Dynamic Community Charter School - Public Schools Of North: Fill & Download for Free

April, 2018The short answer … banned from sustainable employment in Japanese academia.Just some thoughts on the matter, some more random than others …Generally speaking, Japanese institutions, especially colleges, are run according to a strict hierarchy, the structure of which doesn’t seem to be closely correlated with merit, and like all institutions, tend to depend on opaque, rule-driven behavior, rather than the empathy-driven morality of learning / nurturing communities.Forget that baloney about Japanese culture excelling at group work. The Far Eastern virtues of ‘harmony and traditions’ are not so different from the Western counterpart of ‘individuality and freedom’ … just buzzwords for ruling elites to herd the majority into a superficial compliance to authority … ‘authoritarianism’ being the operating word. They might have been ideals in small communities, but as larger numbers of people tend to do, displace those communities with hierarchies, replace empathy with cognitive constructs of tradition, law, or algorithms … all of which may give lip service to community values, but are thinly veiled justifications for the hierarchical power structure we social primates are so fond of.The biggest difference is the tool of choice by which the ruling elite control the disposable human capital beneath them … and the oxymoronic titles of these two books alone should be enough too spell it out:1 — For the West, Chomsky and Herman’s Manufacturing Consent2 — For the East, Edited by Vlastos, Invented Traditions of Modern JapanSchools, corporations, religions, governments, think-tanks, and even some NPOs — in either the Far East or the West, are not democratically run. When was the last time you, the typical Quora reader, were elected to the board of directors on earned merit alone?For those who haven’t seen this movie about the dysfunctions of ‘corporations’, I hope you take a peak, and just imagine similar dysfunctions to all groups, since the dawn of civilization, larger than local communities.Large populations of we herding primates are organized into hierarchies, and those at the top are largely there through the privilege of inheritance, or the dark triad behaviors of self-entitlement.As pointed out in the documentary, through morally questionable legal gymnastics, corporations have been granted ‘personhood’. But when when the social dynamics of a collective entity are compared with a relatively normal single individual, the collective lacks a collective moral autonomy that individuals are expected to aspire to mature.The collective ticks off the traits of a narcissist and psychopath. The priority of the corporate collective is legally constrained to profiting the shareholders, not the stakeholders … a zero sum game that is won by externalizing losses to competitors, the infrastructure, and/or the environment.This cuts deeper into human nature than capitalism or socialism. It is the social dynamics of in-gropus and out-groups, populations of scale, and hierarchies. The narratives barely holding the cultural conceits holding a corporate nation-state’s public education, history, and news together barely maintain the cohesive narratives of our cultural conceits. Though new in the West, as far as I can see from chats with educated native Japanese, the Far Eastern hierarchies do not even have a word for Collective Narcissism, yet it is the in-group water these fish swim.Again, forget that baloney about Japanese culture excelling at group work. The culture is obsessed with competition and ranking that would make an American blush. Any collaboration between schools, companies, or institutions in general, if done at all, tends to be secretive, and antithetical to the narratives and conceits which hold the lower ranking members of the group together.For the big picture … I would agree with the documentary, and go a bit further, in saying that homo sapiens, is by nature, most optimally a social primate that hopefully matures into a responsible member of a community … thus ALL institutions (corporate, government, religious, educational, etc.) eventually undergo mission drift / mission creep into corruption and eventual failure. With our current technological capacity lacking both an equivalent moral capacity and unlimited natural resources, I can’t help but to expect our sins to catch up with us in a catastrophic malthusian meltdown. The task of the morally autonomous human should be to prolong that day of reckoning, altruistically if necessary.My poster boy for mission creep / mission drift is Harvard University. With the world’s largest endowment of around 40 billion dollars, it is by far the world’s wealthiest university, and has more disposable cash than some countries. Yet America’s oldest school was founded by a clergyman, John Harvard, with the intent on instructing future clergy in ‘god’s ways’. Alumni and former Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, when justifying to the collective slap on the wrist by the Obama administration for bankers grabbing such obscenely high salaries and stock options in a land of increasing poverty, answered with a line from prosperity theology that likes of Jim Baker or Donald Trump would appreciate … that bankers do gods work (as if nurses and teachers do not). Journalist Matt Taiibi, in his famous Rolling Stone magazine article, The Great American Bubble Machine, began with a bang …“The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who’s Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.”Back to a more parochial social landscape, In either my native American culture, or Japan, if the boss says ‘black is white’, you either ignore the cognitive dissonance and respond in the affirmative like a machine-man should, or you are out. Corporate or private, I’d say Japanese institutions are about as ‘democratic’ (community-driven) as American institutions … which is not very much.What is particularly frustrating about ‘educational’ institutes is the blatant hypocrisy of the gap between professed values (empowering the individual to reach their full potential, and building compassionate, critically-thinking, problem-solving communities — who are also able and willing to hold authority accountable) and actual goals (identifying ‘talent’ through standardized testing, funneling that talent into institutions of appropriate power and prestige — and therefore further enhancing the power and prestige of the identifying / funneling ‘educational’ institute, thus