Academic Achievement

Academic achievement

College used to be sanctified in China. It is not anymore. In an age where knowledge can be conveniently accessed and acquired from Kindles and YouTube clips, many are beginning to challenge the necessity of reading textbooks and sitting through lectures. Realistically speaking, however, there is no real substitute for college education for the majority of Chinese students.

In terms of its function as a teaching facility, college has irreplaceable appeals and advantages. Shifts in information storage and inquiry, from traditional books and lectures to online links in portable devices, do not undermine what is taught in classrooms, but offer a means for college education to reach out to a wider range of audience. Tsinghua University championing the list of 2015 MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) makers by opening 90 new courses, for example, is a response to the aspiration of millions of netizens: being present in a classroom of a prestigious university. Watching condensed lectures, however, is not the same as following a semester-long curriculum, interacting firsthand with leading experts, experimenting on site in a laboratory, and having immediate access to pioneer theories and research resources.

College education also provides unparalleled luxury to nurture and stimulate abilities, and a platform to exhibit them. It is no coincidence that over a dozen US presidents studied in Ivy League universities, and Jeremy Brett, Emma Thompson and Ian Mc Kellen are all Ox-bridge alumni. In cases of both celebrities and commoners, campus life and experience in student clubs usually guarantee a more tolerant and inspiring context, in relation to the workplace, for leadership skills, talents in acting, speech making, playwriting and many other aspects, to bloom as they begin to emerge in young adults.