"Advances in Crop Science: Farming Systems, Crop Cultivation and Crop Physiology "- international PhD course concluded successfully in China for several years in a row

In order to continue improving the knowledge exchange and teaching syllabus for doctoral students globally and enhance an international vision of academic staff in Denmark and China, the doctoral course " Advances in Crop Science: Farming Systems, Crop Cultivation and Crop Physiology" was established in 2018 to commence in 2019 at the College of Agriculture of China Agricultural University (CAU). Following a 2-years pause during the Covid-19 pandemic, and another 2 years online course due to closure of China, students and teachers could finally physical attend the course from 3 to 7 June this year, in Classroom 287 of the Old Teaching Building at the West Campus of CAU.

The course organization is led by an alumnus of the Department of Agroecology of Aarhus University, now Associate Professor at CAU, Yin Xiaogang, and co-organized and taught by Professor Jørgen E. Olesen, Professor Mathias N. Andersen and Researcher Kiril Manevski, also from the Department of Agroecology. The course organization is supported by the 111 Talent Introduction Project of the "Crop Genetic Improvement and Molecular Breeding Innovation Talent Introduction Base" at CAU. The course is typically on the margins of the Sino-Danish education activities in the Water and Environment MSc program the Department of Agroecology has each year in China.

Following the Biggs theory for teaching for enhanced learning - students always in the focus

The course comprehensively considers the basic background and research direction of doctoral students in the fields of crop cultivation and field managements of water and nutrients, the principles of and the science behind agroecology, crops coping with abiotic stresses such as drought and malnutrition, and novel digital approaches for monitoring and diagnosing.

“The course is a unique opportunity to showcase the typical Danish doctoral course setting we have here of intense education activity within a week, and which appear to be very attractive in China”, says Kiril Manevski who is generational colleague with Xiaogang and who is also involved from the start of the course organization and teaching.

The focus is on the student, and not teacher-centered, and this makes it very interesting for the academic ecosystem in China. We combine multiple teaching methods such as pre-class preparation and special academic reports, in-class exercises, Journal Club seminars and classroom surveys, which effectively stimulates students' enthusiasm for classroom participation while imparting professional knowledge.

“This year we have employed for the first time a debate as a teaching tool as this can be a very effective format to teach controversial issues or phenomena without scientific agreement as it motivates students to form their own ideas actively in persuasive manners”, says Kiril Manevski, and thanks his colleague Eusun Han at the department who introduced the debate as a teaching tool and provided implementation guidance.

 The atmosphere of classroom discussion and communication is every year very active, enthusiastic, constructive and excellent teaching results have been achieved.

Internationalization remains one of the core pillars of every excellence university

The course is unique because it teaches the international research frontiers and research hotspots in the fields of 1) method and technology system for studying the mechanism of efficient water and nitrogen utilization in crop production systems under green and sustainable agriculture; 2) the international frontier development of smart agriculture, mainly crop phenotype, digital agriculture and precision agriculture; 3) the latest research progress in the field of crop production response to stress such as high temperature and drought and crop stress tolerance gene editing.

It not only enables students to experience the latest authentic international teaching concepts and teaching models, but also expands students' international vision and perspectives, effectively improves their cross-cultural communication skills, and provides students with new ideas and methods for solving complex problems faced by agricultural development. It is also very beneficial for the teachers themselves, as every year lectures need to be updated with the latest knowledge on the field, often involving the teachers themselves such as in the topic of nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture and design of digital agricultural tools. Noteworthy is that the success of the course has steadily improved the internationalization level of the department doctoral student’s uptake in Denmark and also provides a reference for new initiatives involving the department in international graduate programs construction and course teaching.

“Finally, the course always results in strengthening the teacher-student academic relations, most often with cooperation and advice on students ongoing work and publications, which is very valuable for us here in Denmark”, adds Kiril Manevski