Since the reform and opening up, China has made great achievements in urbanization. The status of urban governance in national governance has become increasingly prominent. In December 2015, The Central Urban Work Conference was held in Beijing. Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the meeting, analyzing the urban development situation and clarifying the guiding principle, general guidelines and key tasks of the urban work. The requirement of "accelerating the modernization of urban society governance" was put forward at The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC, which has become the direction of promoting the modernization of urban governance system and governance capacity. "Promoting the coordinated regional development and the new type of urbanization", "promoting the people-oriented new-type urbanization", "building sponge cities and resilient cities" and "improve the level of urban governance, and strengthen the risk prevention in the governance of megacities" were proposed at The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, all of which provide the direction for promoting the modernization of urban governance.
In recent years, Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University always bears in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's important remarks on urban work. With the mission of the national development strategy, the transformation of public administration disciplines, and the need to achieve world-class standards, a "new liberal arts" talent training system featuring "value guidance, broad foundation, technological support, and pragmatic innovation" has been formed, a "new liberal arts" teaching and research team with "diversified subject background, internationalization of scientific research and localization of social services" has been built, forming a construction path of urban management major with Nankai style, striving to promote the construction of urban management as "new liberal arts" to the new level, and cultivate high-quality talents for the modernization of urban governance system and governance capacity.
1. A dynamic discipline with early start, rapid growth and outstanding achievement
As early as 2005, Zhou Enlai School of Government in Nankai University took the lead in studying the urban issues in China systematically. In June 2012, Nankai university and Glasgow university signed the undergraduate major cooperation memorandum of urban management, which included 3 + 1 cooperative Bachelor’s Degree Program and 3 + 1 + 1 combined Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Program. The major of urban management undergraduate was established in 2013. Nankai-Glasgow joint graduate school recruited "1 + 1" urban economy and urban planning master approved by the Ministry of Education in 2015. In 2016 and 2019, The major of Urban Development and Management was successively approved as a master's and doctoral program
2. Young, international and influential faculty
After years of efforts and construction, the urban management discipline of Nankai University has gathered a group of high-level experts and scholars. The urban management team always adheres to the concept of " youth , international and multi-disciplinary". The academic background of the scholars covers administrative management, political science, urban planning, geographic information, economics, sociology, management science and engineering, public policy, etc.. It leads the academic trend in domestic academic research.
In recent years, the research team has been publishing more than 300 high-level papers in well-known home and overseas journals such as Public Administration Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Urban Affair Review, Journal of Cleaner Production , People's Daily, Guangming Daily, China Social Science, Management World, Political Science, China Administration and Journal of Public Administration.
In terms of scientific research projects, Nankai university urban management teaching and research team has been chairing six national major projects and key projects, chairing more than 50 provincial and ministerial-level projects such as the national natural science fund and the national social science fund and so on, which focus on "urban government responsibility system" "urban risk prevention and control", "urban grassroots governance" "megacities governance" "urban big data governance", etc. In terms of cooperation with local governments, the team has successively been approved for Shenzhen major project of "flow city and management ability modernization", Tianjin municipal education commission major project of " Tianjin community governance modernization research after entering a well-off society ", Tianjin key research project "Tianjin grassroots governance modernization research", Yibin city major project "urban-rural fringe new community governance practice and exploration". In recent years, the teaching and research team has undertaken a total fund of more than 25 million yuan for various projects.
3. Cultivation mode based on broad vision, solid foundation and strong capability
The talent training concept of urban management discipline of Nankai University draws on the concept of "integration of knowledge and action", and has formed a whole-chain training mode with Chinese characteristics, technological support, international perspective, scientific research assistance and practice orientation. The talent training program has been gradually improved. Urban management discipline direction focuses on urban government responsibilities, smart city construction, urban grassroots governance, urban agglomeration and metropolitan area governance, regional governance and regional policy, housing policy and other issues, trying to break down professional barriers, promote interdisciplinary deep integration of arts, science, engineering, integrate the domestic curriculum system with foreign well-known universities. Since the establishment of the undergraduate major, it has cooperated with Glasgow University, which ranks first in urban science in the UK. The urban management discipline has now formed an international and high-level complete bechalor-master-doctoral talent training chain in China.
