2.1 Objectives of the Program
Applied chemistry is a discipline that cultivates talents with basic knowledge, theories, skills, relevant engineering and technical knowledge, and solid experimental skills in chemistry, scientific thinking and scientific experiment training in basic chemical research and applied basic research, who can be engaged in scientific research, teaching and management in colleges and universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises and other public institutions.
According to the medium and long-term education development plan of the People’s Republic of China, the “13th Five-Year Plan” for Shanghai’s education reform and development, the mission of USST-“based in Shanghai, facing the world, focusing on education and serving the society”, and the principles of social demand combined with USST conditions, the following professional training objectives have been established for the Applied Chemistry program: To train applied, innovative and international chemistry senior talents who not only have extensive fundamental theories and strong professional ability to apply the knowledge and skills learned to solve practical problems in the fields of chemistry, pharmacy, new materials, fine chemicals, analysis and testing, but also have great independent working ability, good teamwork spirit and comprehensive innovation capability, high humanities and scientific literacy, excellent psychological and physical quality, good work ethics, high sense of social responsibility, international vision, high social competitiveness and creativity to meet the comprehensive requirements of modern society for professional talents.
After four years of professional study and training, students should have a solid basic knowledge of natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, and master a wide range of basic professional knowledge and operating skills systematically. Meanwhile, they should conduct training and internships in the relevant practice bases of their program to understand the development trend of related fields. Moreover, students should be proficient in computer applications, English literature reading related to the specialty and English communication skills. After graduation, they should be competent in teaching, research, development and management related to chemistry in colleges and universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises and other public institutions, and have a high potential for further studies so as to meet the requirements of international recognition for chemistry-related professional qualifications and lay a solid foundation for internationally mutual recognition of professional qualifications.
2.2 Learning Outcomes of the Program
2.2.1 Program Learning Outcomes (Knowledge, Skills and Competence)
1) Basic scientific literacy and abilities
● Understand and apply general natural sciences to solve practical problems, which are the foundation of professional competence;
● Understand and participate in general industry processes to meet potential positions and technical requirements;
● Understand the development trend of modern science and technology and the corresponding application prospects.
2) Professional competence and capabilities
● Be able to master and use systematic chemistry basic knowledge theory and basic experimental skills;
● Possess strong professional practice and career development abilities;
● Be able to pursue further study, prepare for postgraduate study and engage in scientific research.
3) Engineering thinking and practical ability
● Have basic knowledge of chemical engineering science and technology to solve practical problems;
● Master the production and operation process of chemical products;
● Be familiar with advanced equipment and green technology, and be able to design the process for related products in the chemical industry;
● Have the ability to debug, operate, manage and maintain related equipment based on standards.
4) International communication capabilities
● Be able to access English professional knowledge;
● Be able to communicate with foreign counterparts and study abroad;
● Be able to work and cooperate in foreign or multinational companies with sufficient knowledge of English and foreign cross-cultural background.
5) Team-work and management skills
● Have healthy mind and complete personality;
● Have good sense of law and social responsibility;
● Have high adaptability and good communication skills;
● Have good teamwork spirit and some management skills;
● Have the ability to play a role in the team.
6) Awareness and abilities for lifelong learning
● Have the awareness and ability of independent learning and lifelong learning;
● Be able to adapt to development and knowledge update, technology tracking, and innovation;
● Be able to adapt to the competitive environment and challenging work.
2.2.2 Evaluation and demand
1) Program evaluation
The Applied Chemistry program has passed the self-assessment of undergraduate programs organized by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission in June 2017 and achieved excellent results. In more than ten years of exploration and practice, this program has gradually formed a school-running guiding ideology and talent training characteristics that closely follow the trend of contemporary scientific and technological development, meet the requirements of Shanghai’s local economic development, and conform to its professional characteristics and development rules. Based on cultivating high cultural and scientific qualities of students, great importance is attached to the cultivation of the core competence and professional application competence of applied chemistry, as well as the cultivation of students’ practical and innovative ability atmosphere. The solid theoretical courses and experimental courses in chemistry have guaranteed the development of the core professional competence. The professional application abilities of students are cultivated by setting up application expansion courses and internship sessions. Meanwhile, we have adopted a variety of ways to cultivate the practical and innovative abilities of students: Firstly, participate in the “college student innovation and entrepreneurship project” of USST. Secondly, participate in the “research training program” of the College of Science actively. Thirdly, join the teacher’s scientific research team based on their plans and interests. Various professional practice activities are carried out to improve further the practical and innovative abilities of students, which has provided a good practice platform for cultivating applied talents.
