The full credit system is different from the academic year credit system in terms of teaching plan, course task setting, class management, etc. The full credit system is guided by a professional teaching plan, and the course tasks cover a wide range of tasks, breaking the fixed mode of the class, and students can study for a long or short time, and they can also choose their own learning courses.
A few days ago, the 2023 higher education enrollment regulations issued by many universities, including Beijing Jiaotong University, Shandong Agricultural University, Guizhou University, etc., all mentioned the implementation of the credit system teaching management model. As one of the types of credit system, the full credit system has attracted much attention in recent years, including many universities in Liaoning, Tianjin, Shaanxi and other places are piloting the implementation of the full credit system reform.
What is a full credit system? Compared with the academic year credit system, what are the characteristics and advantages of the full credit system? How should universities promote the reform of the full credit system? With these questions, the reporter of Science and Technology Daily interviewed experts and scholars in related fields.
Many colleges and universities have promoted the reform of the full credit system
In 1917, Peking University piloted the subject selection system, laying the prototype of China's credit system. The credit system mainly includes two modes: academic year credit system and full credit system. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the cultivation of talents in colleges and universities has experienced a process of gradual evolution from the academic year system and the academic year credit system to the full credit system. In recent years, many domestic universities have begun to promote the reform of the full credit system, and the implementation of the full credit system has become common in colleges and universities.
It is understood that the full credit system was developed from the course selection system proposed by the German educator Humboldt, and originally originated at Harvard University in the United States. The full credit system is based on the premise of course selection, taking credits and grade points as the measurement unit of students' learning quality and quantity, and taking certain credits and credit grade points as the talent training and teaching management system required for graduation and degree awarding.
Zhang Xiaomin, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office of Shanxi University, introduced that the full credit system emphasizes the use of diverse educational standards and more flexible process management methods in the process of cultivating students, so as to explore the establishment of a personalized training mechanism. On the road of exploring the full credit system, the earliest universities in China include Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, etc., which began to implement a full credit system on a trial basis for undergraduate freshmen enrolled in the same year in 2000 or 2001. Since then, many universities have begun to implement the full credit system.
As the first university in Tianjin to implement the reform of the full credit system, Tianjin University of Science and Technology launched a series of new measures such as course selection system, flexible academic system, and tutor system in 2017, which kicked off the reform of the full credit system. "The full credit system implemented by the school not only allowed me to obtain my bachelor's and master's degrees in only 4 years, but also allowed me to control my study time and plan my study content." A few days ago, Wang Xinyue, a graduate of Tianjin University of Science and Technology, said.
In 2020, the Department of Education of Liaoning Province issued the Implementation Plan on Further Deepening the Reform of the Full Credit System in Ordinary Colleges and Universities, and carried out pilot reform of the full credit system in many colleges and universities, the main contents of which include optimizing the talent training plan, clarifying the credit transfer standards, the minimum credit requirements and years of study for students, and formulating course study methods. From August 2021, ordinary colleges and universities in Liaoning Province have comprehensively promoted the reform of the full credit system.
In 2020, Shanxi University took the initiative to adapt to the development trend of higher education, promoted the comprehensive reform of "interdisciplinary professional cross-integration + full credit system", and comprehensively deepened first-class undergraduate education. "Taking the reform of the full credit system as the starting point, innovating the talent training system and improving the quality of talent training has gradually become a trend in the development of domestic higher education." Zhang Xiaomin said that the reform of the full credit system breaks the rigidity of the time and content of the academic year credit system and gives students greater autonomy in learning.
Break fixed patterns and improve the quality of learning
The full credit system is different from the academic year credit system in terms of teaching plan, course task setting, class management, etc. The academic year credit system is more fixed in the way teaching plans and course tasks are set, while the full credit system is more autonomous. Guided only by professional teaching plans, the full credit system covers a wide range of course tasks, breaking the fixed mode of the class, students can study for a long or short time, and can also choose their own learning courses.
"Under the full credit system, on the one hand, teachers can stimulate a sense of competition, and they will be more careful in teaching design, and they must consider the teaching effect." For example, Zhang Xiaomin said that schools can use the number of teachers selected by courses as one of the means to evaluate teachers' teaching effectiveness, which can help teachers improve their teaching standards.
On the other hand, students' study time is more flexible, and students can obtain a graduation certificate as long as they complete the credits. At the same time, it is also conducive to the integration of school resources, avoiding the waste of educational resources, students can not choose repeated courses, and have greater autonomy in learning.
"In addition, the full credit system not only promotes the individualized and diversified development of students, but also enhances the competition between educational subjects within colleges and universities, and drives the systematic reform of the internal management system and mechanism of colleges and universities." Zhang Xiaomin added.
How to implement a full credit system is key
At the 6rd University Presidents' Forum of China Higher Education Expo, Lu Fuping, President of Tianjin University of Science and Technology, delivered a keynote speech on the topic of "Deeply Promoting the Reform of the Full Credit System and Helping Local Colleges and Universities to Provide High-quality Undergraduate Education". Lu Fuping said: "The full credit system not only highlights the university concept of learning freedom, but also implies the reform of the education model based on multidisciplinary intersection, with stimulating students' potential as the core, and the transformation of education models oriented to students' growth and development is the magic weapon to win." "The data shows that in the 97 years of full credit system reform and practice, the average employer satisfaction of the graduates of Tianjin University of Science and Technology has reached 52.<>%.
Zhang Xiaomin believes that the essence of the full credit system is not complicated, but how to implement and operate is a complex system engineering, which involves not only students, teachers, teaching administrators and other subjects, but also teaching management, personnel management, student management, logistics management, financial fees and other systems, and is also closely related to resources, such as courses, classrooms, laboratories, and information systems. In order to better promote and implement the full credit system, it is necessary to continuously enhance students' awareness and ability of independent learning, improve students' academic guidance and management system, and consolidate the protection of human and financial resources.
Taking Shanxi University as an example, in 2020, the university implemented the "pilot work of full credit system reform across colleges of biochemical environment" in the College of Life Sciences, the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and the School of Environment and Resources. In 2021, the school will expand the comprehensive reform of "interdisciplinary professional cross-integration + full credit system" to interdisciplinary fields such as "literature + history + philosophy" and "politics + law", forming a new mechanism for first-class undergraduate professional education management that meets the diversified needs of students, optimizes students' knowledge structure, and comprehensively improves students' comprehensive quality and innovation ability.
"In the second semester of university, students will be divided into majors based on their personal learning interests and the actual situation of their respective majors. In the fourth semester of the university, students can apply for changing majors twice according to their actual situation. Zhang Xiaomin introduced that in order to implement the reform of the full credit system, Shanxi University has established two mechanisms: "professional access and access standards" and "talent training diversion mechanism". Among them, the "professional access and exit standards" are adopted to regulate the minimum prerequisite course requirements for undergraduate students to be diverted to a certain major and the minimum professional course requirements for students to graduate from the diversion major. According to the "talent training diversion mechanism", students are guided in different directions according to their characteristics, and through professional circulation, supplemented by institutional guarantees such as credit identification and transfer, scientific evaluation, compensation and assistance, etc., the optimal development of students is realized.
"The reform of the full credit system not only brings a new model of talent training to Shanxi University, but also stimulates the reform of teachers' education concepts and teaching innovation practices." Zhang Xiaomin said.
(Science and Technology Daily reporter Han Rong)