4. A teaching system that looks forward to the forefront, emphasizes integration, and strengthens intelligence
The urban management major of Nankai University bears high-level teaching bases and a series of branding courses. In 2015, the Social Science Integrated Experimental Teaching Center, which is based on the Digital Urban Governance Laboratory and other platforms, was approved as the Tianjin Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center. In 2018, The "Smart City" major jointly built by the Urban Management Teaching Team, the College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering and the College of Environmental Sciences, received the support by the first batch of "new engineering" research and practice projects of the Ministry of Education. In 2019, The Urban Management teaching team was supported by the teaching team of Nankai University, "Evaluation and Improvement about Talent Training Model of Urban Management major" was awarded the first-class undergraduate education and teaching reform project of Nankai University, and The Computational Social Science Laboratory was awarded as the first batch of liberal arts laboratories in Tianjin. In 2020, "Exploration of the New Liberal Arts Training Model of Urban Management" won the second prize of teaching achievements of Nankai University, and "Chinese Government and Politics" was awarded the national first-class undergraduate course. In 2021, the "Chinese Government and Politics" undergraduate course teaching team was awarded as Master Teachers and Teaching Team of the ideological and political teaching in Tianjin, the Urban Management major was awarded the first-class undergraduate major in Tianjin, and the undergraduate courses such as "Government Emergency Management" and "Urban Environment and Municipal Engineering Management Practice" were awarded as first-class undergraduate construction courses in Tianjin. Since 2020, the "Smart Teaching of Urban Risk Management Course" and "Curriculum Research on Urban Governance and Urban Politics" hosted by the teaching team have successively won the Tianjin Social Science Planning Project (Education Reform Project), and projects such as "Study on Reform and Innovation of Experimental Teaching of ‘Smart Governance’ Course" "Computational Social Science Laboratory Construction" and "Urban Management New Liberal Arts Major Construction" respectively received the support of the teaching content and curriculum system reform project about industry and teaching cooperation, practice conditions and practice base construction projects and new liberal arts construction projects of the Ministry of Education.
5. Diversified, capable and compound students cultivation
In recent years, students have successively won awards in national academic activities and practical activities, and published articles in high-level journals. Students have won the first prize in the fourth National University Students' Urban Management Competition, the second prize in the inter-university finals of the National University "Mock Mayor" Competition, the grand prize in the Tianjin Public Administration Case Competition, the first prize in the International Case Analysis Competition of Public Policy of Tsinghua University, and the second prize in the Urban Governance Case Competition of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Students majoring in urban management have won more than 30 projects, including the "South Reviews" research China project, the national university students innovative experiment plan project, the innovative experiment plan project for university students in Tianjin, and Lanping Seed project of Tianjin planning institute. The postgraduate students and doctoral students majoring in urban management have successively published papers in top journals such as VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, Applied Geograph, Journal of Cleaner Production, "Chinese Public Administration" and "Journal of Public Management".
The quality of urban management major graduates has been widely praised by all walks of life. For further study, 94.8% of undergraduate graduates went to University of Cambridge, King’s College London, the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, University of Sheffield, University of Chicago, Cornell University, Columbia University, University of Texas, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Nankai University for further study . At present, many students have successfully completed their studies and obtained employment , filling the talent gap of urban management major positions. In terms of employment direction, about one third are employed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Transportation and Communication, education and other deployment planning and design institutes, such as China Urban Planning and Design Institute, China Urban Construction Planning and Design Institute, Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute, etc. One third are in charge of asset development, investment, and construction work at State-owned enterprises, central enterprises, large private enterprises and other investment and financing development platforms, such as China Resources Land., Longfor Properties.,Cinda Investment., Beijing Infrastructure Investment, etc. One third enter the relevant business and management departments of urban management by the selection of selected students or civil service recruitment
The Urban Management discipline of Nankai University will follow the global urban development trend, grasp the main line of China's rapid urbanization, and build a talent training system with wide vision, solid foundation, strong capabilities. Combining with modern information technology, big data and engineering technology to boost the "Liberal Arts Revitalization" plan and to promote the urban management discipline to become an important fulcrum of the "New Liberal Arts", build a curriculum system that combines "art, science, and engineering" to realize the integration of resources across disciplines, fields and departments. Based on the requirements of national and regional development strategies, it will build a high-level decision-making think tank catering to the needs of national and local governments, further expand the influence of Nankai University at the national and regional levels, and provide "Nankai Ideas" and "Nankai Plans" for the sustainable development of "Urban China".
