The College of Mathematics and Statistics, with the most time-honored history and the strongest faculty, was founded in 1973. Over the past 50 years, it has trained a large number of talents for Hubei Province and China in the fields of basic mathematics education, information calculation and application, and statistics and application. The College provides four undergraduate programmes: Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Information and Computing Science, Statistics and Applied Statistics. It also confers first-level master’s degrees in Mathematics (Applied Mathematics, Basic Mathematics, Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics, Computational Mathematics, Operational Research and Cybernetics, Curriculum Teaching Theory (Mathematics)), and a professional master’s degree in Subject Teaching (Mathematics).
The Applied Mathematics was listed as one of the provincial key disciplines by Hubei Provincial Department of Education in 2001 and 2006, and was approved as a discipline with the “Chutian Scholar” posts and a characteristic discipline of Hubei Province in 2008. Mathematics was listed as one of the Provincial (Cultivating) Key Disciplines by Hubei Provincial Department of Education in 2012, and was shortlisted for the first-class major in Hubei Province in 2019. Mathematics is now applying for the national first-class major in China.
Among the 47 teachers (2 Chutian scholars, 2 Cihu scholars) in the College, there are 29 professors and associate professors, 18 Ph.D holders, 3 recipients of the State Council special allowance, 4 recipients of the provincial government expert allowance, 2 provincial cross-century discipline leaders, 3 University key discipline leaders, 8 University academic leaders and 8 University academic backbones.
One of the teachers has awarded the title of National Excellent Teacher, 2 were nominated as Ministry of Education’s National University Counselors of the Year, and 2 were granted the title of ModelIndividual in Ideological and Political Education of Hubei Universities and Colleges. There are also one first prize winner and one second prize winner of Hubei Natural Science Award, one winner of Hubei Youth Science and Technology Award, and two Experts with Outstanding Contributions to Huangshi City. So far, the College has formed a team of teaching staff with a rational composition of professional titles, academic qualifications and age groups.
The College focuses on the cultivation of undergraduate talents and promotes the reform of undergraduate teaching. As for the management and organization of teaching, it has established the provincial grassroots teaching organization in the Mathematics Department; as for the improvement of undergraduate teaching quality, it has established the provincial model program of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics; as for the forming of diversified teaching team, it has established a provincial teaching team of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics; as for the construction of professional courses, it has established the provincial excellent courses of Probability Theory and Ordinary Differential Equation.
In recent three years, the College has won 1 third-prize for teaching achievements and 2 provincial teaching and research projects in Hubei Province. Striving to reform teaching methods and means, the College has built two online courses, and implemented blended teaching reform in more than ten courses.
The College emphasizes external academic cooperation and exchange, and establishes the Three-in-One collaborative training mechanism with multiple enterprises, local education authorities and primary and secondary schools to accelerate the transformation and development.
More than 70 part-time mentors from enterprises and primary and secondary schools are engaged. The Training Plan of Excellent Mathematics Teachers has been implemented, the reform of talent training modes of various majors has been carried out in an orderly way, and the comprehensive quality of students has been greatly improved.
The College is oriented to student development. In 2018, the student Party branch was rated as the Model Branch Cultivation and Creation Unit of National University Party Construction Work. The College now has more than 900 full-time students. Since 47 years ago, it has cultivated about 6000 students. Among the graduates of educational majors, many have been granted titles such as “National Excellent Teacher” and “National Famous Teacher”, and there are more than 20 special-grade teachers, nearly 100 primary and secondary school-level leaders, more than 200 university professors. A number of them are awarded “Outstanding Youth” and “Excellent Youth”.
In terms of training of the non-educational majors, efforts are made to improve students’ abilities of practice and innovation, and to strengthen the of industry-academy integration and collaborative education. Many outstanding entrepreneurs and core members of enterprise team have emerged from the non-educational graduates. In recent three years, our students have won more than 300 awards in various competitions at or above the provincial level, including more than 100 national-level awards.
The College adheres to the principle that scientific research serves teaching, national strategy and economic and social development. In recent three years, it has undertaken more than 20 National Natural Science Foundation Projects, Major And Key Projects of Provincial Education Department, and published more than 300 academic papers in authoritative domestic and international journals. The College loses no efforts to cultivate talents by virtue and vigorously produces application-oriented professionals. It strives to serve the local economic development and has undertaken more than 10 horizontal projects.
The College has a multi-functional lecture hall for academic exchange and a computer laboratory for students’ self-regulated learning. It has a mathematics and applied mathematics laboratory, a mathematics modeling laboratory and a scientific computing laboratory. Since 2003, the Univeristy has invested about 5 million yuan to purchase a number of large-scale instruments and equipment, including IBM RS6000 P650 minicomputer, projectors with writing platform and other accessories, color scanners and other sophisticated equipment. The College’s reference room is rich in books and complete in materials.
The College always focuses on the cultivation of undergraduate students and actively develop master’s education. By strengthening the connotation construction and characteristic development, the College is building itself into a well-known domestic and influential training base for mathematics education, information and statistical application talents in Hubei Province and surrounding areas.