s part of the Academic Bridging Program, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) held the second SISU International Young Scholars Forum on December 26, 2019. The forum gathered more than 80 scholars from over 30 regions or countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Egypt.

Zhang Jing, vice-president of SISU, noted on the opening ceremony that SISU is the first foreign language education institution established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Starting as a school teaching only one language, Russian, SISU has grown into a multidisciplinary university now known for its “Multilingual+” educational reform.

In recent years, the university has developed a diverse and distinguished mix of first-class disciplines with foreign language and literature as its pillar. It has also promoted research in emerging areas like neurolinguistics.

The forum served as a platform of academic exchanges for global scholars with excellent backgrounds and great potential, in the hope that they could share insights on cutting-edge academic issues and join SISU to boost its “Double First-class” construction. At the forum, the university also promised to provide better service and academic environment for young scholars.

Zhu Chenguang, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (SMEC), considered the forum an effective platform for talent discovery and attraction, which would contribute to Shanghai’s competitiveness as an influential cosmopolitan city.

Shanghai has unveiled a series of policies to attract more high-end talents recently. The SMEC also voiced its commitment to support young scholars by providing greater opportunities and more resources, using the forum as a platform.

Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of EOL.cn and general secretary of Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy, stated that now is a golden time for Chinese scholars overseas to accomplish great things in China. Chen also pointed out that while the building of “Double First-class” and the expansion of higher education are offering more opportunities, competition is strong due to the increase of overseas talents returning. Therefore, Chen called for the attendees to seize the opportunity and start their career at SISU and in Shanghai.

Liang Wei, director of the Office of Human Resources, introduced SISU’s human resource and personnel policies, emphasizing on the university’s recent year’s efforts to attract more high-level talent, including the building of a new salary incentive mechanism, a support system and a career development platform. The policies and efforts have helped create a secure environment for talents, who would in turn grow faster.

Pi Fanqian, head of faculty development, hosted the opening ceremony. Ren Yiping, deputy director of Shanghai Educational Human Resource Exchange and Service Center, and heads of schools and departments attended.

At the opening ceremony, Qiao Guoqiang, director of the Institute of Jewish Studies, and Yu Zucheng, associate professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, shared their own stories of academic pursuit and career development, and welcomed the young scholars to join SISU, a big family with warmth, respect to humanistic values and readiness to support its members.

Qiao pointed out that young scholars should be respectful and kind to themselves. They should have an objective and true understanding of themselves and remember their initial drive to study abroad, so that they can make full play of their advantages in the current domestic environment and contribute to a win-win outcome. Meanwhile, they should respect others, conduct themselves in a low profile way while trying to produce work of the highest quality; thus, accomplishing their true value.

Yu commented that SISU had made a lot of efforts to build itself into a leader of talent development, including providing comprehensive services, great career opportunities, so that the talents could feel supported in an all-round way.

Zhao, a PhD candidate at Alexander University in Egypt, said that she chose to return to China to teach because she saw the strengths of Chinese universities and the many opportunities since the proposition of the Belt and Road initiative. She hoped that she could make contributions to universities and the government in the future by bringing back what she had learned overseas. Dr. Wu from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3, who had lived overseas for a long time, said that attending this forum helped him have a deep understanding of the current employment and academic situation, as well as SISU’s strong support for its talents.

Hu Kaibao, dean of the Institute of Corpus Studies and Applications, said that forums like this allowed face-to-face communication among young scholars, SISU teachers and representatives, which would enhance mutual understanding and create ideal conditions for the recruitment of high-end talents, especially overseas doctoral degree holders without having to travel abroad.

More than 70 scholars attended the first forum last year, where over 30 of them have expressed wishes to work at SISU. So far, 15 joined SISU. Some of these new SISUers have already obtained grants at municipal level, which amounted to some one million yuan. Two of the postdoctoral candidates received a national grants, which would allow them to receive an additional 400 thousand yuan for their two years of research at SISU.

The forum lasted for three days. Held in the afternoon of December 26, the main forum focused on foreign language and literature while the subforums covered a wide range of disciplines including management science, journalism and communication and applied economics. It was reported that after launching of the forum in mid-October, SISU received more than a thousand applications from young scholars based in over 40 countries, a doubling of the number in the previous forum.

The article is translated by Zhang Ruijie, Sheng Lanxin and Hong Yinglu, and proofread by Chen Qinyu, members of the Translation Association of the School of English Studies (SESTA) at Shanghai International Studies University. For use of the content, please contact: ses_translators@163.com.