Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 550 Check-in
Whether it's a win-win situation or not, Chen Fan can't decide, and Jiang Heng can't make the decision alone.

Nowadays, companies and organizations don't have much autonomy. Within the scope of tasks assigned by superiors, the leadership can make all decisions. However, if anything exceeds this scope even slightly, reports and applications must be submitted to higher authorities.

Therefore, no one can guarantee whether the cotton mill can successfully add a down jacket fabric production line.

Unless we can wait a few more years, past the early 80s, when companies have much more autonomy and the approval process for importing production lines is much more lenient, many well-known brands that emerged in later generations almost all came from this period.

However, Chen Fan did not want to wait. In two or three years, various private economies would gradually become active. If he launched the project then, the market difficulties would undoubtedly be many times greater.

Why leave a blank market untapped and wait years to compete with others?

If the cotton mill application can be approved, that would be ideal. But if that doesn't work out, he has ways to get a down jacket factory sorted out.

But he had something to say then.

In the early days of reform and opening up, not all collectively owned enterprises were "collective shares." Many daring and cunning individuals used the name of collective enterprises to engage in affiliation, essentially giving private enterprises a collective shell.

It wasn't until almost the mid-80s that a document was issued to clean up these "pseudo" collective enterprises, which led to the elimination of a large number of nominal township enterprises.

But they had already made their money, and the policies for private enterprises had become much more relaxed at that time. So after a transformation, they became one of the first private enterprises in my country.

Then came the "Year One of Entrepreneurs in 84".

Chen Fan never thought of becoming an entrepreneur, mainly because he didn't have the inclination to do management. However, he figured he could just take a stake in the business, stand by and supervise the talent in Lujiawan to work hard.

With dreams of sitting at home and waiting for dividends, Chen Fan drove to the provincial capital.

Chen Fan set off early today, and it wasn't dark yet. After thinking for a moment, considering that the cigarettes in the trunk of his car were still unpacked, he decided to postpone his trip to the provincial writers' association branch and go directly to the school to register.

As a long-established key university with more than half a century of history, Jiangnan University is naturally a prominent landmark on the provincial capital's map.

After glancing at the map for a few moments, Chen Fan drove straight to Jiangda University.

A dozen minutes later, the school was found in the northeast corner of the provincial capital.

Chen Fan parked his car in front of the school gate, bent down and looked inside. Unlike the flat campuses of Fudan and Peking Universities, Jiangnan University was situated on several small hills. Tall sycamore trees swayed in the wind, and the green glazed tiles reflected the sunlight among the hills, making it appear majestic and grand.

After watching for a few seconds, he restarted the car and drove into the campus.

Then, quite normally, I was stopped.

"Certificate."

Chen Fan looked at the soldiers standing ramrod straight and wondered to himself, "Why are there soldiers on guard duty here when Peking University and Fudan University don't have any?"
In fact, apart from the security departments of various large factories, many units these days have soldiers standing guard at their gates. These soldiers are all assigned by the local armed forces department. However, later, new regulations were issued by higher authorities, and most units withdrew their guards as required, leaving only important units such as government and judicial units with soldiers still standing guard.

The fact that Peking University and Fudan University didn't have it might simply be because the local authorities didn't make arrangements, while the fact that it's here is just because the local authorities made arrangements, nothing more.

Facing the soldiers, Chen Fan took out his letter of introduction and admission notice, saying, "Comrade, I'm here to report for duty."

The young soldier took the ID and examined it carefully, then gave Chen Fan a rather strange look before returning it to him. "Please register at the reception desk."

Such a young graduate student? Younger than many undergraduates!

Chen Fan looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a small house next to the school gate.

So the gatehouse and the security guard are not part of the same system?
With no other option, he got off the bus, grabbed his documents, and hurried over.

Inside sat an old man. The table by the window was piled high with letters, and a radio sat on the corner of the table. The old man sat in the chair with his legs crossed, his head swaying back and forth with the Peking Opera playing from the radio, and he would occasionally fan himself with a palm-leaf fan.

Seeing Chen Fan enter, the old man didn't move an inch, only slightly raising his chin, "Who are you looking for?"

Chen Fan obediently handed over the admission notice, "Sir, I'm here to register."

The old man tossed aside the palm-leaf fan, took it, and before even looking at it, said, "What month is it that you're only reporting for school now? You're not even enthusiastic about going to school."

Then I looked again, and thought, "Oh, so you're a graduate student?"

He looked up and sized up Chen Fan. "You're not that old, yet you've already been admitted to graduate school. Your grades must be excellent."

