Recently, Pan Yishan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Secretary of the CPC Committee of Liaoning University granted an exclusive interview to a reporter from Outlook Weekly. Here is the reprinted original report:
The introduction of authentic problems aims to bridge the long-standing gap between campuses and society, integrating classroom learning with real-life scenarios. This approach emphasizes not only in-depth study of theoretical knowledge but also profound comprehension of practical experiences.
Under the strategic deployment of integrated advancement of education, science and technology, and talent cultivation, higher education institutions must sustain innovation by promoting the construction of an integrated educational mechanism that connects social realities with genuine challenges across talent cultivation, scientific research, and social services. This effort will foster breakthrough catalysts for achieving Chinese modernization and new breakthroughs in Liaoning’s comprehensive revitalization.
Written by Outlook Weekly reporters: Guo Bensheng, Niu Jiwei, Wang Rengui, Yue Dong
As the only Double First-Class Construction Initiative under the jurisdiction of Liaoning Province, Liaoning University adheres to the construction standards of Chinese characteristics and world-class excellence, upholds the philosophy that serving Liaoning is serving the nation, ventures into real-life scenarios with authentic problems, spurs the future of the revitalization of Northeast China through education, and contributes to regional socioeconomic development.
When exclusively interviewed by Outlook Weekly’s reporter, Pan Yishan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Secretary of the CPC Committee of Liaoning University noted that in its practical exploration, Liaoning University has always been grateful to the times, kept pace with the times, and lived up to the times. It courageously shoulders the mission of fostering talents for the Party and nurturing talents for the nation, cultivating more top-notch innovators who can meet the needs of social progress and the revitalization and development of Liaoning. Through this, it has forged a distinctive education path uniquely tailored to Liaoning University.
Researching Authentic Problems and Addressing Practical Needs
Outlook Weekly: LNU has repeatedly emphasized the need to cultivate innovative talents with problem awareness and problem-solving abilities. What is the significance of this problem-oriented approach？
Pan Yishan: On university campuses, the word most frequently mentioned by faculty and students is innovation. But how to innovate is often overlooked.
With the transformation of knowledge production models in human society, universities need to break free from traditional boundaries and deeply integrate with real-life scenarios in society, achieving cross-sector integration among universities, enterprises, governments, and society. Therefore, we have proposed the concept of authentic problems, aiming to cultivate more innovative talents with problem awareness and problem-solving abilities.
What constitutes an authentic problem? Problems are not conjured from thin air but rooted in social contexts: in fields such as production, operations, management, technology, and products, and in real-life settings like factories, workshops, enterprises, communities, and rural villages. The concept of authentic problems is proposed to bridge the long-standing gap between campuses and society, integrating classroom learning with real-life scenarios, and encouraging deep engagement not only with written knowledge but also with the unwritten wisdom of practical experience.
How to capture authentic problems? We encourage faculty and students to step outside campus, immerse themselves in Liaoning's practices of Chinese-style modernization, and engage with the dynamics of societal progress. They can identify and refine problems rooted in reality through observation, participation and experience. These problems are then brought back to the classroom, integrated into teaching practices, and serve as topics for students’ graduation projects or entries in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions. Ultimately, this process fosters the development of new theories or innovative solutions and approaches to address these challenges.
Outlook Weekly: How does Liaoning University implement its problem-oriented educational philosophy focusing on authentic problems in concrete practices?
Pan Yishan: First, transforming the educational philosophy. Previously, our approach was centered on what we wanted to do, what we intended to do, and what we were capable of doing. Now, it has evolved to what we should do—a shift from prioritizing our own agenda to aligning with societal needs. This represents integrating the micro-logic of higher education’s own development into the macro-logic of national progress, marking a leap from self-centered perspective to a society-driven orientation. We have proposed the philosophy of Going Out, Going Deep, Going Up, which translates to venturing beyond campus to identify real-life scenarios, immersing in society to uncover genuine challenges, and advancing to the forefront to drive practical innovations. Going Out reflects a proactive mindset to seek opportunities outside the academic bubble. Going Deep involves delving into specific industries and corporate standards to understand their operational nuances. Going Up aims to leverage disciplinary expertise to develop cutting-edge solutions that address societal needs.