moving up the ladder of ‘being more selective’ (exclusive) than competing institutes, and therefore more powerful) … a damned zero-sum game of winning at the expense of others.There are too many examples of how this plays out over time by looking at the feeding-funneling ground of U.S. Ivy Leagues. Just look at dog-eat-dog, self entitlement of the dark-triad driven individual who is moving between educational and for profit institutions, and clambering to climb to the top of either … ‘Really Graceful’ does an excellent job here.What ‘Really Graceful’ says about the Education system is mirrored by Japan’s, and I dare say the systems in China and most of the Corporate Capitalist world.Although hierarchies may be the default organization of social primates when they exceed small communities, Japanese institutions are notorious for one’s status based on the old boy’s network, gender, ethnicity, or simply age.Hundreds of years of mission creep have reduced the original Confucian meritocratic ideals of institutions to a kabuki-show-cover for concentrations of power decided by families, connections, and blind ambition. That being said, as the political situation in my native U.S. is demonstrating through my example of Harvard above, these kind of social dynamics may be par for the course, world wide.For a good example of the corruptive dynamics of ‘mssion creep’ or Mission Drift’ … just look at the breeding ground of high flying Wall Street CEO’s, Harvard University. Alumni and former Goldman Sachs CEO ”Blankfein Says He's Just Doing 'God's Work' … and being a Harvard University graduate, that makes sense. After all, the school’s founding charter in 1636 stated clearly "To be plainly instructed and consider well that the main end of your life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ." But with with the U.S. having the world’s largest prison population (many such prisons for profit, not rehabilitation), an opioid epidemic fueled by Big Pharma, Washington Post owner and richest man in the world Jeff Bezos … timing the pee breaks of his minimum wage workers, unprecedented levels of homelessness, and so on, and so on … a few of us might be excused for meekly asking whether Harvard and Yale have Drifted from their Original Mission.One writer I’ve come to trust is Matt Taibi, whose first paragraph in his ‘Rolling Stone’ article The Great American Bubble Machine is now a cultural meme the ruling elite would just as soon ban from public school OR college text books … “The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who’s Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.”Blankfein was right. He is doing god’s work. Only his god’s name is Mammon.What has this got to do with me being banned from higher education in Japan? Please bear with me.Here, Matt talks about a phenomenon of that ‘gray zone’ between private companies and the governent, in this case, profiteering off the sub-prime loan crisis.This kind of gray zone is a common tradition in Japan. It is called ‘ama kudarai’ … descent from heaven … describing how well paid national government workers retire early to an even better paid private sector. Mission drift with a golden parachute.In other words, Japanese institutions are not known for their leadership. They tend to be led by symbolic ‘managers’ who have only a passing acquaintance with the cultural conceit of meritocracy.Japan has a ruling aristocracy. Some are in that lofty stratosphere by ancestral tradition, others by dint of dark-triad behavior, and there is a ‘fuzzy logic’ around the edges, but it is no less real than the labyrinthine titles of British royalty.And like America and Great Britain, the current model of economics has little to do with educational ideals … and schools, as institutions, are not run by meritocratic ideals, or even educational ideals. Schools tend to be run like most other neo-liberal businesses … depending on zero-sum games and economies of scale to outsource losses rather than absorb them.When I was younger, I mistakenly put teachers on a pedestal, and aspired to a profession as either a teacher or writer. But I am a slow learner, and it took a while to find that teachers are neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ as people. There is as much quality, or lack of, as can be found in any institutionalized counterpart in the arts or sports or any profession. In idolizing teachers, and therefore schools, I had made the fundamental attribution error, and indulged in that error for much too long.Schools, as institutions, are no different from banks.Scholars, academics, and administrators are not saints.Hell, even saints are not saints.But there is even less acknowledgement of quality in Japan’s educational institutions than in American counterparts.Unlike some schools in the U.S., no matter how moving, or how consistent, or how effective a teacher may be, there is little acknowledgement of that by peers in Japan. You will not see a ‘Teacher of the Year’ award in most Japanese schools … nor any equivalence of ‘The Great Courses’ series so popular in the U.S. — here crammed into one of my book cases, about $10,000 invested in what many Japanese schools see as worthless … or as a marketing gimmick at best.When my school was in the process of moving from Hino, West Tokyo, to the more upscale and trendy Shibuya of downtown Tokyo, I verified that books were seen by the school’s administration as mere shop-window accessories. It was less than a year since the Great Tohoku Earthquake had left a wake of devastated communities north of Tokyo, but rather than donate books to those communities and schools from my own school’s library, I watched in ‘shock and awwww’ as volumes of Shakespeare, Dickens, Hawthorne, Plato, Russell, and thousands of books in Japanese, were unceremoniously fed into a garbage truck, shredding and compressing those works into easily disposable trash. Standing there alone, watching the process, I felt like I had been sucker punched in the gut.As for quality teaching, you will not even get a pat on the back by administration or colleagues for doing a good job. It is taken for granted that anyone who is a ‘sensei’ is above reproach, and not held accountable for quality, other than as a ‘managerial’ stick-or-carrot tool to get rid of trouble-makers or outsource costs.In Japan, even more than most countries, innovators are trouble-makers for those most comfortably nestled in entitled positions of authority. