1. Student Guidance and Support
Jiangxi University of Technology is located in Yaohu University Park, Nanchang City, the capital of Jiangxi Province. It is 400 meters away from the subway station, with convenient transportation, complete supporting facilities and broad employment and internship opportunities.
Campus
The campus covers an area of more than 320 acres, with a building area of about 850,000 square meters. The campus has a standard track and field, gymnasium and other student activity places, covering an area of about 90,000 square meters, and a 33,000 square meter library. According to the functional requirements, these buildings are distributed in six areas of the campus, namely: teaching area, living area, sports area, central landscape area, Ecological Garden and Driving School (for students to learn how to drive). The University has not only the cultural landscape, but also the natural landscape. It is an ecological garden campus that integrates the campus architecture, green fields and natural environment.
The Ecological Garden in the campus covers an area of more than 32 acres, where more than 100 thousand trees and shrubs of more than 500 varieties are planted. The greenery coverage of the campus has reached 60%, far exceeding the national greenery coverage standard for universities, providing a good ecological environment for students' life.
Student Accommodation
There are 31 student dormitories with a building area of about 300,000 square meters. The student dormitory building adopts the conjoined design. At present, six modern apartment buildings with 6 floors have been built, three of which have been put into use, and the other three will be put into use in September 2021. Students’ dormitories are managed by the University aiming to provide high standard service to our students. The building is clean, bright and fresh with good lighting. Each dormitory has its own bathroom and washroom, which are equipped with a water heater, air conditioner and washing machine. The University provides a comfortable living environment, so that students can devote themselves to learning. The University has sufficient student dormitories to provide accommodation for students. At present, the University has 7422 dormitories with 31,890 beds. By August 2021, 24,529 beds have been occupied in the University. At present, there are 7361 empty beds, which can be provided to freshmen who enter the University in September 2021. If some students do not want to live in the dormitory, they can rent a house outside the campus.
Teaching Facilities
The teaching area is located in the south of the campus, with an overall area of 435,781.21 square meters. There are 15 teaching buildings, including:
· Teaching building 1 (School of Management)
· Teaching building 2 (School of Finance and Economics)
· Teaching building 3 (School of Foreign Language)
· Teaching building 4 (School of Art Design)
· Teaching buildings 5, 6 and 7 (general teaching building)
· Teaching building 8 (School of Intelligent Engineering)
· Teaching building 9 (School of Information Engineering),
· Teaching building 10 (School of Culture and Media)
· Teaching building 11 (School of Medicine)
· Teaching buildings 12-13 (School of Urban Construction)
In addition, there are music and dance teaching building and Boya International College teaching building. The campus has 328 classrooms, including 33,149 seats, covering a total area of 36,597.92 square meters. The campus has four laboratory buildings, a total of 209 laboratories, covering a total area of 31,511 square meters. There are three academic lecture halls in the school. Lecture hall A can accommodate 700 people, lecture hall B can accommodate 500 people, and lecture hall C can accommodate 300 people. Students can study in the teaching area, listen to reports, take experimental (training) classes, and carry out academic exchanges and cultural and recreational activities. The teaching building is fresh in style and well arranged. There are corridor links between each building, which is beautiful and convenient for students to go in and out, so that students can avoid adverse weather, climbing up and down the building. The corridor is also wheelchair accessible, specially designed for students with mobility impairments, fully reflecting the inclusivity of the University.
Sports Facilities
The sports area is located at the east of the University, with advanced and complete facilities, including basketball, volleyball, badminton, tennis, football and other fields, as well as two standard track and field sports fields. The gymnasium covers an area of more than 10,000 square meters, with a comprehensive gymnasium of 2400 square meters. It also has indoor basketball, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, roller skating, aerobics, martial arts, boxing and gymnasium.
Digital Facilities
In order to ensure the steady progress of campus infrastructure development, Jiangxi University of Technology has successively invested more than 20 million yuan (over 2.2 million British Pound Sterling) in the construction of campus network software and hardware infrastructure and the erection of campus wireless network, with remarkable results. The University attaches great importance to campus information work, and strengthens the deep integration of teaching, scientific research, management, finance, logistics and Internet. The University has built a basic campus network platform covering the whole University, from 10 Gigabit core to buildings, and from 100 Gigabit to desktop. It has network outlets of Telecom, Unicom, education and scientific research network operators, and the convergence switch and core switch have all realized optical fiber connection.