Second, building a data platform. To broaden the sources of authentic problems and make data more centralized and visualized, the university has created Kangua Network (Kangua literally means chopping melon). Named after a type of gourd that can be harvested incrementally and regrows rapidly with strong self-healing capabilities, the platform symbolizes a steady stream of authentic problems acting as nourishment for innovation among faculty and students. Currently, Kangua Network hosts over 1,100 real-life scenarios spanning urban areas, rural villages, enterprises, and factories, with a total of more than 30,000 genuine problems and 18,000 registered users.
Third, innovating research platforms. There has long been a misconception that liberal arts-oriented universities struggle to find effective ways to serve local comm unities with tangible results. To bridge this gap, Liaoning University has systematically expanded its collaboration model—starting from pilot projects, advancing to key initiatives, and ultimately scaling up province-wide partnerships—establishing 14 urban research institutes across 13 cities and one prefecture in Liaoning. For cities, these partnerships address intellectual bottlenecks, critical challenges, and operational obstacles in industrial development. For the university, this marks a departure from the past when faculty members confined themselves to campus brainstorming for research topics and students relied on online platforms to select graduation project themes. Today, through urban research institutes, authentic problems from local enterprises and sectors such as production, operations, management, technology, and products are channeled directly to the university, serving as research topics for faculty and themes for students’ graduation projects, innovation competitions, and entrepreneurship ventures. This approach has proven successful: Liaoning University now has a visible presence in societal contributions, effectively aligning academic expertise with regional development needs.
Contributing LNU Proposal to Revitalizing Northeast China
Outlook Weekly: Orientated at satisfying real-life application scenarios and in the context of well-rounded revitalization of Northeast China, what measure would LNU take to serve regional socioeconomic development?
Pan Yishan: LNU fully leverages its location advantage and multidisciplinary advantage as a comprehensive university, making recommendations for regional socioeconomic development.
University-local cooperation has effectively addressed long-standing challenges. Taking urban research institutes as platforms, Liaoning University has deepened partnerships with local governments and enterprises, establishing fixed doctoral workstations, mobile expert workstations, and rural revitalization workstations to comprehensively promote deep integration of industry, academia, and research. For example, Shan Weijun, Dean of the Anshan Urban Research Institute, identified a critical issue in Mushroom Town, Xiuyan County: large-scale and high-yield mushroom cultivation generated massive waste that was improperly discarded, polluting the environment. His team transformed spent mushroom roots through deep processing into mushroom-based chicken feed, resulting in antibiotic-free eco-friendly mushroom-fed chicken eggs. Additionally, they developed chicken manure-based mushroom stick biomass composite fertilizer, effectively resolving the contradiction between economic development and environmental pollution.
Research efforts are precision-targeted to address real-world challenges. The university organizes expert teams to conduct field investigations across Liaoning, focusing on real-life challenges in industrial development to provide consultative advice for local macro-decision-making. For instance, during a field investigation in Xiaozhuangzi Town, Suizhong County, Huludao City, researchers discovered that non-degradable plastic mulch used in cold frame potato cultivation was causing severe soil compaction. While visiting a new materials technology company in Yingkou City as part of their new energy industry research, the team learned about an innovative solution that could reduce production costs while solving the mulch problem. This led to a breakthrough: the team brokered a partnership between the Xiaozhuangzi Town government and the company, resulting in a win-win scenario that both addressed environmental concerns and increased farmers’ incomes.
To enhance service accuracy and crystallize the scientific value of authentic problems, the university has inaugurated a format of Authentic Problem Release Conferences at its urban research institutes, directly facilitating communication between university experts, teachers and enterprises. During these conferences, we collaboratively address challenges such as brand building, industrial chain integration, cultural-tourism convergence, and traditional industry upgrading with enterprises and institutions from regions including Benxi City, Xingcheng County, Huludao City, and Dandong City. Through these exchanges, partnerships have been forged with multiple companies, effectively advancing the promotion and transformation of research outcomes.
Outlook Weekly: What progress has the university made in developing its think tanks to serve national strategies and promote the transformation of research outcomes?
Pan Yishan: Some university faculty members produce research outcomes disconnected from societal realities, focusing solely on what they want to do, what they intend to do, and what they are capable of doing. We advocate for faculty to immerse themselves in real-life contexts, engage deeply with practical challenges, and commit to conducting research that addresses tangible societal needs.