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out about the U.S. economic/political system, the rigidly authoritarian, centralized power structures of Japanese institutions tend to be self interested rather than goal oriented, and that ‘self’ is not even the whole institution, but rather those most comfortably nested at the top.The problem with this kind of social dynamic, though, might be summed up best with best-selling author and anthropologist Jared Diamond’s final lines about the failed Norse colony in Greenland about 500 years ago …‘Thus, Norse society’s structure created a conflict between the short-term interests of those in power, and the long-term interests of the society as a whole. Much of what the chiefs and clergy valued proved eventually harmful to the society. Yet the society’s values were at the root of its strengths as well as of its weaknesses. The Greenland Norse did succeed in creating a unique form of European society, and in surviving for 450 years as Europe’s most remote outpost. We modern Americans should not be too quick to brand them as failures, when their society survived in Greenland for longer than our English-speaking society has survived so far in North America. Ultimately, though, the chiefs found themselves without followers. The last right that they obtained for themselves was the privilege of being the last to starve.’Diamond, Jared. Collapse (p. 276). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.I’ve thought of the psychology of classroom dynamics as one metaphor for the group dynamics involved. Whereas small learning communities can be relatively egalitarian and empathy-driven, larger groups (probably Dunbar’s number or more) tend to depend on rule-driven moralities. But when empathy for the individual becomes irrelevant, rules become niche opportunities for ‘dark triad’ personality types, fake news or bread and circuses for the whimsical play of pareidolia, and blind spots for those suffering from prosopagnosia.Despite being well below Dunbar’s number, I could not find an education ‘community’ at my school. Only a gang of kyuryo dorobo (salary-thieves), desperately trying to look gentrified under the cover of ‘institutionalization’.Over the course of 36 years teaching in Japanese colleges, and at least 15 as a tenured Associate Professor, in weekly department meetings, or monthly academic assemblies, I have never, NEVER, heard or taken part in a discussion about educational values or goals.Never.Schools appear to be basically business opportunities for people who are not normally business oriented. Schools have become more conservative gate-keepers to the ‘real world’ of business which, at the very least, is ideologically constrained and driven by the market. Though petty politics seem to be part and parcel of the nature of homo sapiens, where businesses can not afford the luxury of racism, schools can.Culturally and institutionally embedded racism, gender discrimination, and age descrimination are among the many tools used to enforce conformity to an authoritarian hierarchy.I can’t attribute this exclusively to Japanese schools though. Former colleagues, co-workers, and doctoral cohort members at an American university in Japan have not been of any help other than a ‘gambatte’ here and a ‘I hear you’ there. And while working at least a dozen years at Temple University Japan, an American school, I’ve seen enough pettiness and bullying to realize it is the nature of the beast.Meh … maybe I’m just an ass. Just barely getting by with a little help from my friends, mostly Japanese.And another reason I can’t play the racist card so easily is because it is not just foreigners who are suffering. By chance (or is there really any chance?), today’s lead story on one of my news feeds, a translated subsidiary of Japan’s most widely read newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun.In a country like Finland, education has been the most popular career choice among college students.But most of Japan’s ‘best and brightest’ (as I suspect America’s) choose the financial sector. It is a VERY competitive country, and foreigners are not the only ‘losers’ in a zero-sum game.Among the other easy pickings of opportunists include the elderly (several times a week, an educational short is shown on NHK television about how the elderly can avoid getting scammed), the working poor (1/6 of families containing school children according to the government’s own statistics, minorities among Japanese - news reports of police officers sent down to Okinawa and using ethnic slurs against the Ryukyu people, anti-discrimination laws protecting the Ainu being passed only as recently as the 1990’s, and the huge gender gap. Even high school students have to form a labor union to fight predatory part-time companies.Of course there is nothing preventing the marginalized from being just as driven by opportunistic instincts — the same as the ‘winners’.The really dangerous gap, not just in Japan, but in most large scale industrial societies, is between our own altruistic tendencies and our opportunistic tendencies. But as a Taoist saying goes, the more laws governing the people, the more evil the people become. Hierarchies and rule-driven morality end up making more problems than they solve … making more niches for Dark triad personality types to hide and pounce.But back to that lead story about work ambitions of college students. Notice the Winter Olympics medal standings beside the lead article?I would much rather have seen a photo of the moment when Nao Kodaira wrapped her arms around the stressed-out Lee Sang-hwa. If I could find myself ‘loving’ a nation-state (and that is a big ‘if’), that would be the Japan I could learn to love, but I suspect Kodaira’s touching gesture came despite Japan’s educational system, not because of it.And back to the short reason for MY ban … everything that could have gone wrong in the scenario behind 12 Angry Men … with myself playing the part of the immigrant juror.Update: Wednesday, Feb.28, I just received the following from Quora admin:Your answer to What are you banned from? Why? is getting views. Answers with good credentials get more views and help readers. Update your credential.So I guess that means I should be updating a resume to fit this answer? (sighing) I presumed that part of my answer included enough of those qualifications so I would not slip into a vulgar display of self-promotion, but will comply with Quora’s suggestion, though it may be just a bot doing its algorithmically determined job.At the risk of later repetition in my answers, to get my ‘qualifications’ out of the way, here is the short