University system in your country

International Students
1

<p>We all know how university admission works in the US- you have to give the SATs, write essays, get your recs, showcase your ECs etc. But what about all the other countries in the world? They each have their own universities and their own unique admission system. So I thought it would be interesting if we compared the admission systems of various countries.</p>

<p>Well, to get things rolling, let me describe the university system in my country Bangladesh.</p>

<p>We have two kinds of universities here- public and private. The public ones are ultra-competitive, while almost anyone with a high school degree can get into the private ones. Not surprising, given that the private unis charge fairly high fees, whereas the public univ fees are purely nominal (last time I heard it was less than $1 a month!) so in effect everyone admitted to them is on a full scholarship.</p>

<p>Almost the only two factors considered in admission are high school grades and performance at admission tests and sometimes interviews. One interesting feature of universities here is that almost every one of them has its own admission test which all applicants have to take. This might seem like an inconvenient system, until you realize that most of the universities are located in or around the capital city Dhaka. The admission tests themselves vary widely in content-some are a bit like the SAT, with English and Maths multiple choice questions, an essay and a general knowldege section; while others, especially the ones for the most competitive govt. universities or medical colleges, are very intensive and contain questions on physics, chemistry, biology, maths etc. They are reputed to be much more difficult than the A’Levels!</p>

2

<p>For India
Engineering: Objective Criterion
There are mainly two exams

  1. IIT JEE(arguably the most difficult exam at pre-college level in the world)
  2. AIEEE(Entry into other colleges).
    We usually spend 2 years religiously preparing for these exams.
    Medical: Objective Criterion
    Selection through Entrance test, some spend 4-5 years preparing for Medical Entrance Exams.
    Arts/Commerce: Generally Objective Criterion
    Depends on How much you scored in your school leaving exams. Cutoffs in prestigious universities reach up to 97%
    MBA: Both Subjective & Objective Criterion
    Admission through CAT(again arguably the most difficult entrance exam for MBA in the world). Those who beat the Cutoffs are then called for Interview and then Group Discussion.</p>

<p>All the prestigious universities in India are public(barring one or two). Fees are modest(500$).
Academically most of the Indian universities match up to the standard of American Universities but offer no flexibility in course selection.</p>

3

<p>In Germany it’s like this:
In general all universities have the right to select their students, but hardly any public ones take advantage of that, except for popular majors like business/economics, computer science, and biology (the reason later). There are a few really popular majors (medicine, pharmacy, psychology, law) which are generally selective, meaning you have to apply for them through an independent organization which will decide if and where you are allowed to study that; decisions are solely based on your GPA. If you are not admitted right away, you may get the option to study that major if you wait some semesters. On a 1-6 scale, you e.g. need to have a GPA of 1.3 (extremely rare, on average less than one student in a class) to study medicine right away after graduation. With an GPA of 1.6 (about top 5% of class), you may study it after waiting for 10 semesters (you may e.g. study biology in the meantime because you will have mainly the same classes as a medicine major in the first two or three years). If your GPA is worse than 1.6, it is pointless to wait.
As mentioned earlier, you don’t even have to apply to public universities for most majors, you just sign up at an university once you get your Abitur (A-Levels) results.
Most universities in Germany are public and charge you between nothing and 500€ (about $600) for tuition per semester. There are a few private ones, but they are small and specialized (e.g. business or law) and have their own admission process, but are generally more selective than public ones.
The curriculum is tighter and more in-depth than at American universities. Once you pick your major, you usually have no electives or only electives within your major (e.g. the choice between probability and numerical analysis for a math major) to choose from. Depending on the major you might be allowed or required to complete a minor in addition.
A Bachelor’s degree is usually awarded after 3 years of undergraduate study, and a Master takes an additional 1.5 to 2 years.</p>

4

<p>Canada…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Location-
Ontario Universities: They have a seperate application website called OUAC. You apply to that and send your supporting documents in to the seperate universities you apply for.
Other provinces: You apply to each school individually.</p></li>
<li><p>Application Factors-
For nearly everything: just your marks, and most of the time they only care about your latest ones (i.e grade 11 and 12). IB/AP helps to get you accepted earlier, but there is no EA like in the US. If you have an 85% average or higher (from a Canadian high school), you could probably get in almost anywhere except maybe specific faculties at McGill/U of T/UBC or one of the top Commerce or Health Sci programs.
For business schools or scholarships: there are seperate applications where you need to list all your extra-curriculars, awards, and write essays, etc. (this is most like the US application process)</p></li>
<li><p>Type of school -
Almost all of them are public… the private ones are usually small and affiliated with a specific religion or career (like technical schools or bible colleges). The fees can vary anywhere between $1000 a year for Quebec students going to school in Quebec to $16000+ for International students, but in general Canadians pay around $4000 a year for tuition (depending on the school and program).</p></li>
</ol>

