utilizing National Key
Labs, it builds a three-tier platform: Interdisciplinary Teaching Practice
Center, Research-Industry Innovation Center, and Top Innovation Lab. This
platform supports researches focused on verification (60%), innovation (30%),
and creation (10%) of talent cultivation, which safeguards the innovative
practice and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. An interdisciplinary
research-education system based on AI LLM-based facilitates autonomous learning
and cultivates comprehensive interdisciplinary capabilities.
International
Exchange: AIREC has established a comprehensive and high-support international
exchange system aimed at cultivating globally competitive talent. By shaping
partnerships with universities and leveraging mentor recommendations, it
establishes collaborations for summer and winter courses or projects, semester
exchanges and visits, and dual degrees programs with higher educational
institutions in Hong Kong and Macao. With the support of specialized funds
students can participate in international conferences.
(ii) Integrated UG-PG
Curriculum System
Taking the
“Cultivation Plan for Communication Engineering Major” and “2024 Academic
Postgraduate Cultivation Plan (Science and Engineering) for Information and
Communication Engineering (full-time)” as examples, AIREC designs a vertically
integrated curriculum (See Table 3).
|
Course Category |
Min. Grad. Req. |
|||
|
Credits |
Hours |
Credit Ratio |
||
|
General Education |
Required |
66 |
1348 |
41.3% |
|
Elective |
9 |
176 |
5.6% |
|
|
Foundation Courses |
Required |
64 |
1296 |
40.0% |
|
Restricted Elect. |
6 |
192 |
3.8% |
|
|
Core Module Courses |
Required |
5 |
80 |
3.1% |
|
University Electives |
Elective |
10 |
160 |
6.3% |
|
Sum |
160 |
3252 |
100% |
|
Table 3. Communication Engineering Credit Structure
Source: own
elaboration
Based on this
structure, the integrated curriculum is designed based on General Education,
Foundational, Core, and Elective courses:
1. General
Education Courses.
·
Building Premium MOOC Repository: Discipline-leading
professors select high-quality courses from platforms like Tsinghua’s XuetangX,
Peking University’s Chinese MOOCs, and SJTU’s CNMOOC to build a repository of
required general education MOOCs for knowledge expansion. MOOC learning serves
as a crucial assessment component, offering flexible, high-quality options and
promoting inter-university resource sharing.
·
Example: majors of Communication Engineering taking
“Engineering Mathematical Analysis I/II” can supplement their studies with
relevant MOOCs from the repository.
·
Inter-University Course Sharing: Strategic agreements
with nearby universities (e.g. Zhuhai Campus of Beijing Normal University, Sun
Yat-sen University) enable offline enrollment in high-quality general electives
(e.g. humanities courses) within the Greater Bay Area.
2. Professional
Foundational, Core, and Elective Courses:
·
Recruit Renowned Faculty: BIT adopts flexible
recruitment strategy encompassing full-time/part-time/short-term positions for
distinguished domestic/international faculty members (e.g. HKU, UM, NUS, NTU)
to teach courses, thereby gradually replacing portions of existing programs. Example:
the course “Circuit & Analog Electronics-B” (taught by renowned expert)
will be offered for pilot class students (with availability extended to others
if capacity allows).
·
“Virtual Classrooms” and Online International Courses:
Introduce top-tier online courses (e.g. Harvard, MIT) to replace
core/interdisciplinary courses, creating blended models. Students learn via
virtual classes with support from teaching assistants for tutorials/discussions.
Example: majors of Communication Engineering can take Harvard’s online “Intro
to AI” for credits.
·
Successive UG-PG Integrated Courses: Develop “Advanced
Edition” courses by integrating UG/PG content. High-performing UG
juniors/seniors can master PG-level knowledge early; and PG students can
consolidate/broaden expertise. Flexible credits transference/course
substitution policies enable coherent study. Example: Merging UG “Intro to
Radar Systems” and PG “(Eng) Intro to Radar Systems” into an “Advanced Radar
Systems” course (modular: Basic/Advanced/Research) for UG students who enroll
in the academic system lasting for 7 years.
