Chemical Education in China: Lanzhou University Qizhen Shi Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, People's Republic of China Fred Basolo Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60201
Education in the People's Repuhlic of China (PRC) differs from that in the United States of America (USA). The figure presents a schematic of the educational system in China. Children start first grade a t age six or seven, and they are required to attend school through the ninth grade. One third of the eligible students attend high school. This percentage is higher in the cities, hut lower in the country. After each segment of schooling (elementary, junior high school, etc.) they must pass a comprehensive examination given locallv on that segment before being allowed to proceed to the, next. .4 standardized ~narionu,ideexamination must hr: taken and passed nftrr hirh school in order tu beadmitted to the university. Most students with the highest scores go to the best universities of their choice, instead of Normal (teachine) Colleees. unless thev wish to teach in the middle receui ykars outstanding students from some of school. the best high schools who did not take the national examiuation are also being accepted in the university. All together, less than 15-2070 of the high school graduates go to colleges and universities. Most g d to work,-some go to vocational schools. First-rate students in Normal Colleges can sometimes arrange to go to a university for an MS, and even a PhD. Even in the universities, only 10%of the BS students can continue for the MS. In Lanzhou University, located in Gansu Province in North Central China. about 10% of the MS students in chemistry are accepted fo; the PhD. This is because in all of China only about 120 professors are authorized to direct PhD theses, and each of these is limited to two to three new students . ver . vear. In Lanzhou Universitv, three professors of organic chemistry can direct PhD thesis. Courses taken by precollege students are given in Table 1. Of interest to chemical education is the fact that all students must take 4 years of chemistry, 6 years of mathematics, 5
Table 1.
q
years of physics, and 6 or 8 years of English. Typical sample questions given to high school graduates, corresponding to the advanced-placement examination in chemistry, are available as supplementary material. These questions show that the students are expected to know much more descriptive chemistry than is taught in precollege in the USA. The Chinese hieh school student is also taught some organic chemistry.
7 I 1st Year
2nd Year 3rd Year
School
4th Year 5th Year
4 fith Year
[
Precollege Coursesa
Vocational Technical School
Year
3rd 4th
1
8th year
I
Junior High
+
School
1
11th Year -High
Sehool
Chinese (reading and writing). Arithmetic, etc A Nationwide Exam
1
English (in same schools in large cities)
7th
Chinese English Mathb
8th
Chinese English Math
History Physics
History
9th Chinese English Math 10th Chinese English Math 11th Chinese English Math
Physics Chemistry History Physics Chemistry History Physics Chemistry History
12th Chinese English Math
Physics Chemistry Biology
Geography Botany Geography zoology
Years of Colleee Education
1
13 Years of MS degree
I
I
3 Years of PhD degree
.
Educational Svstem in the PRC. Note the foilowino: - .I1)this is the mostcommon eoxalmn sPq.encc. (21the9 years otcomp~lsoryeadcal on * oe Jn versa ZPO n cat as ov 1990 ana n olner places oy 1995. an0 (3 vocalma1 lochn ca school can 3c entered aner graduallon from hign s c h w l or from m e 9th year after 2 or 3 years work experience ~
Journal of Chemical Education
4
Ex-
Geography Biology
'The studem takes omer courses such as music, painting, and physical education for the 1st eight years. d M B t h e ~ tincludes i ~ ~ algebra, plane geometry, salld geometry, trigonometry, and a very brief introduction to analytical geometry and calculus.
