Abstract:

The general education reform of Beihang University is very successful. It can be used as an example and reference for other technical universities. But Beihang University needs to learn the experience of other leading technical universities in the world, such as MIT. Through investigating the history of general education of MIT, it is found that undergraduate education at MIT has been highly successful. The general education curriculum of MIT, which named general institute requirements, is a good example to learn from. It not only comforts to the rule of General Education, but also has its own distinguishing features, especially humanities , arts and social sciences. General education curriculum, which is divided to three parts: distribution component, concentration component and elective component. Besides, the administration system of general education at MIT has also successful experiences for other universities to learn from.

Key words: technical university, general education, general institute requirements, distribution component, concentration component