version of my resume. Feel free to skip ahead to read my answer … or not.1 - For about 36 consecutive years, over half my life, I have been both a trainer, facilitator, and educator in Japan. I DO make a distinction between the three, and if you would like to know why, Wiki is a great place to start.Although I first started teaching at conversation schools, most of that time has been teaching in colleges and universities including Waseda, Tokyo University of the Arts, Nippon University (Nichidai), Komazawa University, Musashi University, and the list goes on. I have turned down a part-time job offer from Keio University. Those of you familiar with Japanese Universities will recognize a few Japanese ‘Ivy League’ names on my short list.2 - I had been a full-time, tenured Professor at Jissen Women's Educational Institute, having reached the rank of ‘Associate Professor', when I chose to resign under protest from what I considered racist-tinged behavior on the part of my ‘colleagues’ and administration. At the very least, they were guilty of harassment as a breach of Japanese Labor Law. Nearly three years later, and I am still looking for work that provides at least enough income to pay the rent, but find it odd I can’t even find part-time work in English skills oriented academia, and in the world’s most heavily populated Metropolitan area. Will leave it to the reader to do the math.2 - I have also taught classes, as a volunteer, from private kindergartens たまだいらようちえん to corporate in-house technical high schools Hino Motors which are not under the auspices of highly centralized MEXT (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology).3 - I have taught at public high schools sakushin-gakuin-high-schoolに関するnabinnoのはてなブックマーク and have given presentations as a volunteer at various public elementary schools and Jr. High Schools in the Hino City area.4 - Though not a particularly outstanding student, I have an undergraduate degree in biology with a concentration in Marine sciences, a Master’s Degree in Education, T.E.S.O.L., and matriculated into, though did not finish, a Doctoral program in Education at Temple University Japan where I also taught liberal arts, biology labs, and speaking / writing skills in the undergraduate program for over 10 years — Temple University, Japan Campus.5 - I have published original research regarding Education in Japan (though mostly in in-house academic journals that are not peer-reviewed), and have given several academic presentations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S. regarding that research, one of which was an award winning poster session.6 - All textbooks used in Japanese public schools (elementary through High Schools) must pass through a MEXT textbook committee associated with each subject. From 2006 until 2011, I was one of maybe 3 native speakers of English in Japan on the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology English Textbook committee. I resigned only because I became too busy and stressed-out with the duties associated with a tenured position in a dysfunctional college.7 - Even though I resigned from the MEXT textbook committee, I am on the mailing list of P.A.L.E. (Professionalism and Administration in Language Education), a special interest group within J.A.L.T. (Japan Association of Language Teachers). Though mostly merely a lurker, it is through the sporadic newsletters that I am somewhat familiar with the diminishing and precarious status of non-native Japanese language instructors.8 - From the news, and my sporadic volunteer activities with a labor union, I have increasingly become aware of the precarious nature of employment for all teachers in Japan, regardless of nationality or ethnicity. I have been to Tokyo District court a few times as member of that union supporting other marginalized teachers.9 - Other peripheral volunteer activities have included workshops with the mental health care out-patients via the Hino City Government — as well as English communication classes for the office staff, supporting a loose coalition of local activists supporting the severely handicapped (pic updated Monday May 7, 2018) …several trips to rural Cambodia supporting teachers and students, frequent trips and support for a roving soup kitchen supporting the homeless (Steve Martin (Steven Martin)'s answer to Is it true that in Japan there are no beggars?), and 13 years as a volunteer judge/advisor for Japanese University E.S.S. (English Speaking Society) All Japan English Speech Contests at schools such as Tokyo University 3 times), Waseda, Keio, Sophia, Soka Daigakku, Hosei University, Takasaki City University, and my own former place of employment, Jissen Women’s College.Now that that my qualifications are out of the way, on to the answer.For the longer explanation:The context ... I was the only full-time, non-Japanese, tenured professor (Associate Professor of English) in an English Communication Department of a Japanese Junior College ... Jissen Women's Junior College .The ban(s) ...1 — Banned by The English Communication Department from conducting community outreach work or volunteer activities — even with other departments at the same school, or with students in my own classes — without permission from my Department's Japanese 'colleagues'.To be clear about community outreach activities, (and repeating my qualifications listed previously), this was not in affiliation with any particular religious or political institution … I was on the board of directors of the Hino City government NPO TOKYO International Communication Committee, a volunteer English teacher at a local Kindergarten, たまだいらようちえん, volunteered as a communication facilitator for mental health care outpatients, work with a traveling soup kitchen supporting the homeless in Shinjuku … Soup no Kai, held community/student workshops with Junior Chamber International Japan, helped out with a local circle supporting the severely handicapped, took 4 trips at my own expense to rural Cambodia to work with teachers and students, volunteered as an in-house technical high school English teacher for Hino Motors, and volunteered (refusing to accept monetary honorariums) as a speech contest judge for All Japan Intercollegiate Speech Contests sponsored by the highest ranked schools in Japan … Tokyo University, Waseda, Keio, and Sophia, among others.I take volunteerism as a natural extension of an educator’s pedagogic toolbox — not just as some information to pass down to the students from the Ministry of Education, but as the obligation of an educator