Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student’s field of study.

Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student’s field of study.

This issue involves many of the questions, including whether this new policy will be advantageous to the university in a short or long term, as well as which kind of student will consider this policy to be a nice choice. This article will discuss from the first aspect. From my perspective, this policy will bring some drawbacks covering reduction in education quality and income of the university in a short term but can still benefit the university in a long term.

Initially, the quality of teaching will be impaired in a short term. To let student be able to take part in the class they have not had before, the university may push them to participate in classes which have already had a number of students closed to saturation. As a result, those classes will own a surplus number of students, which prevents the teachers from paying attention to every student. Consequently, students can not get satisfying feedback from their class. For instance, there is a famous professor of linguistics in our school, whose open lectures to the society always absorb people from other universities. However, due to the crowded atmosphere as well as the insufficient feedback, the courses is not as effective as those courses holding inside the school with much less people.

Moreover, this policy will result in a financial loss in a short term. More student to take various courses means that more teachers are require to conduct classes for students or each teacher has to give more classes than before.So, a large sum of money need to be paid in employing new teachers or raising salary of old teachers. As a result, the university will suffer a financial loss. A new department have been established in the China Academy of Art, the innovative design department, where students are required to master not only art skills but also get familiar with the latest technology achievements. Since there is an absence of professor in technology domain in the art academy, the academy itself need to spend lots of money in inviting famous professors from other university to teach their students, which causes a financial loss.

However, in a long term the university will be preferable by students if this policy is exerted. Students will obvious prefer the university which allows them to get easier access to to a variety of courses. For example, the MAPH program in University of Chicago is welcomed by the undergraduate students because it offers a splendid choices of courses covering philosophy, art history, classic literature and some language classes.

To put it in a nutshell, in a short term there is some negative effect produced by the policy, including reduction of teacher quality and loss in finance. Whereas, considering the amount of students this policy could bring to the university in a long term, it is still advisable to allow students  to participate in the courses outside their domains.