大學要淘汰“水課”了?

For some Chinese high school students, passing the gaokao is the final goal of their academic life. They believe that once they enter college, life will be easy. However, getting a college degree now requires more effort than it did before.

對於一些中國高中生而言，高考便是他們學業的終極目標。他們認爲，一旦考上大學，生活就會變得輕鬆了。然而，如今獲得本科文憑需要比過去更努力才行。

In September, the Ministry of Education released an announcement, requiring universities to increase the difficulty of undergraduate courses and work harder to end academic misconduct in bachelor’s theses.

今年9月，教育部印發通知，要求各高校合理提升學業挑戰度、增加課程難度、拓展課程深度，嚴肅處理抄襲、僞造、篡改、代寫、買賣畢業論文等違紀問題。

This came after a change put forward by Minister of Education Chen Baosheng during a meeting held in Chengdu in June. Chen said that universities should “reasonably increase students’ academic burden” to encourage them to work harder and improve their knowledge and skill levels.

此前，教育部部長陳寶生6月在成都的一次會議上提出要做出改變。陳寶生表示，對大學生要合理“增負”，激發學生的學習動力和專業志趣。

In China, students often study hard during high school to achieve high gaokao scores and get admitted to a good university. However, once entering university, many students lose interest in their studies, let alone acquiring outstanding academic abilities, according to Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences.

在中國，學生們往往在高中階段刻苦學習，從而在高考中取得好成績，考上一個好大學。然而，中國教育科學研究院研究員儲朝暉卻認爲，不少學生考上大學後就對學習失去了興趣，更不要說習得出色的學術能力了。

This phenomenon could be because the pressure to study at university is lower than that of high school.

這種現象源於大學的學習壓力比高中要小得多。

“You get a degree whether you study or not, so why bother studying?” Wang Qi, 26, a graduate student in Beijing, told The New York Times.

“反正學不學都會拿到文憑，那爲啥還要認真學習呢？”北京的一名畢業生王琦（音譯）在接受《紐約時報》採訪時表示。

Indeed, Chinese universities have a relatively high graduation rate compared to Western ones.

的確，國內高校的畢業率相對要高於西方高校。

According to a study released by Xiamen University in 2016, among 820 universities in China, both the average graduation rate and the average degree awarding rate reached about 97 percent. However, the average graduation rate of Top 50 US universities only reached about 89 percent.

根據廈門大學2016年發佈的一項研究顯示，全國820所高校的平均畢業率和學位授予率均達到了97%左右。而美國排在前50名的高校畢業率僅爲89%左右。

“The evaluation standards in universities aren’t very high,” Sang Guoyuan, a professor of education at Beijing Normal University, told The Economic Observer. “Many poorly performing students are given ‘passes’ by teachers as long as they attend classes.”

“高校的評估標準並不高，”北京師範大學教育學教授桑國元在接受《經濟觀察報》採訪時表示。“不少學業表現不佳的學生只要去上了課，老師們就會給‘過’。”

However, in the US, to make sure education quality is kept high, universities always “keep the students under competitive pressure by assigning them challenging tasks,” Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, wrote on the China Daily website.

然而在美國，高校爲了確保教育質量，往往會“給學生們佈置有挑戰性的任務，讓他們處於競爭壓力之下，”21世紀教育研究院副院長熊丙奇在中國日報網站上撰文寫道。

For example, US universities have “weed-out courses”, which are designed to kick out students who don’t meet certain academic criteria.

比如，美國大學設有“淘汰課程”，會將課上沒有達到學術標準的學生淘汰掉。

However, while the Ministry of Education’s plans aim to increase “university students’ academic burden”, they’re not intended to put extra pressure on them. Instead, the new requirements are meant to fulfill the basic requirements of university education, according to Xiong. As Guangming Daily put it, “University is an important time in shaping young people’s personalities and values.”

然而，儘管教育部計劃要“對大學生合理增負”，但並不打算給學生們增加額外的壓力。熊丙奇認爲，新要求旨在達到高校教育的基本要求。正如《光明日報》所說，“大學是年輕人心理塑造和價值觀養成的重要時期。”