Speaking of foreign world-class university education ideas, there are voices saying that China has been imitating from the beginning of running a school, first imitating Japan and Germany, then learning from the United States and the Soviet Union, and now he is learning from the United States. Speaking of "world-class", he must be Harvard and Yale, forgetting that he grew up in China.
It is true that the historical stage we set foot on belongs to us only, and we should follow our own development path. In the era of globalization, the road to a world-class university will not be "one road in ancient Huashan", but "all roads lead to Rome".
So why study the educational ideas of world-class universities?
In the educational ideas of these world-class universities, either they are unique and colorful, or they are brave enough to change and break the shackles, all of which shine with wisdom. Although they each have distinct personalities in their educational ideas, through research, it is found that they have commonalities in some aspects, which is undoubtedly worth tasting.
1, focusing on the cultivation of talents is the constant core.
Talent cultivation is the starting point and destination of education, and it is an unavoidable problem for any university. With regard to personnel training, although each school has different emphasis and orientation on personnel training, attaching importance to personnel training is its constant core.
In the wave of industrial revolution, natural science appeared, and the content of education began to focus on natural science knowledge.
The training goal of first-class university education has also begun to change, turning to cultivating elites with professional knowledge. For example, the educational goal of Harvard University is to train leaders in various fields.
This is almost surprisingly consistent with the requirements of other world-class universities for talent education, that is, students are required to have the quality of leaders!
In the process of cultivating talents, world-class universities have the following common points.
First, cultivate elite talents around the needs of the country and society.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is recognized as a world-class university. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was just an ordinary technical college, whose mission was to train technicians needed for industrial production.
After two world wars, it has become a world-class university by leaps and bounds, precisely because it has seized the opportunity of national and social needs and adjusted its running direction in time.
This kind of school, which is duty-bound to rush ahead once the country needs it, has a better chance to move forward to the world class.
Even the classical universities such as Oxford University and Cambridge University, in the process of modernization transformation, no longer aim at cultivating educated gentlemen, but aim at cultivating elites who serve the society.
Second, attach importance to developing students' intelligence, especially creativity.
Old knowledge is easy to forget and exists objectively. Coupled with the rapid change of knowledge, old knowledge is quickly replaced by new knowledge, and students with strong creativity have greater advantages.
Stanford University, a new generation of world-class universities, has spent 70 years from its establishment to becoming a world-class university, taking cultivating students' creativity as its most important educational belief.
In practice, Stanford University not only offers courses to develop creativity, but also permeates creativity education into curriculum teaching. It is also the first university to establish an interdisciplinary research center and open a university in interdisciplinary course, aiming at stimulating students' subjective initiative and cultivating creativity through interdisciplinary learning.
Third, strict quality management is the only way to train talents.
Between scale and quality, world-class universities will undoubtedly choose the latter.
From the 1920s to 1930s, the scale of Yale University expanded unprecedentedly, and the number of students increased by more than 2,000 in ten years. Faced with the ever-expanding scale, the board of directors of Yale University, after careful discussion, decided to slow down the scale growth, insist on quality first and improve the teacher-student ratio.
Coincidentally, Stanford University pays attention to the selection of excellent teacher resources, and the student-teacher ratio is extremely low.
2. The importance of moral education has never been ignored.
The mission of modern universities is to train professional talents, and the weakening of moral education is a common phenomenon. When science becomes the main content of university education, world-class universities with the goal of cultivating talents have never ignored the importance of moral education. In these universities, moral and responsibility education has received the same attention as professional education and is regarded as the basis of talent training.
The purpose of education in classical universities is to cultivate educated people, not learned people. In order to cultivate educated people, Oxford University resolutely opposes the pursuit of practical and utilitarian education and emphasizes human nature education.
Berlin University has gone further on this road, taking morality (cultivation) as the ultimate goal of education and scientific knowledge as the medium of cultivation (from science to cultivation).
West, former president of MIT, attached great importance to moral education. When talking about what responsibilities higher education institutions should bear to students, West mentioned that the first priority is moral and ethical decision-making. World-class universities pay attention to cultivating students' sense of responsibility. World-class universities take it as their responsibility to cultivate talents, and serving the society and daring to take responsibility are the necessary qualities of the talents they cultivate.
Oxford University, which is famous for its conservatism, has shown a strong sense of responsibility in many major events. In the two world wars, Oxford University played an important role, not only demonstrating the justice of Britain's participation in the war, but also mobilizing teachers and students to join the army. Many young people in their prime have given their precious lives for their country.
Let the wind of freedom blow violently.
Academic freedom originated from modern universities and has been accepted and practiced by universities all over the world. World-class universities regard it as a spiritual pillar.
/kloc-In the 9th century, Berlin University was the freest university at that time, and freedom was embodied in two aspects: "teaching" and "learning". Professors have the right to impart any level of knowledge they choose with minimal administrative intervention. Students are free to take any courses in university, change their majors freely and arrange their studies almost freely.
The articles of association of many world-class universities clearly stipulate the scope of academic freedom, which is guaranteed by the system. For example, the constitution of the University of Chicago gives the university great independence. The directors, teachers and management of the school are not subject to any constraints.
World-class universities also attach importance to the establishment and improvement of teaching management system, making it humanized and maximizing the potential of teachers and students. For example, Stanford University adopts the academic year system, which divides a year into four semesters, allowing students to take various courses more freely.
