The Scholar’s Pursuit of Truth

Prof. Xu Shuying speaks with RUC’s junior faculty and students about academic life

On the afternoon of November 14, Professor Xu Shuying, the well-known management scientist and founding chairman of IACMR, was invited to RBS’s Mingde Building, to talk with RUC’s junior faculty and postgraduate students about her academic research and understanding of life.

The symposium consisted of two sessions, one for teachers and the other for postgraduate students. In the talk with young teachers, Prof. Xu Shuying briefly introduced her own experiences. First, she discussed different approaches to academic research. One approach is to study a fixed theme in a certain period and discover new ones with changes in time and society; another is to study certain inter-related themes; the third is to research different themes simultaneously. She suggested that young researchers choose the first and second approaches and concentrate on research quality. Then she stressed the second and third aspects of academic research, and said, “You should do research that you have passion for and interest in, so that you can enjoy the process without considering input and output”, and added, “Doing research is a lonely process during which you connect your inner diaologue with the outside world, so you have to be able to stand loneliness and live with being alone.” She also pointed out that young researchers who lack practical experience should move beyond the literature and learn about management directly from enterprises. “It takes observation and practice to discover valuable research that can make worthwhile contributions to theoretical innovation and management.” Fnally, Professor Xu stressed the importance of research for sake of society, humanity and social improvement. As for the pressure of academic assessment and career promotion, she recommended changing pressure