In the new academic year, Tsinghua University and Peking University, which are pilot units of comprehensive national education reform, will add another kind of degree - "honorary degree".To obtain an "honorary degree" is not a small difficulty, just "learning hegemony" is not enough, but also has outstanding innovation and research potential.The head of Tsinghua University said that the proportion of students who can obtain an "honor degree" will not exceed 10%.
Highest Academic Recognition for Undergraduate Students
In the new academic year, Peking University launched undergraduate teaching reform, encouraged mature departments, set up "honours bachelor's degrees" to encourage students to take more challenging honors courses and actively participate in practical innovation.
Yesterday, Tsinghua University also announced the establishment of an "honorary degree" as the highest academic recognition given to undergraduate students.According to reports, Tsinghua "honor degree" will first be in Qian Xuesen mechanics class pilot, the first batch of 50 people, including 28 new students enrolled in this year's Qian class automatically joined, the remaining 22 places will be selected for the whole school.Zheng Shui, a senior professor of mechanics at Tsinghua University, said the selection will be conducted next spring to examine students' technological innovation ideas and explore unknown courage and expression and performance.
It's not easy to get an "honorary degree."According to Tsinghua's regulations, students must complete a minimum of 148 credits, including 28 credits in the universality course, 50 credits in the basic structural course, and 70 credits in the honor challenge course.A total of 18 courses, from the first to the third year of the university, each semester 3 courses, a total of 6 series, namely mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, research, humanities and comprehensive.
It's not just a "superior" degree.
"Honours degree" system has been implemented in the UK, Australia, the United States, Singapore and other universities for many years, that is, "honours degree", universities mainly focus on students' coursework (GPA), honors coursework and scientific research.
To obtain an "honorary degree" from Tsinghua, it is not enough just to study well.In addition to getting enough credits, 18 Honors courses have a good overall score, with at least two of the six series being superior.In addition, students also need to complete the "senior student researcher program" and honorary degree thesis in the senior year of high quality, and also undertake the teaching assistant of the junior honors program.Students also participate in research at the undergraduate level, first participating in laboratory research, then participating in 144 hours of laboratory work, and then spending 388 hours independently proposing research ideas.The results of research and practice are above good, and the performance of overseas research, degree thesis and honorary course teaching assistant is excellent.
Cheng Li, director of the academic affairs department of Tsinghua University, said that in the future, honorary degrees will also be gradually implemented on a pilot basis, but the proportion of students who can finally obtain honorary degrees will not exceed 10%.
"Honours Degree" awarded separately
"Honours degree" is not only a degree, but also a university to break the inherent training model, encourage students to choose, actively study, participate in basic research, and cultivate innovative talents.
Yang Bin, vice president of Tsinghua, said that at present, there are more than 3,300 undergraduate students in Tsinghua, and they are studying in different majors, but they almost follow a fixed or even rigid tutorial arrangement.After the implementation of an honorary degree, students will break professional restrictions and have a higher degree of freedom in course selection and research.At the same time, the school will also gather high-quality resources to serve students.For example, Tsinghua will set up a mentor library for students pursuing "honorary degrees."Each student can develop a personalized training plan under the guidance and coordination of the project mentor team according to his or her academic development will and the basic principles stipulated in the training plan.Tsinghua also looks forward to raising the level of innovative talent training for teachers through "honorary degrees".
Tsinghua said that students who participate in the honorary degree program, if they can graduate successfully, in addition to their normal diplomas and degree certificates, will also receive a separate "honorary degree" certificate from the school.
Honorary Degree
Honours degree refers to a class of high academic standards of undergraduate training programs, it is designed to meet the needs of outstanding students, but also to give undergraduate students the highest academic recognition.The Honours degree originated in the UK and was implemented at Oxford and Cambridge universities, using a comprehensive exam format that promotes students to think, learn and create across disciplines and single curriculum boundaries, breaking the credit system.