Introduction
Colleges and universities provide necessary training for individuals wishing to enter professional careers. They also strive to develop students creativity, insight, and analytical skills. By acquainting students with complex ideas in an intellectually stimulating environment, colleges and universities can provide unique opportunities for personal enrichment while also preparing students for future careers.
Such diverse professions as engineering, teaching, law, medicine, and information science all require a college education. The development of new technologies and the globalization of the world economy have created high demand for workers with computer, communications, and other occupational skills that can be acquired at colleges or universities. In addition, employers increasingly seek out college graduates who have gained the critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary to adapt to changing economic conditions.
Students who live away from home during their college or university years typically experience a major turning point in their lives that has little to do with academics or professional training. Most first-year students welcome this increased independence, although many also find that living away from home, family, and friends can introduce unexpected challenges. Campus residence halls provide common settings for students to form new bonds with peers who share similar experiences. Other students form social networks by joining student organizations or by participating in extracurricular activities.
Types of Colleges and Universities(大学分类)
The terms college and university can describe a variety of institutions. A college may form one major division of a university, offering programs in a specific academic field that lead to undergraduate or graduate degrees, or both. Colleges may also be independent of a university, offering four-year programs of general education that lead to a bachelors degree in the liberal arts and sciences. Some independent colleges offer a limited number of graduate programs, but usually their primary mission is to provide undergraduate education.
Universities generally comprise various colleges and professional schools that make up the academic divisions of the institution. Universities provide higher education leading to a bachelors degree as well as professional and graduate programs leading to masters and doctoral degrees.
The most prominent types of colleges and universities include community colleges, state or provincial universities, liberal arts colleges, professional schools, military academies, and proprietary institutions. Other types include technical colleges, agricultural colleges, teachers colleges, and colleges affiliated with religions.
Administration(学校管理)Presidents(校长)
The board of trustees appoints the colleges or universitys president, who acts as the institutions chief executive officer. Presidents usually have extensive academic experience as either college or university administrators. In some cases, they may be people of notable achievement outside of academic life.
Presidents of colleges and universities enforce the policies, regulations, and other procedures that govern their institution. They also meet with the board of trustees and make recommendations to the board regarding the governance and policies of the school, and they represent the college or university to the general public and to the institutions alumni.
Deans(院长、主任)
The academic deans are the chief executives and administrators of the various colleges or other academic divisions of an institution. The responsibilities of deans typically include implementing policies established by the board of trustees and the president; preparing the budgets and overseeing the spending of funds within the academic division ; supervising the faculty and increasing student enrollments in their college or school.
Faculty(教职员工)
In college and universities, the general roles of faculty are teaching, research, and service to the institution, the profession, and the community. Faculty members may also serve as advisers to student organizations and as members of various college committees.
Universities tend to be more multipurpose than colleges in their mission and functions. They are expected to publish their findings in scholarly books and journals so that scholars in other universities are aware of their work and contributions. Faculty members usually include the findings of their research in the courses they teach to students.
Most faculty at large universities advise students in their academic programs and direct graduate students in preparing their masters theses and doctoral dissertations. (A thesis or a dissertation is an extensive research paper usually required for the satisfactory completion of an advanced degree).
After they are hired by a college or university, faculty members receive a faculty rank as part of their appointment. Those who are beginning their teaching career and have little previous experience enter the profession as either instructors or assistant professors. The rank of assistant professor is slightly higher than that of instructor. After an assistant professor has acquired some teaching experience, conducted research, published articles or books, and served on institutional and departmental committees, he or she is usually promoted to associate professor. The highest rank of the faculty is full professor, sometimes simply called professor.
To save money and to be able to quickly respond to changing trends in education, colleges and universities increasingly employ large numbers of part-time teachers . Part-time faculty usually receive lower salaries than faculty with full-time positions, forcing many to teach at several colleges or universities in order to earn an adequate income. Critics believe that reliance on part-time faculty and teaching assistants decreases the quality of instruction.
Instruction(授课)
Colleges and universities strive to inform students of established principles of knowledge as well as of the most recent developments in academic research. When students enroll in a course, professors provide them with a syllabus, or outline, of the course. The syllabus describes how the course will be taught. It includes a list of the required books and articles students are to read; the schedules and descriptions of course examinations, papers, and other assignments; and an explanation of methods used to evaluate or grade student performance. Methods of instruction may be as follows.
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