Sail across the sea

Chapter 351 School-Recognized Grades
“These two courses were taught by Professor Dai and Professor Hong. When I received the exemption papers, I felt something was wrong. I asked Yang Kai to take a look, and he said the difficulty of the papers was too high; even doctoral students might not be able to get 80 points,” Zheng Xiuhua said.

Zheng Xiuhua had heard about Gao Fan's past actions from some teachers, and she also knew that Zheng Linong greatly admired Gao Fan. As a senior academic affairs secretary, Zheng Xiuhua had always been very fond of such outstanding students.

Although she herself didn't have a high level of education, she had worked in the chemistry department for many years and had a good sense of how difficult the exam papers were. Fearing that her judgment might be wrong, she showed the paper to Yang Kai beforehand. As it turned out, Yang Kai's judgment was exactly the same as hers, which made her very dissatisfied with the two teachers, Dai and Hong, who had set the exam.

What kind of character is this? How can someone scheme against their own students like this?

"When did you show it to Senior Brother Yang?" Gao Fan asked with great interest.

Zheng Xiuhua said, "Before your exam."

"Then why did you give it to me to take the test? Aren't you afraid I'll fail?"

"Yang Kai said you'll definitely pass. I also want to see if you, who brag all day long, really have any skills."

"Aren't you afraid I might fail the exam?"

"If you failed the exam, just come back and study. What kind of college student are you? You've been in college for two years and haven't even spent a full month on campus."

"I clearly stayed for two months, okay?" Gao Fan argued, but before Zheng Xiuhua could retort, he quickly changed the subject and asked, "Teacher Zheng, you clearly know that Teacher Dai and Teacher Hong are deliberately making things difficult for me, and you just don't care?"

Zheng Xiuhua said, "Who said I don't care? I'm already prepared. If you really can't do it, I'll take the paper to Director Teng and let him see if it's an undergraduate's paper."

"What if I manage to do it?"

"Isn't that even better? I showed Yang Kai your answer sheet, and he said you could get at least 90 points. Then I handed it to Teacher Dai and Teacher Hong to grade. You didn't see the looks on their faces when they came to hand in the report cards to me. It was so satisfying!" Zheng Xiuhua laughed heartily as she said this.

Chinese society still values ​​"reason." Whether Dai and Hong acted out of personal grudges or genuinely wanted to maintain teaching order, deliberately increasing the difficulty of the exemption exam to make things difficult for Gao Fan is unreasonable.

Zheng Xiuhua was quite disdainful of the two's actions, and seeing Gao Fan slap them in the face with his own strength, she naturally felt schadenfreude.

"Thank you, Sister Zheng," Gao Fan said sincerely.

"Why thank me?" Zheng Xiuhua waved her hand, then her expression turned serious again. She said, "Gao Fan, I also think it's not good for you to always skip classes. With such a solid foundation, wouldn't it be a greater contribution to the country if you stayed at school to study hard and do research with Professor Luo and Professor Ma?"

Gao Fan said, “Professor Zheng, I have discussed this issue with Minister Zheng. I think that there are many people in our country who can do scientific research, but too few who can make money. It is actually more meaningful for me to go out and make money and use the money to support professors in doing scientific research. Professor Hai, Senior Brother Yang, and more than a dozen other teachers have all received funding from me over the past year and have produced many high-level results.”

“I know about this; Director Teng specifically mentioned it in the meeting,” Zheng Xiuhua said. She hadn't really thought much about the issue; she had just instinctively offered Gao Fan some advice as an academic affairs secretary. Hearing Gao Fan's explanation, she felt his choice might be right, especially since even Minister Zheng supported him. “Then you'd better consider the feelings of some teachers, lest they have complaints about you. This semester, Teacher Dai and Teacher Hong didn't stump you with their questions, but what about next semester? What if other teachers make things difficult for you?”

"Isn't Teacher Zheng helping me get justice?" Gao Fan said with a smile.

"I was just saying. If they insist that this is the requirement for undergraduate students, Director Teng will also be in a difficult position," Zheng Xiuhua said.

Gao Fan said seriously, "Teacher Zheng, it's not that I don't want to consider their feelings, but you know the character of some teachers. If I give in to their pressure and compromise all the time, how can I explain it to the other teachers? Besides, my company also has a superior authority, and I can't cover everything up, can I?"

Zheng Xiuhua nodded slightly. She knew the problems with the department's teachers better than anyone. Some teachers were indeed highly respected, but others were a different story. When there was no conflict of interest, these teachers seemed quite respectable, but once it came to matters of interest or reputation, their behavior was no different from that of ordinary people.

"You'd better be able to produce some grades that are recognized by the school. That way, it will make sense for Director Teng to speak up for you," Zheng Xiuhua suggested.

"As for the grades recognized by the school..." Gao Fan muttered Zheng Xiuhua's words and understood.

In his previous life, Gao Fan graduated with a doctorate and later worked in a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was very clear about what achievements were recognized by research institutions. Whether it was a university or a research institute, the hard currency for evaluation was research projects and papers. The projects had to be at the national level, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China or the National Key Research and Development Program of China. As for the papers, the level of the journals in which they were published was important, such as Q1 or Q2 journals.

If a professor has a major national research project and one or two papers published in top-tier journals, he can basically do whatever he wants at the university, and all the rules have to give way to him.

Similarly, if a student has a paper published in a top journal, there shouldn't be any obstacles to applying for exemption from courses, right?

“Professor Zheng, I understand. I’ll go find Senior Brother Yang now and co-author a few papers with him. We don’t need to publish in top journals, just something like Science will do,” Gao Fan said with a smile.

"You're just bragging!" Zheng Xiuhua rolled her eyes at Gao Fan. She was a savvy person and knew what "Science" meant. She said, "If you can publish a paper in 'Science,' not only will you be exempt from courses, but you can even get a diploma directly from the school."

"Is that really true?" Gao Fan was somewhat surprised.

"Go away, go away, post it first and then we'll talk." Zheng Xiuhua made a gesture like shooing away a fly, telling Gao Fan to get lost.

She firmly believed that Gao Fan was joking with her. So many professors at Peking University have never published a single paper in "Science" in a year. Gao Fan made it sound as simple as putting up a poster in the Upper Triangle.

In reality, all Zheng Xiuhua wanted Gao Fan to do was publish a paper in a decent domestic journal. As an undergraduate student, it made sense for the department to protect him if he could publish a relatively good paper.

(End of this chapter)