On September 4, China Rare Earth Group held in Ganzhou the opening ceremony for engineering master’s and doctoral students entering enterprise practice, together with a university-enterprise exchange event. Xiong Zhihua, Vice President of our university and a member of its Party Standing Committee, led the delegation. Officials from the School of Excellent Engineers, the Graduate School and three academic divisions, along with faculty supervisor representatives, accompanied him. All 18 engineering master’s students from our university in the National Pilot Program for Engineering Master’s and Doctoral Training Reform attended the ceremony and related Party-building activities, beginning nearly two years of engineering practice.
Yang Guoan, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China Rare Earth Group, attended and spoke. He called on universities and the company to interact closely, jointly fulfill their responsibility for training high-level engineering talent, and provide all-round support for students’ development. He encouraged the students to adapt quickly, strictly follow company rules, hold themselves to high standards, pursue real problems with real solutions, and produce high-quality practical results—completing their studies on time and to standard while helping the company advance technologically. He Chunyan, Deputy General Manager of the group’s Human Resources Department, announced each student’s corporate mentor and preliminary research direction.
Professor Liu Jinbiao of our university spoke as a university supervisor representative. On behalf of the university’s supervisory team, he pledged to stay true to the mission of education, provide precise guidance throughout, deepen university-enterprise collaboration, focus on technological breakthroughs, strictly observe training discipline, uphold bottom-line thinking, and safeguard the quality of joint training.
After the ceremony, university-enterprise exchanges and mentor-student discussions were held. The two sides discussed refining training plans, matching research topics, coordinating dual mentorship, process management and quality assurance, and Party organizational life. A total of 45 engineering master’s and doctoral students attended, from our university and Peking University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Central South University, Lanzhou University, and Kunming University of Science and Technology.
That afternoon and evening, the 18 students from our university joined peers from partner universities on a trip to Yudu for a themed Party-building program, “Red Roots, Green China,” organized by China Rare Earth Group. At the memorial park marking the Central Red Army’s assembly and departure point for the Long March, they visited the monument and museum, listened to a micro-lecture titled “The General Secretary’s Warmth Eased Her Lifelong Sorrow,” and recalled the epic history of 86,000 Central Red Army soldiers crossing the Yudu River at night to begin the 25,000-li Long March. At Chairman Mao’s former residence at Hewu and the old streets, they wove straw sandals by hand, experiencing the Red Army’s spirit of hard struggle and tempering their resolve through labor. That evening, they watched the large-scale revolutionary cultural tourism epic The First Crossing of the Long March, an immersive encounter with the Red Army’s faith and revolutionary spirit that served as a profound spiritual baptism.
The students said they would carry forward the Long March spirit, work hard in enterprise practice, integrate quickly into the company, and adopt a “real problems, real research” approach to scientific and technological challenges. In serving China’s rare earth strategy and high-quality industrial development, they said, they would fulfill the mission of outstanding engineering talent in the new era.
In recent years, our university has set its sights on becoming a world-class university in rare earths and critical minerals. Using the construction of the Nonferrous Metals School of Excellent Engineers as a platform, it has deepened reform of engineering master’s and doctoral training and built joint training mechanisms with industry leaders such as China Rare Earth Group, including dual university-enterprise mentorship and alternating work-study arrangements. The aim is to create a highland for training outstanding engineering talent in rare earths. The collective entry of these 18 engineering master’s students into enterprise practice is an important step in implementing the university’s national pilot reform and another concrete advance in deepening industry-education integration and serving the security of China’s strategic resources.
The 18 students will be taken by the company to production and research units including China Rare Earth (Shenzhen) Research Institute Co., Ltd.; China Rare Earth Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd.; China Southern Rare Earth Group Co., Ltd.; China Rare Earth Group Resources Technology Co., Ltd.; China Rare Earth Jiangxi Rare Earth Co., Ltd.; China Rare Earth (Fujian) Rare Earth Mining Co., Ltd.; and China Rare Earth Group Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. There they will carry out nearly two years of engineering practice. The university will track and support them throughout, deepen university-enterprise collaborative education, and supply more high-quality innovative engineering talent who can stay, perform, and take on major responsibilities for the high-quality development of China’s rare earth industry.
