(From CHINA DAILY) Smart Academy, a virtual education platform, has gained popularity among Nankai University students.

Launch ceremony for Turing Academy kicks off

The virtual organization aims to provide a characteristic interdisciplinary education environment to Nankai students, as a supplement to the professional colleges, said Li Chuanyong, director of the university's academic affairs office.

With the project in place, teachers and students of different disciplines are closely linked to create a new type of community that promotes online and offline collaboration and helps students develop in an all-around way. In the process, daily communication between teachers and students is highlighted.

Since the first Smart Academy's opening in 2019, Nankai has built 11 of them, each with different characteristics. These include Mu Dan Academy and Turing Academy. This year, ten of these schools will enroll 1,020 undergraduate students. 

Mu Dan Academy teachers and students exchange ideas face-to-face

A tutoring system was adopted by the academies, where personality fostering is no less important than imparting knowledge. An academy usually consists of more than ten interdisciplinary professional teachers and senior counselors, who can give students guidance in terms of academic planning, learning, career and life.

Accordingly, each academy has a teacher-student ratio of one to ten. That means each tutor helps with ten students of their own. Each training cycle lasts one year.