This program is equipped with specially-appointed professors who have made substantial achievements in related professional fields abroad and introduced excellent doctors with advanced knowledge of contemporary chemical sciences and senior professors with high academic standards and rich practical application experience as professional teachers. In the curriculum setting, attention is paid to foundation, adaptability, practicability, and foresight, reflecting a “solid foundation”; It emphasizes the practical problem-solving abilities of students, strengthens the capability to experiment, verifies and designs independently, reflecting “hard power”. Excellent experimental teaching environment and sufficient teaching resources are provided so that students can personally conduct research activities of interest. Based on the teaching reform ideas of “multi-level, multi-module, strengthening comprehensive practice and developing professional characteristics”, we boldly reform the teaching model and conduct professional, comprehensive skill internships for social applications, reflecting our “focus on application”.
2) Job market demands
The graduates of this program have high practical ability, solid professional foundation, strong adaptability and innovation consciousness, high comprehensive quality, and being extensively recognized in the job market. Students are qualified for the work in companies and research institutes, universities and design institutions (such as Estee Lauder, Danone, Procter & Gamble, Henkel, China Shipbuilding Group, SGS, Insback, Nippon, Sinopec, Shanghai Organic Research Institute of CAS, Shanghai Jahwa, WuXi AppTec, Bluemoon, Shanghai Huayi Group, and Shanghai Research Institute of Materials), engagement in R&D, analysis and testing and other chemistry-related work. In the past few years, the graduate employment rate of this program (including continuing graduate education at home and abroad) has reached more than 97%, and our high-quality employment rate has reached above 88% with high-quality employment rate ranking top in USST, and the proportion of graduates who pursue further study is also significantly higher than other programs.
3) Graduate survey
The survey results of graduates of this program indicate that the curriculum of this program is reasonable, closely related to the needs of the job market, graduates have high adaptability after graduation, and their learning results can meet the expected objectives successfully.
2.3 Learning Outcomes of the Modules/Module objectives
2.3.1 Modules of Applied Chemistry
Based on the training objectives of this program, the whole curriculum system is divided into nine competence fields: Engineering Science Foundation and Technology, Foreign Language, Informatics, Basic Subjects, Core Professional Courses, Professional Electives, General Courses, Experiments and Practice Courses, and Undergraduate Graduation Project, see Appendix A.
The competence field of engineering science foundation is designed to help students master the basic knowledge of mathematics and physics, deepen their understanding of engineering science and improve their scientific accomplishment to solve practical problems in the application of science and technology, lay a solid foundation for professional learning in the future, and master the basic knowledge of computer and information technology and basic technology in the field of engineering to provide technical support for future professional learning at the same time.
Foreign language field requires students to master a foreign language, pass the National College English Test (CET-4) and obtain professional foreign language reading ability and the ability to use foreign languages for professional communication, international cooperation and intercultural communication.
Informatics field is designed to enable students to have a certain degree of computer and information science and technology application capabilities, and to lay a solid foundation for using computers and information technology to solve engineering problems.
Professional basics is designed to help students master the basic professional knowledge and experimental operating skills in chemistry, including inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, and physical chemistry, and to lay a solid foundation for learning professional applied courses.
The purpose of setting up core professional courses is to enable students to further learn professional core knowledge after mastering fundamental professional and technical knowledge, and use it as an essential tool for analyzing and solving professional problems.
Professional electives enable students to have professional knowledge and skills in emerging and cutting-edge fields of applied chemistry. After mastering the core professional technology, students can choose to learn the professional knowledge and skills of interest in the fields of biomedical chemistry and new material preparation, so as to analyze and solve related problems in the application.
