Compulsory courses in the whole school refer to the courses that all students must take, mainly including political theory courses, foreign language courses, sports and military theory courses, computer courses, and some schools, such as China Renmin University, also have math courses and law courses. These courses are generally required and assessed by the whole school, and there are some differences between liberal arts students and science students at most.
Specialized compulsory courses refer to the courses that all departments stipulate that students in this department must take. These courses have laid a solid foundation for majors and ensured students' adaptability to study and employment.
Specialized limited courses are also called designated elective courses, which are between specialized compulsory courses and specialized elective courses. It means that the school or department restricts the courses students study to some extent. Students are generally required to choose at least several courses in a certain course or a certain field.
Professional elective courses and public elective courses are optional, and students are free to choose according to their own wishes. This part of the course is mainly to expand students' knowledge, or to conduct in-depth research in certain fields.
Interdepartmental elective courses, literally speaking, mean that students choose courses other than their major to study. In universities, liberal arts students are generally required to take natural science courses with certain credits, while science students are required to take liberal arts courses with certain credits. Both liberal arts students and liberal arts students have to take art classes with certain credits. In many colleges and universities, this course is called an elective course of cultural quality education, aiming at strengthening students' cultural quality. It not only pays attention to students' professional learning, but also gives consideration to their all-round development. This kind of course is generally oriented to the whole school students, taking elective or restricted elective methods. The offering of such courses not only emphasizes the rationality and integrity of knowledge structure, but also gives students the opportunity to find interest and communicate with multidisciplinary students. Choosing such a course, the course is different, which means that you will have different classmates. They come from different majors and grades. I suggest you make some efforts in this kind of course, which may bring you more benefits than you can imagine. The courses of cultural quality education in colleges and universities in China cover a wide range, including mathematics and natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, ideology and politics, computers, languages, arts, physical education and health, basic skills, and interdisciplinary courses. The distribution and proportion of these courses in different schools are different. For example, language courses in Tsinghua University account for 1/3, and social science courses in China Renmin University account for more than half. Here are a few cases to give you some perceptual knowledge.
example
The general course of quality education in Peking University is divided into five areas: a. Mathematics and natural science; B. social sciences; C. philosophy and psychology; D. history; E. Students majoring in linguistics, literature and art must complete 16 credits when they graduate. The specific requirements are: at least 2 credits in each field and at least 4 credits in E field (one of which must be an art course). Undergraduate students with humanities and social sciences degrees must complete at least 4 credits in field A.
Tsinghua University: Elective courses on campus are divided into three categories: cultural quality, foreign languages and physical education. The cultural quality course is divided into ten groups: history and culture; Literature; Art appreciation and practice; Philosophy and social thoughts; Writing; Contemporary China and the world; Environmental protection and sustainable development; Economy, management and law; Science and technology; National defense education and student work. In principle, students are required to take at least 6 courses in the above-mentioned 10 class group at school, and must complete 13 credits. Please refer to the professional training plan for the specific elective requirements of cultural quality courses for undergraduate majors in economic management, literature and art and law.
In order to increase students' independent choice space, China Renmin University increased the elective course to 20 credits. Students can take any credits in the menu of elective courses, excellent courses, professional elective courses and compulsory courses in the whole school. Top-quality courses are divided into natural science courses, humanistic quality courses and art education courses, and students need to choose top-quality courses with 8 credits.
The elective courses of Beijing Normal University include humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, educational psychology, art and physical education. Students need to take 16 credits to take any course, among which arts students must take 4 credits for natural science courses, science students must take 4 credits for humanities and social sciences courses and arts students must take 2 credits.
There are several choices at each level, such as general courses, elective courses in the whole school, and even compulsory courses in some departments, which give students a certain choice. Some compulsory courses in the whole school, such as politics, physical education class, liberal arts computer and so on. On the premise of keeping the nature of compulsory courses unchanged, several classes have been set up, and no specific study time has been stipulated. Students choose study time, content and teachers according to their own different situations. Tsinghua University advocates that compulsory credits should be stipulated in all kinds of courses, not compulsory courses, that is, multiple courses should be designated for students to choose from among the prescribed compulsory credits. China Agricultural University gradually introduced compulsory courses into elective courses from the freshman year of 2003, and introduced the course selection mechanism into the whole teaching process. The proportion of elective courses in the whole curriculum system varies with the nature and direction of the school. The proportion of elective courses in comprehensive universities is higher than that in other types of universities, reaching 40%, and that in general schools is between 25% and 30%. If you are lucky enough to study in a school with many courses to choose from, it is a great blessing. Of course, as pointed out in the previous report, your troubles will increase a lot. Where to go is up to you.
In addition, I would like to introduce a special course type: intercollegiate elective course. In order to complement each other's advantages and share resources among universities and expand the new field of joint education, some geographically adjacent universities in China have also set up intercollegiate elective courses. Students in each school can choose freely according to their hobbies, and credits are recognized by each school. Students can also use public facilities, such as libraries. For example, 16 colleges and universities in Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing jointly form a teaching body, and each college tries its best to come up with the most popular courses for students. For example, courses such as "Nutrition and Diseases" and "Basic Beauty Medicine" are offered in peking university health science center, "Fashion Street Dance" is offered in Beijing Sport University, and "Movie Appreciation" is offered in Beijing Film Academy. Six universities, including South China University of Technology, Jinan University, South China Normal University, South China Agricultural University, Guangdong University of Technology and Guangdong Teachers College of Technology, also offer elective courses to college students according to different professional characteristics, among which Jinan University mainly focuses on humanities, social sciences, economics, medical ethics and life sciences; South China Normal University focuses on pedagogy, psychology and art; South China University of Technology focuses on engineering and architecture; South China Agricultural University offers some agricultural courses. You can find information about these courses on the Internet, or go to the school to ask. But remember, not every student can choose. Only if your school is a member of these institutions can you enjoy the right to choose courses from each other. If you have the opportunity and energy, don't miss it, because you can not only enjoy the teaching resources of other schools, but also fully feel the study style, school spirit and teaching spirit of other schools.
Although the meaning of the course selection system is very simple, there are actually many modes. The course selection modes of different universities are different, and the course selection modes of different courses are different, which gives students different choices accordingly. Some schools choose online courses, some schools combine online courses with face-to-face courses, and some students hardly need to choose courses.