如果大学不把基础研究和应用研究区分开，永远无法培养出真正需要的人才

文/约翰·霍普克罗夫特（John Hopcroft，美） 译/李睿 杨韫利

2020年12月19日，图灵奖获得者、中国科学院外籍院士、北京大学访问讲席教授、前沿计算研究中心主任约翰·霍普克罗夫特（John Hopcroft）受邀在2020中国计算机教育大会作题为《以教育质量提升助力中国经济发展》的主旨报告，介绍他与中国工程院院士、北京大学教授高文于2018年共同发起“高校计算机专业优秀教师奖励计划”的初衷。以下由北京大学前沿计算研究中心翻译整理自报告原文，小标题为编者所加，以飨读者。

今天我们在这里表彰和奖励一批杰出的教师。54位获奖教师是通过严格的评审程序，从中国的44所优秀大学中选拔出来的。

中国大学需要专注提升教学质量

20年前，中国的父母们开始意识到，他们的孩子需要接受大学教育才能找到一份理想的工作。为了满足人们对高等教育的迫切需要，中国每年新建近50所大学，增加了70万名教师来教授新增的6000万本科生。如今，中国已经具备了为众多学生提供教育的基本条件，重点开始转向提升教育的质量。

中国的一些顶尖大学创建了精英班，每个班选拔25—30名学生。然而，这些精英班的规模太小了，远远不能满足需求。另外，许多精英班的学生毕业后选择去海外深造，留在中国申请理工科博士学位的高质量学生相对有限。

人才在世界各地是均匀分布的，但机会却并非如此。中国拥有全世界1/5的人才，所有的优秀学生都希望进入顶尖大学，接受最好的教育。我曾作为客座教授，在中国的几所大学教过刚入学的新生，他们的水平完全不逊于美国大学的新生，甚至更好。然而，当我教大三的学生时，我发现他们在知识水平和能力上已落后于美国同年级的学生。我意识到，这可能是中国大学的教育质量出现了问题。

曾有一所中国C9（九校联盟）高校邀请我帮他们的计算机系招聘老师。两年后，这些新老师都离开了这所大学。我询问原因，得到的答复是，学校的大环境只注重研究经费和论文发表数量，对教学质量的关注度非常低。我和其他一些中国大学的老师们交流过这个现象，他们也有同感。

中国的大学需要提升本科教育质量。大学校长每届任期5年，他们普遍认为，提高大学的国际排名是校长任期内工作成效的最佳体现之一。然而，现有的国际排名评价体系主要是基于研究经费的多少和发表论文的数量，这给老师们带来了压力。为了晋升，他们把大量时间花在经费申请和论文发表上。我想说的是，如果校长们希望提高学校的排名和声誉，他们需要专注于教学质量的提升。

应运而生的“高校计算机专业优秀教师奖励计划”

一些新入职的助理教授要为资深教授工作，而不是指导他们自己的研究生。无论是经费申请还是论文发表都与本科生教育没有直接关系。很明显，大学培养下一代人才的使命不知何故被忽视了。

创建“高校计算机专业优秀教师奖励计划”就是为了表彰注重教学的优秀教师，并希望大学能够调整重心，重视本科生教学质量。在李克强总理的鼓励和教育部的支持下，以评估老师教学质量为目的的“高校计算机专业优秀教师奖励计划”应运而生。对大学本科教学质量的评估需要一个衡量标准。该计划的评估标准基于对老师教学质量的评价，而非研究经费和论文发表数量。评估的过程得到了中国一些单位的捐赠支持，他们将此视为一项长期投资，以满足对其发展至关重要的人才的需求。2020年的捐赠单位包括：字节跳动、科大讯飞、腾讯基金会、平安科技。

