Universities should teach students “social and emotional” skills on top of their academic studies to prepare them for the demands of 21st-century society, according to the former president of Shanghai Normal University.

　　据上海师范大学前任校长表示，为了使学生们满足21世纪社会的需要，大学应该优先教会学生们“社交和情感”技能，而后再考虑他们的学术研究。

　　Minxuan Zhang, director of the Research Center for International and Comparative Education at Shanghai Normal, made the comments at a forum held at the UCL Institute of Education.

　　上海师范大学国际教育研究与咨询中心主任张民选在伦敦大学学院教育学院论坛上表示。

　　Speaking to Times Higher Education after the event on “21st Century Skills in a Global Context”, Professor Zhang said that all students, “no matter what subjects or disciplines they do”, should have these skills.

　　在以“全球语境下的21世纪技能”为主题的论坛结束后，张教授向《泰晤士高等教育》表示，所有的学生，“无论是什么学科”，都应该具备这些技能。

　　“In our university, we already pay attention to that,” he said. “So we have zero-credit courses, [consisting of] social activities. So all students [join]…and among the activities they can learn social and emotional skills.

　　他说道：“我们学校已经重视到了这一点。因此，我们有由社会活动组成零学分的课程。所以，所有的学生参加了……，他们在活动当中能够学到社交和情感技能。”

　　“We internationalised our own campus, which let students not only learn academic knowledge, but let them [learn about] themselves in society. [We] try to give them opportunities to use what they [have] learned [bore they go into the real world].”

　　“我们使自己的校园变得国际化，让学生们不仅学到学术知识，还能够让他们在社会当中认识自己。在他们真正踏入社会之前，我们试图给他们学以致用的机会。”

　　During the debate, Professor Zhang said that students in China, besides aiming to study abroad at institutions such as Harvard University and the UCL Institute of Education, wanted to learn “something different from other countries”. To help prepare them, he said, Shanghai had introduced “core competencies” covering soft, emotional skills.

　　张教授在讨论中说道，中国的学生们除了追求在哈佛大学和伦敦大学教育学院这样的学府留学外，还想学到‘与其他国家不同的东西’。因此，上海已经引入了‘核心竞争力’，其中包括软技能和情感技能。

　　“We are getting more and more aware of global skills,” he told the audience. “This is very new [however]. Even five years ago, Shanghai students and educators didn’t talk about this too much.”

　　他向观众们表示：“我们越来越意识到全球技能。但是，这还是很新鲜的事务。甚至在五年前，上海的师生们都不会经常提及这个。”

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