Sir Timothy - Expert of CAU Teaching & Learning Audit Highly Endorsed the Undergraduate Teaching of International College Beijing
China Agricultural University (hereafter CAU) received the Undergraduate Teaching & Learning Audit by Ministry of Education during Oct 15 -18. 15 audit experts conducted comprehensive evaluation on CAU’s undergraduate administration, undergraduate teaching and learning, and its full-scale intellectual education. During the audit, Sir Timothy O’Shea, former Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and several other Chinese and international experts visited International College Beijing (hereafter ICB). During the visit, Sir Timothy O’Shea listened to Dean’s report on ICB undergraduate teaching and learning, held in-depth interview with ICB leaders, consulted ICB self-evaluation report and supporting documents. He also observed three classroom teachings, referred to 145 pieces of exam papers of three courses, and inspected ICB’s academic archive office, teacher-student Q&A areas, academic advising offices, as well as other ICB featured facilities. On the feedback session, Sir Timothy O’Shea, has raised 10 compliments, 5 challenges and 5 opportunities concerning of the CAU Undergraduate Teaching & Learning Audit, among which, he highly endorsed the International College.
Following is
the transcript based on Sir Timothy’s audio recording (to be confirmed by
himself in person):
“My fourth compliment has to go to the
International College. I am very honest that I feel really surprised about the
size of them, 10% of the undergraduate population with more than 6,000
graduates. I also very surprised about the quality of their teaching. It has
absolutely excellent lectures, interactive lectures in teaching statistics
subject. My first university subject I have ever taught is statistics, so I
have a very thorough understanding in teaching statistics. In the lecture, the
way they interact with students and the way of conducting English is very
professional.
My university has 3,000 students with
their first language is Mandarin or Cantonese, so we are very used to the
standard. Actually it is very interesting that the standard of using English of
your students is usually higher than those used in Edinburgh University. It is
really deeply impressive. Also it is a truth that the college has a good vision
of internationalization. 90% students of international college go to graduate
study, and a large number of students go to the leading international
universities in the world. That is a very important network helping the future
for the international growth. ”