Source: China Science Daily
Published: May 2, 2012 Page B2
By Wen Caifei

Although “General Education” is no longer a new thing for us, we still can’t distinguish it from the ideology and politics course and introductory course at once. Similarly, even though having experienced classics reading course, we perhaps don’t know that this course virtually treats arts and science students the same.

"Chinese students receiving the general education have a natural advantage. Although influenced by various western learning, they have been embraced by Chinese culture since they were born, which means they are a generation naturally absorbing both Chinese culture and western culture. In fact, compared with specialized education, general education requires higher standards of teachers and students”, said Professor Chen Chunsheng, SYSU Vice President and SYSU CPC Standing Committee Deputy Executive Secretary. He is in charge of undergraduate courses.
What does the “higher standards” mean?
No sentimental or romantic things
When learning pre-Qin period of Chinese history, students are required to read the original text of Zuo Zhuan in line with syllabus. Likewise, when it comes to ancient Greek and ancient Roman civilization, they also need to read Plato’s works and Homer’s epics.

A science student wrote a very touching letter to the teacher for a merciful “pass” of the arts general education course, and some non-professional students, who major in psychology, requested educational departments to lower the standards, because it was too tough for them to learn four thick English professional reading textbooks.

All these happened in SYSU’s general education courses, whose strict criteria seem to be inconceivable to some universities. However, according to Professor Chen Chunsheng and Director of SYSU General Education, Professor Gan Yang, “General Education in itself means higher standards.”

Since 2009, SYSU has carried out the new common core curriculum of general education, which is designed for undergraduates. This core curriculum is divided into four types, including Chinese Civilization, Global Eyeshot, Technology, Economics and Society, Humanistic and Classic Reading, with about 200 core curriculums at the present stage. The undergraduate students are required to complete twelve to sixteen credits in total, two to four credits for each type on average.

In addition, the teaching model of “large-class for teaching, small-class for discussion” enables every student to have an opportunity to think and speak. By emphasizing general education is professional education for non-professional students and applying multiple coding strategies, the University opened a series of specialized compulsory courses to non-professional students and adopted same examination criteria for arts and science students. Furthermore, SYSU made great efforts on classics reading course, and required students to find some references for further reading according to syllabus. All in all, SYSU implemented reforms to effectively promote the curriculum.