Con

Yan Jianhua

Professor at Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences

In my opinion, replacing normal classes with a so-called hands-on curriculum that teaches students to become online vendors is short-sighted and overly utilitarian. It has been proven that the accumulation of knowledge is much more important for social development.

I think we can give those who earn low grades on the college entrance exam a knowledge-based education to cultivate their talents and make them well-rounded, capable individuals. Entrepreneur-oriented education should be based on a foundation of qualification-oriented education. Perhaps this new curriculum is an experiment that will help us improve our education system, but the basis of traditional education should never be forgotten: Higher education is for students to acquire knowledge, foster a proper personality and establish an informed outlook on life and the world. 

Pro

Jia Shahua

Vice President of Yiwu Industrial and Commerce College

The mission of vocational colleges is different from that of research-oriented universities. To be honest, students attending vocational colleges have generally gotten low scores on their college entrance examinations. But they possess different talents from those who do well in exams. Entrepreneur-oriented education aims to utilize these merits. Students come to my college after having failed their college entrance exams. It is not practical to force them to conduct academic research. Some even lack self-confidence due to their poor academic record. We guide them to restore their self-confidence while learning knowledge. Doing poorly on exams doesn't necessarily mean that an individual will be bad at hands-on work or start a business.

Higher education has become very popular in China. Universities no longer exclusively cultivate elites, so it is wrong to measure students or colleges with one unified standard. The system should train a diverse range of talents to meet the differing needs of various walks of life. Therefore, vocational colleges have to find their own niche, catering to the special needs of their students and guiding them to be successful in certain fields.

A lot of well-known successful people around the world didn't receive formal university education, but still achieved extraordinary things. Entrepreneur-oriented education aims to equip students with the skills necessary to succeed.