评估涉及两个问题：授课质量和课程内容。为了评估授课质量，“奖励计划”评审专家组分派两位专家随机旁听每位候选人的两堂课，并使用记分卡为所听的课程评分。记分卡包括以下内容：教师对讲授课程内容和教材的掌握度；教师是否对教学内容保持兴奋态度；教师是否和学生有良好的课堂互动；全程认真听课的学生比例（或有多少学生在低头玩手机）；学生是否准时到达教室上课；教师是否使用幻灯片或黑板。最后，专家会针对课堂的整体情况提供一段评价。

评估工作开始于2018年。作为试点，我们首先对中国C9高校的计算机专业教学情况进行了评估。2019年，该计划的评估范围扩大到国内的44所大学。

我们原计划在2020年春季表彰这54位获奖老师，同时启动新一轮的评估工作，但新冠肺炎疫情打乱了我们的计划。

霍普克罗夫特教授在2020中国计算机教育大会讲话

我们还计划通过评估结果告诉大学的校长们，他们的学校在计算机专业的本科教育上表现如何：排前1/4，前一半还是后一半。然而，这一年校长们忙于在疫情的侵袭下维持大学的正常运转，可能没有多余的精力关注我们想要传达的信息。

2021年春季开始，我们将重新启动评估工作，并希望创建一份针对教学质量的大学排名，这样家长们就会知道孩子申请哪所大学能够获得最好的教育。中国大学的校长们有着极高的素质和才能，他们完全有能力迅速将学校的教学质量提升到斯坦福、伯克利和康奈尔等大学的水平。

大学的使命是培养人才

大学的使命是培养下一代人才，而不是搞研究。那么，为什么我们又希望老师们从事研究呢？教师的职业生涯大约是40年，我们希望老师们能够在其领域保持前沿水平，不希望他们一成不变地教着40年前的教材，没有任何更新和改变。优秀教师会紧跟其领域的发展，不断学习，参与研究就是表现之一。这里强调的不是老师的研究水平高低。比如，有的老师可能只是针对一个已知结果寻找更简单的证明，或对一些经典的理论知识找到一种更好的教学方法。我们看重的是老师是否有求知欲，是否会随着所在领域的变化而发展，是否关心学生的成功。

第二次世界大战之后，美国意识到科学在战争中起到的重要作用，决定大力发展科学。他们提出了两类科学研究的划分：应用科学和基础科学。

应用科学是为解决具体问题而进行的研究。美国有足够多的研究员和工程师。因此，当一家企业甚至是整个国家遇到问题，他们可以聘请所需的研究人员来解决。如果企业有需要，他们可以直接聘请人才；如果政府有需要，他们会通过国家实验室聘请研究人员。

与之不同的是，基础科学不以具体问题为导向，而单纯是好奇心驱动的研究。这部分研究适合在大学开展。同时，大学还将承担培养下一代研究人员的责任。资助基础科学研究是极其重要的。它不仅培养了下一代研究人员，还可能在不经意间开创一个全新的领域，新的产业和上百万的就业机会也会应运而生。

目前，中国还没有培养出足够数量的科学和工程类人才来满足其对于应用科学研究的需要。因此，中国的大学教师必须同时兼顾应用科学和基础科学的研究。然而，如果大学不把应用科学和基础科学的研究区分开，他们永远无法培养出真正需要的人才。大学的经费应当用来资助基础科学研究，应用科学研究应由有相关需求的企业和政府机构来资助。最终，应用科学研究应该走出校园，就像麻省理工学院创建的林肯实验室、斯坦福大学创建的斯坦福研究院那样。

未来，教育是重中之重

未来，教育是重中之重。那些在人工智能等重要领域培养出优秀人才的国家将会吸引企业投资，开创新兴产业，推动国家经济发展。国家的价值将由人才决定，而不是煤炭、石油、木材等物质资源。

人工智能的出现将淘汰大量低水平的工作，从事高水平的工作需要大学教育。当代学生在走出校园的若干年后，可能在工业界或政府担任重要职位，到那时，狭隘的科学教育带来的问题将逐渐显现。正因如此，即使是理工学科，在培养方案中加入历史、人文以及社会科学课程也是非常重要的。