to facilitate, and act as a role model.I was a member of an English Communication Department. But other than the traditional top-down, sage-on-stage, one-way ‘communicating’ all too common in higher education, all too clearly, I saw my own limits as a collaborative facilitator. I was teaching college students, mostly young women.My gaps were many … gender, age and pop culture awareness (older than their parents), national culture (raised in the U.S.), and individual differences (I like fishing and playing guitar). To communicate those values central to a liberal arts education, I had no choice but to try and connect my students with those I consider worthy role models in the Japanese community.After all education should be a community, not an institution … right? At least some individuals within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology — for which I also worked as one of maybe three or four textbook proofreaders in the whole country at any single time — seems to agree. And the Ministry has also tried time and again to instill those same behavior patterns among teachers, mostly to no avail.The response by my Japanese colleagues was that such community outreach activities were irrelevant to my duties as an employee of the department and full time faculty member of the school, to exclude me from any real decision making processes, and to insist that my priority is restricted to the role of a native-speaking English informant and support for the ‘real’ teachers … presumably full-time, ethnic Japanese department members.The department chairman insisted that the Dean of the entire University was ‘wrong’ in insuring me that I had equal rights and responsibilities as other tenured Japanese faculty members. Even after repeated requests to have the Dean and the Department chairman meet to decide my status as stated in my tenured contract … they mutually refused to meet and formally decide my status. Convenient tactics on their part. Ha. The oldest trick in the book … divide and conquer.I refused to follow this ban on volunteerism on at least 8 grounds:I was told by the Dean that I was an 'equal' member of the Department, though I had no 'equal' part in making such department ’rules' ... and had no 'equal' right to question them.Japanese colleagues were not bound by the same 'rules'. Some are more 'equal' than others.Such 'rules' were contrary to the institution's stated ideals as stated on its glossy, catch-copy homepage ... University Ideology.Such 'rules' are particularly contrary to the need for volunteer work still necessary for dealing with the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , not to mention covering those current social problems the government and infrastructure of Japan can not deal with ... the homeless (despite a seemingly contradictory problem of a decreasing and aging population), high rates of work induced suicide and mental health care problems, insufficient support for the aged, terminally ill, severely handicapped, and orphans, and a growing digital divide and wealth gap resulting in the hollowing out of the middle class and growing numbers of working poor — the government's own statistics state that 1/6 of Japanese children are at the poverty level or below.Such 'rules' are contrary to educational goals and obligations as expressed by MEXT:Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the highest level of authority regarding education in Japan.Such 'rules' are contrary to Japan's signing of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations).Such 'rules' are contrary to the common sense of any adult capable and willing to foster the personal growth of young people, and contrary to any socially mature adult's sense of obligation to help nurture a sustainable local community.Such ‘rules’ compelled me to ‘obey department colleagues’. Say what? How can ‘obey colleagues’ NOT be an oxymoron? Even as the only tenured ‘Associate’ Professor with a graduate degree in T.E.S.O.L., by what academic virtue did my department ‘colleagues’ presume to have the right to tell me how to teach, which language to use, and when to use it? For any other academically credentialed professors reading this … how would you feel about ‘colleagues’ outside of your own academic discipline who presume to micro-manage your classes?I was a slow learner. It took several years to figure out what ‘communication’ means when being directed to this non-Japanese member of the department. I will spell it out for you in a Japanese language lesson which I call ‘The 5 M’s’ approach to managing foreign teachers (though it is equally applied to other Japanese of lower rank within institutions).1 - Meilei - to give orders2 - Marunage - to pass the buck3 - Mukanshin - to completely ignore4 - Madogiwazoku - to marginalize someone to a seat by the window5 - Murahachibu - to completely cast out of the communityWhy ... ?Officially — 'Volunteer activities are not part of our program this year.' (As explained by two successive Department Chairmen) and you, as a foreign instructor, do not have equal rights of tenure as Japanese colleagues.Officially — ‘You do have all the equal rights and responsibilities of Japanese colleagues. (As explained by the Dean of the University).More likely — I was the only full-time, non-Japanese, tenured professor in an English Communication Department of a Japanese Junior College ... Jissen Women's Junior College — managerially problematic because the willfully contradictory status was designed only to make me compliant to orders, without any of the rights of tenure or educational obligation to the students.