Universities (four-year university system and graduate school, granting bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees),

College of Arts and Sciences (four-year university, only granting bachelor's degree) and

Community Education College (two-year, with certificate of completion or associate degree).

The first kind of university, in a sense, is a comprehensive university, or a university of science and technology similar to China. Such universities usually have thousands to tens of thousands of students. In addition to liberal arts colleges, universities also have business schools, engineering schools, journalism schools, law schools or other "professional" colleges. The most famous American universities in China, such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University and University of California, Berkeley, are all such universities. Although the subject setting and student situation of each university are very different. For example, the University of California at Berkeley has more than 30,000 students, while Princeton University has only about 6,000 students. Universities can be public or private. Generally speaking, the quality of private universities seems to be higher and better than that of public universities, because private universities have a long history, sources of funds and the level of professors. Of course, this is not entirely the case. For example, Berkeley is a public university and is recognized as one of the good schools. However, good schools are not always good. Usually, this kind of good is only good if the postgraduate education in a certain subject is ahead. The research level of a department or major in some ordinary schools may be quite good in the whole country. For example, the professors and academic achievements of China literature in Berkeley are not necessarily better than those of the University of Oregon, although the ranking of the University of Oregon is far behind Berkeley. However, the University of Oregon has five tenured professors majoring in China's language and literature, who are engaged in China literature research from China to Hong Kong and Taiwan from ancient times to the present. Berkeley, on the other hand, is inferior to the University of Oregon in terms of teachers in this professional field.

In the stage of university education, many courses in comprehensive universities are taught by graduate students. Especially in the first two years of college general education courses, they are basically taught by teaching assistants. Moreover, the class itself is very large and there are many students. It is not uncommon for hundreds or even thousands of students to attend classes. Students often have no contact with professors. Because graduate students earn scholarships by teaching, being a teacher of college students makes the education of many famous universities not necessarily excellent. A student I know told me that he had never seen a professor or even his tutor during his first two years at Berkeley University. University professors are oppressed by their own research pressure, and they really can't afford to teach college students. Therefore, in comprehensive universities, university education is of course a very important part, but university education is not as good as postgraduate education.

Paying full attention to university education and taking excellent university education as its own responsibility is the fundamental purpose of American College of Arts and Sciences. Therefore, the best university education in the United States is usually conducted in such schools. In China, this small-scale college of arts and sciences seems to receive little attention. The word university seems a bit out of date in China. It seems that all the universities that used to be called colleges in China have changed their names and transformed into universities. For example, the former Central Institute for Nationalities, China Railway Institute and Beijing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications were called colleges since childhood, and we often let slip, and they all called themselves universities long ago, as if they were inferior. Of course, this kind of college is different from the liberal arts college in the United States in principle. In liberal arts colleges, Chinese translation is usually in humanities colleges. Not long ago, there was an article by Xue Yong of Yale University on the website of Century China, which introduced the American education system, and he also translated it into the Adult Art College. His series of articles on educational reform in the United States and China are very enlightening to me. But I think he mistranslated the college of arts and sciences into a written college. The reason for mistranslation is the misunderstanding of the educational concept of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Why can't a college of arts and sciences be translated into a college of liberal arts? I think the word "humanistic education" seems inaccurate here, and it can't express the educational philosophy and purpose of such schools. Because liberal arts not only means humanities education. Humanities has a specific word in English, that is, humanism, but the college of arts and sciences does not only carry out humanities education. The educational content of such colleges consists of three parts: natural science, social science and humanities. Humanities education is only one aspect of the content of liberal arts colleges. Humanities include literature, philosophy, history, language and so on. Sociology and political science are social sciences. Therefore, translating the College of Arts and Sciences into the College of Arts and Sciences has changed the nature of this college and narrowed its scope. According to these three fields, every college of arts and sciences in the United States has its own educational requirements, such as how many courses students have to take in each of the three fields to complete their university education. Generally speaking, liberal arts colleges do not offer "professional" majors. Pomona College, for example, is one of the best liberal arts colleges in the United States, ranking fourth in the United States. Pomona College has no business major. Students who are interested in business can only take courses in the department of economics and get a degree in economics. This "discriminatory" professionalism in the major just illustrates a fundamental educational principle of the College of Arts and Sciences, that is, free education is not to train specific talents. The purpose of free education is to cultivate high-quality people, so-called educated people, not to train people engaged in specific work. It is at this point that liberal arts colleges and universities are different. In addition to basic education, the purpose of university education in general universities is to train specific working abilities and staff for middle-class white-collar jobs. The university education in the college of arts and sciences focuses on freedom, which is the original meaning of the word freedom. The word freedom has several meanings here. First, free education means respecting everyone's freedom of study and choice. Every child has different intelligence. Free education provides an environment for everyone to freely discover their abilities, whether they like science or have language skills. University education should provide this opportunity to discover yourself. For example, students can set up their own majors. Second, free education is to cultivate people with "free spirit" and have education, knowledge and culture of eastern and western civilizations. They are the pillars of this country's future. They need not only skills, but also thinking, spirit, independent thinking and good health. As we all know, skills are easy to learn, but quality and education are not so easy to achieve overnight. Quality and education are reasonable but unmeasurable indicators. The college of arts and sciences regards an unmeasurable index as the purpose of education, and its fundamental purpose is to train people, not engineers. Because having quality can make it easier for a person to enter the career process. After graduating from college, graduate study is the stage of vocational training. The specific proportion of graduates from the best liberal arts colleges in the United States who attend graduate school is much higher than that of universities. The translation of the word Arts is more complicated, because this art is not what we usually think of as "art" such as painting and music, but a compound word of "skills acquired through experience, study or observation" and "a branch of learning", meaning "skills acquired through experience, study and observation" and "many fields of learning". So it is the unity of learning and teaching. In the sense that it is almost impossible to translate in short Chinese terms, we can only translate the College of Arts and Sciences into a Academy of Sciences to show the nature of such schools.

