Dear SILCers and Friends,
Time flies. We have to say goodbye to the year of 2016 and greet the first ray of sun light from 2017. On the occasion of bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new one, I, on behalf of all the leaders of SILC, would like to express the sincere gratitude and the best New Year wishes to all of you.
The year of 2016 is the first year of implementation of the Thirteenth Five-year Plan which spans from 2016 to 2020. In 2016, SILC sets up a Strategic Advisory Committee, composed of representatives from well-known enterprises, educational institutions and alumni. And the committee convenes the first advisory meeting to instruct the implementation of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan and to finalize the Four Strategies and Six Key Missions for the development of SILC in the five years. Meanwhile, SILC has completed the accreditation of ISER, the initial report of AACSB international accreditation, which has been accepted and recognized by the AACSB committee. It means that SILC has entered into the final crucial stage of the accreditation.
In the year of 2016, SILC has made breakthroughs in the construction of teaching staff and the scientific research. First, SILC signs the SHU-UTS Joint Employment Agreement, which brings in six joint-employed teachers; and initiates the classification management and evaluation system of teachers, so that SILC has successfully reformed the management system of the current teaching staff. Secondly, scientific research of SILC has made breaking progress. Five State-level Fund Projects and two municipal level projects have been accepted. A teacher wins the title of Shanghai Chen-guang Scholar, and another one wins a Third Prize of the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Award. SILC has received more than 300 million Yuan research fund in the whole year, ranking sixth among the liberal and art schools of Shanghai University. One of the theses wins the First Prize of the Individual Award of Theses at Shanghai University.
In the year of 2016, the progress of SILC talent training is remarkable. SILC gets 100% of graduate employment rate, 90.16% of the employment contract signing rate, and 86.3 points of the average quality of employment, ranking the top in SHU. 163 graduates choose to study abroad for master degrees, including about 70 graduates enrolled in the world’s top 50 colleges and universities. SILC students have won more than 20 professional awards, including three international awards (the Outstanding Winner of the Cloud Programming World Cup, the First Prize in the Global Supply Chain Competition Asia and the Second Prize of the American Mathematical Contest in Modeling). Meanwhile, the social influence of SILC and its level of internationalization have been significantly improved. 303 foreign students are studying at SILC last year, with an annual growth of 1/3, which is 10% of the total students. 260 SILC students attend the Study Abroad programs, which is half of students within one grade. Participating in the One Belt and One Road strategy, SILC has cooperated with business schools from Pakistan, Poland and other countries, and joins in the Erasmus plan of EU. Last but not least, SILC signs the 2 +2 dual degree agreement with the North Carolina State University in USA and actively participates in the construction of the Sydney Shanghai School.
Xi Jinping, Chairman of PRC, made a speech in the meeting of National Ideological and Political Work for Higher Education in 2016. He pointed out that only by cultivating first-class talent can a university become a world-class university. SILC has always been committed to cultivating first-class undergraduate talent and has made remarkable achievements at home and abroad. Looking forward to the future, opportunities wait together with challenges. But Silcers are confident and proud. With Silcers’ concrete and reliable imagination, and based on their cultural heritages and innovation capabilities, SILC will make full use of the autonomy in running schools, focus on the three missions of "Double First-class Construction”, "Internationalization" and AACSB accreditation, and work together to create a better future of SILC!
January 2017