——————————————2 — Banned, subsequently, by the Board of Directors from:receiving any classes the following academic yeartaking my scheduled research sabbaticalWhy ... ?Officially — for refusing to sign a document prepared especially for me, demanding that I follow above stated Department 'rules' regarding community outreach activities and volunteer work.More likely — I was the only full-time, non-Japanese, tenured professor in an English Communication Department of a Japanese Junior College ... Jissen Women's Junior College.The ‘dead silence’ detail …Upon being called into a conference with the Dean and Assistant Dean and presented with the document, I was told to either sign it, or forfeit my impending 1 year research sabbatical to Cambodia. I pointed out that if I signed that document, I would be forfeiting my right and my obligation to help my own seminar student prepare for the upcoming Tokyo Jr. College English Speech Contest.Even before my ten years of tenure at the school, as a part-timer, I had been asked, and accepted, the role of volunteering to be the coach of each year’s contestant. My full-time colleagues appeared to not have either the interest, temperament, skills, or educational priorities to do so, and so I stepped up to the plate.After about 12 years or so of doing this, I petitioned to have my speech coaching ‘volunteer’ duties re-designated as one of my committee responsibilities, since volunteerism was no longer officially part of their program … and as counterparts at other schools also have their duties counted as ‘work duties’, not volunteerism.My request was granted, but being as opportunistic as they were, authority was immediately handed over to a Japanese colleague heading a new ‘Kyoiku-inkai’ (Education Committee), which I was not invited to join.During the time I had been doing this as a volunteer, I was also a member ot the Tokyo Jr. College Speech Contest Committee, and so I had the benefit of receiving communication about the contest directly at the committee meetings, and was able to have nearly a year to prepare multiple students (in the name of equal opportunity) for the contest … and all of that editing, re-writing, and bringing out the best of the student took that whole year.But now my duties had become ‘official’, and subject to receiving information on my colleague’s definition of ‘a need to know’ basis. This meant that I would now have to ask permission from my Japanese superior to ‘volunteer’, and it was only under his auspices, and at his convenience, and on his terms that I was allowed to do the same work I previously did on my own free will. All of the same responsibility, but with an added layer of bureaucratic hierarchy insuring I would not have the right to receive the direct and timely information necessary to do my job. My colleagues saw this as an opportunity to further marginalize me and concentrate institutional power into their hands.I no longer was given the courtesy of information about the speech contest until a month or two prior to the contest … as the new Education Committee did not consider it a priority to inform me of the theme or schedule of the speech contest in a timely manner. Neither making my job easier, nor bringing out the best in students was the priority of my colleagues. Putting an uppity foreigner in his place was.But back to the conference with the Dean and his demand that I sign a letter compelling me following orders from my colleagues.‘In the school’s 120 year history, has any other faculty member been asked to sign such a letter prior to taking a research sabbatical?’ I asked.‘No’ was the curt reply.The paper laid on the desk in front of me, waiting to be signed. I looked at the Dean and reminded them that as this forbids me from volunteering …. and I was specifically told by my colleagues, I no longer had the right to help even my own seminar student with the upcoming speech contest. I told them that I would sign the document … if one of the two sitting before me promised to step up and help that student prepare for the speech contest.‘Would either of you agree to take my place and help that student’, I asked?Silence.I have a digital recording of that meeting, and that’s all you can hear — a deafening silence.I refused to sign the document.I said that my obligation was to the student(s) … not to blindly following orders deliberately designed to marginalize me from performing my duties as an educator. Not by coincidence, ‘witholding information from an employee which is necessary to complete their work obligations’ is against Japanese labor law.The student came to me for help. As no one else was either able or willing, I did so. A lot. Something for details of another Quora answer later. But for the sake of context, I will say this. She wrote and spoke about being a victim of the Great Tohoku earthquake, and the real meaning of family and friends.Though we had spent a good 50 hours or more, editing, revising, recording, and analyzing videos of her practice … on the moment of her performance, the memories of a crumbled hill-top house, watching in horror as the tsunami engulfed the harbor below, and the desperate attempts to bypass the deadlocked transportation grid … all came out in a torrent of tears. But she kept her cool, and she kept her pace so as to not exceed the time limit.Half of the audience, myself included, were in tears … the judges were flummoxed.This was just supposed to be a display of English skills, not a real speech. They couldn’t just throw the meticulously detailed point sheet for judging out the window. But they couldn’t ignore the real thing, transcending typically rote memorized performances.They compromised by awarding her 2nd place in the contest.The school’s administration promptly used her result as a photo op for marketing purposes.Though her speech was about her finding the meaning of ‘family’ and ‘friends’, about the community that defines the social primate, it was made perfectly clear that I was not part of that ‘education’ community.Shortly after the speech contest and photo-op, I was notified that for disobeying department orders and for not signing the document compelling me to do so, that I had forfeited my upcoming research sabbatical and would be relieved of all teaching duties the following year.That’s when I began seeing a psychiatrist, got put on anti-depressents to hold down suicidal thoughts, and exercised my right to a medical leave of absence.The results ...After receiving notice that I would be given no classes nor allowed to take a research sabbatical, I secured a lawyer, joined a union, and took a medical leave of absence for harassment induced mental stress (and subsequently, hip-joint replacement surgery).In the ensuing two years, despite several meetings, my labor union could reach no agreement with the school, and my lawyer advised me that even though I would likely win a legal suit against the school, the Japanese judicial system is weighted in favor of institutions, and my victory would likely be a long and costly, pyrrhic victory. In the Japanese legal system, if it is ‘individual vs. institutional entity’ … the individual is pretty much ‘guilty, unless proven otherwise.’ I later realized, if one follows a strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of language determining what we see … that this village mentality might be correlated with the fact that the Japanese words for ‘individual’ (koujin) and ‘citizen’ (shakaijin) are only a couple of hundred years old … and presumably the rights and obligations of the two.Thinking I would just put it all behind me and find work elsewhere, I resigned a ‘tenured’ position … in protest … against institutionally sanctioned harassment, a breach of Japanese Labor Law, and a general disregard for human dignity and human rights as befitting an institution of higher learning.Now, five years since resigning, I have reached the age of 64, for some mysterious reason, I have not been able to find even a single class of part-time college work in one of the largest metropolitan areas on the planet. After having lived over half my life in Japan as a college teacher, I have been unemployed for three years now.I am still on a nightly dose of anti-depressent and sleeping pill, and still see a psychiatrist once a month for my prescription.I keep busy with community out-reach, volunteer activities, one of which is Soup no Kai, a roving soup kitchen supporting the homeless. In 2017, this NPO received the ‘Social Contributions Award from the Tokyo City Metropolitan government. Steve Martin (Steven Martin)'s answer to Is it true that in Japan there are no beggars?I continue helping out with speech contests. Though I am no longer employed, I still consider myself an educator, and my honor and duty to help young students when I can … and as my policy for about 10 years now, as a volunteer. In 2017, I was a finals judge for the Soka Daigakku (Soka University) E.S.S. (English Speaking Society) All Japan English Speech Contest. The Ikeda Cup - 創価大学 英語研究会SEAIn early 2018, I was again invited to be a preliminary judge for an All Japan English Speech Contest held by the English Speaking Society (E.S.S.) of Japan’s highest ranking university, The University of Tokyo. Between meetings and e-mail with the student organizers, pouring over 81 speech scripts and videos, and writing remarks for each of them while judging … I must have spent about a hundred hours on the project.東京大学ESS杯争奪英語弁論大会 (The English Oratorical Contest at The UT) The contest was relatively successful, and the E.S.S. president has agreed to donate my judge’s fee to helping the Rohingya Muslim refugee crisis. I was pleased with his decision. But now that the contest has finished, the student organizer of the event has refused to answer my e-mails of inquiry regarding the status of that promise. I will think long and hard about future volunteer activities with college English Speaking Society events.(EDIT … about a year later, 2019, I have indeed exchanged letters, and was invited again to a judge, again accepted, and again … kicking myself in the head wondering if my time was well spent. Now have written over 150,000 words of comments for the 51 speech contest applicants … but only 3 of the 10 finalists, and 2 other applicants were interested in reading those observations and suggestions.)Again, I questioned the VERY sloppy judging criteria chosen by the student speech contest committee. I pointed out that the criteria does not reflect how public speaking skills are learned or taught, does not reflect salient features of effective public speaking, and does not reflect the highest ideals of a public speech or a communication community. Two years ago, the head of the committee begged me to NOT compare his goals to his predecessor (who gave a speech about the importance of good posture for ‘success’), but this year, the committee strongly insisted that the highest priority of the contest is connected to neither educational nor social problem solving goals, but to follow the will of their seniors. Yep, Tokyo University students, the future top managers of Japan Inc. are just doing a role-play practice of Invented Traditions while exchanging name cards to form their elite, oligarchic, and self-serving social networks.For those interested, you will see some very good speeches in the recent past by copy-pasting the kanji for Tokyo University’s Todaihai — ‘東大杯’ — into YouTube. You might notice that this tradition seems to have come to an end as of this year, 2019. I would like to think I had something to do with ending this corrupt and invented tradition. Here is an example of a great speech. She was the last winner of what may be the last Tokyo University All Japan English Speech Contest, and though I had some good chats with Sara about her speech, on-line and at the contest, I haven’t seen or heard from her since. I fear that her alma mater, Keio University, and intended graduate school, Stanford, may be following the same path of Mission Drift as Harvard and Yale.Meanwhile, I occasionally check the glossy home pages peddling ‘education’ in Japan, back at my former school, I see there is no longer a full-time, non-Japanese, native-speaking faculty member in the English Communication Department.I spend a lot of time reading and watching Youtube videos … mostly documentaries (love David Butler on physics), TED, and so on.As for Quora, I find myself writing fewer answers, but reading much more, and chatting one-on-one in comments or messaging.And when I tire of words, I pick up my guitar and practice bossa rhythms and jazz arpeggios … planning to play for no one but myself. Just therapy.Reflections on the big picture …Japanese institutions are somewhat overlapping in-groups, but traditionally place a priority on compliance to a collectively assumed authoritarianism.Communities are small enough to keep an empathy-driven morality. But like other large, hierarchical groups following authoritarian priorities, morality here tends to be provisional, parochial, and situational. Institutional culture takes priority over individual moral autonomy. Institutional morality tends to be driven by rule and ritual, not empathy. To further explain:Oxford anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar has a very interesting theory correlating the size of the human pre-frontal cortex with the number of people we can effectively work with as a group. For the sake of brevity, I’ll define that as the number of people we can recognize by face, name, and individual characteristics and temperaments including unique skills, interests, traumas, and hopes. His studies indicate somewhere between 150 and 250 people as the optimal size for groups … and I would infer that this number of recognizing each other as individuals correlates with morality being driven by neural pathways associated with empathy. Cross cultural studies seem to replicate his results.By implication, once we exceed Dunbar's number, groups necessarily form hierarchies, which in turn are held together by a combination