On The Implementation Of General Education In Contemporary Chinese Universities

Since the liberalization of its economy in the late 1970’s, China’s educational values have undergone a substantial ideological change; this sort of change has affected the position, role, and goals of its universities. Demands from both the contemporary world as well as Chinese society grow both more diverse and complicated with each passing day; in order to meet these growing demands, Chinese universities must thoroughly evaluate themselves:Where are their weaknesses? In which areas are their ideas increasingly antiquated and obsolete? The author believes that when it comes to Chinese educational methods, there exist some approaches that simply must adapt or perish; otherwise, China will have no means to transform into an educational superpower. Not only will China’s educational system be unable to progress or surpass other nations’, but there also exists the possibility of it being cast aside in other countries’ wakes. In addressing this issue, the author will investigate and analyze the following elements of China’s most recent higher education reforms: Their origins, current state, as well as their prospects for future development. It goes without saying, China’s current undergraduate universities have undergone a substantial change in educational values since the days of Mao and the Cultural Revolution:What the author is most interested in, however, is exactly how substantial this change is. First, the author wishes to clearly state what topic they plan on discussing:The large-scale change in educational values at Chinese universities from the Maoist era to the present. Since China’s reforming and opening up, reforms at Chinese colleges have been seemingly all encompassing. While there are hundreds of colleges that have enacted such reforms, the author has chosen to select only two case studies to analyze:The Boya Liberal Arts College at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat Sen University, and the general education program at Nanjing University.The author believes these two cases studies share an important similarity, in that they both revere the importance of non-professional education:In this respect, they to an extent resemble the Liberal Arts Education tradition that was born out of Western tradition. Since the author himself attended what he perceives to be a fairly typical Liberal Arts college in the United States (Minnesota’s Carleton College), he can draw on his own experience to evaluate the reforms implemented at Sun Yat Sen University and Nanjing University. Therefore, the author will analyze recent reforms at China’s Universities from a Western perspective:To what extent, exactly, can these new educational programs be compared with Western Liberal Arts traditions? In other words, can China’s recent educational reforms be described as a process of their "internationalization" or even "Westernization"?Therefore, the author has drawn up three basic research questions:1) (Origin) How did China’s recent educational reforms come about? 2) (Current state) How do China’s higher educational reforms compare with traditional Western liberal arts methods? 3) (Future) What is the lifespan of this set of most recent higher educational reforms?...