General education courses aim to cultivate students’ overall humanistic qualities, social skills and communicative competence and teamwork spirit.
The specific requirements are as follows:
1) Master the basic humanities and social sciences, possess good humanistic qualities, and undertake professional, social and environmental responsibilities;
2) Train and exercise through various practical activities and team activities;
3) Be able to communicate effectively and adapt to different work environments and society.
Experiments and practice is designed to help students understand and master the basic or common synthesis process of chemistry, the basic operation and working principles of related test equipment, and cultivate their practical skills. Through chemical innovation practice, cognitive internship, innovation training, entrepreneurship training, university student scientific research training program and other training projects, this field focuses on cultivating students the major-related professional experimental skills, engineering concepts and innovative practical skills, which enables students to understand the R&D process, production process, processing technology and manufacturing method related equipment and processes, in order to further verify and consolidate basic theory of knowledge learned and deepen the understanding and cognition in this field.
The undergraduate graduation project field contains graduation internship and thesis, and aims to deepen the understanding of the chemical engineering process and strengthen students’ practical skills, so that students are able to combine knowledge, skills and abilities, apply existing knowledge, acquire new knowledge based on design tasks, develop skills to solve problems and solve practical problems. Every student is required to complete a graduation project independently under the guidance of the tutor and pass the graduation thesis defense successfully.
2.3.2 Objective Matrix
Table 2-1 Objective matrix of Applied Chemistry program
Superior program objectives |
Intended learning outcomes for the program as a whole —Knowledge —Skills —Competences |
Corresponding modules/module courses |
Master the basic knowledge of engineering science and engineering technology to lay a solid foundation for subsequent course studies. |
Knowledge: Master the basic knowledge of engineering science and engineering technology. Skills: Master the basic knowledge of mathematics and physics, deepen the understanding of engineering science and improve scientific literacy to solve practical problems in the application of science and technology Competences: Use the viewpoints and principles of mathematics and physics, use computers and related engineering techniques to analyze related problems in chemistry, and choose corresponding methods to resolve problems. |
Engineering Science Foundation and Technology: ● Advanced Mathematics A ● Engineering Drawing ● College Physics ● Linear Algebra ● Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics Informatics: ● Information Technology ● Program Design and Practice |
Master the core professional basic knowledge and skills to lay a solid foundation for subsequent professional courses. |
Knowledge: Master the core professional basic knowledge and operational skills of this specialty, including inorganic, organic, analytical and physical chemistry. Skills: Use relevant core professional foundations and skills to analyze various common chemical phenomena and problems, master general chemical knowledge, and solve chemical problems in practical applications. Competences: Master the related concepts and basic principles of chemistry, and have a basic knowledge of chemistry. Analyze, summarize, judge and try to solve specific chemical problems by using basic chemical knowledge. |
Professional Basics: ● Inorganic Chemistry, ● Organic Chemistry, ● Analytical Chemistry, ● Physical Chemistry, ● Principles of Chemical Engineering ● Biochemistry ● Polymer Chemistry ● Instrumental Analysis Experiments and Practice: ● Analytical Chemistry Experiment ● Inorganic Chemistry Experiment ● Physical Chemistry Experiment ● Organic Chemistry Experiment |
Acquire professional knowledge to address related problems in applied chemistry, especially in the fields of biomedical chemistry and new material development, engage in R&D, creation, production, analysis and testing to propose solutions to complex problems and to meet industry requirements. |
Knowledge: Master core professional application courses, professional electives and comprehensive skills of applied chemistry. Skills: Use professional knowledge to analyze and solve practical problems in chemistry, design, analyze and evaluate related solutions for biomedical chemistry and new materials. Competences: Have comprehensive professional knowledge of applied chemistry. Use professional background knowledge and skills to analyze and evaluate actual problems and propose valuable solutions reasonably. |
