Tsinghua University is a national university and most classes are conducted in Chinese. The international students have learned through Chinese, not through English or Korean. It is like learning through English lecture for Korean students in domestic university. Every time they heard lecture, they felt exhausted. Interestingly, even lectures for developing English proceed through Chinese. Students also experience financial difficulties, living in China. In Beijing, if students fail to enter the dormitory, they have to live in expensive off-campus housing, which costs more than KRW 900,000 per month.
Differences of education system
POSTECH requires all students to listen to basic education courses, including calculus and applied linear algebra in case of mathematics. Tsinghua University is similar to POSTECH, but it requires one more course, complex analysis. A more interesting difference is their leave of absence policy. The leave of absence is only possible at the end of the freshmen or sophomore. Students rarely take a leave of absence because they have to graduate within six years including leave of absence.
Plans after graduation
Generally speaking, international students, who major in science and technology in Tsinghua University, follow one of two paths after graduation. First, they go to postgraduate school in Korea, especially SNU, KAIST and Korea University. Second, some students, who have completed or are not required to complete their military service, go to large companies. Students, majoring in liberal arts, often become civil servants, lawyers, or reporters. Students, who enter Art University, come back to Korea and build two-year career for working visa. However, several changes have occurred recently. Because of the Chinese government’s attention and reward to Korean students, they started to turn their eyes to Chinese graduate schools, instead of graduate school in Korea. Students, who have high grades, often choose to transfer to a university in France as exchange students.
Activities of student council
The International Student Council in Tsinghua University mainly focuses on helping students find a job or internship. International students may have difficulty finding jobs or internships because of tight studying schedule for graduation. Another major task of student council is linking foreign language high schools with Tsinghua University to make entering the university easier.
Tsinghua University has lower number of graduate students than POSTECH, because of the tougher curriculum. Its students study more earnestly, which is a worth of learning from Chinese students.
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