issue11 [Jet小组]第十一次作业

x6xUID: 2180130

Issue 11. "All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world's most persistent social problems."
所有的国家都应该支持发展一所全球性的大学，它的主要目的是要让学生们致力于解决世界上最难缠的社会问题。
全球化问题之全球解难大学

WORDS:565  TIME: 90min  DATE:25/02/2008

University, a institution of higher education that not only offers necessary training for individuals wishing to enter professional careers, but also provides opportunities for personal enrichment while also preparing students for future careers. In my opinion, the most significant function of a university is to cultivate students' develop students’ creativity, insight, and analytical skills, rather than solve solve real problem. Therefore, I don't agree with the claim in the topic.

Admittedly, a global university could help to solve mutual problems that different country faced and help to find a common ground or reach a consensus in the human world. Preventing pollution is just a case in point.  
Because of the abuse of Frion, the depletion of atmospheric ozone has been harming the whole world. Not only people in the Northern Hemisphere can be stimulated by the penetrable ultraviolet radiation, those in the Southern Hemisphere can also find growing incidences of albinisms. Therefore, different countries can share the same problem, which need a common resolvent.

However, it is free from responsible for a university to arrange students to solve the world's most persistent social problems, which need take students a lot of time and energy. Regardless of whether undergraduates are able to take part in solving those complicated problems which usually has puzzled experts for a long time, we are not certain if all students can learn the basic analytical skills and form creativity. Things which are too exact cannot avoid lack of systematism. It follows that students may just be familiar with work of a certain phase, instead of grasping the holistic methods from analyzing problems to solving them. As a result, graduates who have failed to see whole for the part may failed again in the fierce competitions of job markets.

What's more, "world's most persistent social problems" are really difficult to be defined, for different countries may emphasize on different problems according to their own benefits. To illustrate, for Arabic countries, religion and racial conflict may be the most difficult social problem; however, in Africa, the starvation and poorness are the source of social crisis. Not to mention the opinions of countries in that two area, we can still predict that countries of else area will argue on which is the most persistent social problem. At one hand, for countries close related with the Arabic, where the largest amount of oils in the world are exploited, they may prefer to solve problems in Middle East first, such as Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iraq Crisis; at the other hand, for countries having direct benefits in Africa, they may require universities to research on solving African problems, such as medical research about AIDS and agriculture research to increase food supplies. Therefore, not only will the wish that the whole world tend to solve one problem with the strongest power not come true, but also universities may be under control totally by the governments. For example, Berlin University once became a tool of government because of its utilitarian aim - researching what governments require and produce what governments needs. Therefore, it is venturesome as well as unrealistic for universities of all nations to solve the same problem.

In sum, although different countries may face similar problems, making a global university to solve the world's most persistent social problems is unrealistic, venturesome and not responsible for students. Therefore, I don't agree with the claim in the topic.