1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 179 Huangpu Polytechnic University Entrance Examination
"On January 1904, 1, a delegation from the Sakura Country held its first academic exchange with our country at Guangdong University."

"The two sides reached a preliminary consensus on the field of higher education and achieved phased results."

“At the beginning of the meeting, Professor Shinsuke Nogami, an expert in Sakura methodology, highly praised our country’s education reform model.”

"But the other party had to temporarily leave the meeting due to sudden physical discomfort."

"We have expressed that we are paying close attention to Professor Nogami's health and have assigned someone to take care of him."

"Afterwards, the two sides had a lively discussion on university education reform."

"We exchanged opinions and reached consensus on aspects such as the teacher title system, curriculum design, student training model, and the characteristics of private universities."

“We also discussed future plans on matters such as the mutual exchange of students, international competitions, and cutting-edge scientific and technological cooperation.”

"Finally, Li Qiwei, the Imperial Tutor of the Qing Dynasty, stressed the need to strengthen exchanges between scientific researchers and scholars of the two countries and jointly promote the progress of science in Asia."

“At the same time, he also pointed out the need to enhance the status of private universities in higher education and for both sides to work together to create a good academic atmosphere.”

"Sakura Country representative Nagaoka Hantaro and others promised to take the lead in in-depth cooperation with Qing Country in the field of science."

“This academic exchange meeting was a complete success.”

"Science Weekly has an exclusive report for you."

After the academic exchange meeting, Nagaoka Hantaro led the delegation to visit several other universities in the Qing Dynasty.

He wanted to conduct an on-site investigation and gain a deeper understanding of the current educational reforms in the Qing Dynasty.

So that after returning to the country, I can provide detailed and profound reference opinions to the cabinet.

After visiting for a period of time, he had already formed a rough judgment in his mind: weak foundation, difficult start, and unlimited potential.

This is Nagaoka Hantaro’s summary of Qing Dynasty education.

As for what kind of response the Sakura Country will come up with, that is not something he can decide.

Afterwards, Nagaoka Hantaro was summoned by Emperor Guangxu in the capital and asked about his feelings about the visit.

He praised Li Qiwei highly, believing that he was the best educator in the Qing Dynasty.

Emperor Guangxu was overjoyed after hearing this, and immediately rewarded Nagaoka Hantaro. Several ministers of the new policy attended the meeting as observers.

Finally, the Sakura Country delegation set off for return on January 1.

On the vast sea, Nagaoka Hantaro looked towards the east and sighed, feeling filled with emotion.

Ishihara Jun asked: "Teacher, do you think we will be surpassed by the Qing Dynasty?"

Nagaoka Hantaro was silent for a long time. Then, he looked up at the sky and murmured, "I don't know."

If Li Qiwei was next to him, he would definitely say, "Sorry, I will."

At this moment, he was worried about one thing.

Although Li Qiwei lied to the Sakura Country at the exchange meeting, there was one thing he did not lie about.

That is, Huangpu University of Technology has indeed only recruited more than 50 students at present.

Li Qiwei even suspected that among these more than 50 people, perhaps half of them had impure motives.

There was no college entrance examination in this era, and even in the twenty years after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, there was no college entrance examination.

Li Qiwei had never thought about implementing the college entrance examination nationwide right now, because that was simply unrealistic.

The college entrance examination is a super project for screening talents, and only a stable and large country can afford to host it.

Because it requires absolute fairness, no one, no matter how high your official position, can interfere.

And this will not be something that can be expected in China in the next few decades.

In real history, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China was established, and it was not able to hold a large-scale college entrance examination (except for a few brief years).

If a student graduates from high school and wants to go to college, he can just take his diploma and go directly to the college he wants to go to and register.

If the university agrees to your admission, you can pay the fee, fill in your personal information, choose the major you want to study, and then you can enroll.

Of course, good universities will set their own entrance examinations, and only those who pass them will be admitted, and this examination selection method is extremely flexible.

As a result, several interesting things happened during the college entrance examination.

For example, in 1917, Luo Jialun took the entrance examination for Imperial University of Peking, and the examiner at that time was Hu Shi.

He said excitedly: "I read an essay and gave it full marks. I hope the school can admit this talented candidate."

However, when the school checked Luo Jialun's transcript, they found that his math score was zero and his other subjects were also extremely average.

So they were ready to give up, but in the end it was the president Cai Yuanpei who overruled everyone and made an exception to admit Luo Jialun.

There was also Qian Zhongshu, who was admitted by Huaqing University as an exception with a score of 15 in mathematics, but had excellent Chinese and full marks in English.

Therefore, the absence of the college entrance examination is actually a good thing for those geniuses who are good at certain subjects.

Their talents are seen and appreciated, allowing them to become big names in their respective fields of talent.

