"What the students need is curiosity and interest on their road to success in science, or in anything they do," Daniel Shechtman, the 2011 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, told middle school and university students at "Meeting With Nobel Prize Laureates" on May 19, an event Nanjing University organized for its 110th anniversary.
Four Nobel laureates - the others being Aaron Ciechanover, Robert Huber and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio - were also invited.
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Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in literature, speaks to students at Nanjing University, Jiangsu province, on Saturday. Xu Qi / for China Daily
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Schechtman told students that in education, the most important thing is quality, not quantity.
As one of the most prestigious universities in China, Nanjing University has trained tens of thousands of people to take part in the social and economic development of the country over the years.
"We have paid great attention to and will continue to lay emphasis on the improvement of quality by innovation and restructuring of academic disciplines," said Chen Jun, the university's president, at the gathering.
Taking the anniversary as a new starting point, the university has set a goal of going all out to offer the best quality undergraduate education in China.
"We have proposed the goal in view of the current situation in China's university education; that is, not enough attention is given to undergraduate teaching, especially the idea of innovation and pioneering," said Chen.
With the fast growth of higher education in China, some problems have cropped up, giving rise to the tendency of more emphasis on research and less on teaching in universities. As a result, many university professors don't teach but only do research. Thus, students don't receive sound basic training in science and the liberal arts.
To build the university into a world-class higher learning institute, the university has started to reform its academic discipline structure by taking a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning so that students will have a balanced knowledge of the social and natural sciences.
"We hope that our students will nurture an innovative spirit in their university years by taking both science and liberal arts courses and will have a bigger potential in their future career," said Chen.
He also said that an understanding of Western culture and the absorption of advanced scientific achievements is another important experience that university education should provide, because these will help students to see things from an international perspective and become more competitive after graduation.
Over the years, Nanjing University has greatly benefited by conducting academic exchanges with more than 280 overseas universities and institutes in about 30 countries and regions.
The university received congratulatory letters from many individuals, including Premier Wen Jiabao and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and domestic and foreign universities, on this occasion.
