Category: Education/Science>> Institution Information
Problem description:
Who can tell me the history of Stanford University
Analysis :
Speaking of the establishment of Stanford University, there is a legendary story. Its founder, Leland Stanford Sr. (1824-1893), was a famous railroad king in the United States. He served as the governor of California and served two terms as a U.S. senator. In 1884, when the Stanford couple were traveling in Europe with their beloved son, little Stanford, who could speak three languages, was killed by typhoid fever. He stayed in Florence, Italy forever under the age of 16. The tragedy of the white-haired man giving away the black-haired man made the 60-year-old Stanford deeply sad. Remembering his son's wish to study in the most famous university in the United States, the old Stanford planned to donate his property and study in the most famous university in the United States in his son's name. Build a library, but was rejected by prestigious universities. Afterwards, the Stanford couple decided to use their land and property to establish a university in their son's name in California. To this day, people all over California and even the United States remember the couple's famous saying: "The children of California shall be our children." Stanford University on October 1, 1891 The opening ceremony was held on the same day. Mr. Stanford emphasized at the opening ceremony: "Life is ultimately practical, and you should be here to find a useful career for yourself. But you should also understand that this must include the desire to be innovative and enterprising, good design and "The wind of freedom always blows" is the school motto of Stanford University. According to its president, the meaning of the school motto is to encourage and ensure that students and faculty can engage in teaching and research freely and without hindrance. Related subject research.
The buildings at Stanford University are all yellow bricks and red tiles, and they are all in the style of Spanish mission halls in the 17th century - there are no buildings of different eras and styles like Harvard and Yale, and even fewer The walls of Northeastern University are covered with ivy. When you enter the university, the first thing you see is a red-roofed building surrounded by earth-yellow stone walls, with connected arcades and rows of brown shackles. It is full of richness in the interplay between classical and modern times. Strong cultural and academic atmosphere. The central square is the main part of Stanford. Around it are the Business School, the School of Geosciences, the School of Education, the School of Engineering, the School of Law, and the School of Medicine. Outside, there are the Stanford Science Park, botanical gardens, golf courses and several scientific test sites. The most famous building at Stanford University is Stanford Memorial Chapel. It was the famous designer Frederick Olmsted who designed the Stanford campus. He also designed the famous Elmhurst College, and his most famous masterpiece is the Manhattan, New York. Central Park and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
Stanford University has strong funds, sufficient funds, and abundant teaching equipment. The library contains 6.5 million volumes. The school has more than 7,000 computers for students to use, and also has multiple computer rooms and computer centers to provide services to students. Students can use the Internet to connect with teachers and students on campus. In addition, there are many sports facilities on campus, including gymnasiums, golf courses and swimming pools that can accommodate 85,000 people.
If Harvard and Yale represent the traditional American humanistic spirit, then Stanford University is a symbol of the scientific and technological spirit of the 21st century.
Stanford University is a four-year private university. It was rated as the fifth star university in the United States by "U.S. News and World Report" and ranked first in the United States academically. In 2002, "U.S. News" announced the latest rankings of graduate schools in the United States. The School of Engineering ranked second in the United States, the School of Education ranked second in the United States, the Graduate School of Business ranked first, the Institute of Business Administration and the School of Law were among the best in the United States, and the School of Law It has also always been at the top of the rankings of American law schools. At one time, six of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court graduated from Stanford Law School.
In the ranking of doctoral programs, biology ranks first, computer science ranks first with Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley, geology ranks third, and mathematics ranks tied with Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley. Third, physics is tied for third with Harvard University, Princeton University, and University of California, Berkeley, applied mathematics is fourth, and chemistry is fifth. Other courses that topped the list were English, Psychology, Mass Communication, Biochemistry, Economics and Drama. According to the latest official statistics, the average annual income of recent graduates from Stanford University is the highest among all universities in the United States. In 1998, Chelsea, the only daughter of U.S. President Clinton, chose Stanford University and became a "fresh person" at the school. Undoubtedly, this is another proof of the strength of Stanford University.
