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Old 04-01-2013, 11:09 AM   #25
Basia Halliop
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 711
Canada
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Re: Ranking systems in different countries

I still find the idea of comparing academia and thr world of martial arts to be a big conceptual stretch for me. I just can't really wrap my mind around it, and struggle to see the points of reference.

I studied and am studying engineering, in Canada. First of all, you need a high school diploma and or entrance exams to even be permitted to enter the program. Next, the undergraduate curriculum is accredited by a national organisation, which closely monitors all the engineering programs in the country and every couple of years (I forget how many, but it's at most 5 years) does a pretty detailed audit of the curriculum. As a grad student teaching assistant, I've periodically been asked to submit photocopies of marked student assignments and exams to this body. They look at what courses are offered, what content is covered in those courses, what percentage of the course grade is given in what way (take home assignments vs labs vs in class tests vs exams), and what the actual grading standard is on all items graded.

If a given program does not meet the standards of the accreditation board, they have a brief period of time in which to change their program, otherwise they will lose their accreditation and be unable to give out a B.Eng.

The result is that there is a huge basic uniformity from school to school in engineering in Canada. Some teachers are better at explaining the same thing than others, or better at providing out of class support, but there's not all that much flexibility on WHAT they teach or how they test and grade.

And when it gets international, there's all kinds of scrutiny and sometimes entrance tests to ensure people meet the same objective standard.

It's so far from being simply a requirement in terms of taking a set number of courses...

And of course, a B.Eng. (Or B.A.Sc) is required to become a licensed engineer...
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