Beijing, 22nd May 2026 (BISTU)--- BISTU held a training session on enhancing professional competences of graduate mentors on 21st May 2026. The Session was addressed by President Guo Fu and hosted by Vice President Wang Xingfen.

Themed on “Integration, empowerment, leadership”, President Guo Fu stressed that the core mission of a graduate mentor shall be centered on “be professional” and shared three insights with all mentors. First, development of students shall be the core mission and it is the fundamental of being professional. Value of a mentor is not decided by academic titles or project funding. What matters is whether a mentor could apply professional capabilities to “human development”. Due support should be provided with students when they are facing with study-related pressures, career choices, or inter-personal relationship problems. A healthy atmosphere shall be the one where “we produce solutions together”, not one where “you just follow my order”. Second, the key to being professional is to expand one’s cognitive boundary to industry frontiers. A mentor's knowledge system must be open, dynamic, and interactive with the real world. Mentors need to continuously track technological iterations in the industry and shifts in talent demand, transform enterprises' new technologies, new processes, and new pain points into teaching resources, and turn real enterprise problems into course designs or graduation projects. And third, Taking proactive change as a professional instinct — this is the ultimate presentation of being professional. Based on a deep understanding of educational principles and industry trends, a mentor must dare to break conventions and bear the risks of trial and error. A mentor is not merely an 'executor' of training programs, but an 'iterator', i.e., an 'innovator' instead of a 'repeater' of supervising methods. He or she must be courageous enough to reform training programs and bring new breath to supervising approaches. Any reform might fail, but every attempt is telling students that being professional means daring to change the present for a better future.

Based on “Nature's guide for mentors”, Guo Fu discussed issues concerning “how to become a real mentor” and shared talent cultivation model for graduate education in renowned international institutions. “There are no perfect mentors in universities. Nor are there any perfect students. ”Guo Fu said. The “impossible trinity” of a mentor and that of students are actually two real worlds parallel to each other. The best student-teacher relationship lies in mutual understanding and mutual empowerment.

Guo Fu presented letters of appointment to new mentors.

The training session also included self-introduction of new mentors, experience-sharing by Prof. Zhou Zhehai and Prof. Wen Xiaoyong, and policy explanation by directors of administrative departments.

The training session was attended by all new mentors, directors of Department of Academic Affairs, Department of Research, the Graduate School, Department of Human Resources, and deans of BISTU colleges.