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European education is frighteningly good
For the past few weeks, I’ve been living on campus to chill with the Euros in this program I’m taking part in. Just now there was a fire drill, as happens in the dorms about every other day, and so we stood outside and talked. (Thankfully, the rain had just stopped.)
We got to talking about credits remaining in our respective degrees, and some interesting stuff popped up. Sorry if this is recap for anyone, but I found the points extremely interesting.
In the UK, one can specialize in the last two years of high school. This is not at all unique to the UK within Europe, but it was the example we discussed today, so I’m running with it. This means that when going for an MD, one needs only study 6 years at the university level, compared with the typical 8 or longer in the U.S. Pretty cool, no?
There’s one student here from the Netherlands studying International Business. As part of her courseload, she has to learn to play golf. If that doesn’t demonstrate a profound understanding of the the field, I don’t know what does. She mentioned also that some students learn to ski, too—for credit, mind you—as ski trips are a big part of the business world in Europe.
Now, the obvious rebuttal to this kind of education is that it is concentrated to the point of detriment to the overall education of the student. For instance, those extra two years an American would spend at college result (at least ideally) in a broader exposure to disparate fields. But I have to say, without the huge focus on foreign language knowledge and anthropologically refined social practices like the golf example, what’s the point? It’s almost as if the Europeans are going so far beyond what I typically consider specialization that they are reaping huge benefits from it.
It’s such intelligent specialization that it recognizes the importance of a variegated, yet highly contextualized, skillset.
Hats off to you, Europe.
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You’re currently reading “European education is frighteningly good,” an entry on Im Voraus
- Published:
- Aug 10 2008 / 16:25
- Category:
- musings
- Tags:
- cultural-differences, education, golf, hats, those crazy dutch
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