794
I
1
)
)
, Elementary
~
~~
The discussion that follows is specifically for Lanzhou University (LU) but much the same is true of other eood universities in China. Entering freshmen declare a major on arrival, and i t is difficult t o change maiors. At LU, with a student enrollment of about 5000: approximately 175 start as chemistry majors and almost the same number graduate with a BS degree four years later. The required courses for all chemistry majors are listed in Table 2, along with their choices of elective courses. The first vear is eeneral chemistry, wirh 3 h of lrcturea. 2 h ufdiicussim, and 7 hof lahorntury per week.'l'his ir f~,lluwedwirh one semeater of analylical. twu uiurganic, and twu uf physical, all hwing the same :I h of lecture, I h of discussion, and 7 h uf htrmntory. This year the department ha5 changed to one semester of general rhemistry with 5 h uf lectures, 2 h of discussion, and 7 h of lalrorntory. This entering class, taking only one semester of general chemistry, will then be required to take a one-semester course in inorganic chemistry starting in 1987. In the senior year, the students make a choice of the area of chemistry and during the first semester do soecialtv-oriented laboratorv experiments in analytical, inorganic, organic, physical chemistrv. chemistrv. ~ o l.v m e chemistrv. r The last . . petroleum . . . or . semester is spent doing underymduate research and wiring and oraI1s deiendinr their thesis before three to five facultv members.. Thanks to a World Bank loan LU now has exceilent new instruments for the use of undereraduates in their junior and senior years (see Table 3). unfortunately, such instruments are available in only 26 selected universities in China. Sample examination questions for some undergraduate
-
Table 2.
Requlred and Elective Courses for a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry at LU
Rewired
Hours'
Mathematics 144 PhysicsILab 1441106 English 288 951133 General ChemiSrylLab Analytical ChemistryILab 541133 t061150 Organic ChemistryILab Physical ChemistryILab 1061133 Structural ChemistryILab 72/36 InstrumentalAnalysisILab 54/36 Chemical EngineeringILab 46/27 Political Science 216 Physical Education 144
Elective
Hoursb
Advanced Mathematics Computer in Chemistry Chemical Literature Biochemistry Cwrdination Chemistry Group Theory Structural Inorganic Chemistry Organometallics Design of Organic Synthesis Physical Organic Chemisfry Stereochemistry Chemical Spectrometry Polymer Chemistry Polymer Physics Spectroscopic Analysis Statistical Thermodynamics Catalysis and Kinetics Quantum Chemistry Solvent Extraction Specialhl~rientedLab
. H O Y ~ S are total clock hours. students are also required to do research their last semester. write a thesis. and defend n aaily. StYdews 8r8 encouraged to selea five or six courses from thin list of electives.
Table 3.
Instruments Available to Undemraduate Students at LU Instrument
DU-7 Spectmphotometer UV-Visible Recording Spectrophotometer FT-IR Spectrometer Infrared Spectrophatometer NMR Spectrometer Quadrupole Gas Analyzer X-ray Diffractometer Dual-Wavelength TLC Scanner HP-Liquid Chromatograph
Model No. No. DU-7 UV-240 5DX IR-408 PMX-6Osi AGA-100 XD-3A CS-910 LC-4A
Manufacturer Beckman. USA Shimadzu, Japan Nicolet, USA Shimadz". Japan JEOL, Japan Aneva. Japan Shimadzu. Japan Shimadzu. Japan Shimadm. Japan
chemistry courses a t LU are available as supplementary material. The questions differ from questions generally asked in similar courses in the USA, with the Chinese questions containing more descriptive chemistry. Starting this year only English written textbooks will he used in their regular chemistry courses in order to have students (and faculty) practice their use of English. At LU about one third of the BS graduates in chemistry stay on for their MS degree. The others take jobs mostly in research institutes and industries of their choice, but if a need exists in a certain industry or in a certain location, their government will appoint them to that position. There is no unemplovment of colleae eraduates in China. and attemots are made to utilize properyy the training of c b ~ ~ e gand e university graduates. Three years are needed for the MS degree. Even before taking the departmental entrance examination, students must each find a faculty member (professor or associate professor) who will agree to be his or her thesis adviser. This is sometimes the person with whom the student did his or her undergraduate-research. The first three semesters of graduate work may include some courses selected bv the students in consultation with their thesis advisers. --. However, the most important part of the master's program is the original research done bv the student and the master's thesis ind i t s ural dcfmse. ~knclitionsfor research arc good, althuuah [lie chemistry huildinr is old and should have twtter hoods for handling toxic chemicals. Again the World Bank has recently made possible the creation of a Testing Instrument Center u,irh nru, equipment for doing modern chrmical resenrrh {see Table 41. The thesis must be examined and approved by the adviser and two other faculty members. Then the university president appoints a person outside LU as chairman of a five-person committee to conduct an oral public defense of the thesis. The outside examiner often comes from a regional institution but may also come from a farther distance in China. The MS graduate may take a research position in industrv or in a Chinese Academy of Science ~nstitute.Often the very best graduates are offered a faculty position at their universitv. Verv few D in China. As stated earlier now continue for the P ~ degree only about 120 professors (32 physical, 37 organic, 10 analytical, 7 inorganic, 16 biochemistry, and 18 polymer) in all of China are authorized to direct PhD theses. However, it should be noted that each year about 40-50 BS graduates go to the US and Canada for PhD study on a Chemistry Graduate Program (CGP) sponsored and financed the first year by the PRC. It is a bit early to say what will happen to chemistry PhD ~
~
~~~~
~
Table 4.
