Department of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory

Introduction

1. A Brief Introduction

According to the requirements of On Further Strengthening the Construction of Teachers Staff of the Ideological and Political Theory Course in Colleges and Universities issued by the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Education, Institute of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory of Wuhan Polytechnic University (Institute of Ideological and Political Theory for short) was founded in 2009. The whole staff of the Department is mainly responsible for all teaching and research tasks of the ideological and political theory courses and the construction of provincial key discipline The Study of Sinicization of Marxism and master’s degree program. The Department consists of 1 Teaching and Research Office of Marxist Basic Principle, 1 Teaching and Research Office focusing on Mao Zedong Thought and An Introduction to the System of Theories of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, 1 Teaching and Research Office focusing on Cultivation of Ethic Thought and Basis of Law, 1 Teaching and Research Office focusing on Outline of Chinese Modern History, 1 training center for college students’ emotional intelligence and 1 cultural, ideological and political education institute. The Department has more than 40 teachers including 11 professors, 11 associate professors, 10 doctors and 25 masters. On the basis of this, a high-quality teaching & research team has been initially formed.

In recent years, by adhering to the principle of human-centeredness, all teachers of the university have reformed teaching concepts and modes and explored actively effective means of ideological and political education which are suitable for students of our university. Because of the close combination of teaching and student management, good results have been achieved. Besides, to train qualified builders and reliable successors for the socialist cause and make unremitting contribution to improving the overall strength of our university, Ideological & Political Courses Department continuously strengthens scientific research and trains high-level talents, advances the construction of provincial key discipline The Study of Sinicization of Marxism and master's degree program. Currently, from the new starting point and along theroad to socialism with Chinese characteristics, we have more confidence to create a brighter future. At the same time, with open minds, we sincerely expect persons with outstanding ability and men of insight from every corner of the world to create brilliance with the combined efforts.

2. The Teaching of Ideological and Political Theory

Department of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory undertakes the missions of imparting and studying all the ideological and political theory courses within the whole university. Through imparting systematic Marxist theory and ideological and political education to the college students, the ideological and political theory teaching fully plays an important role as the main channel and main ground in the work of ideological and political education. At present, the Department is equipped with abundant teaching resources including 30 distinctive full-time members. Among them, there are 4 professors, 10 associate professors, 16 lecturers, 6 Doctors (PhD candidates included) and 21 postgraduates.

Department of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory has long been focusing on the ideological and political theory teaching and educational work. And after years’ exploration and promotion, its four ideological and political theory courses designed for college students are rated as provincial excellent courses, and the result of the students’ teaching assessments is inspiringly excellent, which is nearly 95 scores on average. In Addition, An Introduction to Maoism and Chinese-featured Socialism Ideology has been acknowledged as the provincial fine-selected course, An Introduction to the Basic Principle of Marxism has been awarded as the top-quality course of WHPU, Ideological and Moral Cultivation and Legal Basis has been evaluated as the key construction course of the University, and The Outline of Chinese Modern History has been considered as the key construction course in the Department. Apart from these honors, the experts from the teaching steering group of the Provincial Education Department of Hubei speak highly of our school’s work on the ideological and political theory teaching. What’s more, Teaching and Research Office focusing on Cultivation of Ethic Thought and Basis of Law has been rated as the advanced unit of ideological and moral teaching among colleges in Hubei province. In the past few years, the ideological and political theory teaching in our university has greatly promoted school spirit, academic atmosphere and the construction of spiritual civilization. And to our delight, campus culture activities and college students' social practice activities have both obtained the joint recognition from the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Education and the CYL Central Committee for nine consecutive years. Our university has also been named as “The Honored Model Establishment in Hubei Province”. The Provincial Party Committee has granted the title of “Hubei Advanced College in the College Students' Ideological and Political Education” to our university. In recent years, the teaching of ideological and political theory has adopted the mode of combining the classroom introduction and the extracurricular training practice, and all the relevant teachers also cast their attention on the students’ EQ cultivation and promotion. All these creative efforts accumulated by department of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory contribute to the characteristic results of the practical teaching, and taking a leading role in the ideological and political theory teaching among all the provincial colleges and universities.