·
TOEFL/IELTS as a substitution of PG English Course: To
enhance the PG English reform, students who achieve a score TOEFL ≥90 or IELTS
≥6.5 (all bands ≥6.0) within the first year can be exempted from PG English
courses.
3. Professional
Internships and Industry-Education Practice:
·
Professional Internships: The “Greater Bay Area Elite
Enterprise Internship Program” facilitates credit-bearing internships for top
students at partner organizations (e.g. Huawei, Tencent, DJI, BYD). Students
can engage in real-world projects, which helps integrate theoretical knowledge
with practical application.
·
Industry-Education/Research-Education Practice:
Partner enterprises/platforms decompose real complex problems/projects into
challenging sub-tasks, which are offered as required core courses. Student teams (2-5 members, cross-disciplinary
encouraged) tackle one sub-task per semester under the guidance of enterprise
mentor. A final defense conducted by panels from
enterprise/academic assesses innovation/feasibility/value. Outstanding teams
may receive honorary certificates and their plans or solutions may be adopted.
4. Interdisciplinary
AI LLM Research-Education System: To strengthen AI research/talent cultivation,
AIREC will carry out internship activities in the “Interdisciplinary Large
Language Model Boot Camp” focusing on:
·
Knowledge Foundation: Intensive training on LLM
theory/frontiers.
·
Hands-On Training: Full-cycle practice (data prep,
training, evaluation) using latest LLMs.
·
Domain-Specific Research: Building vertical-domain
LLMs for key interdisciplinary challenges.
·
Integrated Cultivation: Linking AI tech with
innovation competitions/early research, supported by mentor teams/resources.
AIREC will forge
first-class teaching capabilities through the establishment of first-class
research teams and the creation of first-class educational platforms sponsored
by first-class research infrastructure. This initiative fosters the virtuous
cycle of Education-Science-Talent. AIREC aims to set a benchmark for
cultivating high-level, interdisciplinary, and innovative talent, cultivating
cohorts of exceptional, comprehensively interdisciplinary PhD graduates who can
gain the doctoral degree at the age of 25. The center strives for national
teaching achievement awards, supports BIT’s “Double First-Class” construction,
provides foundational support for nurturing strategic leaders (including
scientists, entrepreneurs, chief
designers for national defense), and promotes the incubation of
world-class, China-rooted, original research innovations.
Conclusions
To propel research to lead, empower and integrate into
education, thereby comprehensively elevating the quality of autonomous talent
cultivation, Advanced
Interdisciplinary Research and Education Center AIREC is committed to cultivating first-class teaching
capabilities through forming first-class interdisciplinary research teams and
building first-class educational platforms through first-class
interdisciplinary research infrastructure.
This fosters a virtuous cycle among education, science
and technology, and talent, by which top-tier and comprehensively
interdisciplinary 25-year-old PhD graduates emerge. AIREC will support BIT’s
high-quality “Double First-Class” development, provide foundational support for
nurturing original pioneering talents in nationally strategic directions
(scientists, entrepreneurs, chief designers for national defense), and incubate
and cultivate world-class, China-rooted and original research innovations.
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Conflict of interests:
The authors declare
that they have no conflicts of interest.
Authorship contribution:
·
Xiangbiao Liao: Conceptualization, Writing- original draft, Research,
Writing - review & editing.
·
Dezhi Zheng: Conceptualization, Writing- original
draft, Research, Writing - review & editing.
·
Qi Chen: Conceptualization, Research, Writing- original draft, Writing -
review & editing.
·
Ping Li: Conceptualization, Research, Formal
Analysis.
·
Jing Yang: Writing - review & editing.
·
Minghui Yang: Formal Analysis.
·
Ao Zhang: Writing - review & editing.