Should Universities Have Required Courses?

[Odin]

Pekka, It is a MS (Master of Science) or MA (Master of Arts), not MD, that is for medical school students.

I am planning to major in Evolutionary Biology at a very good, but small, college in northern Wisconsin that focuses on science and the humanities.

The main reason I think required courses are needed is to stop ignorance, which fuels such things as creationism, political apathy, racism, religious fundimentalism, etc.

I just wish college was payed for by taxes, high school education has become a fiscal black hole from the dumbing down of the curiculum, so now it like paying for some real education people should of gotten in high school.

[TCO]

USNA teaches the way people did 100 years ago. We still have recitation and no TAs and required attendance and graded homework and the like. It's just like high school, but at higher courses. I think that is a lot better than what I see in univesities where you have lecture halls full of people. Why should the methodology change because of the material changing. I learn calculus and chemistry, the same way I learn wrestling and gymnastics. With practice.

[Jack_www]

I think some people forget that college is for specialized education. SO that you can get more training and knowledge for the field of work you want to go into. Most of this other stuff just comes from living life, from your parents, and other people who have been around longer then you and have lots of wisdom. Looking to a university I think is a big misstake.

I am going to school so that I can go into computer programming, not so that I can learn morals or other things. I look towards my parents and religion for that.

[Jack_www]

Originally posted by Odin
Pekka, It is a MS (Master of Science) or MA (Master of Arts), not MD, that is for medical school students.

I am planning to major in Evolutionary Biology at a very good, but small, college in northern Wisconsin that focuses on science and the humanities.

The main reason I think required courses are needed is to stop ignorance, which fuels such things as creationism, political apathy, racism, religious fundimentalism, etc.

I just wish college was payed for by taxes, high school education has become a fiscal black hole from the dumbing down of the curiculum, so now it like paying for some real education people should of gotten in high school.

Well here in my state of California, California residents only have to pay a flat fee of about $1200 dollars a semister. THat is for a full time student in the CSU system. Lots of tax money goes into the Public universities and community college system here, but fees have been going up because of the buget problems in here in California.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm for the core classes. I took science as a joke, but now I wish I didn't so much. I'd like to know more about physics (at least). Though I did learn some about Astronomy and the Greenhouse Effect .

It probably was better for me than another Political Science, History, or Economics course (of which I had plenty).

Though I'm happy I didn't have to take more math than I did .

[HershOstropoler]

Originally posted by Azazel

I guess I really like our system, then.

Of course, students have to organize themselves, but I don't know how it is in Europe, but in Israel, you cannot enroll, if you won't be able to study properly ( class rooms, etc.)
I don't know why, but it seems that your systems drag you on through university for eternity.

Well university access varies widely across Europe. The Austrian system of open access is a bit out of line. The politicians established it, but never put up the money to pay for it. We have about 2500 profs for 200-250000 students. Add to that about 8000 "Assistents" which includes everything from associate profs to lab rats, but it still means many institutes are seriously understaffed.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Odin
Pekka, It is a MS (Master of Science) or MA (Master of Arts), not MD, that is for medical school students.

I am planning to major in Evolutionary Biology at a very good, but small, college in northern Wisconsin that focuses on science and the humanities.

The main reason I think required courses are needed is to stop ignorance, which fuels such things as creationism, political apathy, racism, religious fundimentalism, etc.

You forgot Communism.

[Zero]

No to required courses. I know some friends that werent motivated in required courses and scored lower GPS than their core classes. Its a little bit unfair to have your GPA lowered just because you ****ed around in some class you didnt want to be in in the first place. Sure the person deserve the low grade that they earned ultimately, but what was the reason that I registered this calss in the first place? given choice that person probably wpuldnt have been in that class to avoid such grade.

Plus What Jack said. If you are interested in learning broad, you should have access to, but if not you shouldnt be forced.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DanS
Add to all of this is the fact that a much higher percentage of Americans go to college/university than in most other countries.

Yeah well, half of the colleges are crappy.

[Pekka]

odin, OOOOOOOOPS you're absolutely correct.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger




That's why I got thousands of books everywhere, from the sciences to engineering to philosophy to how to write scripts.

I will soon sleep on books

You too, huh?

I can't stand to see a good book tossed. Probably half of my collection are textbooks and novels someone left out for trash.

[Urban Ranger]

I sold some of my textbooks when I was a poor student. I wish I hadn't.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by SpencerH
I believe Oxford/Cambridge gives its graduates a masters degree rather than a bachelors.

Not as such. Everyone who graduates at Oxbridge is a BA or BSc, but they have the option of paying for a master's degree too. This basically means that masters' from Oxbridge are worthless, but that doesn't seem to deter employers. There is no extra study involved for a master's, but you can greatly improve your CV if you ahve the right kind of money.

[DanS]

Yeah well, half of the colleges are crappy.

Even with half of the attendees, the US would have a much higher percentage attending than most countries.

[Az]

In many countries, perhaps even most countries, a college degree is not required prior to entering medical school. Students can matriculate right out of high school.

Like here. You enter for 7 years, and end up being an MD, witha M.Sc, or a B.A in life sciences, as well.

Well university access varies widely across Europe. The Austrian system of open access is a bit out of line. The politicians established it, but never put up the money to pay for it. We have about 2500 profs for 200-250000 students. Add to that about 8000 "Assistents" which includes everything from associate profs to lab rats, but it still means many institutes are seriously understaffed.

This doesn't sound right. They tried to do the same thing here, to let more people enroll, but the academia strongly protested, saying that it will lower the level of education, since no additional money was spent on hiring those lecturers needed, which creates the weird situations in which universities hold relatively low amounts of students, while doing lots of research.

here's a link I found about research rankings of economics departments in Europe. You can see that Israel has got two Unis in the top 10 ( my university is 28th ). In other research, Israel still ranks highly. AND STILL, those two big universities ( HebrewU and TAU ) hold only 22k and 27k students, respectively, while big universities around the world hold 40k or more.
Our institute has only some 12k students...