BEIJING: The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period is critical for laying a solid foundation toward basic socialist modernization and for accelerating the revitalization of rural China. As the mainstay for serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers, agricultural universities have a distinct responsibility. With a history of 120 years, Sichuan Agricultural University has remained committed to strengthening agriculture and contributing to national and regional development.
Entering the new chapter of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the university will align closely with national priorities and advance the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. In doing so, we aim to provide strong and sustained support for rural revitalization.
Disciplinary and program systems are the core vehicles through which higher education in agriculture empowers rural revitalization. Our focus is to build high-level disciplines that match the needs of agricultural modernization and align with regional industrial development.
We will optimize the layout of disciplines and majors, guided by national and regional priorities in agriculture and rural development.
A dynamic adjustment mechanism will be established, supported by a closed-loop evaluation system linking admissions, faculty, training and employment. This end-to-end approach will ensure that academic programs stay closely matched with industrial demand and rural vitalization goals.
At the same time, we will strengthen traditional disciplines such as crop science, animal science and veterinary medicine. By integrating modern biotechnology, information technology and intelligent equipment, we will upgrade disciplinary content and research paradigms, building distinctive clusters with regional leadership, industry influence and international competitiveness.
The university will also proactively cultivate emerging interdisciplinary fields. Responding to trends in agricultural modernization, we will break down disciplinary barriers and promote deep integration between agriculture and engineering, natural sciences, humanities and management. Priority will be given to strategic areas such as smart agriculture, bio-manufacturing, food security and rural governance, fostering new disciplines that underpin the next generation of agricultural productivity.
Talent is the primary resource for comprehensive rural revitalization. Reforming education and training systems is therefore essential to nurturing professionals who understand agriculture and are committed to rural development.
We will reform curriculum by building four interconnected modules — general education, professional education, practical education and personalized education. Artificial intelligence and related courses will be incorporated into general education, while distinctive “farming-and-reading” programs will encourage students to move from “learning for application” to “learning through application”.
Training pathways will also be restructured. Innovative undergraduate experimental classes will be expanded, with selected graduate-level courses introduced into undergraduate programs. Leveraging initiatives such as doctoral research programs, international industry-academia collaboration and biotechnology breeding projects, we will implement integrated bachelor-master-doctoral training in authorized doctoral disciplines through a “2+2+X” model, shortening the doctoral training cycle to eight years. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
