Kevin Ceisel
Daniel Jiang
Amy Parker
Laura Podgorski
Ryan Zachar
A Comparison Between Educational Systems of China and the USA
The education system as a whole in China has many similarities to that of the United States; however, there are also some notable differences, which seem to mainly stem from the large population difference and the culture of the respective countries. The main areas of comparison that were evident from the interactions with the Chinese university students and the time spent on the university campuses are the logistics of the educational system, student life, and the college campuses.
Like in the United States, elementary school and high school last a total of twelve years, but in China, it is split up slightly differently. After six years of elementary school, there are three years of “middle school” (equivalent to the usual two years of junior high in the United States) and then three more years of “high school.” The biggest difference between the two countries’ school systems is that in China, the system as a whole is much more rigid with more guidelines and in the US, there is significantly more freedom and fewer restrictions. For example, a student having the freedom to select his or her own classes is unheard of in China, as all the way through college, all the classes that a student must take is predetermined. An explanation for this is very likely the large number of students and allowing each student to personalize his or her plan of study is simply too complicated.
Another example is that after spending two weeks in China, we have seen many instances of students in elementary and high school in school uniforms. It seems as if school uniforms are the norm, whereas in the US, schools requiring uniforms is much more rare.
Again due to the population of students, the competition in Chinese schools is significantly higher. The HIT and Ningbo students said that there are entrance examinations for middle school, high school, and college; these exams determine the caliber of school that they are admitted to. Of course, the examination for college, or the “gao kao,” is the most important and thus, it is the exam that many students spend their entire life preparing for. Browsing a bookstore in China, we found the section for test prep books and looking through one on math, we noticed that the problems were significantly harder than problems on the SAT (which can be considered equivalent to the “gao kao”). The reason behind the difficultly of the tests is so there will be a greater range of scores so that colleges can better differentiate between the immense number of students.
There is a difference in how students get into their colleges. Students still have to take a test and their scores help determine the school they get into like America, but the major they get into. Students in China pick their major by writing down a list of possible majors on a piece of paper. Then the schools pick the students based on their grades. In America the schools let the student know if they were accepted or not and then the student picks from the schools that have accepted them.
Following the “gao kao” and being accepted into a university, Chinese students must then choose a major. There are a few similarities and many differences between the way most Purdue students choose their major, and the way most Chinese college students choose their major. Yet again, there are far fewer restrictions on American students when picking a major than there are on Chinese students.
At HIT the competition to get into majors is very competitive. After being accepted by the university, they must apply again for a major. My partner explained that she applied for a total of 5 majors, and only got accepted into one program. That is the major that she now has. Many of the Chinese students do not know what most of the majors even mean. Many students also feel pressure from their parents to go into a certain area. They must decide when they are still in high school which majors to apply for, and what the major actually entails which is often not understood. Many high school seniors also choose their major during their last few months in school. The big difference is that many American students can choose their majors. Some change their major up to four or five times. At HIT students rarely change their major. After their freshmen year only the top ten percent of students can change their major. If you are not in the top ten percent than you are stuck with the major that you chose. One of our Chinese partners explained that many of her friends are not happy with the major that they chose, but they are stuck with it. They will have to complete their undergrad in that subject, and then they can go to grad school for something that they are more interested in. Since HIT is a school of technology, most of the partners we talked to were engineers or a similar subject.
At Ningbo University the process of choosing majors was very similar. It was a liberal arts school therefore the majors were different. Many of students that we talked to had majors in International Economics or English. Interestingly, there did not seem to be the animosity between students of different majors, which is common in the United States at universities such as Purdue. Although engineers were seen as the major most needed at the moment, they saw all majors as important. Not like in America were most majors will look down upon others. Such as how science and engineering majors look down on liberal arts majors. In China they are not very popular majors, but still seen as important.
Furthermore, Chinese students have a lot less vacation time than American college students do. American students have a three month summer vacation. Chinese students do not even have three months off the entire year. Their summer vacation lasts a month and a half and winter vacation lasts one month. Thus, Chinese students spend up to two months more in school each year than American students do.
