An Overview of Yue Jiang Academy

Yue Jiang Academy was founded jointly by NUIST and the Social Science Academy of Jiangsu Province. It is a high-level, interdisciplinary innovation-oriented standing body of teaching and research, with the function of postgraduate education, research, training and international exchange and cooperation.

Yue Jiang Academy is mainly responsible for the planning and development of humanities and social sciences, the establishment of MA programs, post-graduate education, the application for cooperative research projects, the implementation of research programs as well as the delivery of some undergraduate courses in NUIST.

Since its establishment, Yue Jiang academy, in line with its principle functions, have made effective efforts and scored marked achievements in academic research, academic exchange and the development of disciplinary programs. A good example is that in 2005, Yue Jiang Academy succeeded in applying for two postgraduate programs—“Basic Principles of Marxism” and “Political and ideological Education”. This was a breakthrough in the development of social science postgraduate programs in NUIST.

In future, Yue Jiang Academy will pool together the academic resources of humanities and social sciences in both NUIST and the Social Science Academy of Jiangsu Province. By encouraging interdisciplinary research Yue Jiang Academy aims to promote researches in humanities and social sciences in order to upgrade the level of education in humanities and social sciences as well as to facilitate the interaction between liberal arts and sciences in NUIST, thus making high-quality research achievements and supplying high-quality liberal arts talents for the political and social development in Jiangsu Province.

At present, Yue Jian Academy enrolls MA candidates in two postgraduate programs under the discipline of “Marxist Science” —“Basic Principles of Marxism” and “Political and ideological Education.” There is an outstanding teaching and research staff in this discipline who are of different ages and of diverse academic backgrounds. They are capable of teamwork, fine academic views and original minds. The staff consists of 7 professors, 4 associate professors and 6 lecturers. Among them, 2 are PhDs. and 5 MAs. They have rich teaching experience and abundant teaching achievements: Associate Professor Cheng Jianjun won the first ward of Teaching Excellence for 2000-2001 academic year in 2002; Associate Professor Su Xiangrong won the second ward of Teaching Excellence for 2002-2003 in 2004; in 2002, “Marxist Philosophical Principles”—a textbook written by Associate Professor Cheng Jianjun won the first Award for Excellent Textbooks conferred by the ministry of education.

Under this discipline, there is a well-designed curricula system, offering 17 compulsory and selective specialty courses which have characteristics of their own, and which lay emphasis on cultivating students' theoretical basis, practical skills. The compulsory specialty courses includes: “Marxism and the present-day world”, “socialist theory and practice”, “selective readings of Marxist works”, “study of Marxism history”, “study of Marxist philosophy”, “study of scientific socialism”, “study of Mao Tsetung Thoughts”, “study of Den Xiaoping Theory”, “study of the principle and methodology of political and ideological education”, “the history of Marxist theories and political ideology education”, “technological revolution and Marxism”, “Marxism and the trend of thoughts in modern society”. The compulsory specialty courses include: “study of political economy”, “study of world view, moral outlook and values”, “study of modern capitalism”, “study of Marxism outside China”, “study of international socialism”.

In recent years, the teaching and research staff in this discipline have made remarkable achievements in the fields of “the basic theories of Marxism” and “political and ideological education”. Since April, 2000, altogether 125 papers were published, among which, 118 papers were carried on leading academic journals; 7 papers were published on academic meetings; 25 academic works were published, and 7 translated works were published. The staff also won 8 provincial or ministerial level awards. 5 research results are being adopted by different organizations.