Core Professional Courses: ● The Safety Techniques of Chemical Laboratory ● Structural Chemistry ● Fine Chemicals ● Spectrum Analysis ● Organic Synthesis ● Materials Chemistry ● Medicinal Chemistry Professional Electives: ● Bioinorganic Chemistry ● Surface Chemistry ● Organometallic Chemistry ● Electrochemistry ● Pharmaceutical Analysis ● Polymer Materials Experiments and Practice: ● Experiment of Chemical Engineering Principles ● Biochemistry Experiment ● Instrumental Analysis Experiment ● Basic Comprehensive Professional Experiment of Applied Chemistry |
Master frontier professional knowledge and skills in the field of applied chemistry, and be able to follow the development trend of the relevant field to accomplish further self-development. |
Knowledge: Master the professional knowledge in the new frontier field of applied chemistry. Skills: Expand professional knowledge, keep up with the development trend of projects and related fields, reserve relevant knowledge and continue learning. Competences: Have comprehensive qualities in cross-disciplines related to this program; apply the professional knowledge learned extensively. |
Professional Electives: ● Bioanalysis ● Modern Separation Techniques ● Professional English in Applied Chemistry ● History of Chemistry and Innovative Thinking ● Material Analysis ● Food Chemistry ● Inorganic Materials Experiments and Practice: ● Professional experiment of applied chemistry ● Cognition Practice Undergraduate Graduation Project: ● Internship ● Bachelor Thesis |
Master cross-cultural, international cooperation and communication skills to adapt to social development and internationalization. |
Knowledge: Master a foreign language, pass the National College English Test Band 4, and master professional core knowledge in English. Skills: Communicate with industry colleagues and the public on chemistry-related issues effectively, including writing reports and design manuscripts, making statements, expressing clearly or responding to instructions; having a certain international perspective, able to communicate and exchange in a cross-cultural context. Competences: Have the consciousness and ability of independent learning and lifelong learning, able to adapt to development and knowledge update, technology tracking and innovation. |
Foreign Languages: ● College English Professional Electives: ● Professional English in Applied Chemistry Undergraduate Graduation Project: ● Reading and Translating Professional Literature ● Writing Abstracts in English |
Understand China’s current social model and social norms, have good social conduct, teamwork spirit and humanistic care, and have comprehensive moral, intellectual and physical development. |
Knowledge: Master the knowledge of modern Chinese history, the basic principles of Marxism, patriotism, humanities and morals, sports and military training. Skills: Understand social phenomena, care for and adapt to social development, have the ability to communicate and collaborate with others, have team spirit, and promote physical and mental health and self-improvement. Competences: Develop a perfect personality and good psychological quality, have a correct outlook on life, values, morals and laws, and have a humanistic quality and a sense of social responsibility. |
General Studies: ● Morality and Law ● Military Theory and Training ● Philosophical Foundation ● Social Practice ● Music and Art Education ● Socialist Theory ● Physical Education ● Chinese History ● Global Vision ● Ethics of Science and Engineering ● Innovation and Practice ● Economic Management ● Electives |
2.4 Job Market Perspectives and Practical Relevance
2.4.1 Job market perspectives and positioning
Adhere to the principle of combining social demand with school-running conditions, based in Shanghai, facing chemistry-related industries, and cultivating high-quality applied talents with solid chemical foundations, professional capabilities and innovative capabilities suitable for fields such as chemistry, medicine, materials, analysis and testing, and fine chemicals.
Based on the training ideas of “multi-level, multi-module, strengthening comprehensive practice, and developing professional characteristics”, we focus on cultivating students the practical ability, comprehensive professional quality, innovation ability, and international communication ability while learning basic theoretical knowledge. Our graduates are highly adaptable and have broad career prospects. The training of the Applied Chemistry Program characteristically attaches equal attention to the core competence and application ability of the program, and puts focus on cultivating the practical innovation abilities of students. Shanghai is an important birthplace of China’s modern chemical industry. The chemical industry and related industries are Shanghai’s main pillar industries, with large-scale Shanghai Chemical Industry Park and Shanghai Fine Chemical Industry Park. There are many domestic and foreign well-known chemical industries and related pharmaceutical, materials, electronics and other companies in Shanghai, such as Shanghai Petrochemicals, Shanghai Huayi, BASF, Dow Chemical, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals, and Shanghai Roche Pharmaceuticals, requiring a large number of professionals in chemistry and chemical engineering. After graduation, students of this program can engage in technology, R&D and other related work in chemistry and chemical engineering, medicine, analysis and testing, materials, and fine chemicals.