Of course, this also requires great courage on the part of the principal, because when they make such a decision, they will be opposed by many people.

Just as Li Qiwei analyzed, others would think that this candidate is the principal's relative or nephew.

Therefore, special recruitment is extremely rare in public universities.

However, the absence of the college entrance examination will also create a new problem, that is, universities will not be able to select good talents on a large scale.

After all, there are only a few geniuses who are extremely good at one subject, especially in science and engineering. Excellent people are often excellent in every subject.

Even if it's a little bit off, there won't be zero points or even a few points.

Therefore, such people are often selected through examinations, rather than asking them to recommend themselves, which is too inefficient. As for physics, its real beginning was after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, when universities gradually opened physics majors.

Now, thanks to Li Qiwei's changes, although the physics major has been moved forward, there are still the same number of people.

At this point in time, those famous physicists in later generations are either only a few years old or have not even been born yet.

The few remaining ones, like He Yujie and others, are the founding talents of Chinese physics, but they are not famous enough.

Li Qiwei really couldn't remember it based on his own memory.

Although he has a celebrity database system in his mind, it is passive.

Only when he hears or sees a certain name, or meets a real person, will he be triggered and instantly understand the life story of that person.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have to go to so much trouble to recruit students.

Just let Li San arrest people at a fixed time and place. He will catch them all accurately and they are guaranteed to be big shots of future generations.

But he could only think about it.

So now Huangpu University of Technology is facing this thorny problem.

In order to attract more people to apply, Li Qiwei set very favorable conditions.

Not only is the tuition low, but three meals a day are provided, and they promise to help you find employment after graduation.

This makes some people want to take advantage of the situation. They don’t come here to study, but to get a free meal.

It’s not easy to have enough food these days.

The tuition fee is not enough to cover the food expenses for four years, so it is a good deal to enroll.

The reason why Li Qiwei knew that some people were here to take advantage of the situation was that they couldn't even write their own names properly in their personal information.

This will definitely not work.

Although Li Qiwei's ultimate goal is to improve the overall scientific level of China, elite education must be implemented at the beginning.

For example, Guangdong University can lower its admission requirements a bit, but Huangpu University of Technology is the leader and we must not be careless.

The students we recruit do not have to be gifted or extremely smart, but they must at least be the elites of this era.

The so-called elites are those who have received education and been exposed to Western knowledge. The better ones, of course, are self-taught.

To this end, Li Qiwei pulled He Yujie and others to discuss, and finally he came up with a solution himself.

He decided, as later generations did, to set up entrance examinations.

Those who have already expressed their intention to apply must pass the entrance examination before they will be admitted.

"Brother Zhou, Yujie, Yuanzhen, Qitai, the four of you should work harder and compile the test paper as soon as possible."

"The entrance examination is tentatively scheduled to be in five subjects: Chinese, English, Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry."

"By the way, the questions in the three exams of mathematics, physics and chemistry should not be too difficult and should be in line with the actual situation."

"In the Qing Dynasty today, not many people even know the word science, let alone solve problems in physics and chemistry."

"We mainly examine students' logical thinking ability to find the real good seedlings."

"As for Chinese and English, Brother Zhou has run a school before, so he should be able to grasp the key points."

"The full score for each exam is 100 points, and 60 points is a passing score."

"If there are candidates whose physics scores are over 90, I will personally interview them again to confirm."

"Let's set the exam date on April 4st."

Because the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and no one will be able to attend.

Therefore, Li Qiwei gave sufficient buffer time and also left time for asking questions.

The four of them nodded. It seemed that their task was quite heavy.

There are less than 4 days from today to April 1st.

The test paper is not so easy to make, and it is their first time.

Zhou Ziyu knew that the core of teaching at Huangpu University of Technology was science and engineering, and the core of science and engineering was physics.

Although he didn't know why Li Qiwei attached so much importance to physics, he believed that there must be a reason for it.

As the dean, I only need to complete the tasks of the principal.

Sometimes, Zhou Ziyu couldn't figure out Li Qiwei.

As the president of Huangpu University of Technology, he was extremely domineering in some aspects, almost having the final say and not allowing any rebuttal.

But in some aspects, he let go completely and gave these deans enormous power.

Zhou Ziyu thought, maybe this is personal charm.

After assigning the tasks, Li Qiwei did not sit idle, because he had something more important to do than enrolling students and opening school.

That was the most important event in his and Wang Luyao’s lives.

It has been almost a year since he returned to China, and Li Qiwei is finally ready to fulfill his promise to Wang Luyao.

Li's father had already formally proposed marriage to the Wang family in November last year.

After calculating an auspicious day, both parties decided to hold the wedding ceremony on February 2.

That day happened to be the Chinese New Year of 1904.

(End of this chapter)