【www.jianqiaoenglish.com--旅游英语】
Imagine a university where student numbers have doubled within five years. That is the problem facing Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology. Located in the industrial city of Baotou, a megacity built on mining, the campus typifies the overstretched state of China"s colleges, particularly academically average ones.
The university now enrolls 19,000 undergraduates. With an average class size of 100, "students cannot get individual attention" and teacher training is a "total blank," says Zheng Wenguang, head of the higher-education department. When Zheng began teaching there in the 1980s, new hires spent two years as assistant instructors alongside a seasoned professor. Today new faculty members "go directly into teaching because student numbers are so big." he says.
Zheng is hoping to find some solutions to that problem by having his institution participate in a new student survey, which is created and organized by Tsinghua University and designed in collaboration with the influential National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)， based at Indiana University, asks what students think of their education and how they spend their time.
The results will enable administrators to pinpoint problems and identify reforms that might improve teaching styles, course materials, and students" overall enjoyment of campus life.
Universities have wrestled with the twin problems of shoddy teaching and bored students for about a decade, says Shi Jinghuan, head of NSSE China"s team, as the college-going rate has soared to 23 percent of 18- to 22-year-olds, up from only 6 percent in 1998. Overcrowded classrooms have contributed to the problem every bit as much as the traditions of rote learning and Confucian deference toward teachers.
China"s Ministry of Education has done surveys of faculty members and administrators on its own for several years now, notes Shi, but they have focused primarily on "the standard of equipment and the basic infrastructure," things like the number and size of buildings, library space, or hours of computer training. Those emphasized the hardware. "Now we"re focusing more on the software," she says.
Luo Yan, an associate professor of education at Tsinghua who helped develop the questionnaire, explains how attempts to improve universities have evolved: "First they build good dormitories, provide good food, and provide a very good library. This matches the national evaluation system, just physical things," she says. "Now they find students live in spacious rooms, and have many books to read, but they just don"t."
据美国“高等教育编年史”网站8月9日报道：通过新问卷，中国高校询问学生内心真实想法。
在校学生人数五年内翻番，这就是内蒙古科技大学所面临的问题。该校座落于以矿业为主的城市包头，是中国高校——尤其是那些普通院校——扩招的典型代表。
该校目前在校本科学生为1万9千人，每个班就有100人。内蒙古科技大学高等教育研究所所长郑文光称“学生无法得到个体关注”，并称教师培训“一片空白”。上世纪80年代他在该校教书时，新录用的老师需要做两年的主教才可升职为教授。如今新教师“直接上岗，因为学生数量太庞大”。
郑希望通过参加一项学生问卷调查工程找到上述问题的解决办法。该问卷调查工程植根于美国印第安纳大学的调查工具“全美大学生学习性投入调查”(NSSE工具是美国最有影响的大学调查工具，并已在美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、新西兰等地逾千所高校使用)，由清华大学汉化修订并组织，旨在调查学生如何看待自己的受教育状况以及如何度过校园生活。
调查结果将促使管理者找出症结所在，并使得旨在提高教育方式、教学材料以及学生整体校园生活满意度的改革措施得以实施。
NSSE汉化修订小组负责人史静寰称，18到22岁人群中，高校入学率从1998年的6%增长至如今的23%，各高校与“劣质教师”和“厌学学生”两大问题的较量已经有十年之久。与死记硬背的传统和教师不再尊重儒学一道，过度拥挤的课堂是问题的原因所在。
史还称，中国教育部几年来也一直在做关于高校教师以及管理人员的调查问卷，但是这些问卷主要关注“教学设施和基本建设水平”，比如教学楼的数目和大小，图书馆规模，或者是计算机培训时间。这些都是硬件调研。“现在我们要更多关注软件实力了，”她说。
罗燕是清华大学教育研究所副教授，她正在帮助NSSE的汉化修订工作，解释说，已经进行的改进校园的尝试是指：“有个好宿舍楼、好的伙食以及非常好的图书馆。这些就符合了国家评估体系，虽然只是物质方面的，”她说。“结果后来发现学生住在宽敞的房屋里，有很多书可供阅读，可他们就是不去读。”
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