In the UK, students usually don’t have entrance examinations in order to enter a University. On the other hand, students in Japan have to take an entrance exam for every University that they apply to.
There is something called “Hensachi” in Japan. It’s basically what helps decide their career as well as their University. It’s a deviation value that tells the students and teachers what type of Universities they should apply to by looking at their statistics. The reason I also say career is because many companies select candidates based on their University. It has some logic, but it breaks down when people who go to prestigious Universities become lazy. What I’ve heard is most valuable in companies – or the average company, at least – is not the level of intelligence, but experience, strong passion and work ethic.
One flaw with this system is the knowledge gained at University. Many people don’t mind studying a subject totally unrelated to what they want to do, or something they are completely uninterested in, as long as they can enter a prestigious University. It creates a system where people are occasionally not able to work straight out of University, or are forced to do a job they don’t like. Some companies spend a lot of time and money training those people, but whether it’s efficient or not is another story. This is not exclusive to Japan, but it’s a topic I’ve come across recently as I teach English to Japanese people.
It’s not totally different in the UK, but there are a few differences with the system. Since entering University doesn’t require an extra entrance examination, High School students only have to focus on their High School examinations. That’s not much of an advantage in and of itself, but the rule of studying only 3 or 4 subjects in High School allows people to think and choose what career they want. In that case, is it possible for a history student to study science or mathematics are University? It’s unlikely. Universities have requirements for applicants. For example, in my case I could study Computer Science in University because I studied mathematics and science at High School. It was one of the requirements.
By the way, we don’t actually say “High School” in the UK. We say “College” or “Sixth Form” instead. They are essentially the same, except Colleges are independent whereas Sixth Forms are joint with a school. For example, I stayed at my school after graduating at 16 years old to enter Sixth Form, where I studied for another 2 years.
And that leads me to one more sub-topic. Students in the UK study for a shorter period than most other countries, including The United States, do. We study for 2 years in College/Sixth Form, 3 years for a Undergraduate Degree, 1 year for an additional Masters (sometimes 2 years) and then only 2 years for a PhD. That’s a total of 6 years in University. In Japan and The USA, the same process in University takes 9 years (4, 2 and 3 years respectively). Education and its quality is something that I believe needs more discussion, but it makes me think about the way people think about what constitutes a good education and how it truly relates to the industry.
- Are you satisfied with the education you received?
- How do you think the University system can be improved?
- Do you think Universities are very important for getting a good job?
- What do you think about the differences between The UK and Japan?
- If you could change something with the system, what would you change?
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