University of Toronto vs. Chinese Culture University

張貼日期：May 11, 2014 1:20:57 PM

Eric Li

Before coming back to Taiwan to pursue my Bachelor’s diploma, I studied physics at University of Toronto. As a result, people often ask me the differences between University of Toronto (UT) and Chinese Culture University (CCU). In fact, I’ve had questions from people asking me if UT is indeed better than CCU. Hence, I would like to take this opportunity to illustrate the differences between the two universities in two different cultures.

The first major difference between University of Toronto and Chinese Culture University are the class sizes. Many of the mandatory courses in UT are massive. Some of these mandatory courses are offered to first year students which include introductory courses like: sociology, fundamental math, Basic English, and even some introduction to science courses. I remember when I first walked into my sociology class, I was staggered by the nearly 3000 students already sitting in the dome waiting for the class to start. Most of my first year introductory level classes had a minimum of over 250 students. In addition, most of these classes are taught by experienced distinguished professors. In general, people in UT believe that only the most experienced professors have the ability to teach classes at that size, and the number of these professors is limited. As a result, a single distinguished professor usually has the burden to teach his or her specialty to all first year students, which results in extremely large class sizes. In contrast, CCU offers smaller class sizes. Even though CCU is generally considered to be a large university in terms of the number of students it has, I have yet to experience a class of more than 100 students. Although CCU has several mandatory first year courses for all students, the school splits the students into numerous smaller classes to control the size of the classes and they are usually taught by several professors and/or lecturers. In short, UT offers large classes taught by one professor known for his specialty for the subject while CCU offers smaller classes for the same subject and are often taught by a number of teachers.

In addition, there is a great difference between the student-teacher relationships in the two universities. Because the classes are so enormous, professors at UT usually have little time to focus on improving their relationships with their students. Generally speaking, the office hours a professor offers to his students are minimal. In fact, most professors to my recollection only offer up to one hour of office hour per week. It is also usually ill-mannered to find a professor in his office and speak to him or her without first making an appointment. In contrast, students and teachers relationships in CCU are rather close. For one thing, many teachers actually take the effort to remember the names of their students. The office hours for teachers in CCU are generally a lot longer and students can usually talk to a teacher who happens to be in his or her office outside of his or her office hours without first making an appointment. On the other hand, students in UT seem to have a lot more respect for their fellow professors when compared to students at CCU. This “friendly” nature between students and teachers is uncommon in UT.

The last and the most vital difference between the UT and CCU are the students’ attitude towards education. My experiences in Canada had taught me that students in UT are more motivated to learn in universities. All university students realize that university success will eventually lead to a higher chance of success in the work force. Class attendances are usually not an issue. Even though professors only offer minimal time periods for office hours, students often line up in front of the professor’s office to get an opportunity to ask about in-class materials. The libraries are always packed and some students will even spend their nights in the library trying to finish projects or studying for an exam. Students will always ask questions in class for any misconceptions and the classes are always quiet when the professors are giving their lectures. Respect is a key ideology in UT. Students stay quiet in class because they respect professors and other students in class who are focusing on class material. Unfortunately, these qualities found from university students in UT are non-existent in students from CCU. Even though teachers impose strict attendance rules to their classes, a majority of the students simply ignore this rule and often skip classes for reasons that do not exist. Ironically, the students who need the most help on their subjects hardly ever ask professors for advice to avoid the inevitable failure of the course. Oddly, libraries in CCU are always packed. However, a high percentage of the students are gaming instead of utilizing the library as a study ground, according to my observation. Even though our library offers great resources, the books are often untouched, and even after decades on the shelf, many of them remain in mint condition. The main problem with CCU students is their lack of motivation and their disrespect for professors and other students in class. It seems students here often have this “All I want is to pass and graduate” mentality and many of them never think about their future plans. My experiences at CCU had taught me that students here are disrespectful in class. Some students at CCU cannot resist their temptations to talk very loudly in class and sometimes even louder than the teachers. I even had experiences where students would call professors harmful names to their face during an argument in front of the whole class. The behaviors of students at PCCU are unfortunate and give me an impression that a large number of CCU students are immature and classless.

Overall, there are various differences between UT and CCU. When people asked me which educational system I liked better, I would usually answer the system at CCU. For me, I like smaller classes and better teacher and student relationships. Unfortunately, many students in CCU do not care about education and decide to procrastinate throughout their university careers. Students from CCU have a lot to learn from students from other universities.