~~~
Equipment Available for Graduate Research at LU Name
Model
Mass Spectrometer Electron Spin Resonance Spectrometer X-Ray Single Crystal System Laser Raman Spectrometer Fourier Transform infrared Spectrometer Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer High Performance Liquid Chromatograph Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer Dual-Wavelength TLC S~annel Gas Chromatograph UV-VIS Spectrophotometer Elemental Analyzer Fluorescence S~ectro-
Volume 63
Manufacturer VG Company of England Bruker of West Germany N m i m of Holland 8 DEC of USA SpexPhyrics of USA Nicolet of USA Nicolet of USA
Model 5000
Varian of USA Varian of USA
CS-910 GC-9A DU-78 MOD 1106 Model 650
Number 9
Shimadzu of Japan Shimadm of Japan Beckman of USA Carlo Erba of italy Hitachi of Japan
September 1986
795
Table 5.
Personnel in the Chemistry Department at LU
Professor Associate Professor Lecturer Assistant Technical and Service Staff Administrative Staff TOTAL
3 31
66 83 75 38 296
graduates in China. The graduate degree program was only recently restored in China, and to date there have been very few PhD graduates in chemistry. Also the CGP was started onlvfour vears aeo. and it will erant its first PhD's next vear. NOW fo; a fewmbre facts about the chemistry department a t LU (see Tahle 5). For a total student enrollment in the university uf about 5M0, there are 183 permsnenr inculty in the chemistry. denarrnlent. This is n l n r ~ number e i~iincultv, . but there are no graduate teaching ass&nts. Faculty assistants are not permitted to have research students, and lecturers can have only undergraduate research students. All members of the faculty have tenure from the day of appointment. Thirty-four faculty memhers have studied abroad (20 in the US, four in Canada, two in Japan, two in Switzerland, one each in Eneland. " . New Zealand. Australia. West Germany, East Germany, and Romania). i a s t year over 200 scientific papers were published hy members of the department of chemistry a t LU. Most of these were published in Chinese journals with English abstracts, hut some of the faculty visiting abroad published their research in English-language
796
Journal of Chemical Education
journals. The research in organic chemistry a t LU is considered to rank among the very best work done in chemistry in the PRC. At present there are 89 research projects in progress in the chemistry department at LU. About half of these are on basic fundamental research and half on more applied research. We hope this article gives interested readers an adequate understanding of education generally, and of education in chemistry specifically, in the PRC. Thanks to the new reform oroeram, with financial assistance from the World Bank, great progress has been made in recent years in chemical education and research. Problems remain that make i t difficult to do the best possihle job of education and research. In time, solutions will have to he found to these problems. However, the optimistic view is that if this reform program continues there is reason to believe that the next 10 years will see chemistry in the PRC catch up with that in other developed countries. Aoknowledgment
0. S. thanks the PRC and the Ministrv of Education for his'two years at Northwestern ~niversit;, and F. B. thanks the World Bank International Advisory Panel and the Chinese Ministry of Education for his one month a t Lanzhou University. F. B. also thanks Professor Hu, President of LU, for having appointed him Honorary Professor of Chemistry. We thank the reviewer of our naDer, since his comments improved the paper and helped shorten it.