The University has more than 20 application management systems, mainly covering the office, personnel, assets, finance, students, campus life and other aspects, and has initially realized the informatization of teaching and management. Through the purchase of the Erya general education course and Wisdom Tree learning platform, the front-line teachers can better use the platform to reform and innovate teaching, and use these platforms to complete the creation of provincial and University level excellent courses. With the help of these online learning platforms, students not only complete the learning of undergraduate network elective courses, but also broaden the network learning channels and improve the learning efficiency. At the same time, it helps to improve the level of University teachers' application of information service teaching.
In order to adapt to the development trend of mobile platforms, the graphic information center has synchronously opened the WeChat self-help welcome function, and all freshmen can complete the registration and payment in Jiangke WeChat service number. In order to improve the quality of logistics service, the University has promoted the mobile repair service platform in the whole University, which greatly broadens the repair channels of teachers and students, and speeds up the troubleshooting.
In addition, in order to simplify the student loan processing process and improve the service efficiency, the University developed a student loan management system on the orientation platform in 2016 to realize the working process of student online loan application.
In order to effectively integrate students' application resources and unify the service, the University has officially used the student integrated service system. At present, the student comprehensive service system includes online submission system, where students are able to submit work and receive feedback, and online system to record and approve students’ leaves, where students can ask for leave. The class counselor of the students can review and confirm students’ leaves through the online system to record and approve students’ leaves. At the same time, when students ask for leave on the platform, they can select the leave type and set the leave duration according to their own situation. The student comprehensive service system also includes physical examination and medical insurance, student comprehensive quality evaluation, counselor management, scholarship management and gate access control.
Library Facilities and Services
The University library covers an area of 33,000 square meters, with a total of 2,474,171 paper books and 2,119,875 e-books. The University has formulated the measures for the management of the library of Jiangxi University of Technology to ensure a good learning environment, formulate regulations for the management of book lending and suggestions for rules and regulations, and ensure the integrity of library resources. The library provides a total of 3,200 self-study seats for students. In addition to normal working days, it is also open to students during non-working hours. The opening hours of the library are from 8:00 a.m. to 22:30 p.m. from Monday to Sunday. In addition, the library delivers the Literature Retrieval course for students, which is a public compulsory basic course. It mainly talks about how to retrieve the learning materials and scientific research literature from the database, which improve the students’ scientific research ability.
Curriculum Resources and Academic Guidance
The University is equipped with relevant curriculum resources for students’ academic guidance, such as graduation thesis guidance, innovation education, entrepreneurship education, career planning, employment guidance, entrance education and military training, physiology and mental health education and other related compulsory courses, to enrich students’ academic guidance outside their majors. A wealth of network elective courses is available for students to choose. These elective courses are online courses aligning with national or provincial framework, enriching students’ extracurricular self-study. Schools regularly carry out "mental health education, anti-fraud, AIDS prevention" and other related public lectures, giving students related guidance.
Freshman Orientation
The University carries out unified military training and orientation for freshmen. The entrance education is mainly in the form of freshmen meeting. The Dean, Vice Dean of Teaching, Vice Dean of Student Affairs and all professional teachers of the university will communicate with students on the spot and introduce their majors. The major introduction mainly tells students about the teaching arrangement, course plan, examination plan, degree awarding, major planning etc.
Services provided by the Student Affairs Office
The University has set up a Student Affairs Office and formulated the Student Handbook of Jiangxi University of Technology, which is responsible for the ideological and political education of students, daily management and service of students, student advising, student accommodation, student financial aid and mental health support.
