Dual Bachelor Degree Program is an important attempt to cross-integrate disciplines under the background of ‘Four New’ discipline construction of the Ministry of Education, and an important hand to cultivate compound and innovative talents in the new era. In response to the new requirements of the development of digital economy for business talents, Soochow University Business School, in collaboration with Soochow University's School of Computer Science and Technology, School of Future Science and Engineering, and School of Nano Science and Technology, explored the cultivation of composite and innovative talents with dual bachelor's degree. 2022-2024, the School was awarded the first batch of dual bachelor's degree programs of ‘Finance+Computer’, ‘Accounting+Computer’, and ‘Accounting+Computer’ in Jiangsu Province. From 2022 to 2024, the college has been awarded the first batch of double-degree programmes in Jiangsu Province, namely ‘Finance+Computer’, ‘Accounting+Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Business Administration+Nano-materials and Technology’, and started to enroll students, which is highly recognised by the society and the candidates, and the scores of which are among the top in the university.

Strengthening the top-level design of projects and innovating talent cultivation programs

In 2019, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions on Deepening the Teaching Reform of Undergraduate Education and Comprehensively Improving the Quality of Talent Cultivation, and the College actively responded to the national call for deepening the teaching reform of education and improving the quality of talent cultivation, and took the lead in taking a solid step in exploring the mode of cultivating talents for the dual bachelor's degree by successively launching the program of ‘Finance+Computers’ ‘Finance+Computer’, “Accounting+Artificial Intelligence”, “Business Administration+Nano-materials and Technology”, marking a major leap in educational innovation and talent cultivation reform of the college.

In the process of formulating the cultivation programs, the College deeply understands and resolutely implements the education policy of the Party and the State, takes the cultivation of moral integrity as the fundamental task, and actively cultivates high-quality and complex talents with solid professional knowledge, as well as interdisciplinary vision and innovation ability. The college has fully drawn on the successful experiences of top universities at home and abroad, combined with its own running characteristics and advantages, and closely cooperated with sister colleges to build a core curriculum system. The system covers core courses in the fields of finance, computer science, accounting, artificial intelligence, business administration, nano-materials and technology, etc., and integrates cross-disciplinary featured courses, aiming to improve students' innovative thinking and problem-solving ability through the deep integration and collision of knowledge.

In order to ensure the scientificity, rationality and foresight of the training program, the college actively carries out research activities on the needs of enterprises. Relying on specific activities such as ‘discipline development and planting local industries, 100 people and 100 enterprises to practice the four directions’, teachers of the College work closely with industry experts to understand the changes in market demand in the front line, and closely integrate the actual needs of enterprises with the objectives of talent training, so as to ensure that what students have learnt can accurately connect with the future workplace. At the same time, the college widely solicits opinions and suggestions from peer experts, professional teachers and students, and through many rounds of argumentation and revision, ensures that the cultivation program can meet the expectations of all parties to the greatest extent possible, and realizes the benign cycle of teaching and learning and mutual progress.

In addition, the college also pays attention to the dynamic optimization and iterative updating of the cultivation program, and with the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous change of social needs, it regularly evaluates the implementation effect of the cultivation program and timely adjusts the curriculum content, teaching methods and evaluation system, so as to ensure that the cultivation program is always in line with the times, and fully reflects the latest requirements of the national development strategy, the social needs and the college's own positioning on the composite and top-notch innovative talents. The College has formed a set of mature and characteristic training programs to provide students with diversified and high-quality learning and development opportunities, and to lay a solid foundation for their future careers.

Focusing on Curriculum and Textbook Development to Build the Cornerstone of Talent Cultivation

For the three double-degree programs of ‘Finance+Computer’, ‘Accounting+Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Business Administration+Nano-materials and Technology’, the College has made a scientific and reasonable credit allocation plan to ensure that the overall credits of the programs are not too heavy and can fully cover the core knowledge and skills requirements of the two degrees. The College has developed a scientific and reasonable credit allocation scheme to ensure that the overall credits of the programs are not overly burdensome and can fully cover the core knowledge and skills requirements of the two degrees. Each degree has a certain number of compulsory core courses to lay a solid professional foundation for students. Meanwhile, in order to promote the cross-fertilisation of students' knowledge, the Faculty has specially added interdisciplinary cross-curricular courses such as “Big Data Finance”, “Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics” and “Supply Chain Management for Science-Based Enterprises”. By integrating the knowledge systems of two or more disciplines, students are guided to think about problems from different perspectives and cultivate their ability to solve problems through comprehensive application of knowledge.

In the implementation of cross-fertilisation courses, the college pays attention to the in-depth integration of theory and practice. In the theoretical part of the teaching, cutting-edge cases are introduced and interdisciplinary lectures and seminars are organised to help students build up an interdisciplinary knowledge framework and way of thinking. In practical teaching, students are encouraged to participate in research projects, internships, competitions and other activities, so that they can apply what they have learnt in real or simulated situations and enhance their practical ability and teamwork.

