Time for Freedom in Transferring

There is an old saying that goes, 揂 man is afraid of choosing the wrong job and a woman is afraid of choosing the wrong husband.?Today, this old saying needs a new ending that says, 揳 student is afraid of choosing the wrong major and the wrong university.?Several years ago, a piece of news stirred up hot debates about China抯 university system.

Ning Bo, the once famous genius of the Special Class for Young Geniuses at the Universityof Scienceand Technology of China (USTC) quit school and became a monk. Though interested in Astronomy and Medicine, he was forced to major in Physics simply because USTC didn抰 set up these two majors. Worse still, USTC didn抰 allow Ning to transfer to another university. It抯 a pity that we lost such a promising genius in such a seemingly ridiculous way. What we need is freedom to choose our major and the allowance of university transferring, which is available in the US, UKand some other countries. I believe that these changes would benefit both the university and the students a great deal.  

Being allowed to transfer pushes universities into fierce competition and forces universities to spare no efforts in updating themselves and improving major studies. During the first week of a new academic year in the US, one can see lots of advertising from prestigious universities trying to attract excellent students who are refused by competing universities because of bad luck. They get a second chance at transferring into a better university as long as they pass the extra exam or interview. The retention rate of freshman in the first year is an important index of a university抯 success. With such harsh competition, universities will try their best to improve and update themselves for a better academic environment. Similarly, high standards also apply to different faculties within one university, as the worst faculty may have to close down.

Dissimilar to the US, universities in Chinadon抰 need to worry about students floating to other schools and may easily become lazy in keeping up with latest changes in academics as well as in society. Therefore, many universities are trapped in the old inefficient operation system without a willingness to change the current situation. For example, many textbooks at universities are the same used many years ago, except for the covers.

In addition, being able to transfer schools or majors better develops students. Before beginning their college career, many Chinese students are somewhat blind in choosing majors and universities. Also, students have very limited access to proper information in choosing majors and universities. Some students may discover that his or her interests and talents lie in other majors than the one they chose before beginning their studies. Many freshmen say they regret choosing the wrong major or university but they can抰 transfer to another one due to the rigid system of transferring. Students don抰 have a second chance. Instead, they just keep on studying with hatred or depression while they ruin their talents.

Hopefully universities in Chinawill adopt or learn from the flexible transferring systems available in western universities. I believe more and more universities and students will benefit much from this.

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