The Student Affairs Office strives for excellence in the following provisions:
l inspect, supervise and assess the implementation of moral education programs for undergraduate and junior college students in each college
l the research of student feedback, study, life, mental health and other aspects, and timely grasp the students’ ideological trends
l strengthen the theoretical research of students work, put forward the corresponding guidance to improve student work
l the work of rewards and regulations (for example, reward measures such as "evaluation of scholarships and grants, selection of outstanding student cadres, selection of outstanding student pacesetters and excellent dormitory", and disciplinary measures such as "Notice of criticism on attendance, notice of criticism on violation of discipline, notice of criticism on violation of public security management regulations, notice of criticism on violation of dormitory management regulations notice of criticism on dormitory sanitation inspection", etc.)
l report for approval of disciplinary measures for students
l assess students’ comprehensive quality
l deal with the appeal work of fairness, impartiality and openness in the selection of scholarships, grants and other awards
l the issuance and replacement of student ID cards
l the handling and replacement of train ticket preferential cards
l the development of student work assistant team
l the inspection and supervision of attendance rate
l the supervision and development of good study habits
l carry out on-campus cultural activities such as students' career planning and safety education to expand students' quality and promote the development of cultural connotation
l provide full-time counselors for each freshman class (The counselors are responsible for the management of student life, student advising and other aspects of the student experience and forming the "contact system between counselors and teachers of Jiangxi University of Technology". Through effective communication, lectures and seminars, counselors can go into students’ classes, and strengthen the communication between counselors and teachers, improve the quality of classroom teaching, strengthen the pedagogy, more effectively promote students’ learning and moral cultivation, and do a better job in student education and management.)
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
The University is committed to the diversity of "culture, region, race and gender" and enrolls students across the country despite of their backgrounds. The University enrolls students from all the 32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in mainland China, and the students are of 30 ethnic groups.
The University actively undertake its internationalization strategy and has enrolled 316 international students from 28 countries. The School of Foreign Languages (International Education) is responsible for the study and life management of international students, and is equipped with counselors to help them adapt to Chinese education and life style. On the basis of respecting the students' learning habits and lifestyle, the University has formulated Regulations on Management of International Students at JXUT (https://gjjy.jxut.edu.cn/info/1171/1501.htm), Measures for Management of International Students at JXUT (https://gjjy.jxut.edu.cn/info/1171/1500.htm), Higher Education Quality Standards for International Students in China (https://gjjy.jxut.edu.cn/info/1171/1494.htm), and Evaluation of Scholarship for International Students at JXUT (https://gjjy.jxut.edu.cn/info/1171/1502.htm) to secure education management and education equality of international students. Corresponding secondary schools have developed education schemes for international students of different majors to ensure that the international students receive equal education. The University organizes various inclusive activities for both international students and Chinese students, aiming to further strengthen the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, such as English corner, theme discussion, debate contest, academic seminar, etc.
The University has also set up a Student Financial Aid Management Center (separate center at the University level) and set up student financial aid working groups in each secondary school. Student Financial Aid Management Center is set to deal with student loans and scholarships, in order to ensure that students enjoy equal access to education. The University provides student loans and deferment of tuition fee payment for students from poor families to ensure that students will not drop out due to financial problems and lose access to education. To those who study hard and achieve corresponding excellent learning outcomes, the University issue various scholarships such as National Scholarship, Alumni Scholarship, etc. To those with great innovative abilities and corresponding works or projects, the University issue Entrepreneurial Scholarship. And there are strict and scientific application rules and regulations for each kind of scholarship.
The University also provides assistance to disabled students and those with health conditions so that they can successfully complete their studies and examinations and enjoy their rights of receiving equal education.
In accordance with the policies and procedures of the National College Entrance Examination (hereinafter referred to as NCEE or GaoKao), students be enrolled into University for General Higher Education shall pass NCEE/Gaokao, currently we only have students with mobility impairments in the University, and with University support, their study and examination will not be affected. (According to policies and procedures of NCEE, JXUT will only enroll students who pass GaoKao. Under the national code such as Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Disabled, it is University’s call of duty to ensure a successful study journey for any enrolled students including students with special requirements. Corresponding actions will be introduced cases by case if any students of such kinds are enrolled to ensure the equality in their studies and exams, according to proposed actions in the Provisional Regulation for Supporting Disabled Students Attending NCEE (http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/zsdwxxgk/201504/t20150427_189466.html).
