BEIJING, Oct. 12 -- China's Ministry of Education has issued a guideline to deepen the reform of the country's undergraduate education and teaching and improve the quality of universities' talent-cultivation work.
The guideline, dated late September and published by the ministry on its website Saturday, proposed four areas for further reform, which are the management of education and teaching work, systems of education and teaching, teaching personnel and organizational guarantees.
The aim of the guideline is to "nurture a new generation of capable young people who have a good all-round moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetical grounding in addition to a hard-working spirit and a readiness to join the socialist cause," according to the guideline.
Universities were asked to motivate students to study hard and make their academic tasks more challenging, as well as allocate more time to students for reading and sports.
The guideline called for the development of "Internet Plus Education" and "smart" education to reform university classroom teaching and improve the quality of courses.
The guideline also asked universities to improve appraisal systems to punish any academic misconduct and improve standards for degree conferring.
University majors that cannot adapt to changes of social need will be phased out, according to the guideline.
Universities should improve training and incentives for teachers to cultivate their devotion to teaching, it said.
The guideline also proposed strengthening the Party's overall leadership over university education and teaching.