After a pause, the old man grinned and said, "Young man, you're early. Tomorrow is the day for graduate students to register. If you come here today, I don't even know who to ask you to go to."

Chen Fan opened his mouth, about to speak, when the old man frowned slightly, thought for a moment and said, "How about this, you just go find a teacher from your literature department."

As he spoke, he stood up, waved to Chen Fan, walked out of the gatehouse, pointed to an old-style building in the mountains, and said, "Do you see that house?"

Chen Fan walked to his side, looked in the direction he was pointing, and nodded slightly, "I see it."

The old man returned the letter of introduction and admission notice to him, and said with a smile, "That's the teaching building of the School of Literature. There are few students now, less than 2000 in the whole school, but the campus is big, so we can build as much as we want. Your School of Literature occupies a whole building by itself. Just go over there and ask anyone."

Chen Fan carefully put away his documents, took out a cigarette, and offered it to him, saying, "Thank you."

The old man didn't stand on ceremony, took the cigarette, waved his hand, and laughed heartily, "Don't be polite, you are all intellectuals, study hard and build our country in the future."

Chen Fan smiled and waved. "Yes. Goodbye."

Then he turned around, left the school gate, got into his car, and drove inside.

The old man stared in disbelief, the cigarette dangling from his mouth almost falling out. Driving a Jeep to school? Which organization's cadre is this?

Wait, the letter of introduction just now seemed to be from some production team?
Are production teams all this powerful nowadays?

Chen Fan drove uphill and went inside, where he could better appreciate the beauty of the campus.

It was evening, and the setting sun cast its glow on the campus, painting the leaves on the mountainside red. The school roads were deserted, a stark contrast to the bustling university life of later generations.

After turning several corners, Chen Fan arrived at the teaching building of the School of Literature.

After stopping the car and getting out, I stood still and listened. The sound of teachers lecturing came from the teaching building. Apart from that, there was only the sound of the wind and the rustling of leaves.

Faced with this environment, he seemed somewhat reluctant to destroy it.

However, remembering that he was also there to study, he walked in with a clear conscience.

There were no signs in the teaching building yet, and he didn't see anyone to ask for directions, so he wandered around aimlessly.

Before I knew it, I had walked to a classroom. Through the glass window, I could see that it was packed with people.

On the podium, a teacher with gray hair is lecturing on the introduction to literature.

Chen Fan had read the books for this course. Or rather, he had read almost all the relevant textbooks for literature majors that he could find.

In just a few minutes, he realized that the teacher was using a textbook from more than ten years ago to teach an introduction to literature.

The undergraduate system in my country has been adjusted many times. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China and in the early years of the PRC, there was a period of four-year system. In the mid-to-late 1950s, the undergraduate system was changed to five-year system.

After many universities resumed operations in the 1970s, in response to the regulations of higher authorities, all five-year undergraduate programs were changed to three-year programs, and three-year or four-year junior college programs were naturally changed to two-year programs.

According to Secretary Tian of Nanhu Water Transport Company, many engineers at the provincial capital's ship repair factory only graduated from two-year junior college programs. Moreover, almost half of their two-year study time was spent in meetings and studying policy documents. It is conceivable how much they could actually learn in the remaining time.

It's not surprising that an engineer like that couldn't fix two relatively simple ship propulsion systems.

Now that the college entrance examination has been reinstated, undergraduate programs have reverted to a four-year system, with only a very few majors such as architecture and medicine retaining a five-year program. Junior college programs have also been changed to a three-year system.

The curriculum, apart from a few required general education courses, does not include frequent meetings, trips, or courses that emphasize academic spirit; it is primarily focused on professional studies.

However, due to the tight schedule, there are no suitable textbooks for the four-year system yet, and the textbooks for the three-year system are too "low-end". As a result, many teachers have no choice but to dig out old textbooks and make do with them when teaching students.

Despite the limited resources, both teachers and students were incredibly enthusiastic.

The present moment is the best example.

A classroom that could only hold thirty or forty people was crammed with seventy or eighty, but the teacher didn't mind, immersing himself in the textbook and explaining the subject of "literature" to the students.

Although Chen Fan had studied this course before and could even recite the textbook, listening to the teacher's explanation now gave him a different perspective.

Indeed, literature is a very subjective subject. As long as you study it, almost everyone will have their own insights. Listening to other people's ideas can also help you to draw inferences from one instance to another.

Just as Chen Fan was engrossed in watching, his ears twitched slightly, and he turned his head to look towards the building entrance. He saw a young man in his early twenties rushing in.

When the man saw Chen Fan, he was stunned for a moment, then stood still and took deep breaths.

This is to calm my breathing; otherwise, it would be difficult to speak.

