Our School Successfully Held a Coaching Lecture on Writing Decision Consulting Reports

The status of think tank work and consulting reports is becoming increasingly important in universities. It is not only an important tool for universities to serve national strategies and social needs, but also a key way to enhance their scientific research and innovation capabilities and expand their academic influence. In order to further improve the think tank work of the School, promote the transformation of academic achievements, and enhance the ability to serve the country, on March 6, 2025, the "BNUBS · Experts Lecture" (140th session) was successfully held in Conference Room 1722 of the main building. Professor Dong Xiaojun from the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration) was invited to give a special lecture on "How to Write Decision Consultation Reports". The lecture was hosted by Professor Wei Hao, Associate Dean of the School, and more than 30 teachers and graduate students from both inside and outside the school attended. The lecture lasted for three hours.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Wei Hao warmly welcomed Professor Dong Xiaojun's arrival and introduced her academic background and research direction. Professor Dong Xiaojun is a second level professor, doctoral supervisor, and academic leader in the Economics Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration). She is also the Vice President of the China Market Economy Research Association, a national level talent in the "Four Batches" program, a leading talent in philosophy and social sciences under the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", a national level candidate for the "New Century Hundred, Thousand, Thousand Talents Project", and an expert receiving special allowances from the State Council. She has served as the Deputy Director of the Economics Department and Deputy Director of the Decision making Consultation Department (in charge of work) at the Central Party School. She has been engaged in policy consulting and research for a long time, winning the "Special Award" (research report) in the first Central State Organs Official Document Competition, as well as the first prize in teaching, excellent course, consulting report, and scientific research. She participated in the drafting of the State Council's "12th Five Year Plan", "13th Five Year Plan", and "14th Five Year Plan", submitted a series of consulting reports to the State Council, and received positive instructions from the central leadership. Some of the viewpoints and countermeasures proposed in the reports were adopted by the decision-making level of the State Council. Her consulting work has made outstanding contributions and has been specially commended by the National Social Science Planning Office. She has been named one of the first batch of chief experts in decision-making consulting in China. She has published over a hundred papers in national newspapers and magazines. More than 10 monographs have been published in national publishing houses, including "Research on National Financial Risk Assessment and Security Prevention System" (included in the "Achievement Library" of the Ministry of Education in 2022) and "Political Economy in Financial Crisis Games".

Professor Dong Xiaojun systematically analyzed the writing techniques of decision consulting reports based on the three major challenges faced in writing such reports. Firstly, Professor Dong Xiaojun pointed out that consulting reports are different from academic papers in that they have characteristics such as policy orientation, pertinence, applicability, foresight, timeliness, and operability. Professor Dong emphasized that high-quality policy consultation reports stem from precise topic selection, and the key to topic selection lies in insight into policy trends, capturing government concerns, and proactively responding to real needs. The topic selection of a consulting report should not only revolve around existing research results, but also have foresight, providing valuable insights before policies take shape. Secondly, when it comes to writing strategies, Professor Dong Xiaojun believed that excellent decision-making policy consulting reports should have clear structure, precise expression, rigorous logic, and concise and straightforward language. Different types of reports require different expressions and cannot be generalized. She emphasized that the decision-making consultation report must be concise and powerful, conveying profound policy insights in highly condensed language, and avoiding simply restating existing policies. Finally, Professor Dong Xiaojun pointed out that policy recommendations are the soul of consulting reports. High quality establishment must be based on rigorous logical reasoning and sufficient data support, while also being feasible. Professor Dong shared her consulting cases on international economic situation, inflation, digital tax and other policy research based on her own experience, further demonstrating how policy consulting can promote policy optimization through in-depth research.

In the interactive communication session, teachers engaged in lively discussions on topics such as topic selection, data acquisition, and the combination of academic research and policy consultation. Professor Dong Xiaojun pointed out that researchers should pay attention to official documents, think tank reports, and international developments, and improve their information screening and analysis abilities by combining field research, expert interviews, and other methods. In addition, she suggested that scholars refine policy recommendations based on solid academic research to ensure the practical value of consulting reports.

Finally, Professor Wei Hao expressed his gratitude to Professor Dong Xiaojun for her wonderful sharing, and concluded that this lecture not only systematically sorted out the writing methods of consulting reports, but also demonstrated through rich real research cases how policy consulting can effectively influence decision-making, enabling the teachers and students present to have a deeper understanding of the practical operation of decision-making consulting. Amidst enthusiastic applause, the 140th edition of the "BNUBS· Expert Lecture" came to a successful conclusion. After the meeting, the attending teachers expressed that the lecture was very good and they gained a lot. In the future, the School will continue to increase related activities, enhance its ability to provide strategic and forward-looking research results, and become a "think tank" for government scientific decision-making.

Contributed by Discipline Research Office

Edited by Zhang Shu, Sun Yue

Reviewed by Wei Hao