A Study On Talents Cultivation Mode Of Elite Undergraduates Of California Institute Of Technology

Undergraduate education is the foundation of higher education and its development.The breakthrough and innovation of undergraduate talents cultivation mode is the key to improving its quality.As a model for elite private higher education to follow,California Institute of Technology enjoys a high reputation in the United States and even the whole world.The reason why Caltech can cultivate a large number of elite undergraduates lies in its running feature of "small in size but excellent in quality" and its unique mode of undergraduate cultivation.Therefore,an in-depth study of its unique mode provides a theoretical reference for improving the quality of undergraduate education in China,and it also has an exemplary significance regarding to the attempt to innovate the mode of undergraduate cultivation in China.This paper is a research on the elite-oriented mode of undergraduate cultivation at Caltech.It employs the literature research method to review the studies relevant to undergraduate education at Caltech and analyze the disadvantages of those researches.The case study method is used to probe into the present situation of its undergraduate cultivation and summarize its successful experience.The comparative analysis method is employed to find out the problems existing in the process of undergraduate cultivation in China and tackle the problems by drawing lessons from the mode at Caltech.The main body of this paper consists of five parts.The first part presents an overview of the undergraduate education at Caltech and introduces the historical development of its educational philosophies.The second part focuses on the specifications of undergraduate cultivation at Caltech and its admission system.The third part delves into the undergraduate curricular system at Caltech and the methods of its undergraduate cultivation.By employing the collected data and materials,this part mainly describes its undergraduate courses and cultivation methods which provide a reference for the following discussion.The quality assurance system for undergraduate cultivation at Caltech is elaborated in the fourth part from four aspects respectively: course assessment and elimination system,education motivation system,teaching-centered teacher management system and sufficient education funding system.The fifth part summarizes the features of the elite-oriented undergraduate cultivation at Caltech and analyzes its enlightenment.It sums up the running features,curricular system,cultivation methods and sources of funding at Caltech based on the analysis of its elite-oriented undergraduate cultivation at present mentioned above.Moreover,by making a comparison with the problems existing in the process of undergraduate cultivation in our country,this paper summarizes the enlightenment drawn from the elite-oriented mode of undergraduate cultivation at Caltech to the cultivation for high-quality undergraduates,to the innovation in the mode of undergraduate cultivation,and to the acceleration of the “Double First-class” construction in China.