MCLC: liberal arts colleges against the mainstream

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: pjmooney <pjmooney at me.com>
Subject: liberal arts colleges against the mainstream
***********************************************************

Source: Ministry of Tofu (10/15/13):
http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2013/10/chinas-liberal-arts-colleges-going-ag
ainst-the-mainstream/

China’s Liberal Arts Colleges: Going Against the Mainstream
By Charlene Zheyan Ni, Ministry of Tofu’s contributor

Liberal arts education in China is still in its experimental stage, and a
majority of college students are pursuing more practical science degrees.
While top universities in China have embraced the value of this teaching
method since 2005 <http://www.ecns.cn/2012/12-04/38778.shtml>, it’s still
hard for employers to accept liberal arts graduates. Employers seem to
believe liberal arts programs are not necessarily related to a
professional or vocational path; graduates who are accustomed to flying
high in the sky of abstract knowledge and theories, may end up crash
landing in the real, practical and material world.

The contrast between say, a Mechanical Engineering major’s quest for
marketable skills versus an Ancient Chinese Literature major’s is in how
either spends a term… “It took us a whole semester to finish only the
first hundred years in Zuo Zhuan,” said Ma Zhiyi, a rising sophomore at
Sun Yat-Sen University’s Boya School.

Students are also driven to rack up certificates because their education
is failing to prepare them for a career. In the past decade, undergraduate
enrollment has increased by 30 percent. This growth was aimed at reviving
China’s economy. But the costs for students today are overcrowded
classrooms and fewer resources, and debt.

As the majority suffers under the pressure of job-hunting, some students
like Wan Xinyan, a 21-year-old graduate from Beijing Foreign Language
University wish “that higher education can be more diverse.”
<http://english.cntv.cn/program/bizasia/20130716/104417.shtml>
Rapid growth isn’t the only reason for the lack of breadth in China’s
curriculum, the system itself is outdated.

The Ke Jiao Xing Guo curriculum was first implemented in 1978. It focuses
on science and technology education (Ke Jiao，科教) to improve the quality of
the labor force and revive the economy; thus bringing prosperity to the
whole country (Xing Guo, 兴国).

Recent efforts to move away from those goals resulted in the establishment
of liberal arts colleges like Peking University’s Yuanpei College, and Sun
Yat-Sen University’s Boya School.

“I did not want to dive into science immediately,” says Wu Dingyi, a
rising junior who opted to take social science classes at Yuanpei College.
Boya School’s core curriculum emphasizes Chinese and Western classical
reading and encourages independent thinking and free discussion
<http://eng.sysu.edu.cn/others/news/sysuinthenew/9572.htm>.

Ma Zhiyi developed an appreciation for archaeology during a prerequisite
class she took as a freshman at Boya School.  “If I had not come to Boya,
I would have never taken an archaeology course.” She went on to say that
it has become one of her favorite subjects.

However, there is a high opportunity cost of going against the mainstream.
Liberal arts college graduates in China seem to have trouble finding jobs.
This summer, Boya School graduated its very first class of 30 liberal arts
students. Only four have launched their careers
<http://news.ifeng.com/mainland/detail_2013_06/24/26716538_0.shtml>. One
is working for an NGO.

Cai Shuying, is one of the recent Boya graduates to land a job straight
out of school, but struggled to justify her major. “It often takes me a
while to explain to employers what a liberal arts education is
<http://news.ifeng.com/mainland/detail_2013_06/24/26716538_0.shtml>” she
Says.

Boya’s undergrads, like Ma Zhiyi, are engaged in reading Chinese classics
and free learning. For now, they’re not worried about finding jobs, and
they refuse to think about their career in a conventional way.

Ma said, “I think about the purpose of living. Why should I live? If I
can’t work that idea out, it would be hard for me even if I got a job”.