On November 8, the Communist Party of China (CPC) will hold its 18th National Congress, quite probably the most important meeting the Party has held in a decade.

The preparations have been meticulous, but beyond the strengthened security and minute logistical arrangements, a different kind of preparation has also been taking place.

For the last five months, teachers and students from the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have been organizing activities promoting Party spirit, and beyond that, over the past few years, the school itself has been overhauling its curriculum.

Xi Jinping, the Chinese Vice President and also the headmaster of the Party School, said at the opening ceremony of the school's fall semester on September 1 that the intellect of officials determined their work performance, leadership, ideology and politics, and it was necessary and beneficial for officials to gather and study for a period of time at the Party School.

"There are many competing ideologies inside and outside the Party before and during every National Congress of the CPC and we have to carefully deal with those sensitive topics, " Li Jingtian, vice headmaster of the Party School, said in a speech, noting that those various thoughts would also push innovation of the Party's ideology.

However, some things are sacrosanct. "The basic principles would not change, for example, the (topics relating to) Party history and Party building, as well as related courses, are very important and they are being enhanced," Xie Chuntao, a professor of CPC history at the school, told the Global Times.

New curriculum

According to Xinhua reports, the school has added a subject relating to maritime issues to its syllabuses, one of a number of changes that have been put in place over the last few years.

"There's been a trend toward adding more innovative and modern contexts to the courses, which were mainly filled with Marxism and Communism," a retired professor at the Party School surnamed Wu told the Global Times.

Western courses, like Micro- and Macro economics, were allowed to be taught in these schools in the 1980s, as part of a plan to "normalize" education,  Li Xingshan, the former head in charge of education at the school, told the Xinhua owned magazine the Oriental Outlook.

Later, courses like science and technology, law, military affairs and global contemporary thoughts were added.

Currently, courses range from "the contemporary global financial structure" to "the Book of Changes" - a traditional Chinese classic, and there are also discussions on recent news events, including the territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Wang Dongjing, a member of the school's managing committee, believes that building a Party committed to learning requires not only systematic training on political theories, but also equipping prospective leaders with the ability to think strategically and have global vision.

Wang's opinion is echoed in Xinhua reports regarding the 18th National Congress of the CPC, which commented that a capable leadership will be the deciding factor in whether China succeeds in achieving its development goals, and that the CPC's respect for education will contribute toward the country's future development.

Modern challenges

One student at the Party School, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times that the school authorities never missed a chance to tell students how important it is to follow and embrace change.

He said the school held a Weibo (a Chinese microblog) lecture for students last year due to the growing impact of the online service, and students, especially older ones, were also encouraged to study how to use other social networking sites and the techniques required to effectively use the Internet, with the help of school researchers.

The changes in the training methods used at the school are also seen as symbolizing a shift in the CPC's method of governance, and mark a leap forward in the competence of the Party's elites, Xinhua reported.

Li Xingshan, a former professor in charge of the school's education, told the Oriental Outlook, "Some people have mocked us about teachers without any overseas experience teaching those who have been abroad, but now many researchers visit foreign countries at least once every two years."

In 2011, over 500 foreign leaders, scholars and executives of multinational corporations came to the school to give speeches or attend seminars, said Wang, adding that some students have also been sent to court hearings for those facing corruption charges.

Long Guoqiang, a senior research fellow with the Development Research Center of the State Council, who was trained at the school in 2011, told Xinhua that the cutting edge seminars "greatly improved" his awareness of crisis and hardship.

By the numbers

The CPC has boosted the training of Party cadres and members since the concept of a "pro-learning Party" was conceived at the Party's 16th National Congress in 2002.

In 2006, the CPC Central Committee decided to push forward training for senior and mid-level officials. Since then, the school has trained some 3,000 officials annually, including a large portion of cadres serving in minister-level capacities.

According to Xinhua, the CPC has been attracting younger members, with young officials taking up a growing proportion of the enrolled students, and these young officials are expected to play crucial roles in China's future strategic deployments.

The Party School has also been at the forefront of research into various ideologies and experimenting with different ideas.

 The Study Times, a newspaper run by the school, was called a "serious, respectful" and "sharp" newspaper by the Oriental Outlook.

The former editor of the Study Times, Shen Baoxiang, who wrote an influential article on human rights in 1979, told the Oriental Outlook, "It was a meticulous article about human rights and did not simply take a negative attitude toward human rights (unlike other articles at the time). The article provided a positive view of human rights, and the rights asserted by people in reality."

"Now when we look at the article, it did not illustrate (the situation) thoroughly. But we could not speak authoritatively on the topic at that time. Later, respecting and protecting human rights was included as a title for the Deng Xiaoping Theory textbook at the Party School," Shen said, explaining how new theories have evolved in the Party School.

Global Times- Xinhua