As for students with sudden illness or injury before or during exams, they can apply to defer the exam. The Academic Affairs Office will approve the application if the situation is checked to be true and arrange deferred exams for the students. (For more details about deferred exams, please refer to 5.9 Implementation Rules for Student Status Management of JXUT, P6 Chapter IV and 5.11 Regulations on the Daily Management of Students of JXUT, P11 Chapter VI.)
Mental Health Support
The University has set up a Mental Health Education Center to carry out a variety of mental health education activities, such as psychological role-playing and psychological lectures. After the freshmen enter the University, the Mental Health Education Center publicizes the universal mental health knowledge for all freshmen on how to adapt to the University life as the theme, and enters the military training squadron, class and freshmen dormitory by means of knowledge lectures, distribution of publicity cards, materials and leaflets. According to the University’s teaching plan, the University offers courses on physical and mental health to sophomores with a total of 30 class hours and 2 credits. Every class is presented with a sample issue for discussion, possible solutions and will decide an appropriate course of action. Every year, the Mental Health Education Center will organize the freshmen class to undertake psychological testing and reports. According to the analysis report of psychological test results, the support service will be provided to the students who may have serious psychological problems. During the daily working days, students can visit the psychological consultation room by themselves. According to the schedule, student advisers provide students with various forms of consultation, including development consultation, adaptation consultation and obstacle consultation, to help college students solve and eliminate psychological confusion and psychological barriers to success. Those who suffer serious mental health issues will be referred to the professional psychological clinic for treatment in time, so as to prevent and reduce psychological crisis events. The Mental Health Education Center aims at the mental health test, personality test and talent evaluation of students of all grades, helping students understand themselves, analyzing their interests, tendencies and abilities, and guiding students to make career plans.
2. Teaching, Learning and Evaluation Strategies
2.1 Teaching Emphasis and Teaching Concept
The University’s teaching and education focus to “develop high-quality application-oriented talents with expertise and certain innovation ability, and ability to adapt to the needs of economic and social development”. The University adheres to OBE (outcome-based education), that is, the educational concept of student-centered, achievement-oriented learning, strengthened by continuous improvement. The resulting data informs the refined development of applied talents training in our university.
2.2 Teaching Features
In terms of the formulation of the learning plan, the University integrates public elective courses, enhances student input to individualized learning planning, and integrates the work of innovation credit identification. Innovation credit is a special credit mechanism for Jiangxi University of Technology to promote innovation education. It means that students need to complete 8 innovative credits before graduation. These credits are recognized by each college around four modules three months before graduation, and the innovative credit recognition form is provided to the academic affairs office. Only when students pass the recognition of 8 credits can they get the opportunity of degree awarding. The four modules are:
1."Scientific and technological innovation ability". Students can obtain innovation credits by publishing papers, participating in tutor's scientific research projects, participating in scientific and technological innovation competition projects, and applying for patents;
2. "Professional core competence", students can obtain innovative credits by obtaining CET-4 and CET-6 certificate, computer level examination certificate, vocational skill certificate, minor second degree;
3. "Employment and entrepreneurship", students can obtain innovation credits by obtaining the title of intern or independent entrepreneurship;
4. "Social practice ability", students can obtain innovative credits through volunteer service, social practice research, public welfare activities, work study program, etc. Innovative credit system provides a broader way for students to study independently and develop their personality.
2.3 Teaching Quality Assurance System
The University has established a "five dimensional" teaching quality assurance system composed of decision-making and command system, teaching operation management system, teaching quality standard system, teaching monitoring and evaluation system, information feedback and rectification continuously monitored program. Through "establishing three-level supervision organization", "strengthening peer review", "carrying out student satisfaction survey", "holding student representative forum", "carrying out online student evaluation activities", "Student Feedback Mechanism" (For more details, please refer to the section of Student Feedback Mechanism in document 7.2 Summary of Quality Assurance Procedures Related to Higher Education), students can maintain a stable learning progress.
2.4 Characteristics of Teaching Methods and Strategies
According to the national standard of teaching quality for undergraduate majors in colleges and universities, the University Curriculum Development Committee formulates the talent training plan, designs the syllabus of each course through the OBE teaching concept. The teachers adopt rich and colorful teaching methods according to the syllabus. The teaching method is student-centered, mainly based on using PowerPoint for teaching. The teaching method is combined with “group teaching, scenarios teaching, problem solving based teaching, task driven teaching, inverted classroom (helps students in personalized learning that learners can control their own learning according to their own learning style and ability) and other teaching methods”. The teaching method adopts "blackboard writing, props, lectures, seminars, workshop, classroom interaction, skill practice".