This program has a tracking system for undergraduate students. Statistics on the employment of graduates of this program indicate that there were more than 200 students majoring in Applied Chemistry who graduated from the USST in the past five years. The high-quality employment rate is over 90%, and less than 30% of graduates return to their original household registration places for employment, study abroad, and pursue graduate studies in other cities. The majority of graduates (over 70%) stay in Shanghai for employment or postgraduate studies, and nearly 80% of them work in these chemistry-related units in Shanghai; that is, the employment trend of graduates is strongly related to their specialty. Some typical cases of excellent graduates are shown in the Appendix B. Graduates are extensively recognized by employers for their strong practical ability, extensive fundamental professional knowledge, strong adaptability and innovation consciousness, as well as high comprehensive quality. This indicates that the society has a high degree of recognition of the students trained in this specialty, and the professional positioning and service orientation of this program can meet the actual needs of the society successfully.
2.4.2 Practice capability
1) Experiment
To implement the educational idea of coordinated development of knowledge, quality, and ability, and strengthen the teaching of innovation and practices, the Applied Chemistry program designs an experimental teaching system based on four levels: basic experiment, professional experiment, professional basic comprehensive experiment, and open innovative experiment. Independent experiments are designed for each basic professional course, with a total of 10 experimental courses and more than 100 teaching experiments. All basic and professional, comprehensive experiments can be completed independently in the professional chemistry laboratories of the Experimental Center of Science of USST.
In the experiment teaching session, this program requires students to prepare for the experiment course before class carefully and understand the experimental principles, procedures and methods. For independent innovation experiments and comprehensive experiments, students are required to design experimental schemes thoroughly. During the experiment, students are required to give full play to their subjective initiative, operate carefully, actively ask questions, make experimental records, and complete experimental reports. During the experiment process, teachers are required to guide students carefully, correct their operations at any time, answer experimental phenomena and difficult questions promptly, inspire students to think independently, and cultivate students’ ability to analyze and solve problems. Afterwards, teachers are required to correct the experiment reports of students carefully, integrate the student experiment process and the content of the experiment report in order to evaluate the student’s experiment performance reasonably.
2) Projects and practices
Based on the Implementation Measures of College Student Innovation Activity Plan of USST, the content of the students’ innovation and entrepreneurship training program includes three categories: innovation training projects, entrepreneurship training projects and entrepreneurship practice projects.
In innovative training projects, guided by teachers, undergraduate teams independently complete innovative research project design, research condition preparation and project implementation, research report writing, and results (academic) exchanges. In the past five years, students have participated in innovation and entrepreneurship projects actively every year with a minimum of 51.02% and a maximum of 90.48%. The students’ innovative projects received in the past five years are listed in the Appendix C. They have achieved fruitful results and published more than 20 SCI papers (see Appendix D), among which there are eight papers where the first author is an undergraduate student, and published in highly well-known journals including many top international journals such as Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Functional Materials, and Chemical Engineering Journal.
In entrepreneurship training projects, guided by instructors, each member of the undergraduate team plays one or more specific roles in the project implementation process through the preparation of business plans, conducting feasibility studies, simulating business operations, participating in business practices, writing entrepreneurial reports, etc.
In entrepreneurship practice projects, under the joint guidance of teachers and enterprise mentors, the student team uses the results of the previous innovation training project (or innovative experiment) to propose an innovative product or service with market prospects for their entrepreneurship practice on this basis. The instructor is mainly responsible for the supervision and management of the project, masters its direction and progress, and provides reasonable suggestions for the problems encountered by the students in the process of the project.
