On Higher Education in China and Canada from the Perspective of Humanity-Orientation
- PDF / 175,429 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 44 Downloads / 192 Views
On Higher Education in China and Canada from the Perspective of Humanity-Orientation Xiao Liang • Xuefen Han
Published online: 18 March 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract With the rapid development of the social economy, the ideologies, ways of thinking, psychological qualities, and values of contemporary university students have changed significantly. This poses new challenges for traditional teaching administration. Importance has been attached to the humanity issue in university teaching, which attracts wide attention both at home and abroad. This paper, based on the construction of humanity in university teaching, illustrates the essence and necessities of humanity and probes into the inevitable trend of humanity. Based on this, a vital comparison is made regarding humanity in higher education in Canada and China. An analysis concerning insufficiency of humanity in Chinese university teaching is conducted on the basis of hardware and software facilities in universities. In the meantime, reasons for the differences between Chinese and Canadian higher education are explored, thus pointing out the necessity to build a humanityoriented university system. Keywords Humanity-oriented Higher education Canadian universities Chinese universities
Introduction The Higher Education Situation in China In 2002, there were slightly over 2,000 higher education institutions in the People’s Republic of China. Close to 1,400 were regular higher education institutions. A little more than 600 were higher education institutions for adults. Combined enrolment in X. Liang (&) X. Han School of Foreign Studies, Hunan Business College, Wangchengpo, Yuelu District, Changsha City 410205, Hunan Province, People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected]
123
168
X. Liang, X. Han
2002 was 11,256,800. Of this close to 40 percent were new recruits. Total graduate student enrolment was 501,000. In 2005, there were about 4,000 Chinese institutions. Student enrolment increased to 15 million, with rapid growth that peaked in 2008. By 2007, there were altogether 2,321 higher educational institutions in China. However, the higher education system does not meet the needs of 85 % of the college-aged population. Since 1998, 10 universities have been targeted by the Chinese government to become ‘‘world-class’’—including Peking and Tsinghua Universities. To achieve that goal, the government promised to increase the educational allocation in the national budget by one percent a year for each of the 5 years following 1998. Besides funding from the central government, Chinese higher education has received aid from UNESCO and many other international organizations and sources, including the World Bank, which once loaned China $14.7 billion for educational development. Since 2007, China has become the sixth largest country hosting international students (Wikipedia 2008a). Higher education in China is continuously growing, changing, and developing. The chief administrator of education in China is the Ministry of
Data Loading...
