The American Higher Education System has been implemented around the world at some of the best, and most successful institutions on the planet.
The principal advantages of the “American System” are as follows:
Lower risk of academic failure. Since young people seldom know with 100% certainty what they want to be doing ten years from now, students are not required to be locked into an area of study, in some cases, as early as their sophomore year of high school. In fact, students are not even required to definitively choose upon beginning college. Students are encouraged to choose a focus, or major, but certainly not penalized should they change their mind during the first two years of their studies, which mostly involve general education requirements that are nearly universal for all degree programs. By year three, students are required to make a decision, but then again, students in year three are typically in a better position to make such a determination.
It is very easy to change degrees programs because the general courses that are required in all majors offered at CIS remain consistent whether a student is studying business, or journalism. Likewise, should a student change from business to journalism, the business courses satisfy the free electives included in general coursework. This truly is the most flexible system in the world, and we believe young students need time and freedom to discover who they are instead of being academically locked into something they could one day regret and resent.
The credit system is consistent among American colleges and universities around the world, so transferring is also relatively simple.
Students organize and design their own course schedule under the supervision and guidance of our experienced deans.
It is based more on the practical application of concepts than theory. We profoundly believe that students learn better by actually doing what they are studying than they do by simply attempting to memorize data. The data is important, but there needs to be a less abstract way of thinking about it in order to make sure the information is truly learned.
There are weekly assignments, so studying is done daily as opposed to cramming at the end of semester for exams. Developing study skills in such a way tends to become a lifelong asset.
Continuous evaluation favors consistency and encourages students to do their best even if they perform worse-than-expected on an exam or project since they have a multitude of opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and ability.
Students are motivated by many short term goals, as well as by being largely responsible for their own study schedule and workload.