A unique university academic system
The academic system of Stanford University is different from other universities. In the school regulations, the year is divided into four quarters, and students have to take different courses in each period. Therefore, students at Stanford University are better than students at two-semester universities. There are more courses to study and more pressure than students at other universities. Stanford students must complete required courses in nine areas, including culture and thought, natural sciences, technology and practical sciences, literature and art, philosophy, social sciences and Religious thought. In addition, students must meet certain standards in writing and foreign languages. Stanford University recently raised eyebrows in the academic community when it added works by writers from non-Western societies to its year-round Western Culture curriculum. and vibration.
A strong group of famous professors
According to 1995 data, among the more than 1,300 professors at Stanford University, there are ten Nobel Prize winners and five Pulitzer Prize winner, one hundred and forty-two members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, eighty-four members of the National Academy of Sciences, and fourteen National Medal of Science winners. And sixty-seven students have received Rhodes Scholarships - the kind of scholarships that President Clinton once received and was selected to study at Oxford.
The most prestigious business schools and MBA majors
Stanford Business School and Harvard Business School are considered the best business schools in the United States. The two schools have been tied for first place in the business school rankings of authoritative American magazines many times. Harvard Business School represents more traditional business and management training, cultivating "suit-and-leather" large enterprise management talents; while Stanford Business School emphasizes the "small business spirit" of creating new technology and new enterprises, cultivating "T-wearing" talents. -shirt” a new generation of small entrepreneurs. In terms of student population alone, Stanford Business School is much smaller than Harvard Business School. Stanford has a total of 720 MBA students. There is only one business management talent training program called Sloan, which lasts for ten months and only recruits about 50 people each year. But in terms of student quality, among the more than 730 business schools in the United States, no business school has such fierce competition for admission as Stanford Business School. In recent years, 5,000 to 6,000 people apply to enter Stanford Business School every year, but only 360 lucky ones get their wish. From this perspective, Stanford Business School is the most “valuable” business school in the United States. The main reason for this is that the school must ensure the quality of teaching and the high quality and high standards of students.
Stanford Business School requires students to have a certain theoretical depth because it believes that business school graduates should benefit from business school education for at least twenty years. In other words, they should not only understand what kind of business world they will face after graduation, but also have enough intelligence to cope with the changed business world twenty years later. At Stanford, after the first-year basic courses, students are generally required to choose a major in the second year. These majors include manufacturing management, small business creation and management, international business administration, health care management, and public utility management. wait. The purpose of this is to enable students to have a systematic and in-depth understanding of the industries they may engage in in the future and to master practical and theoretical knowledge.
While emphasizing practical management experience, Stanford Business School also emphasizes long-term research on economics, finance, market operation and other theories, and has more research results than other first-class business schools. Over the past few decades, several professors at this business school have won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their research results. At the same time, Stanford Business School has placed special emphasis on the use of high technology in its teaching in recent years.
The content of many courses involves how to establish high-tech companies, how to implement technological transformation in a certain industry or large enterprises, and how to use new technologies to develop new products. To this end, the school invites many high-level business managers from Silicon Valley and other places to teach students every year and tell them about their practical experiences. Many MBA students participate in the business planning, development and management of small companies in Silicon Valley while they are studying, and have established close ties with these companies before graduating.
The very high elimination rate is also one of the reasons why Stanford University’s MBA program is world-famous. There are currently about 5,000 applicants every year, with the highest number reaching 8,000 in one year, and the admission rate is only 7%. Teachers are a key element in MBA education. Stanford Business School has a strong faculty with a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:6, including three Nobel Prize winners since 1990. MBA is not as simple as a master's degree as usually understood. It is a systematic and extensive major. Therefore ensuring student diversity is a very important aspect. Stanford MBA students come from various fields, which can increase complementarity between students and promote student learning to a certain extent.
Another very important means for Stanford University to ensure the quality of its education is to strengthen media supervision. Some mainstream media in the United States publish the rankings of MBA programs every year, which has a very important impact on both applicants and employers. These media usually distribute questionnaires among students and then conduct systematic analysis after collecting them. An important indicator of rankings is student opinion.
