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    Tsinghua University
    Beijing, China

    Tsinghua University is situated around Tsinghua garden, originally an imperial garden of Qing dynasty, in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing. The University was instituted in 1911, originally under the name of Tsinghua Xuetang, as a preparatory school for students who would be sent by the government to study in the United States.

    Tsinghua University is one of the national key universities in China, comprising disciplines in sciences, engineering, management, humanities and social sciences, law, arts and design, as well as medical science. 49 disciplines are listed as National Key Disciplines. There are 13 schools and 54 departments, offering 61 Bachelor’s programs, 198 Master’s programs and 181 Doctoral programs.

    At present, Tsinghua has over 30,000 undergraduate and master’s students, and 5,156 PhD candidates. It has over 2,800 faculty members, including 34 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 30 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. There are also one Nobel Laureate and one Turing Laureate among the faculty. Tsinghua University’s main research areas are information science and technology, life science, new materials, energy, environmental science, advanced manufacturing.

    Website: http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn

    VSE Season 1, 2021-22: Courses offered by Tsinghua University


    Application Deadline

    APPLICATION CLOSED
    Students must submit an application to the VSE Central Office before:
    Aug 24 2021, 12:00 noon Hong Kong Time (UTC+8)


    Course Information

    Click on the course titles to reveal full course details:

    Number of Credits2
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Humanities
    Course TeacherProf. Zhaohui Fang
    Language of InstructionOther Languages
    First Day of ClassSep 13, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 14, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeWed 1920-2145
    Time ZoneUTC+8
    Course Description本课初步介绍儒家修身传统的起源及内容的基础上，从守静、存养、自省、定性、治心、慎独、主敬、谨言、致诚等九个修身范畴出发，引导大家学习古代儒家的修养思想。本课的主要内容是侧重于从心性修养的角度来说明儒家传统特别是儒家修身传统的现实意义；希望通过儒家修身思想激发学生对儒家经典的兴趣，并从中学会古人修身养性的方法。本课不局限于先秦儒学，也讨论后世儒学特别是宋明儒学；不局限于儒家一家，也融合道家、释家及明清修身杂著中的相关思想。本课不是针对专业学生而设，以理工科及文科各学科学生为主要对象。

    This is a basic introduction toward the Confucian theory and especially, Confucian practices in self-cultivation with 9 major respects including quiet sitting, life-preservation, self-reflection, personality reconstruction, psychic training, trying reverence, facing inwardness, taking care of speech, pursuing integratity, etc. We will especially pay attention to the method of practicing self-cultivation in connection to modern way of life for university and college students as well as all young people. Moreover, we are not going to limit to the period of the pre-Qin (before 221BC), but extend to discuss the related theories of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism happened since Song Dynasty (960-1368) until Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits3
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Social Sciences
    Course TeacherAssociate Prof. Jing Qian
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 13, 2021
    Last Day of ClassDec 14, 2021
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeMon 0950-1215
    Time ZoneUTC+8
    Course DescriptionThis course provides an introduction to the core concepts that form the foundation of the field of psychology. Topics include history of psychology, research methods, biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, consciousness, learning and memory, life-span development, personality, human judgement and decision making. Class lectures emphasize an empirical approach to a scientific understanding of human behavior across these diverse domains. In addition to learning basic knowledge about psychology, students will learn how psychologists ask questions, evaluate evidence, and communicate with each other. This course aims to inspire students to reason about current affairs and social phenomenon through the lens of a psychologist. That is, to critically evaluate evidence and to form one’s own opinion based on sound reasoning and data.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits3
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Environment
    Course TeacherAssociate Prof. Xi Lu
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 13, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 14, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeMon 0950-1215
    Time ZoneUTC+8
    RestrictionFor undergraduate students only.
    Course DescriptionWith the growing requirement on environmental resources for the development of human society, global environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. A sustainable society involves not only rethinking of personal choices and behaviors, but also reconfiguring the carbon-based energy economy. The challenges posed by regional environmental problems and global climate warming implies a sustainable society would need to gradually reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, especially the coal and oil. This course is intended to explore the theories and methods toward a sustainable society from three perspectives, namely environment, energy and personal choices. The course will be taught in English, aiming at training students to think critically to solve the problems innovatively using a variety of approaches from interdisciplinary perspectives. The course will take advantage of internet technology and multimedia classroom to combine onsite classroom teaching and remote interactive teaching from the University of Washington (UW) led by Dr. Kristina M. Straus. Students from Tsinghua are encouraged to communicate with the UW Students, to collaborate with them on the course projects. The overall goal is to stimulate student interests in learning from both books and practical experiences, and to improve their comprehensive skills of teamwork, communication, critical thinking. This course is divided into two parts. The first one involves students to interact with local and remote teaching teams in class and in their course work. Courses will cover fundamental theories of sustainability, natural capitalism, sustainable food choices, product life cycle analysis, energy consumption, water crisis in the United States, low-carbon economy, development of new energy in China, low-carbon transportation system and other relevant topics. The second part mainly refers to field trip activities either in Beijing or in Seattle.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits2
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Humanities
    Course TeacherProf. Fenrong Liu
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 13, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 14, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeMon, Wed 1705-1840
    Time ZoneUTC+8
    RestrictionStudents must have had a logic course or similar formal background.
    Points to Note for StudentsWeekly homeworks (80% of grade), minipaper + short presentation (20%). Homeworks will contain regular questions and bonus questions, graded by point totals.
    Course DescriptionThis is a technical mid-level course, not a first introduction to logic. Students must have had a logic course or similar formal background [for newcomers to logic, we post a text from the on-line course http://www.logicinaction.org/, the assistants have further advice]. Each week new skills will be trained, and outlooks given to mathematics, computer science, philosophy, etc. Also, students will be pointed to current research problems and directions.
    Course OutlineDownload


    The number of credits is shown as provided by the course offering university. The credit structure at the course offering university may be different from the one at your home university. Please contact the VSE Coordinator of your home university for credit transfer information.

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