Investigation and comparison of undergraduate training programs of civil engineering in top universities at home and abroad
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Abstract:
Civil engineering is an independent science and technology, aims to improve the convenience, efficiency, safety, and comfort of human life and production by creating and changing the environment. As the world’s largest developing country, China has a huge demand for civil engineering professionals. There are over 550 universities in China that offer civil engineering majors, accounting for more than 20% of the total number of universities. In the era of rapid technological iteration, studying the undergraduate training programs of top civil engineering programs at domestic and foreign universities has important practical significance. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of the top universities and top civil engineering programs, this paper selects six representative universities from the top 50 in civil and structural engineering in QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021-2022. A detailed investigation and comparative analysis of their undergraduate training programs in civil engineering was conducted, providing a reference for Chinese universities to build world-class civil engineering programs. The main conclusions and recommendations are given as follows: The six universities all have generally consistent talent training goals, emphasizing not only knowledge impartation, value shaping and ability cultivation. Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University require significantly more course credits for undergraduate graduation than the four foreign universities, and the course distribution is uneven. Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University are weaker in humanities and arts courses than several top foreign universities, but they offer more diverse elective courses in the field of civil engineering. The course system is the most important tool for achieving training goals, and it is recommended that top Chinese universities offering civil engineering programs should reduce the total course load appropriately and increase the number of humanities and arts courses, giving students more time for extracurricular learning and digestion, in order to achieve a balanced and coordinated cultivation of knowledge impartation, value shaping and ability cultivation.
