On the afternoon of January 5, 2012, Hu Heping, the Party Secretary of the University and Xie Weihe, Vice President of the University, visited the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and had a formal discussion with the administration committee and the directors and deputy directors from each department and research center. In the discussion, Hu and Xie collected the opinions from the professors in SHSS about the further development of relevant disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Hu indicated that SHSS has made contributions to the establishment of Tsinghua University as a world-class comprehensive university in the fields of liberal arts. In the Sixth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Communist Party of China formulated the strategy of promoting cultural prosperity and emphasized the importance of cultural inheritance and innovation. This provides our school a great opportunity for the development of philosophy and social sciences.

Hu also emphasized that the university would continue pushing forward the development of philosophy and social sciences actively and steadily. With the existing basis, and through further development, construction and reformation, we hope to complete a better organization and structure for SHSS and to generate more incentive for a long-term development in each discipline. Xie expressed his expectations and demands of continuous development momentum and better performance on the first level disciplines in China Discipline Ranking (CDR). Finally, Hu and Xie sent their New Year’s best wishes to the faculty members.

In the discussion, directors from each department and research center offered some advice about the development in each discipline in different circumstances. The discussion was presided over by Xie Weihe, and leaders from University Liberal Arts Office also attended the discussion.