Ensuring the credibility of think-tank outcomes. The university requires research teams to closely monitor international events, national reform trends, and the economic and social development situation in Liaoning Province to provide decision-making consultations. For example, the team led by Song Limin conducted in-depth research in multiple medical institutions and elderly care service centers across Northeast China, offering solutions for establishing a population policy system that aligns with the comprehensive revitalization of the Northeast.
Ensuring think-tank outputs are actionable. To align research with practical needs, we've established a system where externally recruited and internally cultivated talents are clearly labeled by their specialized expertise—ensuring that every challenge in Liaoning’s revitalization can be matched with a corresponding academic team at Liaoning University. For example, the proposal by Bi Deli’s team on leveraging the Northeast China Land-Sea New Corridor to build a Northeast Asia Economic Circle was adopted as a key component of the Liaoning delegation’s official recommendation at the Fifth Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress. This directly advanced the inclusion of the Northeast Asia Land-Sea New Corridor into China’s national development strategy.
Ensuring think-tank outputs are impactful. The university operates over 170 think tank platforms spanning ministerial, provincial, municipal, and university levels, conducting research on cutting-edge and forward-looking fields such as the sense of community for the Chinese nation, regional and area studies, digital economy, marine economy, rural revitalization, revitalization of the Northeast, free trade pilot zones, and new forms of productivity. This effort has established renowned think tank brands including Strategic Insight, Liaoning University Think Tank Briefings, Liaoning Local Development Research Reports, Liaoning University Research Briefs, and Overseas Think Tank Insights.
Driving Continuous Innovation in Scenario-Driven Contexts
Outlook Weekly: Under the influence of its authentic problem-oriented philosophy, what strengths and notable achievements has Liaoning University demonstrated in disciplinary development and talent cultivation?
Pan Yishan: In disciplinary development, Liaoning University demonstrates significant traction through its Double First-Class initiative disciplines. The university’s applied economics, a national Double First-Class discipline, advanced to the A-category in the Fifth Round of National Disciplinary Evaluations, with seven disciplines selected for the provincial government’s new Double First-Class initiative. Driven by these flagship disciplines, the university has achieved breakthroughs in three major national awards for science and engineering and the Ministry of Education’s Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements Award (Science and Technology). It has also secured approval for a ministerial key laboratory. The university has assembled disciplinary teams led by Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Fellows of the International Economic Association, and Distinguished Professors under national talent programs, laying a solid foundation for sustainable development.
Regarding talent cultivation, the university persists in embedding itself throughout the entire societal service chain. It has established a closed-loop cultivation model that encompasses problem identification, research breakthroughs, achievement transformation, and feedback into teaching. Faculty and students are organized to conduct in-depth research across various regions of the province, turning authentic problems into research topics and teaching cases. A dynamic evaluation mechanism involving enterprises is set up, where enterprise experts are invited to participate in the review of projects such as the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for Undergraduates, thereby enhancing the alignment between research and practical demands. Over the past three years, the competition topics based on authentic problems have won more than 1,000 national awards. Moreover, student teams have received over 200 provincial or higher-level awards in competitions like “Internet +” and Challenge Cup.
Outlook Weekly: How does the university plan its future development blueprint to cultivate high-quality talents capable of Going Out of campus, Going Deep into society, and Going Up to the forefront?
Pan Yishan: Higher education has entered a scenario-driven innovation phase. Under the strategic deployment of integrated advancement of education, science and technology, and talent cultivation, institutions must sustain innovation in higher education by promoting the construction of an integrated mechanism for talent cultivation, scientific research, and social services that connects real-life scenarios with genuine challenges. This will foster breakthrough catalysts for achieving Chinese modernization and new breakthroughs in Liaoning’s comprehensive revitalization.
Enhancing the Authentic Problem Plus Education System. The university continuously integrates authentic problems into classroom teaching to establish a curriculum foundation rooted in practical challenges. It fully introduces a formative assessment system to create an assessment basis aligned with real-life needs. Authentic problems are also fully incorporated into graduation projects as a topic pool and integrated into innovation and entrepreneurship education as a practical application base, thereby continuously improving the relevance of talent cultivation.
Creating an AI+ Education Model. The university is driving AI-powered innovation in education and teaching reforms, starting with pilot programs in its advantaged and distinctive disciplines. It systematically implements AI+ majors, AI+ courses, AI+ teaching, AI+ learning, and AI+ assessment, exploring and practicing reforms across the entire spectrum of educational philosophy, teaching methodologies, and cultivation models.