5

<p>Chile</p>

<p>In my country, there are several higher education institutions: </p>

<p>1) Traditional Universities: These are 25, and we have to take Universitary Selection Test (PSU, Prueba de Selección Universitaria). The students are chosen just by their score in that test. Language and Math sections are mandatory, and we have to chosse between History or Sciences (although we can take both). These universities used to be “state”, but every day they’re being more expensive, and a lot of them have became in almost private universities per se …</p>

<p>2) Private Universities: Almost all of the privates universities in my country don’t require this greit score in PSU. If you have money, you’re in. Although many of these universities have gained prestige, and they do chose by the results of PSU. In these cases, private universities offer a LOT of scholarchips for these students, so they go to those universities. The problem here, is that the government is in charge of giving the most important and universal scholarchips, and they, as every sytem, make HUGE mistakes, and sometimes poor fantastic students don’t have the chance to study in a traditional university. This is the main reason for good students to go to private universities.</p>

<p>3) Center of technical formation: they offer technical grades, which least from 2 to 3 years. Some of this grades are also offered in universities. These centers almost don’t require to take PSU.</p>

6

<p>In Malaysia, we have public and private universities, as well as some private colleges/university colleges. Universities tend to run their own local degree programmes, and the best ones tend to be public. However, there’s not much academic freedom, and the system is quite rigid, especially when it comes to allowing for students’ interests; it’s very focused on getting you your degree and getting you out of school once and for good. Some like this, some don’t.</p>

<p>The situation is marginally better in private universities/colleges/university colleges, many of which grant degrees through foreign universities. (For instance, the University of Tasmania might have a “twinning” programme with your school, which would allow your degree to carry the name of UTas even if you didn’t spend most of your studies there.) Depending on what you choose, you can spend anything from one to four years studying locally; in the latter case, you don’t even have to transfer to their campus to complete your degree.</p>

<p>Many who can afford it choose to attend private institutions because there’s a general feeling that even the academic value of a public university degree is declining, and also because there is a lot of competition for a spot in local universities. It might be easy to get into a programme for, say, agricultural studies, but almost impossible with medicine or economics. That’s another reason many go the private route.</p>

<p>For admissions, almost everyone (except those studying at international schools) takes the SPM standardised examination in the equivalent of 11th grade here. There’s something like nine mandatory subjects, with the possibility for electives in a number of other subjects. (One girl made the headlines for scoring 17As.) After the SPM, it’s common for people to take a university-prep course (our version of APs, I guess). You can either take the STPM, which like the SPM is set by the government, or you can choose to take a foreign prep course at a private institution. (This might be the A Levels or IB.) After you finish the prep course, that’s generally when you apply for admission proper to a degree programme.</p>

<p>The admissions system at both public and private schools here just looks at your grades, with maybe an interview. Generally your course of study is set by the time you’re in the equivalent of 10th grade because another standardised exam (God, we love those) is given in 9th grade to determine whether you’re fit to do the sciences or arts. Those “smart” enough to handle the sciences are then allowed to choose between the science and arts stream in 10th grade, while everyone else ends up in the arts stream. What stream you’re in greatly affects what electives you can take (which in most public schools is already quite limited). Although a few people switch from the science to arts stream when doing their university-prep, most people stick with what they initially got.</p>

7

<p>In my country Nepal, regarding undergrad only</p>

<p>Well we don’t have lots of Universities in our country. As until now, only four of them. Tribhuvan University(TU) is the oldest and the largest and the only government owned university. All the public colleges in the country follow this university’s curriculum. If we are to go for this university then we have to attend either a public college or a private college which is affiliated to TU.
Kathmandu University has small enrollment and its courses are taught within the campus itself. No other colleges follow its syllabus. It offers courses ranging from Intermediate to Doctorate.
The other universities do not have their own campus. Rather their curriculum is followed by different colleges all over the country. So there are plenty of choices for one to choose because there won’t be much competition as various colleges will follow the same set of courses and same questions will appear in the semester exams. The only competition that the students face is when they want to join Engineering or medicine, mainly in two prestigious institution IOE (Institute of Engineering) and IOM (Institute of Medicine) which are both under TU. There is competition for other big medicine schools like Manipal institute and BPK institute as well.
For undergrad, most of the students go to a private college offering courses of their interest. Others either fight for scholarships given by Ministry of Education of apply to a school in US, UK, Australia, etc.</p>