大学教育不仅是为了让学生毕业后得到一份工作，也是为了让他们更好地体验和享受人生。在职业生涯之余，他们也有机会享受音乐、运动和旅行。他们需要的不仅是理工学科的知识，还有综合素质的培养。

做一名教师是很有意义的工作，因为40年后你们退休的时候，终有一天你们会对自己帮助过的学生以及为国家作出的贡献感到骄傲。

中国有一句名言很适合今天的大会：“一年之计，莫如树谷；十年之计，莫如树木；终身之计，莫如树人。”今天在座的优秀教师们正在做的就是“百年树人”的工作——为国家培养优秀人才。他们意识到了教育的重要性，希望为中国的长远发展贡献自己的力量。

December 19th, 2020, the Turing Award winner John Hopcroft, a visiting professor at Peking University and the Director of PKU Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies, made a keynote speech on The Role of Improving Education in China’s Economic Growth at the 2020 Computer Education Conference of China. Below is his full thought-provoking speech.

Today we are here to recognize and honor a group of outstanding faculty. They have been selected by a rigorous process where faculty who care about quality of teaching sat in on lectures of computer science faculty at the top 44 universities in China and selected the 54 teachers that we are recognizing here today.

Universities in China need to focus on improving teaching quality

Twenty years ago parents began to realize that their children needed a college education to get a good job. To prevent unhappy citizens, China needed to provide the capacity to meet this demand. China created approximately 50 universities per year and added 700,000 faculty to handle an additional sixty million undergraduates. Now that the educational capacity has been met, the focus has switched to creating quality.

A number of top universities in China created elite programs with twenty-five to thirty students that are world class. However, the elite programs are too small for China’s needs. Many of the graduates from these elite programs go abroad for their PhD. There are not enough high-quality applicants for China’s PhD programs in science and engineering.

Talent is uniformly distributed around the world but opportunity is not.China has one fifth of the world’s talent and its students want to get into one of the top universities. As a visiting professor I have taught incoming freshmen in Chinese universities who are the equivalent or even better than freshmen in the US. However, when I taught juniors, I noticed a substantial difference in preparation and abilities. This probably happens because of the quality of university education in China. One of the C9 universities invited me to help hire faculty for their CS

Department. After two years, these new hires left the university and I asked them why. They said that the environment was focused on research funding and publication of papers. There was little recognition of quality teaching. There was too much emphasis on seeking research funding and publishing papers.Dedicated faculty at the university that I talked with concurred.

Universities in China need to improve undergraduate education. University presidents have five-year terms and then will be assigned a new job. They believe that if they improve the international ranking of their institution they will be assigned a higher-level position. However, International rankings are based on increasing research funding and the number of papers published. This puts pressure on faculty to spend all their time raising research money and publishing papers in order to be promoted. If presidents desire to raise the ranking of their school, they need to focus on improving the quality of teaching.

Reason to create the program of evaluating undergraduate teaching and recognizing the best faculty

Often the junior faculty work for the senior faculty and do not supervise their own graduate students. Neither fund-raising nor writing papers for publication has anything to do with undergraduate education. It became apparent that somehow the mission of the university, which is to produce the next generation of talent, was being overlooked.

The reason for creating this program of evaluating undergraduate teaching in computer science and recognizing the best faculty was to fix the educational environment in universities and put the focus on quality of teaching.

With the blessing of Premier Li Keqiang who wants quality education for China and the permission of the Ministry of Education, a program was developed to start evaluating the level of teaching. Rating universities on the quality of undergraduate teaching requires a metric. Instead of papers and fundraising,faculty would be judged on the quality of their teaching and their international reputation as viewed by people in the field.The process was funded by a group of companies in China who envisioned this as a long-term investment to increase the talent pool essential to their growth. In 2020, the set of companies include: Bytedance, iFlyTek, Tencent Foundation, and Ping An Technology.

