A top university in northwest China has scrapped English tests as a prerequisite for graduation, rekindling a heated debate about the role of the world’s lingua franca in the country’s education system after years of rising nationalist sentiment under leader Xi Jinping.
In a notice Wednesday, the Xi’an Jiaotong University in the capital city of Shaanxi province said students will no longer need to pass a nationwide standardized English test – nor any other English exams – to be able to graduate with bachelor’s degrees.
The announcement caused a stir on social media, with many praising the decision and calling for more universities to do the same.
“Very good. I hope other universities will follow suit. It’s ridiculous that Chinese people’s academic degrees need to be validated by a foreign language (test),” said a comment with more than 24,000 likes on microblogging site Weibo, where a related hashtag attracted more than 350 million views Thursday.
Passing the College English Test, a national standardized exam first held in 1987, has been a graduation requirement at the majority of Chinese universities for decades – although the government has never made it an official policy.
The common practice underlined the importance Chinese universities placed on English – the world’s predominant academic and scientific language – especially when the once-insular and impoverished country was opening up and eager to catch up with the developed world after the turbulence of the Mao Zedong era.
But in recent years, some universities have downgraded the importance of English, either by replacing the national College English Test with their own exams or – as in the case of the Xi’an Jiaotong University – dropping English qualifications altogether as a graduation criteria.
The goal of this is clearly
- to garner pro chinese nationalist public support
- to prevent your smartest students from seeing better opportunities outside of the country
There is no small number of highly educated chinese that leave the country.
They didn’t ban learning English though. They can still learn it if they want. Plenty of country’s universities don’t have such a requirement.
But it de-emphasizes english which would have that effect, at least in small part.
What about
- Reduce the overwhelming academic requirements on students?
Right? They don’t need to, not that the opportunity isn’t there.
“English is important, but as China develops, English is no longer that important,” said a Weibo post from a nationalist influencer with 6 million online followers after the university’s announcement.
“It should be the turn for foreigners to learn Chinese,” the influencer said.
The downgrade comes as China turns more nationalist and inward under Xi, who has called on the country to strengthen “cultural confidence” and fend off “Western influence.”
In schools and universities, teachers have been forbidden from using Western textbooks or talking about “Western values” such as democracy, press freedom and judicial independence.
Sounds like the best way to cripple your scientific and tech sector.
They didn’t ban learning English though? Plenty of countries don’t have this requirement. They’ll learn it if they they feel like they want to.
It will still mean less people learn it which has the same effect.
straight up economic as well, being lingua franca means it’s the language of business, which nobody would argue… so it’s nothing but retrograde for the actual populace, but great for the political power of a small group of radicals… like burning books in Idaho…
I mean you don’t have to take any english tests for a bachelors degree in Germany either
you can’t get out of the 8th grade in Germany without knowing English, what are you talking about
I’m talking about the bachelors degree, not school.
Maybe I misunderstood the article, but I read it as them not taking english test in uni any more.
if you don’t take an English test at uni in Germany, it’s because you needed at least one to get in AT ALL… are you thick headed…
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A top university in northwest China has scrapped English tests as a prerequisite for graduation, rekindling a heated debate about the role of the world’s lingua franca in the country’s education system after years of rising nationalist sentiment under leader Xi Jinping.
It’s ridiculous that Chinese people’s academic degrees need to be validated by a foreign language (test),” said a comment with more than 24,000 likes on microblogging site Weibo, where a related hashtag attracted more than 350 million views Thursday.
Passing the College English Test, a national standardized exam first held in 1987, has been a graduation requirement at the majority of Chinese universities for decades – although the government has never made it an official policy.
The downgrade comes as China turns more nationalist and inward under Xi, who has called on the country to strengthen “cultural confidence” and fend off “Western influence.”
In Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city, authorities in 2021 banned elementary schools from holding final exams on the English language, citing the need to ease the academic burden on students.
China made English a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools in 2001, the same year the country joined the World Trade Organization.
The original article contains 715 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
English speakers really showing themselves in here, huh? I get it, English is my native language too, and it’s definitely convenient for us that others have to learn the language I already know, but you’re being very hypocritical when you say things like “why do I have to learn Chinese?!” You’re also missing the point of the move because this story is about removing the obligation to learn another language. Yes, English is currently the dominant language in a number of areas, but then so was German in the scientific world over a century ago. These things can change, and if that scares you, then I would like you to ask yourself why.
Chinese will never be useful for these purposes, because China is not an open country, and it never will be… so the language will not be at the center of common global efforts toward anything… it is a stupid fascist fantasy… stupid and childish…
What do you mean by “open country”?
perhaps you cannot even imagine what that is, which is exactly my point… you have suffered under a repressive regime, and are unaware of its effects on you and your loved ones… it’s very sad to see from the outside…
the Chinese people have always been wise and strong… it’s unfortunate that their government is so weak and incapable… measures like this one at the University are always a sign of weakness…
and frankly it’s amazing you bring up German in this context… the entire world stopped learning to speak it precisely because they began behaving in this way… it became shameful to speak German… German speaking immigrants in the US wouldn’t allow their children to learn it at home… my own grandmother was one of them…
the Germans all speak very fluent English now, like everyone else…
and England and the US remain open countries…
hi Canada and Australia we love you too
I have suffered under a repressive regime? You mean the USA? It is very sad to see indeed, but not in the way you think. I’ve got news for you: a lot of people around the world are tired of the USA’s shit but you don’t notice because you don’t think you’re affected by the USA’s repressive global world order. In fact, you probably don’t even think it exists and that the USA only stands for truth, justice, and democracy.
do all Chinese reason in so childish a manner? you will try to force foreigners to learn Chinese, because you are unable to communicate with them in English… do any Chinese really think that will be effective?
it’s just very childish and stupid
it sounds like all Chinese are stupid and childish
每个人，无论是西方人，南方人， 北方人， 还是东方人， 都应该学习多种语言，不那么困难，n’est-ce pas ?