It may seem this rigidity in the educational system may have negative effects on the students. In fact, before coming to China, we read that because of the great importance of tests in China, the educational system focuses strongly on tests and much less on other things like leadership, hands-on experience, teamwork, or creativity, which many Chinese students end up lacking. While Americans have labs to go with a lot of their classes, Chinese students do a lot more theory work and not much hands on work. They have very few labs and more lectures instead. They focus more on the theory than the mixture of theory and hands on. Even when they go to graduate school there is not much hands on work. The majority of Chinese students go straight to graduate school after undergraduate, while many American students seem to value real world work experience more and often feel the need to work for a year or two before deciding on whether or not to attend graduate school.
However, we also read that China realizes the importance of these other aspects of education and has been reforming its educational system to concentrate more on such things. The students that we met in Beijing, at HIT, and in Ningbo all exhibited great leadership, worked together very well, and put on amazing and very creative artistic and musical performances—we see this as evidence of China’s reforming educational system.
As part of this reform, China has also started having everyone be taught English in school. They believe that eventually Mandarin and English will be the only to languages on Earth. They are taught English up through high school. It is surprising how well a lot of Chinese students speak English. They do not have to take it in college, but it is optional for them to major in English. They are not able to minor in it because there minors do not exist in China. They did not see why people would even want minors since they are not getting a full education in the subject.
Study, study, study; this is the foundation of any University education, whether in America or China. However, after all of this studying, students need some way to relax and have fun with their friends. Both American and Chinese students enjoy having fun. There are similarities and differences in the way that American and Chinese students have fun and entertain themselves.
American and Chinese students have many things in common when it comes to entertainment. Both cultures love music, particularly American music, which is played in Chinese discos. Chinese students love American culture and are very familiar with American music, movies and television. Chinese students, like Americans, enjoy having friends over and watching a movie or television show. When Chinese students were asked what they liked to do for fun, a common response from the females was shopping, and playing computer games was usually the answer from the males. This is how also many American students pass the time at school.
While there are similarities in the way that Chinese and American students have fun, there are also several differences. Drinking and partying is one major difference between American and Chinese college students. Any major American University has a bar culture and numerous parties that a student can choose from on the weekend. Alcohol is also a big part of weekend activities for many American students, but this is not the case in China. Despite the fact that there is no drinking age, most Chinese students do not drink or go to bars or clubs on the weekends. And when Chinese students do drink it is not nearly as heavily as many American students. Parties on or near campus are also not popular in China. One Chinese student said that he did not think that anyone would come if somebody did throw a party. Another student asked if American universities were similar to the movie American Pie.
The American and Chinese students who were involved in Maymester China 2008 were very eager to make new friends and learn about each other’s respective culture. The students were so excited to get to know each other better they often met in the evening, when the academic part of the day was done, to go out and have fun. Despite their cultural differences, the American and Chinese students that were part of Maymester China 2008 had a great time together.
College campuses in China come in many different forms, just as they do in America. They can occupy anything from several floors of an inner city building to sprawling multi-acre campuses outside the cities. The design and size of college’s campuses in China are by no means equal. It is clear that some colleges enjoy the wealth that their school possesses and can create beautiful places of learning and research. Others serve a purely functional role and are void of elaborate buildings and expertly manicured surroundings.
For example, take Beijing Foreign Studies Institute and compare it to Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL. Although they both occupy a small central area and have well kept buildings, they clearly do not have a great amount of space to expand and must substitute additional floors on buildings instead of building outward. Additionally, although the Beijing Foreign Studies Institute has some landscaping and even a small monument and flag, it does not contain space for parks or recreation facilities on its campus.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) has a completely different campus then the Beijing Foreign Studies Institute, and can be compared to a large campus such as Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Not only does it contain several buildings dedicated to education and research, but also contains several portions of campus dedicated towards beautification. In fact, SJTU host more modern buildings and more green space then most large universities in the United States! It clearly benefits from primarily being a research institution and having the capability to attract money from business looking to do research at the university.
In conclusion, college campuses in China are very similar to those in the United States. They come in several different forms and sizes usually consistent with the their proximity to the urban centers. Chinese universities clearly put an emphasis on making all of their campuses modern with the ability to effectively support quality education and research. Although several differences between the Chinese and American educational systems were described, not only are the college campuses similar, when looking at the two educational systems as a whole, they are surprisingly similar for two such differing cultures.