Meanwhile, short-term practical activities are also conducted, including summer social practice, summer enterprise practice, public welfare practice, volunteer activities, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship practice. These practical activities are primarily completed in USST, off-campus practice bases, or industry-university-research bases under the guidance of school teachers or enterprise mentors. Students are required to submit special reports, internship reports, or participate in award evaluations to improve their social service capabilities effectively. For example, in the summer social practice conducted by the College of Science in 2018 themed at “Inheritance and Development of Intangible Heritage and Traditional Skills of the Great Craftsman Spirit of ‘Ingenuity Shadow Play’ 2.0”, participating members Zhao Jiayan et al. won the 2018 USST “Walking Classroom”, the first prize of the Outstanding Project Award for Summer Social Practice Activities of College Students, which has cultivated students’ awareness to carry forward the spirit of craftsmanship and inherit the intangible cultural heritage.
The College of Science also organizes professors, associate professors, and PhDs to host academic reports in a planned way, generally no less than 4 times per semester, to activate the scientific research atmosphere at USST, and allow students to have a deeper understanding of professional content and increase their interest in learning. Moreover, in the past five years, domestic and foreign experts have been invited to give 10 special academic reports to broaden the horizons and improve the enthusiasm and initiative of students to participate in innovation and entrepreneurship practices actively. Students of this program have participated in various academic competitions for college students across the country and in Shanghai actively and achieved good results. Since 2016, students of this program have won 60 academic competition awards at Shanghai municipal level and above (see Appendix E).
3) Internship
Teaching practice mainly includes basic professional internship, professional internship and graduation internship, etc. Through various internship training, we strive to cultivate students’ abilities to practice science and technology, adapt to society, understand and apply professional knowledge. In the teaching and internship session, this program requires students to fully understand the purpose, tasks, contents, process and requirements of the internship before the internship starts and fully prepare for the internship. Enterprise internship is a 10-week training program conducted in the fall semester of the fourth year of a university. Students who take part in the practice training in the enterprise independently contact the training enterprise, under the guidance of the college teachers and enterprise engineers, in accordance with the training outline and relevant requirements. During the internship process, students shall strictly abide by the various rules and operating procedures of the internship sites, obey the arrangements and requirements of the on-site instructor, ensure a safe internship, carefully record the contents and experience of the internship, and earnestly complete the tasks and requirements assigned by the instructor. After the internship, they are required to write an internship report timely and seriously based on the recorded content and professional knowledge. The internship instructor should mobilize the students properly before the internship, clearly assign the purpose, tasks, requirements, precautions and assessment methods of the internship. During the internship period, the instructor should assign a certain amount of exercises, homework or exchanges to the students, check the internship records of students promptly, carefully correct their internship assignments, and guide them to complete the internship and the internship report writing with high quality. After the internship is completed, the instructor should make proper assessment and evaluation of the students’ internship results in a timely manner. Based on the internship situation, the content of the internship report and the comments from the instructor, the results of the students’ internship courses are evaluated reasonably.
4) Graduation project
Graduation project (thesis) is the last important and comprehensive practical teaching session during the student’s four-year university period, an essential process for the deepening and sublimation of professional learning, a comprehensive summary of the results of students’ learning, research and practice, an overall test of students’ comprehensive quality and practice ability, and also an important basis for the certification of students’ graduation and degree qualification. At the stage of graduation project (thesis), the Administrative Regulations on Full-time Undergraduate Graduation Project (Thesis) of the USST stipulates that 1) teachers shall take a serious attitude to clarify the meaning of the topic, propose clear requirements, introduce reference materials, and review the outlines prepared by students; 2) Students should be met at least once a week for the graduation project tracking. Each graduation project (thesis) has several parts, such as title setting, proposal design and final draft, all of which are under the guidance of teachers; 3) The Undergraduate Graduation Project Teacher Guidance Record Manual should be filled in carefully to keep abreast of the progress and quality of the student’s graduation project (thesis); 4) Teachers are required to focus on inspecting the students’ abilities to master knowledge and practical work, as well as their learning and working attitudes.