Over the past three years, in respect of extracurricular activities, teachers from department of Teaching and Research of Ideological and Political Theory have successively given or organized large humanistic lectures within the whole university more than 50 times. Besides, prominent teachers assigned by our department to act as the instructors of Student Amateur Research Association and various kinds of study groups, such as Marxist Theory Seminar, Deng Xiaoping Theory Seminar, College Students' Psychological Health Association and so on, which plays a significant role in animating and enriching extracurricular activities of college students and promoting their ideological and political quality, as well as comprehensive quality.

3. The Subject of Sinicization of Marxism Research

Research on Sinicization of Marxism obtained permission as a key discipline of Hubei Province in 2006, and started the recruitment of postgraduates in 2007. This discipline is a branch of Marxist Theory first level discipline, primarily studying the process, laws and achievements of the combination of Marxist Theory and the Chinese revolution and practice. Its research is tightly bonded with the Chinese-featured Socialism theory and practice, with its students after graduation being able to do theoretical research and teaching in scientific research, teaching, enterprise and public institution, and government bodies and also to be occupied in management and publicity in the fields of scientific education, economy and administration and so on.

Four research areas are established in the subject, including Research on Ruling Laws of Socialism with Chinese characteristic, Research on Rural Economic Development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristic, Research on Ideological and Political Education and Research on Chinese Contemporary Advanced Culture & Media Development, with making outstanding achievements and forming unique research features in the aspects of the quantitative analysis of public policy, countryside urbanization and the processing & transformation of agricultural products, country economy development, principles and methods of ideological and political education, research on distribution work of newspapers and periodicals and so on.

In recent years, more than 10 academic monographs and over 250 academic papers have been punished. We have won 3 provincial awards and other research awards. It is admitted that we take a leading role in the areas of the quantitative analysis of public policy and research on media issue. So far, we have undertaken a total of 45 scientific research projects at all levels, including 2 projects supported by National Social Science Foundation, and two projects of National Department and Reform Committee, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Education, with more than 540,000 Yuan of scientific research fund.

4. Cultivation of Masters Majoring in Study of Sinicization of Marxism

The study on Sinicization of Marxism is a secondary discipline of Marxism theory which is the first level discipline. It is devoted to the study of the basic experience of sinicization of Marxism, the basic rule, as well as results of sinicization of Marxism theory. This specialty aims to foster compound talents who should have a firm belief in Marxism and the socialist faith, set up the ideal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, systematically grasp the development process & theoretical results of sinicization of Marxism, understand the historical role and guiding significance of Mao Zedong Thought and socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics, possess a strong learning ability and scientific research ability, master a foreign language and be able to read the professional foreign materials, know the latest developments of the discipline. After graduating, students can be engaged in teaching, researching, advocating and work of the Party and Government. Major courses of this discipline are the Historical Process and Laws of Marxist Sinicization, the Basic Principles of Marxist Sinicization, the Basic Books of Marxist Sinicization & Important Literature Selections, Special Research on Basic Principle of Marxism, the History of Marxist development, Contemporary Marxist Studies Abroad, Research on Frontier Issues of Major Theories and Main Classic Selections on Marxist Theory.

Both the university and our department attach great importance to training high-quality graduates, perfecting various training rules and regulations, strictly standardizing process management, establishing training & supervisory mechanism, improving quality monitoring system of training graduate in order to create high-quality & high-level personnel. At the same time, the department pays attention to improving graduate students’ scientific research and innovation ability in various training links and constructing strong atmosphere of academic research. Also, we lay emphasis on teaching and research of graduate education, continuously carry out reform and innovation of teaching of graduate education and actively explore training modes and management mechanism for training qualified personnel with innovative spirit and ability who adapt to the requirement of the times.

What’s more, the Department cares about the ideological and political work of graduate students, sets up and perfects the graduate students’ party branch, equips graduate students with teachers who act as class sponsors, establishes supervisors’ evaluation system, creates the system of giving financial aid to students and scholarship evaluation mechanism taking the scientific research as the core. We also highlight the importance of moral and ideological education which takes the education of academic morality, sense of responsibility and personality as the core. At the same time, the development of the comprehensive quality, professional planning & employment guidance and mental health education have been paid attention to throughout the whole process of graduate students’ ideological and political work. Of course, we encourage and support graduate students to participate in academic activities as well.

Generally speaking, group characteristics and distinctive features of the discipline construction, reasonable incentive mechanism and the good scientific research environment provide guarantees for the continuous improvement of postgraduates’ education quality. At present, postgraduates in our department have become important forces of scientific research and innovation in Wuhan Polytechnic University.