In addition, the college attaches great importance to the construction of teaching materials to meet the needs of the curriculum system. For cross-fertilisation courses, the College has organised a group of teachers and experts with rich teaching experience and industry background to jointly write a series of high-quality fusion courses, such as ‘Big Data Audit’, ‘Intelligent Finance’ and ‘Introduction to Financial Technology’. The college has organised a group of teachers and experts with rich teaching experience and industry background to co-develop a series of high-quality teaching materials such as ‘Big Data Auditing’, ‘Smart Finance’ and ‘Introduction to Financial Technology’. These textbooks integrate the latest academic research results and industry trends, and aim to cultivate students' innovative thinking and critical thinking skills.

In the process of promoting the cultivation of interdisciplinary and composite talents, the College actively explores the construction of online course clusters, which breaks the time and space constraints by building online course clusters and provides students with more flexible and diversified learning paths.

Creating Composite Teachers and Strengthening Talent Cultivation Support

Facing the highly interdisciplinary double-degree programs such as ‘Finance+Computer’, ‘Accounting+Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Business Administration+Nano-materials and Technology’, the college is deeply aware of the limitations of traditional The College is deeply aware of the limitations of the traditional teaching organisation at the grassroots level, and takes the initiative to seek changes and build an innovative interdisciplinary teaching organisation at the grassroots level to cope with the new challenges. Through the construction of ‘Virtual Teaching and Research Office of Financial Technology’, ‘Virtual Teaching and Research Office of Intelligent Accounting’ and ‘Virtual Teaching and Research Office of Business Decision-Making and Analysis Based on Big Data’, the college breaks the physical space limitations and disciplinary barriers, and realises the optimization of resources. It breaks the physical space limitations and disciplinary barriers, achieves the optimal allocation of resources and seamless connection of knowledge, and provides strong teaching support for the dual-degree program.

The cross-fertilisation program puts higher demands on teachers, who not only need to be proficient in their respective fields of expertise, but also need to possess comprehensive interdisciplinary qualities and be able to bridge the gap between finance/computer, accounting/artificial intelligence, business administration/nano-materials and technology. In the face of the scarcity of qualified teachers, the College adopts a two-pronged strategy, on the one hand, through the ‘Global Recruitment Committee’, we have extensively attracted high-level talents with interdisciplinary backgrounds from home and abroad, especially scholars and experts with cross-research experience in the fields of finance, accounting and information technology, artificial intelligence, and management of science and technology ventures, etc., to fill the teaching line. On the other hand, relying on the ‘Centre for Teacher Development Excellence’, we provide tailor-made training and development programs for existing teachers, including interdisciplinary knowledge lectures, workshops and project cooperation, etc., to encourage and support them to broaden their knowledge horizons, improve their business qualifications, and promote their transformation into complex teachers.

To further stimulate teachers' motivation and creativity, the College has carefully designed a series of incentive mechanisms. These include the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research Project Fund to subsidise teachers to carry out development and teaching research on cross-fertilisation courses; the establishment of the Teaching Achievement Reward System to recognise and reward teachers who have excelled in cross-fertilisation course teaching; and the implementation of a flexible teaching evaluation system, which takes into full consideration the special characteristics of interdisciplinary courses and ensures that teachers can receive fair and comprehensive evaluations.

In the process of cultivating composite top-notch innovative talents for the dual-degree programs of ‘Finance+Computer’, ‘Accounting+Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Business Administration+Nano-materials and Technology’, the practical ability and innovation ability of students are regarded as the core elements. Practical ability and innovation ability are regarded as the core elements. For this reason, the College actively builds up the industry-teaching collaborative practice system to enhance the practical ability of students. It cooperates closely with enterprises and industries to build a training base for talents. By simulating the real working environment and introducing the actual projects of enterprises, students are allowed to participate in practical activities such as project research and development, data analysis and financial management under the guidance of tutors, so as to deepen their theoretical knowledge and master the cutting-edge skills of the industry in practice. At the same time, enterprises are encouraged to jointly organise internship training, skills competitions and other activities with schools to further broaden students' practical channels and enhance their employment competitiveness.

In terms of enhancing students' scientific research and innovation ability, the college gives full play to the advantages of multiple disciplines and promotes interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation. Each student is provided with two academic advisors from different disciplines to ensure that students can obtain professional guidance in various fields such as finance, accounting and computer science, artificial intelligence, etc., and help them develop an interdisciplinary way of thinking and research perspectives. We actively implement the Shuyuan cultivation model to break down the traditional professional boundaries, promote academic exchanges and collision of ideas among students, and stimulate the spark of innovative thinking. Encourage students to actively participate in all kinds of scientific research and innovation activities, provide students with a platform to show themselves and challenge themselves, and further enhance their abilities in teamwork, project management, scientific research and other aspects.

Through a series of innovative initiatives, the School has produced a number of high-level scientific research results, including academic papers, competition awards, reports on large-scale projects, etc., which demonstrates the effectiveness of the dual-degree program in cultivating complex and top-notch innovative talents with practical results.

Looking ahead, Soochow University Business School will further play the role of basic support and professional leadership of high-level advantageous disciplines, accelerate the pace of interdisciplinary talent cultivation, focus on the creation of complex top-notch innovative talents, and continue to contribute wisdom and strength to the cultivation of socialist builders and successors who are better able to develop in all aspects of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics and aesthetics.    

(Author: Zhou Zhongsheng, Feng Bo, Zhou Jun)