Topic selection for graduation project (thesis)
The USST has established systematic undergraduate graduation project management regulations. Based on the Administrative Regulations on Graduation Project (Thesis) of Full-time Undergraduates of USST (USST Academic Affairs [2017] No. 12), Interim Regulations for Undergraduates of USST to Participate in Graduation Projects (Thesis) Outside of Campus (USST Academic Affairs [2007 ] No. 1 and other documents, we strictly monitor each part of the graduation project including topic check, task arrangement, time nodes, process inspection, review and assessment, etc., to ensure that the students’ ability to use the knowledge learned to solve practical problems comprehensively is further improved through the training of the graduation project (thesis).
This program requires the teachers to draw up a graduation project topic based on their scientific research projects or the theoretical frontier issues of their research interests. After the academic leader’s review, it shall be submitted to the college’s graduation project guidance group composed of senior teachers for a second review. After the review, all types of topics are delivered to every student for selection in the middle or end of the seventh semester. In the past five years, the topics of graduation project of this program have been based on basic and applied research, more than 93.8% are from teachers’ scientific research projects and the latest theoretical frontier issues of the subject, as shown in Table 2-2.
Table 2-2 Statistics of graduation thesis in the past five years
Graduation Year |
Source of subject (thesis) |
Subject (thesis) type |
Grades |
Scientific research |
Production practice |
Self- prepared |
Theoretic research |
Design |
Others |
60-69 |
70-79 |
80-89 |
90-100 |
2016 |
62.5% |
37.5% |
0 |
62.5% |
15.6% |
21.9% |
0 |
0 |
87.5% |
12.5% |
2017 |
57.1% |
40.5% |
2.4% |
28.6% |
23.8% |
47.6% |
3.3% |
0 |
86.0% |
14.0% |
2018 |
57.1% |
42.9% |
0 |
44.2% |
30.2% |
25.6% |
0 |
0 |
85.7% |
14.3% |
2019 |
53.1% |
46.9% |
0 |
46.9% |
32.7% |
20.4% |
0 |
6.1% |
81.6% |
12.2% |
2020 |
51.1% |
48.9% |
0 |
64.5%% |
22.2% |
13.3% |
0 |
13.4% |
73.3% |
13.3% |
Guidance for graduation project (thesis)
The guidance for graduation project (thesis) of this program is strictly carried out based on the regulations of the Administrative Regulations on Full-time Undergraduate Graduation Project (Thesis) at USST (USST Academic Affairs [2007] No. 29), Provisional Regulations for USST Undergraduates to Participate in the Graduation Project (Thesis) Outside the Campus (USST Academic Affairs [2007] No. 1), the work arrangements and requirements for the undergraduate thesis at the College of Science before July 2021 and at the School of Materials and Chemistry after July, and others. Teachers are usually required to have an intermediate professional title or above. Otherwise, a doctoral degree is required for some new teachers. Teachers should meet the students at least once a week to offer specific guidance for each part of the graduation thesis, including research plan, experimental process, result analysis and thesis finalization, in order to understand the progress of their graduation project in time, answer or discuss with students to solve difficult problems encountered in the process of their graduation thesis at any time, and make a record of guidance properly.
Quality of graduation project (thesis)
This program strengthens the supervision of the graduation project process to ensure the quality of the graduation project through self-assessment by the department, random inspection by the college, and blind examination and inspection by USST. Our random inspection results in recent years indicate that the passing rate of both the random inspection and the blind review of the graduation projects have reached 100%.
Thesis defense
There are five steps to conduct the thesis defense as follows.
1. Each school shall be responsible for implementing the graduation thesis defense and unifying its requirements and grading standards. The defense group of each specialty shall include 3 or more members (odd number), and the group leader shall be a teacher with the associate senior professional title or above. The task of the defense group is to implement the defense work according to the unified defense requirements and grading standards.
2. Each school shall announce the order of defense and related matters to students one week before the defense.
3. The defense process includes two sessions: graduation thesis presentation and defense questions. The defense secretary is responsible for making defense records properly.
4. After the defense, the defense group will grade the graduation thesis according to its review comments and defense comprehensively.
5. The graduation thesis defense shall be conducted in public.
The defense committee shall determine the graduation thesis grades comprehensively according to the following ratio: 40% for the instructor’s review, 20% for comments, and 40% for defense.