Being young after all, he calmed down in a few seconds, then quietly walked over to Chen Fan, peeked inside, and asked in a low voice, "Where are we?"

Chen Fan tilted his head and looked at him. "Are you late?"

The man glanced at him and said, "Brother, don't talk about your brother, aren't you here to audit the class too? What are you talking about being late?"

As he spoke, he pulled a notebook from his shoulder bag, pressed it against the wall to take notes, and glanced inside.

After listening to a short segment, he turned around and chuckled, "Thank goodness, it's only just begun. This segment is a review of the previous lesson."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt something was wrong and looked Chen Fan up and down. "You didn't bring a notebook? How are you going to take class notes?"

Chen Fan blinked. These days, even auditing classes is this serious?

He rolled his eyes slightly. "Oh, I've learned this passage before, no need to memorize it."

"Learned it?"

The young man looked him up and down again. "Are you a senior student?"

Then he muttered to himself, "So young, doesn't look it?"

Chen Fan smiled. "You haven't introduced yourself yet. Why are you here to audit this class?"

The young man said "Oh," and gave a sheepish salute. "Excuse me. Let me introduce myself. My name is Lu Xiaohua. I'm a computer science major, a freshman this year."

While paying attention to the teacher's lecture in the classroom, he whispered to Chen Fan, "Although we were able to resume classes smoothly this year, many subjects and courses have been neglected for many years. There are only a limited number of courses that can be offered, so no matter what major the students are in, their favorite thing to do is to audit classes all over the campus."

Regardless of our major or whether it counts towards our credits, we'll audit any class we like.

"It's not just limited to our own school; several other key universities nearby are also within our scope of auditing classes."

Speaking of this, Lu Xiaohua seemed quite proud, "I've audited classes at normal universities and polytechnic universities. Some of their courses are different from ours, and they sound very interesting."

As soon as he finished speaking, he finally realized what he meant, turned to look at Chen Fan, his eyes full of curiosity, "Hey, aren't you a student at Jiang University? How come you don't even know this?"

Chen Fan shrugged. "Yes, it is. I just started working here today."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaohua was speechless. "Brother, you really have a big heart. We've been in school for almost two months, and you're only showing up today."

While speaking, he couldn't help but shake his head, "I'm afraid what you just said about having studied this course was something you learned at home on your own. Let me tell you, it's different. Learning on your own can only teach you the basics of the textbook. You have to listen to the teacher, listen to how he applies the knowledge to different situations and explains the concepts thoroughly. Only in this way can you truly learn and master this course."

Chen Fan didn't refute him, but instead nodded in agreement, "Yes, you're right."

He paused for a moment, then changed the subject, "Hey, Lu, you mentioned credits earlier. Does that mean Jiang University is implementing a credit system now?"

Hearing this, Lu Xiaohua smiled, seemingly quite proud, "Let me tell you, you've made the right choice coming to Jiangda. Currently, only Wuhan University and our Jiangda in the whole country are implementing the credit system."

Wuhan University was the first, and we are the second.

(News published in Guangming Daily at the end of 78)
In addition to the credit system, Jiangnan University also plans to implement a transfer system, a transfer student system, a mentor system, a major-minor system, an elective course system, and a double degree system.

For example, if you feel that the courses at Jiang University are not good, you can apply to transfer to another university, as long as you pass the university's assessment. Conversely, students from other universities can also apply to Jiang University; anyone who passes the assessment will be accepted, and may even be admitted as a transfer student.

Chen Fan's eyes widened in astonishment. Were schools this open-minded these days?
Lu Xiaohua was about to say something more when an old man came out of an office deep in the corridor.

Chen Fan instinctively glanced in that direction, and Lu Xiaohua also turned around to look. The next second, he seemed to be startled and quickly stood up against the wall. Only when the old man approached did he bow respectfully and greet him, "Hello, Professor Xu!"

Professor Xu had almost completely white hair, wore black-rimmed glasses, and a faded Zhongshan suit, which made him appear very amiable.

He nodded to Lu Xiaohua first, "Hello, classmate."

Then he looked at Chen Fan, scrutinized him carefully, and a glint of interest flashed in his eyes. "What's your major, young man?"

Chen Fan stood with his hands clasped and answered solemnly, "Hello Professor Xu, I am a freshman majoring in Chinese Modern Literature Studies. I am here today to register. My name is Chen Fan."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaohua, who was standing nearby, stared wide-eyed and couldn't help but turn her head to look.

It's actually a legendary graduate student?

Professor Xu smiled broadly and said, "Hmm, not bad. I am your mentor, come with me."

(End of this chapter)