Evaluation considered two issues: the quality of the lecture and the content of the course. To evaluate the quality of the lecture,two emeritus faculty members, or faculty known to be committed to outstanding teaching and who were without bias, sat in on two lectures of each faculty member and used a score card to evaluate the quality of the lecture. The score card consisted of the following items:

Is the faculty member knowledgeable with current material?Is the faculty member excited about the material? Does the faculty member engage the students? What percentage of the students are following the class, at the beginning and at the end? How many are on their cellphones? Did the students arrive on time? Did the faculty member use PowerPoint or the blackboard?

The evaluation process started three years ago when we evaluated teaching in computer science at the top nine universities in China. Two years ago the program was expanded to the top 44 universities in China.

We had planned to recognize these 54 outstanding faculty in Spring of 2020 and had hoped to Start the next round of evaluations of the top 44 institutions by then, but the virus played havoc with our plans.

We had also planned to tell university presidents how well their undergraduate education programs were doing: whether they were in the top quarter, the top half but not the top quarter, or in the bottom half. However, we felt that the presidents were totally focused on running their institution with the virus and that our message would be lost.

We restarted the evaluation this spring and hope to create a ranking of institutions so parents will know which school their children should apply to in order to get the best education. University presidents are of very high quality and talented. They could quickly bring top institutions up to the quality of Stanford, Berkeley, and Cornell.

The mission of universing is to create talent

The mission of a university is to create the next generation of talent, not research. Thus, why do we want faculty engaged in research? The career of a faculty member is roughly 40 years and we want faculty to keep abreast of their evolving field. We do not want them teaching 40-year-old material, if it is no longer important. Curious faculty will keep abreast of the field.Being involved in research is a sign of curiosity. We do not look at how state of the art a faculty member’s research is. A faculty member might just be researching how to find a simpler proof of a known result or a better way to teach some known item.Things we look for in a faculty member is if they are curious and will develop with changes in their field and if they care about the success of all their students.

After World War II the United States realized how important a role science played in the war and made a decision to fund science. They created two classes of science: applied and basic.Applied science is research done to solve a specific problem.The United States has enough scientists and engineers so if a company or the country has a problem, they can hire the researchers necessary to solve the problem. If a company has a problem they need to solve they will hire the talent directly. If the government has a problem they will hire researchers and carry it out in a national laboratory in a timely fashion.

Basic research, on the other hand, is research someone does simply because they are curious about it. There often is no application, only curiosity. A decision was made to carry out basic research in universities where it would train a new generation of researchers. The decision to fund basic research was extremely important. Not only did it educate new researchers but occasionally it led to a new field of research not even envisioned. It created new industries and millions of jobs.

At this moment China has not developed a sufficient quantity of science and engineering talent to meet their need for applied research. Thus, faculty in Chinese universities engage in both applied and basic research. However, if universities do not keep applied and basic research separate, they will never produce the talent that they need. It is appropriate for the university budget to fund basic research. However, applied research should be funded by the companies and government agencies that request it. Ultimately, the applied research should be moved off campus as the US universities like MIT did in creating Lincoln Laboratory and Stanford did in creating Stanford Research Institute.

In the future, education will be important

In the future education will be important. Those nations that create talent in important areas such as AI will attract companies, create new enterprises, and grow their gross domestic product. The importance of nations will be determined by talent rather than physical resources such as coal, oil, or timber.

The advent of AI will automate low-level jobs, which will be eliminated. Higher quality jobs will require a university education. As students get older, they may be in important positions in industry or government and a narrow science education would be a problem. For this reason, it is important that science and engineering curricula include courses in history, the social sciences, and the humanities.

Universities need to educate students not just so they will get an important job but also so that they will enjoy life. During their careers they will have opportunities to enjoy music, sports,travel. They will need exposure to more than just science or engineering.

I found a Chinese Proverb that is perfect for today: If you would plan for one year, plant rice. If you would plan for ten years,plant an apple tree. If you would plan for one hundred years,educate people. Many of our outstanding faculty are planning for a hundred years.They recognize the importance of education and want to make the nation’s environment good for all individuals.