Recently, the Ministry of Education announced the third batch of National First-Class Undergraduate Course recognitions. The course Practical Course in Chinese Herbal Medicine Cultivation and Cultural Heritage, led by Professor Li Xia's team from the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology (SPST) at Tianjin University, has been successfully approved. This achievement marks a significant breakthrough for our university in the construction of National First-Class Undergraduate Courses in the social practice category.
Since its establishment in 2021, this course deeply integrates labor education, professional practice, and cultural heritage. Relying on the university-level demonstration base "Hundred Herbs Garden," as well as off-campus bases such as the Tianjin TEDA Greening Science and Technology Group Labor Education Base, Tasly Pharmaceutical Group Labor Education Base, and the Gansu Tanchang Social Practice Base, it has built a full-chain practical teaching system from "field to fork" to "serving people's health." This has strongly promoted the innovation of an interdisciplinary talent cultivation model combining "Traditional Chinese Medicine + Rural Revitalization."
As an important component of China's excellent traditional culture, the inheritance and development of Chinese herbal medicine culture hold great significance for strengthening cultural confidence and serving people's health. Responding to the national strategy for TCM development and the needs of rural revitalization, this course adheres to the philosophy of "balancing theory and practice, fostering both knowledge and values." Through modular practical design, it effectively addresses the common weaknesses of previous social practice courses, such as lack of systematic structure and continuity, establishing a closed-loop teaching model integrating four stages: "classroom instruction — base practice —achievement display — feedback and optimization." The course emphasizes students' engagement in the entire process within authentic scenarios, including herbal medicine cultivation, harvesting, processing, and cultural creative product development. This significantly enhances students' hands-on abilities and innovative thinking, encouraging them to transform acquired knowledge into tangible outcomes that serve society, such as the Tanchang TCM Cultural Map and products like the "Silk Road Stories" Foot Bath Sachets. Truly, through "small practices," a "broader sense of purpose" is solidified, achieving remarkable educational effectiveness.
Through open assessment and multi-dimensional evaluation mechanisms, the course continuously stimulates students' independent exploration and creativity, forming a sustainable cycle for improving teaching quality. As a cross-university general course, it has received award at the Labor Education Competition in Tianjin, and has been launched on the Xinhua News platform, attracting nearly 100,000 participants. It has been widely reported by over ten media outlets, including Guangming Online. Xinhua Net specifically praised it for constructing a comprehensive teaching system that integrates in-class and out-of-class activities, allowing students to deeply experience the sense of fulfillment from transforming results into social value.
The construction of National First-Class Undergraduate Courses aims to demonstrate leadership, comprehensively enhance the quality of higher education in China, and promote the innovation and optimization of undergraduate curriculum systems and teaching models. To date, SPST has been approved 2 National First-Class Undergraduate Courses, including Fundamental Chemistry of Pharmaceutical Sciences (on-campus course) and Virtual Simulation Experiment on Pharmacodynamics of Calcium Channel Blockers as Antihypertensive Drugs (virtual simulation experiment course). Additionally, the School possesses multiple Tianjin Municipal First-Class Undergraduate Courses, National Excellent Course for Pharmaceutical Professional Degree Graduate Students, and National Excellent Teaching Cases for Professional Master's Degrees in Pharmacy.
This successful selection not only represents high recognition for the teaching and reform effectiveness of the course team but also signifies a substantial achievement for the School in interdisciplinary integration and constructing new models for cultivating interdisciplinary talents. The School will seize this opportunity to further strengthen the construction of virtual simulation teaching resources, deepen the integration and innovation of information technology with the educational process, continuously improve teaching quality and educational effectiveness, and inject new momentum into building a high-level pharmaceutical education system.