College-educated students may have majors and skills, but they may not have academic qualifications. Students in liberal arts colleges may not have professional skills, but they should have cultural literacy and understanding, and have the consciousness and ability to think independently. This educational concept is closely related to the history of liberal arts colleges, because before the emergence of comprehensive universities, liberal arts colleges were the foundation of American education. At that time, all the children who could receive education were upper-class children. The purpose of education was not to cultivate their skills, but to cultivate educated people, who were the * * * of society. * * * may not have specific skills, but have a wide cultural background and a high level of education, morality and culture. This philosophy is still the philosophical foundation of the American College of Arts and Sciences.

It is this educational concept that leads to the best university education in the United States, mainly in such colleges, which pay attention to general education and quality training. Its goal is to cultivate the quality of future citizens. Of course, not everyone who studies in such colleges will become a member of the leadership, and there is no guarantee. It depends on everyone's quality and ability development. Universities can only provide environment and opportunities. This year, when Michael Lyu, the founder of Footwalk, visited Harvard University, he talked with Professor Stephen Kennedy Smith about the educational differences between China and the United States. Professor Smith said, "Unfortunately, what most people in China don't understand is that the essence of the American education system is a four-year college of arts and sciences. The fundamental spirit of the United States and the essence of western culture are all in liberal arts colleges. " Their parents send their students to liberal arts colleges not only to learn skills and knowledge, but also to receive free education. In a society that makes a living by skills, how many people can aim at education with literacy but no specific knowledge? It is also in this sense that classes have emerged. Many people say that the class division in the United States is not obvious, but in the United States, most students who can afford liberal arts colleges are "aristocrats" in American society-wealthy families. Only they can afford expensive tuition, and only they have the capital to educate their children, not just skilled workers and white-collar workers. Most of the liberal arts colleges are private and the tuition fees are expensive. The average annual tuition fee is between 30 thousand and 40 thousand dollars. The tuition and living expenses of Peize College are about 45,000. Amherst College's tuition and living expenses are $43,000 a year. In contrast, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public comprehensive university, and the tuition fees of local students are less than $5,000 per year. So the current situation is that most of the students studying in the college of arts and sciences are well-off or well-educated. At present, the best liberal arts colleges in the United States are William College in Massachusetts and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. The goal of liberal arts college in general education is not the Nobel Prize, nor does it crowd out other universities in the ranking. Although it is not complacent to be among the top few in the rankings, the educational goal of general education college is to cultivate and improve people's quality. The College of General Education advocates general education, cultivates citizens with free spirit, and emphasizes the significance of general education to human growth. It is in this sense that the ranking of liberal arts colleges is not so absolute. But their admission standards, especially good liberal arts colleges, are not lower than those of Harvard and other universities. The college of arts and sciences has high tuition fees and scholarships. If a child comes from a poor family but is smart and diligent, he will be admitted to Boya Education College. They usually have various scholarships, and some students can complete their college education without spending a penny. In this way, American society will maintain upward vitality and let a steady stream of talents join the leadership. Fundamentally speaking, it is possible for individuals to change their class and social status through their own talents. This is a country based on individuals in principle.

It is this college of arts and sciences that provides the best university education in the United States, and it is also because the people taught in this college are basically professors and there are no graduate students to teach. The teaching staff is very strong, but the school is quite small. The teacher-student ratio is one of the important indicators of a university. Usually, the smaller the teacher-student ratio, the better. For example, for many years, the two liberal arts colleges ranked first or second in the United States, with a teacher-student ratio of 1:9, and Williams College in Massachusetts has less than 2,000 students. The teacher-student ratio in Amherst is 1:8, and there are about 1, 600 students. The teacher-student ratio of Peize College, which ranked fifth two years ago, was 1: 10, with fewer students1/0/00. The general situation of the school can be seen from the teacher-student ratio. Rich teaching staff enable any student to communicate with the best professors. This kind of school emphasizes the communication between teachers and students, and emphasizes that a small class cannot have too many students. The communication and relationship between professors and students are very close. It is this privilege that has benefited students a lot, which led to the middle and upper class children being sent to such schools, because historically, tutors taught at home, and now professors teach more than a dozen students, and students are still eating small stoves. As we all know, the rice in a small stove is better, more refined and more cultured than that in a big stove.