What was education like in Professor Wang’s days?

H: Good evening, I’m Nancy Johnson. The guest on our radio talk this evening is Professor Wang Gongwu. Hello, Professor Wang.
W: Hello.
H: Professor Wang, you are now professor emeritus of Australian National University. And in your long academic career, you’ve worn many hats as tutor, lecturer, department head, dean, professor and vice chancellor. However, as I know, you are still very fond of your university days as a student.
W: That’s right. That was in 1949. The university I went to was a brand new university then, and the only one in the country at that time. When I look back, it was an amazingly small university and we knew everybody.
H: How did the students like you, for example, study then?
W: We did not study very hard, because we did not have to. We didn’t have all these fantastic competitions as you have today. We were always made to feel that getting a first degree in the Arts’ faculty was not preparation for a profession, it was a general education. We were not under any pressure to decide on our careers, and we had such a good time. We were left very much on our own, and we were encouraged to make things happen.
H : What do you think is the most striking difference in the present day education since then?
W: University education has changed dramatically since those days.  Things are very specialized today.
H: Yes, definitely so. And in your subsequent career experience as an educator, and later administrator in various institutions of higher education in Asia and elsewhere, Prof. Wang, you have repeatedly noted that one has to look at the development of education in one particular country in the broad context. What do you mean by that?
W. Well, the whole world has moved away from elite education and universities to meet the needs of mass education. And entering universities is no longer a privilege for the few. And universities today are more concerned with providing jobs for their graduates in a way that universities in our time never had to be bothered about. Therefore, the emphasis of university programs today is now on the practical and the utilitarian rather than on the general education or on personal development.
H: Do you think that is a welcome development?
W: Well, I personally regret this development. But the basic bachelor’s education now has to cater to people who really need a piece of paper to find a decent job.
H: So you are concerned about this development?
W: Yes, I’m very concerned. With technical changes, many of the things that you learned are technical skills which didn’t require you to become very well educated. Yet, if you can master those skills, you can get very good jobs.  So the technical institutions are going to be increasingly popular at the expense of traditional universities.
H: Prof. Wang, let’s look at a different issue. How do you comment on the current phenomenon that more and more universities admit students because of the fees they pay?
W: Well, once you accept students on financial grounds, one wonders whether you have to pass them as well.  But this is the development in education that we have to contend with. Yet, if we are concerned about maintaining standards, what we can do is to concentrate on improving the quality of education.
H. Yes, you are right. A university is judged by the quality of education it offers. Prof. Wang, let’s turn to the future. What types of graduates, in your view, do universities of the future need to produce if they are to remain relevant?
W. I think their graduates must be able to shift from one profession to another, because they are trained in a very independent way. If you can do that, you raise the level of the flexibility of the mind. Today’s rapid changes in technology demand this adaptability. And you see, the best universities in the world are already trying to guarantee that their students will not only be technically-trained, but can be that kind of people that can adapt to any changing situation.
H. I guess may people would agree with you on that point. University education should focus on both professional and personal intellectual development of students. But still some might believe that there is a definite place for education in the broader sense, that is to say, in personal intellectual development.
W. No doubt about that. We need people who will think about the future, about the past, and also people who will think about society. If a society does not have philosophers, or people who think about the value of life, it’s a very sad society indeed.
H: Prof. Wang, my last question, do you see any common ground in education between your generation and young generation now?
W: Adapting to new challenges is perhaps the true cornerstone of our generation’s legacy to education. And the future of education in a country rests not so much on the construction of better buildings, labs, etc, but on the development of an ever adaptable mind.
H: That’s true. The essence of education is the education of the mind. OK, thank you very much, Prof Wang, for talking to us on the show about the changing trends in education.
W: You are welcome.