The Functions and Components of College Course Syllabus:the Case of China

In developed countries and regions,course syllabus is a document every college instructor has to provide for students at the beginning of a course.This paper first reviews the major purposes and components of syllabus of syllabus.Then,it reports and analyzes two recent surveys,one investigating the provision and utilization of course syllabi in social science classes in N university,and the other asking the opinions of professors of N and X universities about the current situation of course syllabi in Chinese universities.The situation is extremely poor by any standard,with very negative impacts on educational quality of Chinese universities.This indicates that the image of Chinese university teachers as a whole remains at the age of pre-professional age.