Re:Computer science as a lost art (2015)
by Taniwha on Tuesday July 31, 2018 @03:24AM
(#17651198)
English (and NZ and Aussie) universities have 3 year courses because high school kids pass minimum national requirements exams before they enter, US high school graduation is not uniform across the country, or even across states - in essence those minimum requirements ensure that students entering Uni have already met what in the US would be the General Education requirement
[ Parent
| on HN ]
That's not whey they have 3 year vs 4 year courses. The 3 year vs 4 year debate is a legacy of philosophical differences about what qualifies a liberal education that are far older than standardized national secondary curricula.
Universities in the US have entrance requirements for classes completed in high school. They do the same thing English universities do when admiring American students--they require specific general education classes were completed in high school.
Because of this even though the US doesn't have national standards, virtually ever university bound student will have already completed the same general education classes that students from countries with 3 year universities would have. Universities her don't force students to take English, math, and history classes because some substantial population of college bound high school students haven't taken them.