Although the situation between the top universities in the United States is very different, especially between public universities and private universities, there are still a series of characteristics on how to ensure the quality of undergraduate education from the institutional level:
First of all, we must strictly control the entrance from the enrollment stage. Almost every top university attaches great importance to enrollment. The position of the director of the Admissions Office is very high, and sometimes he is the third person after the principal and the provost, and he has the final decision on whether to admit every student. They often work in this position for a long time, thus accumulating extremely rich experience in screening students, and William, director of enrollment at Harvard University? William fitzsimmons worked for 40 years at a stretch. For 40 years, he has only one job every day, that is, reading the application materials of students from all over the world. Not only Harvard, but also the admissions directors of many universities have served for more than ten years. In addition, the university fully guarantees the personnel and funds of the admissions department, and the investment is huge; The registration process is extremely complicated and even cumbersome. Every student who is finally admitted will go through several rounds of testing and evaluation before receiving the admission notice.
We used to have a misunderstanding about the selection and training of talents in American universities? Wide in and strict out? It seems that it is much easier for American students to go to college than for China students to take the college entrance examination [Weibo]. In fact, on the contrary, American students want to enter the top universities, and the competition is fierce, which is as difficult as that of China students admitted to Peking University Tsinghua [Weibo]. The door to the top universities in the United States is not only not at all? Wide? Instead? Strict? It sucks. Generally speaking, applying for an American university requires an application fee. Although the application fee of each university is not high, it adds up to a lot of expenses. No one will apply to only one university. It is precisely because of the cost limitation that all students who submit applications think that they have a certain degree of admission after careful consideration. From this point of view, whether it is Stanford University's 5. 1% or Harvard University's 5.9%, it is quite amazing data. In other words, they selected less than six students from 100 who thought they could go to Harvard! Can you imagine how good its students are? More importantly, these carefully selected students, except for a few who are wrong, all conform to the university's school-running philosophy and training objectives, providing the first layer of guarantee for the quality of education after students enter school.
Secondly, ensure that teachers focus on undergraduate teaching from the cultural and economic aspects. Top American universities attach great importance to their teaching enthusiasm when recruiting teachers. At MIT, paying attention to undergraduate teaching is the core culture of the university. Professors not only have classes, but also like them. However, it is not enough to have culture and call. Whether a teacher likes class or not is one thing, and whether he can really listen carefully is another. Top American universities guide and restrict teachers' attention to undergraduate teaching through powerful economic means. Professors' salary is generally only paid for nine months, and the remaining three months' income must be solved by finding research topics and funds by themselves. Therefore, it is not surprising that many China professors who teach in American universities will return to work for a few months on the one hand and cannot go back to work full-time on the other. This is the secret. The nine-month salary received by professors refers to the remuneration for attending classes, especially for undergraduates. Professors don't attend classes, their income drops sharply, and they don't even get paid; If the quality of the course is not high, the income will also be affected.
In a university like the University of Chicago that attaches great importance to undergraduate teaching, the situation is different. According to the University of Chicago, a professor's first duty is to teach. As for scientific research, it belongs to the professor's personal interest. The school will certainly support the professor's research work, but it must not harm the interests of teaching because of scientific research. Many professors are paid by undergraduate colleges. Professors must complete teaching tasks according to the teaching standards and requirements of undergraduate colleges, otherwise they may not get paid. Economic incentives directly affect or even change the behavior of professors. This may be quite enlightening for China University, which began to attach importance to undergraduate teaching.