<p>That is all I know about undergrad education system in Nepal. If I am wrong somewhere then someone from Nepal, pls come and correct.</p>

8

<p>EGYPT</p>

<p>First, let me say that this is one of the dumbest, most idiotic systems ever created be man.
(PS: all the following is regarding government universities).</p>

<p>Once a student completes three years (not four) of high school education, s/he goes to college admission headquarters in his/her city. s/he’s given a huge pink cardboard paper with 48 boxes printed on it and is also given like 100 stickers.
What you do is this:
all the stickers have the name of a COLLEGE and it’s location in the country on it. (Ex: faculty of medicine,Alexandria University; faculty of commerce, Cairo University)
-each box is to be filled with a sticker; each box represents your colleges of choice in the order you wish (i.e which one you would settle for if you could not get into the previous one).</p>

<p>Anyway, once you did all the sticking and filled out the accompanying forms your files are given to the university admissions officer who then compare your percentage grade in your senior year to the MINIMUM percentage requirement of your choices.
for example, if you got 95% and you put the faculty of medicine in Alexandria as your first choice, then you would NOT get in and they would automatically send your file to your sencond choice.</p>

<p>There are NO ECs, no athletic scholarships, or academic ones for that matter, because all levels of education in egypt including university are FREE! There are no standard books for all faculties; each faculty in each university has its own book and will make the exam using what’s in that book.
Since the proffesors are idiots; one cannot rely on them to explain the subject matter therefore the majority of the students are tutored BY the professors themselves (each term can reach up to 2000 Egyptian pounds per student)
There are NO admission tests for public (government) universities.</p>

<p>As you might have guessed, the quality of education itself sucks becasue since there are no fees there is no money to fund any kind of reasearch or even to get more equipment to use.</p>

<hr>

<p>That’s basically all there is to say. I hope it was not too complicated. :)</p>

<p>As for private universities:</p>

<p>They operate like US universities except for a few minor differences.
PS: They are incredibly Expensive! R
anging from 24,000 Eg. pounds : The Academy of Maritime Transport.
To 40,000 Eg. pounds : The American University in Cairo.
all prices are: per year.</p>

9

<p>well,there needs to be just a DRASTIC change in the that case…
but they also provide FREE educations…if u see OXBRIDGE,as example,they are the real money EATERS from the int’ls…</p>

10

<p>Here (Argentina) most public universities have 100% admission for most subjects (excluding medicine, for instance, which requires an admission test). If you are a high school graduate, or any person over 25 years old, you just have to enroll and you are in. You don’t have to pay a penny either, there’s no fee. Even when they are for free, universities provide need-based scholarships to cover transportation expenses or study material (which is compound mainly of photocopies).</p>

11

<p>Thats amazing to hear,Argentina(being my favourite football country) provides this much…:eek:…nice thing…</p>

12

<p>South Korea</p>

<p>We have test sort of like SAT but I think we have more subject area than just Math and English. I think we have to take it for every main subject in school. This exam is extremely hard and seniors seriously spend all their life just preparing for this exam(Literally, I mean they study till like 3 every single day). And u only get one shot in each year. So if you get bad grade, you have to wait till next year to take it.</p>

<p>GPA is second most important thing but I think it only counts as like 20%. I think schools have requirements for GPA and as long as ur gpa matches that requirement, ur straight on GPA part.</p>

<p>That is only two thing that matters. EC plays almost no roll in our application. Once Korean students get into University, they tend to slack off becuz they worked so hard on their college entering exam. This is very different from American University where students don’t work hard in highschool and then study hard in University.</p>

<p>It’s no weird that best Korean university doesn’t even rank in 100th in the world.</p>

13

<p>that’s true! i live in chile (which is besides argentina) and i heard that a friend of a friend xD went to study to argentina and he is now studying free :)</p>

<p>i love argentina!! i went to Mendoza in May and I just loved it!</p>

14

<p>yeah SNU (seoul national university) is ranked in top 100 and so in Yonsie</p>

15

<p>Is it ranked in top 100th in the world?</p>

<p>I didn’t know that -0-</p>

16

<p>An interesting thread which I happened to stumble upon :).</p>

<p>Any more posters? I’d love to hear more…</p>

17

<p>its true =)
im from argentina and there the universities are free and they have a great level …
the UBA is number 276 in the world , not bad …</p>