Can you help me to understand the university system in China?

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hello,

 

I would like to find out more about the university system in China. I have searched the internet but couldn’t find what I’m looking for.

 

I often hear people talking about a 一本, 二本, and三本大学. I asked a tutor on iTalki about this and it seemed very confusing. The tutor told me that a single university is split up into three categories, which appeared to be segregated according to the department of study. Your ability to go to an 一本 category depends on your ability to get a high score on the Gaokao entrance examination. If you get an average score, you can go to an 二本, with a low score you can go to a 三本, and a terrible score gets you admission to a 专科. The strangest part of all this was that the tuition fees rose in accordance with the number, so students pay more to attend a 三本 than if they went to an 一本, even if it’s at the same university. However, it sounded like the most competitive subjects (maths, science, and engineering etc.) all belonged to the 一本 category.  It seems like in this Topsy-turvy system a student would pay more to study media studies than medicine!

 

Is my understanding as above correct? Are there any other differences?

 

What would be a suitable English translation to describe these 本’s? I was thinking of the term “tier”, but it seems strange to split the same university up into three tiers. Surely the whole university would be ranked in a tier?

 

Any way you could help me to understand this would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[yhs31217]

first class (一)  uni （本）        // 本 originally means undergraduate

and second class uni

 

专科 is traning school

 

三本 is hard to define

guaduates from these 三本 may not be consider as qualified undergraduate students in some cases