Higher educational systems: A Comparative Study between China and UK

Résumé du document

Through analyzing and comparing others' research, history of Chinese and British higher educational systems, and the current situation of the two systems, we can find that there are four major parts we can learn from British higher education, including improve transparency, enhance relevant study, free movement and access to the best possible education for students and change some methods of teaching and learning activities. Some of these parts can be related to cultural differences. Changing culture needs time.

The purpose of higher education, which originated in the Middle Ages (Song Wenhong 2005), is spreading knowledge and providing trainings to important industries. Universities have become very significant institutions in creating and spreading knowledge. Universities are not only the birthplace of many basic sciences, but also play an important role in providing training for an increasing number of majors. The UK higher education originated 700 years ago. It encompasses of the complete range of things to offer like world class research universities to specialist conservatoires and colleges of art and design. The sector has attracted considerable, long-standing, world-wide respect; and a large number of UK institutions have established pre-eminent positions in their specialist fields against prominent international competitors (See National Mentoring Scheme 2005).

Extraits

[...] The system now sacrifices some students who have strong personality and ability. However, it guaranteed a large amount of students have qualified education and conforms to the reality of China. Though the credit accumulation and transfer system in the UK has a lot of advantages which Chinese higher education should learn from, find a system suit for the credit accumulation system in Chinese higher education according to current Chinese situation should be considered as the priority rather than apply the western credit accumulation system mechanically. [...]

[...] Because of the various class types and flexible assess methods, students should fully express their study achievements and abilities in class and in the assignments otherwise he or she will fail. Thus, though the Christmas holiday lasts 3 weeks and summer holiday is much longer, some students still choose to stay at home and library to studying. The exam system is very strict in the UK. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden. Teachers emphasise the ideology of against and avoiding plagiarism through out teaching, it is good for establish a good study atmosphere. [...]

[...] However, what China implemented is different from the system in the UK. It is named as Academic Year and Credit Accumulation system. The system is in the middle of Academic Year System and Credit Accumulation System. It means students accumulate credits in a semester or an academic year as a period. In the designated semester or academic year, students have to get a certain number of credits otherwise he or she will have to retake the semester or academic year. [...]

[...] That means, score check-up system is too simple to assess a student's ability. Universities should adopt different check-up system according to different course nature. Universities should emphasis on practical ability and increase the daily check-up system and scores, create a fairly and scientific check-up system as far as possible so that students can face study and exams with a moderate and correct attitude. To sum up, a good learning attitude and study method is a hard issue. It requires multiple co-operations, such as teachers, students, students' parents, society,. [...]

[...] Eleven science and technology universities[1] and nine Greenfield Universities[2] established to satisfy the demand of the post-World War II ‘baby-boom' population having a higher education and accepting the training of technology. These universities, which have beautiful architecture, quite environment, first-rate equipments, became the models of British universities. They attracted the newly emerging forces and their academic attainments surpassed many universities which have very long histories. (Shanghai University 2005) 2. The origin of Chinese higher education Traditional Chinese higher education first appeared in Tang Dynasty, which is 1200 years ago. [...]