Frankly speaking, until now, I haven't figured out why the top universities in the United States attach so much importance to undergraduate education. They didn't just pay lip service, but really invested a lot of real money. In terms of resource allocation, when the development and interests of graduate students conflict with undergraduates, there is no doubt that graduate students should make way for undergraduates; When there is conflict between scientific research and undergraduate teaching, scientific research should undoubtedly give way to undergraduate teaching. Of course, this state is not innate, and it has experienced fierce debates and repetitions in the process of university development. However, few people today agree with this model and culture and are willing to follow and implement it in practice.
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-William fitzsimmons, director of the Admissions Office of Harvard University, has worked for 40 years in one breath. 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 enrollment 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.
In the past, we had a misunderstanding about the selection and training of talents in American universities-"lenient entry and strict exit". It seems much easier for American students to go to college than for China students to take the college entrance examination. In fact, on the contrary, if American students want to enter the top universities, the competition is fierce and the difficulty is as great as that of China students admitted to Tsinghua of Peking University. The doors of the top universities in the United States are not "wide" at all, but extremely "strict". Generally speaking, applying for an American university requires an application fee. Although the application fee for each university is not high, it adds up to a lot of expenses-no one will apply for 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, the admission rate, whether it is 5. 1% at Stanford University or 5.9% at Harvard University, is quite amazing. In other words, they selected less than six students from 100 who thought they could go to Harvard! You can imagine how good its students are. More importantly, these carefully selected students are in line with the university's educational philosophy and training objectives (except for a few mistakes)-which provides 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 they like classes. 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 return 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 has great enlightenment 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. In a large class of several hundred people, teachers and students may be lazy-students can sleep and teachers can read textbooks-but in a small class of more than a dozen people, they can't be lazy. If students are lazy, it will affect their grades, and teachers can easily find out; If teachers are lazy, students will protest-students pay high tuition fees for classes. If the products you provide can't meet the quality standards and meet his needs, he 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 the number of small class discussion classes with heavy work and demanding requirements 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 American universities attach great importance to the evaluation of teaching quality. However, the evaluation method is not that the materials submitted by the evaluators are reviewed by the evaluators-as we see in China-but that all stakeholders evaluate them, such as peer evaluation, senior staff's evaluation of junior staff, students' evaluation of teachers, etc. This method is almost everywhere, and the evaluation results will have a direct or even serious impact on teachers' positions, titles and income. Evaluation usually adopts anonymous questionnaire survey, and sometimes it also adopts registered but absolutely confidential survey (with legal protection, disclosure will bear legal responsibility), so everyone will freely and responsibly express their true views in the evaluation, which is very conscientious and professional. 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 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 choose courses, it means that he is likely to "finish class". Therefore, no one dares not to try his best. In recent years, MIT's evaluation of teachers and teaching quality has become more scientific and objective based on students' development in 5- 10 years after graduation.
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 a "lecture-style" classroom with dozens of people and hundreds of people; As for teaching evaluation, it is either a "sports-style" formality, 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.