Army commanders' ability to direct combined operation stressed in Chinese military university's educational reform

Chinese University of National Defense's (CUND) educational reform stressed army commanders' competence in directing combined operation in information age, Liberation Army Daily has reported.

The CUND, the "cradle of generals" founded in 1985, is directly under China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and trains Chinese military officers.

The CUND's educational reform, starting in 2003, was planned to build the CUND into a comprehensive university with advanced technology and methods in line with China's military reform, the paper said.

In the end of 2002, the CMC urged to promote the military reform with Chinese characteristics, building a modern armed forces equipped with information technology and winning battles in information age.

"After several discussions, we decided on new teaching methods for army officers and updated 60 percent courses in 2005," Ma Xiaotian, CUND president was quoted by the paper as saying.

"The information technology is widely adopted in our courses," he said,adding "digital library, simulated operation lab and campus network have all been completed."

In the past, most of the CUND's courses were about military theories and no much difference for different majors, but now practice was stressed and courses were closely linked to the army's actual needs, the paper said.

Zhu Wenyu, an officer who have studied in the CUND twice in less than one year, found what has been taught in the same course before and after the educational reform is totally different.

"In the past, a teacher may continue to talk for two hours but what students' concerned was still unsolved," Zhu said.

"But now, the teacher only talks for half an hour and students do sand table exercise or voice their opinions before the maps for the rest of time," he said.

In addition, the university adopted an open teaching method, according to the paper.

The CUND had more exchanges and cooperation with other universities home and abroad, including Beijing University and Qinghua University, the paper said, adding 300-plus CUND students were sent to study in foreign countries in 2005.

"Last year alone, we have invited over 300 leaders or military officers from three armed services to give speech to our students, " the CUND president Ma Xiaotian said.

For the teachers' qualification, the University paid more attention to their academic degrees and achievements than their practical experience in the past, but now the University highlighted practice both for students and teachers, the paper said.

Source: Xinhua