Another example is Princeton University, which shows great concern for john nash, a game master with severe schizophrenia. After 30 years of illness, he created a miracle in the history of human science. Coincidentally, andrew wiles did not publish a paper for nine years, and then successfully demonstrated Fermat's Last Theorem. All this stems from the relaxed environment and humanized system guarantee of Princeton University.
Furthermore, world-class universities advocate freedom and encourage students to explore boldly. /kloc-Berlin university in the 0 th and 9 th centuries gave students full freedom of study in teaching. There are no compulsory courses and elective courses, only a minimum number of courses are required, and students are free to choose other courses; Students can choose teachers at will, change their subjects and majors at will, and transfer to other universities at will.
Cambridge University also believes that the purpose of students' learning is not only to acquire knowledge, but also to learn a method to solve problems, and a relaxed and free environment can greatly develop and tap students' potential.
We should cultivate all-round wisdom.
A person with broad sympathy and independent judgment.
First-class talents are not only experts in their fields, but also "social people" with extensive knowledge, excellent quality and humanistic care.
During the period of 1892, the president of Berlin University in Virgem emphasized that both teachers and students should not forget that university study has lofty goals, that is, general scientific and moral cultivation and rich professional knowledge.
With the continuous differentiation and development of disciplines and majors, the "two cultures" of science and technology and humanities have become new challenges for colleges and universities under the new background. Usually, many science and technology educators think that humanities and social sciences are useless, and many humanities scholars lack appreciation of the wisdom of modern engineering technology.
How to establish a new balanced relationship between science and technology and humanities with the characteristics of the times and realize the organic combination of science and technology education and humanities education has been creatively explored by world-class universities.
Science and technology education and humanities education complement each other and are indispensable.
Lowell, the former president of Harvard University, once said, "Every student should get the maximum development, regardless of his strengths or weaknesses. The people to be trained by universities are not experts with defects, but people with comprehensive wisdom, broad sympathy and independent judgment. "
First of all, world-class universities attach importance to the integration of science and technology education and humanities education, and there are clear regulations for students to take science and technology and humanities courses from the teaching system. Like Stanford University.
Secondly, world-class universities attach importance to cultivating students' humanistic feelings. Adhering to the ancient spirit of free education, world-class universities provide reliable guarantee for students' all-round mental development and free shaping of personality through general education and elective system.
Specialization is the need of the times, but it cannot solve individual human and social problems, especially human spiritual and moral problems. The inheritance of human civilization needs the inheritance and innovation of humanistic education.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is committed to training practical engineering and technical personnel, but it is not a narrow sense of science and technology education.
The Institute of Engineering is the largest teaching unit in MIT. Its science and technology education is based on the challenge of globalization, and its professional education is based on a wide range of humanities education, so that students can think about technical problems in engineering from the perspectives of value, ethics and ecology.
Interdisciplinary professional education is a new attempt to combine science education with humanities education in world-class universities. For example, Oxford University has set up majors such as "Science and Economics" and "Physics and Philosophy" to promote the cross-infiltration of arts and sciences, broaden students' knowledge, cultivate students' comprehensive innovation ability and stimulate students' humanistic feelings.
5. It is openness and talent education.
Contributed to the greatness of our university.
World-class universities are world-renowned, and their open character is an important driving force for achieving Excellence.
First of all, first-class universities attach importance to cultivating students' international vision. In the view of world-class universities, only with an international vision can they become the center of world scientific and cultural exchanges and cultivate talents with an international vision.
Facing the tide of globalization, Harvard University discussed what kind of people should be trained and proposed to train professionals with international vision in the new century.
MIT has also expressed its mission: "MIT's mission is to enhance knowledge and cultivate talents in science, technology and other academic fields in order to provide the best service for the country and the world in the 2 1 century."
Stanford University has set up branches overseas to facilitate students to study abroad.
In addition, world-class universities also employ a large number of top foreign scholars, recruit outstanding overseas students, and broaden the international horizons of teachers and students through diversified sources of teachers and students.
Secondly, world-class universities are also actively exploring international educational exchanges and academic cooperation. Academics is an international undertaking, and universities focusing on cutting-edge knowledge need to pay more attention to the cutting-edge development of knowledge.
Oxford University maintains high-level academic exchanges and cooperation with top universities in the world, and often holds various forms of academic seminars and lectures jointly with them.
Furthermore, an open educational concept not only helps to promote international academic exchanges, but also helps world-class universities to build an international education platform. Put talent training in an education system full of international elements.
1993 Stanford University has more than 3,000 international students from 96 countries. Excellent talents from all over the world have created a diversified academic environment for world-class universities and built an international education platform.
An open educational concept means not only absorbing foreign information and resources, but also exporting knowledge and values. MIT regards "new knowledge should be shared with the world in time" as an international epoch-making educational principle, and puts the main information of more than 2,000 courses on the Internet for anyone to need at any time, no matter where they are.
These ideas are world-class common experience and the ideological crystallization of historical accumulation and modern civilization.
At the same time, we also find that each university still has its own unique educational model. To build a first-class university, we can learn from other countries' experience, but we can't copy it.
China wants to provide high-quality higher education for tens of millions of people, which is unprecedented in any country. Without the innovation of ideas, it is absolutely impossible to accomplish this grand historical mission.