Thirdly, in teaching methods, small class teaching mode is adopted. Small class teaching is the core means to ensure the quality of undergraduate education in top universities in the United States. And the more universities attach importance to undergraduate education, the more they emphasize the importance of small class teaching. In the core courses of University of Chicago and Columbia University, the proportion of small class teaching even reached 70%. Why can small class teaching ensure teaching quality? The reason is to prevent teachers and students from being lazy to the maximum extent. Teachers and students are likely to be lazy in a large class of hundreds of people. Students can sleep and teachers can read textbooks, but they can't be lazy in the small class discussion class of more than a dozen people. If students are lazy, it will affect their grades, and teachers can easily find out; If the teacher is lazy, the students will protest that the students pay high tuition fees to attend classes. If the products you provide fail to meet the quality standards and meet his or her needs, he or she will fire you mercilessly. For example, Wellesley Women's College, the top undergraduate college in the United States, has a tuition fee and living expenses as high as $60,000 a year, which means that every minute they spend at school can be converted into correspondingly expensive dollars. Students will certainly cherish their learning opportunities. In addition, in order to improve the teaching quality, many top universities provide students with full freedom to choose courses, but on the other hand, they also give students rational guidance through school policies. For example, MIT has restrictions on the number of courses and majors that students can take in one semester to prevent students from biting off more than they can chew; The University of Chicago directly stipulates that small class discussion classes with high requirements and heavy homework must reach a certain proportion in students' courses to prevent students from being lazy.
Fourthly, we have invested heavily in the course itself. On the one hand, the undergraduate course of every top university is a complete system, which may be directly related to the overall knowledge view advocated in the undergraduate education and teaching reform of American universities since the 1990s. On the surface, the course is presided over by a professor, but the whole course system is carefully designed by a special course Committee. In particular, core courses such as the University of Chicago and Columbia University have been tried a lot. On the other hand, schools and departments are not stingy with their investment in undergraduate courses. For example, the Department of Electronic Engineering at MIT spends as much as $300,000 and as little as $654.38 million+on a course every year. These funds do not include teachers' salaries, but are purely invested in the course itself and distributed to various student groups. Many students' works will soon be discovered and utilized by enterprises and directly transformed into products.
Finally, strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of teaching quality. Top universities in the United States attach great importance to the evaluation of teaching quality, but its evaluation method is not the materials submitted by the evaluated, but the full coverage evaluation of stakeholders, such as peer evaluation, senior staff evaluation of junior staff, and student evaluation of teachers. , almost everywhere, the evaluation results will have a direct or even serious impact on teachers' positions, professional titles and income. Evaluation usually adopts anonymous questionnaire survey, and sometimes it also adopts absolutely confidential and legally protected registered survey, so everyone will freely and responsibly express their true views with conscience and professional attitude when evaluating.
For example, in Wellesley Women's College, attending classes is one of the most important ways to monitor the quality of teaching. Professors should listen to associate professors, and associate professors should listen to assistant professors. After attending the lecture, they should be evaluated. The evaluation results directly affect the promotion of teachers' professional titles and their income. For professors, the school has a triennial evaluation. At the same time, students should evaluate teachers. If the student is not satisfied with the teacher, he or she must leave on the spot. For another example, at MIT, many times the same class is hosted by several teachers, and students can choose freely. Teachers' curriculum evaluation is published online for the reference of students at the next level, forming competition among teachers. Students' evaluation results affect teachers' income level. If a teacher's course is unpopular and no students attend, it means that he or she may attend? Class is over? Yes Therefore, no one dares not to try his best. In recent years, MIT began to evaluate teachers and teaching quality based on students' 5? The development of 10 is more scientific and objective.
Comparing the above aspects, there is indeed a considerable gap in ensuring the quality of undergraduate education in China University: during the enrollment stage, no one in the university can know the situation of the admitted students, including the director of the Admissions Office; Teachers' income basically has nothing to do with whether they attend classes or not; The teaching mode is still dozens of people and hundreds of people. Speech? Large class; As for teaching evaluation, it is either in the form of sports, or the evaluation results have no direct effect on personal interests, and so on. At first glance, over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, we have basically learned the appearance of American universities, such as credit system, GPA (average grade point), free course selection, flexible academic system, teaching evaluation and so on. But in the actual teaching process, which one played its due role? It is ok to draw a tiger according to a cat. If you really want to get a tiger, you must work hard and do it according to the essential requirements of the tiger. Otherwise, it is just a puppet toy, and the educated students in the university will suffer.