Huitong College is one of the first three colleges established at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai (BNU Zhuhai). Following the guiding principle of “broadening foundation, strengthening integration, embracing individuality and pursuing excellence” for undergraduate education, Huitong College now enrolls undergraduates in experimental classes of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, respectively. It aims to cultivate outstanding and innovative talents with patriotism, profound career aspirations, continuous learning interest and motivation, a solid professional foundation, excellent communication and cooperation ability, leadership skills, a broad international vision, strong social competitiveness, and courage to confront changes and explore extensively.
“Hui-tong,” originates from the book, The Rites of Zhou, which says, an unscheduled meeting with kings in vassal states is called Hui, while a ritual pilgrimage to the emperor is called Tong. Here it means gathering with people from the world and working with the same goal. The College is named “Huitong,” which reflects the talent cultivation vision that inherits history and culture and advocates communication of Chinese and Western cultures while simultaneously integrating ancient and modern knowledge as well as arts and science disciplines.
Professor Guo Aike, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a neuroscientist and biophysicist, serves as the Dean of the College and forms a governing body and a service support team composed of mentors, counselors and head teachers.
The College selects high-level academic teams from different discipline backgrounds or teams of professional teachers to be mentors, providing guidance in students’ life planning and academic study. They also respect students’ individual preference, implement professional education, and encourage their personalized development. Mentors help students to better adapt to university life, establish learning interest and motivation, develop independent thinking abilities, as well as good learning habits and methods. In addition, mentors instruct students to make and carry out personal development plans based on their interests and development needs. They also provide additional development support and effective assistance for students facing academic difficulties so that all-round development of each student can be ensured.
Adhering to the core responsibility of student-centered co-education, Huitong College focuses on the comprehensive competence training of outstanding and innovative talents, strengthens the integration of scientific and humanistic spirit, actively builds up an educational environment that combines curricular and extracurricular activities, and emphasizes personal experience and ability improvement of students. The College will vigorously explore distinctive educational activities, and develop a series of specialized educational programs, including:
Professional Literacy Pilot Project
The Project includes special training sessions to improve students’ philosophical thinking, scientific research, thesis writing, foreign language proficiency, speech delivering, social etiquette, and team cooperation. It also guides students to participate actively and improve their ability effectively through immersion, interaction, and experience. Meanwhile, according to different discipline features in arts and sciences, the Project establishes “reading reports system” and “research group system,” which take a step-by-step approach to improve students’ abilities in literature reading and scientific research planning.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Capacity Improvement Project
By organizing students to visit and study in the research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other influential National Science laboratories, this project leads students to better understand the current trends of disciplines and majors of study. By organizing students’ study trips to major national engineering research and development centers, manufacture sites or red revolutionary destinations, students are guided to promote high ambition and cultivate the spirit of serving the country with innovative talents. Through the cultivation of the scientific research innovation project, research funds are prepaid for excellent academic research innovation design in the way of project approval so as to stimulate students’ continuous interest and motivation in learning, and encourage them to carry out deeper explorations.
Internationalized Vision Extension Project
By selecting and organizing outstanding students to participate in short-term exchange programs in overseas high-level universities, or by inviting overseas high-level experts to the College to hold series of academic salons or short-term courses, the project aims to broaden students’ international vision and enhance their abilities on international exchanges and cooperation.