The premier “Silicon Valley and Stanford Research Park”
In fact, when talking about Stanford University, Stanford Research Park and “Silicon Valley” are inevitable. Many of Palo Alto's early engineers were graduates of Stanford University. But in 1920, Stanford University was just a "rural university. By 1960, it was ranked among the best. By 1985, it was rated as the number one university in the United States. It was the rise of Stanford University that created conditions for the microelectronics industry in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is A gathering place for the world's most advanced talents and cutting-edge technologies, there are more than 40 Nobel Prize winners and thousands of academicians of the Academy of Sciences and Academy of Engineering. In 1998, the total GDP of the Silicon Valley region was approximately 240 billion. The U.S. dollar accounts for about 35% of the United States, which is equivalent to about 25% of China's total GDP. These impressive achievements of Silicon Valley are inseparable from the incubator of Stanford University. At the same time, the development of Silicon Valley has also helped Stanford University. She was able to achieve what she has today.
When looking back at the complementary relationship between Stanford University and Silicon Valley, we have to pay attention to the bridge connecting Stanford University and Silicon Valley - the Stanford Research Park. Founded in 1951 by President Professor Terman, it is the world's first research park and is known as the "Father of Research Parks". Since the late 1940s, education in the United States has experienced a revival due to the federal government's decision to increase investment in education. For Stanford, which was in a corner at that time, it could not be compared with the famous universities in the east. At the same time, the west was far less developed than the east, and there was a serious brain drain. Professor Terman, the then Vice President of Stanford University, believed that the future of universities lies in talents. In his view, “Universities are not only places for seeking knowledge. They can have a huge economic impact on a country’s industrial development, industrial layout, population density and the prestige of the region. They must become a first-class university. There must be first-class professors. But at that time, Stanford was not attractive to famous professors. For this reason, Terman proposed his "academic cutting-edge concept", which has two meanings. One is to attract top talents. "As long as there are good professors, they will attract investment from the government, as well as graduate students and young people with development potential, making the school prosperous. In fact, this is also a prediction of Professor Terman: strive to improve the reputation of Stanford and strength in order to obtain as much educational funds as possible from *** investment in the near future. Professor Terman “Another meaning of the academic cutting-edge concept is to establish a number of top academic departments. It was based on the above "academic cutting-edge concept of recruiting outstanding talents and creating cutting-edge departments" that Professor Terman and the then president Wallace Sterling decided to turn Stanford's land into money, and the money - through Hiring famous professors has become academic prestige. Their method is as simple as renting out land to make money for the school.
In the original gift letter from old Stanford, it was stated that the donated land (Stanford campus) was not allowed to be sold, but there was no prohibition on leasing it. Therefore, they set aside 7.5% of the campus land, about 655 acres, and leased it to factories engaged in high-tech industries. This later became the Stanford Industrial Park.
Stanford not only attracts academic talents and entrepreneurial experts. At the same time, the academic marketization operation model of the research park has also generated an economic environment that is conducive to the emergence of new enterprises. It is this high-tech, high-risk but high-profit economic environment that attracts all kinds of entrepreneurs. . Because the research park combines the intellectual power of the university with the financial resources of industry, the huge productivity it generates has attracted the attention of the government. The National Science Foundation has established an agency to implement the "Small Business Innovation Research Program." This program helps small and emerging enterprises obtain research and development funding from private investment and other sources, and encourages them to cooperate with universities, government agencies, or Large companies sign work agreements. In addition, the state also supports the start-up of small businesses with venture capital programs and allows the issuance of tax-free industrial financing bonds. In short, entrepreneurs can receive financial and policy support from many aspects, especially in the Silicon Valley area. Providing excellent conditions for venture capital is one of the success factors of the Stanford Research Park and is the core driving force for the development of the entire Silicon Valley. At the same time, Stanford continues to develop partnerships between the university and industry. Technology is productivity. , knowledge is the foundation of science and technology, and universities are the most important places to produce knowledge. This series of logical relationships drives universities to invest knowledge in industry, so that industry can develop and innovate with science and technology. This logical relationship is exactly the concept of "practical education." manifestation. Mr. Stanford's educational concept of "Practical Education" has influenced the growth of Stanford University from the beginning. Mr. Stanford did not receive higher education. He entered society as an industrialist. The social practice of industrialists , which made him understand the importance of education in revitalizing industry. At