By ZHU LIXIN in Hefei, Anhui province

zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn 

An Linna, an undergraduate student in her early 20s, has read more than 300 works of literature during the past four years, many of which are detective stories. She also spent a considerable amount of time studying criminal psychology on her own.

As Chinese students are often known for being strongly focused on their textbooks and adept at exams, it might surprise people to learn that An majored in chemistry at the University of Science and Technology of China.

An was enrolled in one of the 11 pilot classes USTC launched in 2009, which were designed to tap the unique skills, interests and strengths of each student.

The classes, which recruited students based mostly on interviews rather than solely on exam scores, were designed with a minimum of compulsory courses and a vast selection of optional subjects.

"More optional courses guarantee that the students have more freedom in study, so as to foster their best personal development," said Zhou Congzhao, dean of USTC.

Zhou said each student is also required to select an on-campus laboratory to work with, so as to learn early how to conduct experiments by themselves during their further studies. Jiang Yi, a professor of modern physics, took part in the recruitment interviews of potential students.

"I would raise questions to see whether the student seemed too focused on textbooks," Jiang said. "What we want are students with truly free minds and innovative thoughts, which offer them more opportunities in future study and research."

Wang Youcheng, one of Jiang's students, said he found the school's teaching style challenging, but inspiring.

"In high school, we cared a lot about exams. At the beginning, I felt a lot of pressure adapting to the teachers' totally different styles. For example, they often raise questions to which you can by no means find a standard answer at the end of lectures," Wang said.

In his junior year, during which he won an internship with the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, based at the USTC, Wang said he often found himself in heated discussions with his tutor, sometimes lasting until midnight.

An and Wang both won opportunities to further their studies abroad this year, with An recruited by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Wang by Johns Hopkins University. In 2013, among the 485 undergraduate students in 11 pilot classes, 459 succeeded in clinching opportunities to further their studies at home or abroad.

Yu Deguang contributed to this story.

China Daily, 2014-06-23