Newspaper compares Beijing University Chinese programs

[Hao Ying]

My colleague and I just visited seven Beijing Universities with Chinese programs and asked the students what they thought. We also compared costs, facilities and locations. Our results are

Here (the chart): http://beijing.globaltimes.cn/life/edu-tech/2011-06/661375.html

And here (the interviews): http://beijing.globaltimes.cn/life/edu-tech/2011-06/661373.html

I hope this can save some people time and hassle when trying to make a decision. If you are too lazy to click the links, the best ones seem to be BFSU (all round and for student satisfaction), Peking (Beijing) University (for prestige and great environment) and BLCU (for great student life).

Hope it is useful.

[skylee]

All the "best" universities for studying Chinese are in Beijing? And no Tsinghua?

[Hao Ying]

Actually, some of those schools are not that good -- this list is not the "best"

[valikor]

I don't think the author was claiming that Beijing had all the best universities, or that Beijing was necessarily the best place to study. Since it was written for the Beijing section of the Global Times, I assume it is intended for people with an interest in studying in Beijing.

That being said, I doubt you can conclude which are the "best universities" if you only visit 7 schools. Some valuable info, nonetheless.

[skylee]

I see. It is confusing as the titles of the articles mentioned "the best universities for studying Chinese" and "Beijing's best universities".

Here is the latest list of "best universities in China" according to Shanghai Jiaotong University -> http://www.shanghair...1060100001.html

[m000gle]

lol... I found it funny that the "slow internet" concerns made it into the article for Beijing normal University (BNU). Ironically, its a problem, more-or-less limited to the international dorms, and something which I'm predicting will be dealt with eventually (possible if/when the International Students' Office gets wind of it =P jkjk). Neither the domestic students, nor the campus wifi are affected as they connect with the CERNET backbone and can be quite adequate (especially within China - eg Youku, Tudou etc).

That said, I would question the "bad campus location" point. Its campus is small, but relatively central, with plenty of buses stopping adjacent to the gates (less than 2 minute walk from international dorms 1, 2 & 3), just a ten minute walk to the subway and a15 minute one to XiHai (西海). Quite convenient, actually...

[cliveloughlin]

Unfortunately, I also have to disagree with some of the points about BNU.

1) "bad campus location" - as another poster said the buses are convenient and, even though you have to take a bus to get there, there are subway stations to both the north and south of the campus. Houhai, Mudayuan and Jishuitan (all good for restaurants) are quite close to the school and a 20 minute (in good traffic) bus ride takes you to Xidan. Pretty convenient actually. You could say we're far from Sanlitun, but you can hop on a bus to the Mudanyuan subway station and get there well within an hour, plus a lot of our students hang out at Houhai anyway.

2) As a student at BNU for 4 years (on the undergrad programme), I have never been in a listening class with 30 students, nor have there only been 10 students in my oral class. BNU divides classes based on your level, not on the subject. Therefore, most classes have 20-22 students (sometimes less).

Any questions, just ask! I'm pretty much an expert on all things BNU.

Clive