the same time, he also understood what kind of education the industry needed, especially what kind of higher education. “Practical education became his philosophy in founding Stanford University. As the founder of the Stanford Research Park, Professor Terman was also an important figure who held this view. He opposed turning the university into an "ivory tower" that was divorced from reality. Therefore, under his leadership, in 1944, the university formulated a plan for the next 20 years. Develop a plan to draw the government's attention to Stanford University and make full use of federal government funding to transform Stanford University from a regional university into a nationally renowned research institution. The key points of the plan include: 1. Integration. Stanford University's cutting-edge disciplines strive to make Stanford University a center for industrial research and development. The goal is to unite universities and industry to contribute to high-tech development and regional economic growth, while also providing superior employment for school graduates. Opportunities. 2. Concentrate the financial and material resources of the university to attract first-class researchers, establish various cutting-edge research institutes, laboratories, etc., and cultivate talents who can "lead the world" in certain aspects. 3. At the same time, basic education in universities should not be ignored. In terms of teaching and research strategies, the secondary disciplines of the university are regarded as potential "technical reserves for growing industries. 4. In order to increase teachers' interest in connecting with industry, Stanford University has developed a set of *** This proactive Compensation system, and priority is given to research campuses that may contribute to the academic goals of the university.
Not only basic research, but also applied research and development activities are conducted at the Stanford Research Park. Basic research is not only conducted in university laboratories. It is also carried out in industry and research laboratories. Applied research is often carried out in university laboratories and research institutes with the participation of university teachers and industrial researchers. Development activities are concentrated in industrial laboratories. There are two types of development activities in universities. There are two ways: first, teachers serve as corporate consultants; second, companies absorb students with research experience and talents in development activities.
In addition, Stanford University also strengthens its ties with companies through various forms. Establish professional courses, run night schools, serve as consultants, serve as directors, use research facilities, conduct joint research, graduate students participate in part-time work, hire entrepreneurs as teachers or serve as members of thesis review committees, etc.
Stanford University also uses closed-circuit television to transmit vivid and vivid television courses to high-tech companies located in the research park, allowing corporate employees to obtain degrees without leaving the factory. It adopts flexible measures for those pursuing master's degrees, and does not necessarily need to Living on campus and studying is not even required to write a paper. Companies are also very supportive of the studies of these students. They pay double the tuition fees of irregular students to employees who participate in the studies. This kind of cooperation will be of great benefit to both parties. For companies, the speed of technology transfer is astonishing. Often the experimental results just obtained by teachers and the innovation plans of graduates can be realized immediately in the company. There are also many benefits to universities, such as the ability to obtain funds from companies for establishing research scholarships, hiring additional teachers, and purchasing experimental equipment. Particularly in Silicon Valley, many of the companies that were grateful for free use of Stanford's labs decades ago now fund Stanford's ambitious research programs.
Effective management is also the key to success. The construction of the Stanford Research Park focuses on the leasing and management of land. The original land lease period for the research park was 99 years. In 1960, the lease period was shortened to 51 years. At that time, the total rent was required to be paid in advance. By 1987, a system of annual rent payments was established. Stanford is particularly cautious about investor applications. Since the research park has strict restrictions on industrial entry, land leases in the park must be negotiated, and the actions of both parties should be based on a strict commercial basis. Despite this, companies and enterprises are still willing to occupy a place in the research park, because it means an increased chance of success. Located within the park, the company can often have contact with relevant departments of the university, and through this contact it can discover more opportunities for entrepreneurship. Therefore, all behaviors in the research park can be summed up in one point, which is to "seek the development and progress of human development and growth, and expect that these developments will lead to positive changes and improvements in society. Therefore, the management of the research park The leading idea is to promote the cause of the tenants, the university and surrounding groups, and to obtain sufficient credibility. Of course, both Stanford University and the city of Palo Alto receive considerable economic benefits from leasing the land. Stanford University only pays up front. The income from the concession land is about 3 million US dollars per year. In addition, a considerable part of this income is used to improve the campus.
Stanford University does focus on education. , integrating scientific research, and while delivering talents to society, it also uses its own scientific research results to serve social progress and economic development.