Teachers make use of high-quality online course resources to carry out "Online + offline" blended teaching and use the network teaching platform to establish their own network courses, and form classes on the platform. Students can preview courses in advance according to the task points arranged by teachers online before class, and offline teaching can use the network platform to carry out various classroom activities such as sign in, timed academic competitions, questionnaire, classroom test etc. After class, homework can be arranged, marked and feed back to students through the network platform, and examinations can be organized through the platform, which truly realizes the deep integration of education and modern information technology. In addition, a large number of practical courses are set up in the training program, which can be operated in the laboratory, and some courses will also be carried out in the University enterprise cooperation base.
2.5 Examination Scheme and Strategy
Jiangxi University of Technology formulated the examination management measures to clarify the examination process and determine the course learning evaluation method. The final score of the students consists of two parts: 1. Process assessment; 2. Final examination results. The proportion of the usual results and final examination results to convert the final results was determined according to the Curriculum Standard Document of each course. The process assessments are generally composed of "attendance rate, classroom Q & A, quizzes and homework", while the final examination results are generally composed of "test paper, skill practice for example, engineering majors students need to demonstrate how to operate machine tools), work creation, thesis and report" according to different majors.
2.6 Student Learning Feedback
In terms of effective learning and learning experience, the University encourages students to participate in decision-making, such as the "President’s reception day" held once a semester. Students can give suggestions and put forward feedback or appeal on "classroom teaching, practical teaching, performance questioning, teaching supervision, scientific research and innovation, graphic information, dormitory management, security, enrollment and employment, excellence evaluation, maintenance services, water and electricity services, campus health, food safety, campus infrastructure, sports activities" and other aspects. Each college has set up "Dean’s mailbox", where students can put forward their opinions on relevant study and life. After sorting out and summarizing, the college will regularly reply to students’ relevant questions. The University not only provides counselors for each class of students, but also arranges all the cadres of the University to serve as class helpers in each class to carry out the work of "teacher-student discussion, student complaints (refer to document 5.2 Academic Appeal and Complaints for details), life rights protection" and so on. The University sets up a teaching supervision office and solicits students’ feedback across various majors. Student liaisons can attend any classes across different disciplines in the University to provide feedback on teaching quality from students’ point of view. The feedback will be recorded and send back to teaching supervision office for further review. The University has a "College-School" two-level student union, students can participate in the student union in their spare time, carry out student affairs, and hold the student congress every year, so that students can really participate in the decision-making of university teaching work.
The University has promulgated the measures for the construction and management of student associations in Jiangxi University of Technology. There are six types of student associations, including "Ideological and political, academic and technological, innovation and entrepreneurship, culture and sports, voluntary public welfare, self-discipline and mutual assistance", such as "Drama Association, Literature Association, Street Dance Association, Mental Health Consulting Association, Volunteer Association", and so on, equipped with instructors to guide students to carry out various forms of community activities, enrich after-school life as well as the prosperity of campus culture, and promote the all-round development of young students.
3. Staff Recruitment, Training and Development
At present, the number of teaching staff is 2070, including administrative staff, scientific research staff and teachers. Among them, there are 1666 in-service teachers, who are engaged in teaching and learning guidance. After entering the post, they all need to obtain the University teacher qualification certificate. The University has a Personnel Department and a Teacher Development Center, which is responsible for the recruitment, training and development of teaching staff. The University formulates relevant policy documents to ensure that the teaching staff meet the needs of our University’s talent training, such as the implementation measures for recruitment of Jiangxi University of Technology, the implementation plan for the introduction and training of 100 high-level talents of Jiangxi University of Technology, the introduction measures for high-level talents of Jiangxi University of Technology, and the management regulations on regulating the outward training of teaching staff. Every year, the Personnel Department provides "professional title promotion, training and study abroad, study abroad exchange, teaching management and teaching level training" and other services for the whole University.