2.5 Admission and entry requirements
2.5.1 Admission and entry conditions
Students who intend to be admitted to USST for undergraduate and bachelor’s degree study are required to take the unified admission examination of higher education institutions of the People’s Republic of China or the unified admission examination held by various provinces and cities. Those who meet the following conditions can participate in the examination registration: 1) Observe the Constitution and laws of the People’s Republic of China; 2) Graduates of senior high schools or those with the equivalent education level; 3) Be healthy.
2.5.2 Admission process
China’s higher education institutions can be divided into three levels: first, institutions under the Ministry of Education (about 40); second, provincial key universities (about 100), and the USST falls into this level; third, other general colleges and universities.
The admission scores are determined by the provinces and cities based on the number of applicants and test results. Admission is conducted in three batches (the first, second, and third batch) based on scores in descending order. USST admission falls into the first batch.
2.5.3 Admission transparency
Pursuant to the Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, colleges, universities and provincial admission offices implement the admission of new students based on the principle that “colleges and universities are responsible for admission, and admission offices are responsible for supervision”. Colleges and universities shall admit students based on the admission rules in the admission charter announced to the public. For candidates who have passed the ideological and political morality assessment, with physical condition meeting the relevant professional training requirements, and test scores meeting the admission control score of the same batch and the transfer requirements of colleges/universities, admission into the program is determined by the colleges/universities, and explanations should be provided to candidates who have applied but are not admitted. Provincial admission offices shall be responsible for supervising the implementation of the national admission policy and plan by colleges and universities and the correction of behaviors that violate the national admission policy and regulations.
2.5.4 Admission reform
According to the admission rules of National Higher Education Entrance Examination (autumn unified examination):
1. The provincial admission office will file the applicants based on their scores (including bonus points) from high to low according to our local enrollment plan and filing ratio. The specific proportion of filing applicants is determined by our school according to the actual situation of applicants in each province. In principle, the filing proportion for the order reference filing is no more than 120%; and that for the parallel reference filing is no more than 105%.
2. For applicants who are put into file, they will be admitted by specified majors according to the score priority principle, and the major admission has no score deduction (but in case of any special regulation in some provinces, it will be announced separately after consultation with the local provincial recruitment office).
3. Policy bonus points are included in the total score for major admission.
4. Order for major admission of applicants with the same score
(1) Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hainan: For applicants whose subjects selected are "unlimited"; they will be admitted in the order of scores of Chinese, mathematics and English from high to low; for applicants whose selected subjects are compulsorily required by the examination, they will be compared and admitted in the order of scores of mathematics, Chinese and English from high to low.
(2) Hebei, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong and Chongqing: For applicants whose preferred subject is "history", they will be compared and admitted in the order of scores of Chinese, mathematics and English from high to low; for applicants whose preferred subject is "physics", they will be compared and admitted in the order of scores of mathematics, Chinese and English from high to low.
(3) Other provinces: Liberal arts-based applicants will be admitted in the order of scores of Chinese, mathematics and English from high to low, while science-based applicants will be compared and admitted in the order of scores of mathematics, Chinese and English from high to low.
5. If applicants have reached the minimum admission score line of our school and meet the filing requirements of our school, but have not entered the major references and yet are willing to obey the major adjustment, they will be transferred and admitted by other majors of our school.
The enrollment statistics of Applied Chemistry in the past five years is shown in Appendix F.
2.6 Curriculum/Content
The whole curriculum system of this program is divided into nine competence fields: Engineering Science Foundation and Technology, Foreign Language, Informatics, Professional Basics, Core Professional Courses, Professional Electives, General Courses, Experiments and Practice, and Undergraduate Graduation Project. The details are shown in 2.3.1 Introduction to Applied Chemistry Program Module and Appendix A.
2.7 Student feedback
Through the annual questionnaire survey of current students and past graduates, we can understand the professional learning status of current students and the problems faced by graduates in employment and work, review and revise the professional training program.
2.7.1 Feedback from college students
Feedback from college students is shown in Appendix Survey 1.
2.7.2 Feedback from graduates
Feedback from graduates is shown in Appendix Survey 2.