of provisional rules, traditions, and force … not empathy. As Hannah Arendt chronicalled in the Eichmann war crimes trials, this excuses the cog-in-the machine-human from moral responsibility or autonomy with a simple ‘just following orders’.And as the post-war behaviorist experiments of Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram, and later, Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment showed, the average American was just as likely as the average Nazi prison camp guard to allow institutional authority to override empathy.I would say a lot, if not most of our cognitive dissonance, isolation, and marginalization in large scale populations, from corporate states to nation-states, is the gap between empathy driven morality and rule-imposed morality. A cultural defining historic event of Japan, the Forty-seven rōnin, hinges on this conflict of values. But I would argue that this is a conflict in human nature everywhere, and just as contradictory in what my fellow Americans will say in their pledge of allegiance, and what Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, or William Blum reveals about what goes on behind the curtains.Representatives of institutions have no qualms about lying, deception, stalling, any machiavellian tactic … all rationalized as necessary on behalf of the group, but more likely just subconscious, opportunistic behavior. Dark triad behavior. Again, this is not unique to Japan. Just look at the recent U.S. presidential election as one example.Marginalized individuals have little recourse against blatant institutional disregard of law. Institutions are cynically all too knowledgeable that the legal system is weighted in their favor … one lie at a time, one stall after another, can draw out any legal challenges for years — long enough for those responsible for malfeasance to have retired or transferred to another branch or committee deep within the institution.Even small institutions have their ‘deep state’. And the cost to the institution? Financially, a minimal loss, and at most, only a brief moment in the public forum before all is buried under bread and circuses. For example, compare your memories of the Pyongyang Winter Olympics (or any world wide sporting event) and the case of Matsuri Takahashi. Case closed.More results, the BIGGER picture ...While Japan is the 3rd or 4th largest economy in the world, its Universities are ranked somewhere around 70th place. While acknowledging that 'rankings' are to be taken with a grain of salt, where there is smoke, there is fire.I would say that the priority of compliancy over the critical attitude towards authorities fostered by the liberal arts, drops Japan even further. At least a few other professionals both inside Japan Humanities under attack | The Japan Times ... and outside Japan, seem to agree Japan Dumbs Down Its Universities.According to the Hofstede Index, Japan - Geert Hofstede, management of higher education in Japan is what drops it down to such abysmally embarrassing levels. But I would also say that management is inextricably tied to a culture of deference to authority.With the ruling LDP's enfranchising of 18 year olds with the right to vote this year, BUT the new State's Secrets Law, change to the Peace-Time Constitution allowing 'pro-active, military defense', and a neo-lib climate that taxes basic food items for the growing numbers of working poor while giving tax breaks to the corporations ... this empowerment of youth may simply be a token of 'rights' that will soon have to be repaid as an 'obligation' to serve in a ramped-up military.Scary times ahead.Still, trying to do my small part for the marginalized in Japan ... most recently helped out with a mobile soup kitchen for the homeless in Tokyo ... Steve Martin | Facebook ... but of course, whether we are talking about the homeless, the high suicide rate, the falling demographics, or the falling business standards in Japan (Season of Scandal Hits Japan With Company Confession Flurry), or enough fissile plutonium stored in Japan alone to make 1,300 nuclear warheads ... are NOT a concern for Japanese 'Institutes of Higher Learning' ... which begs the question, what, exactly are their concerns? Despite the glossy homepages, my guess is that they are either simply for-profit businesses, or quasi-governmental meat grinders churning out a literate but compliant (no questions please) workforce.As for me, I take my cue from a former Dean of Helsinki University I once heard at a forum at Tokyo University. "The purpose of the 21st century university should be to solve 21st century pr0blems."My problems are not restricted to marginalization and dehumanization of based along ethnic lines. By the government’s own statistics, 1/6 of Japanese children live at the poverty level or below, (and though now somewhat dated info) the single greatest cause of death in the work force between the most productive ages of 20 and 44 is suicide … Suicide in Japan … and these are examples taken from Japanese citizenry themselves.The purpose of public education should be, though perhaps never was, socialization … raising collaborative, critical thinking problem solvers who are morally responsible to the community. But once past primary school, education, devolves mostly into a process of standardized testing and sorting … gate-keeping as a means of institutionalizing individuals. Disposable human capital. Standardization, institutionalization, and compliance are the highest priorities.This leads to another theme altogether in my writings on Quora … how naive scientific reductionism is becoming the new religion, and how it may be a terminal one at that.Standardization and institutionalization is far easier than fostering positive fundamental changes among the struggling youth. It is far easier to just give lip service to educational ideals rather than getting down and into the mud of the meaning of learning. It is far easier to go through the motions of teaching while actually serving as merely another functionary bureaucrat, a gatekeeper who uses standardized tests to identify the ‘talented’ … and pass them along to the next appropriate academic, professional, business, or political institution.Anyone familiar with Chomsky’s understanding of pro-social anarchism … ?Or even better (or worse) … the first 3 paragraphs of his 2010 Chapel Hill speech will do.Human intelligence and the environmentthe problem with Japan Inc., indeed, all humanity, I sum up as this:Empathy-driven communities are conflated with rule and ritual-driven institutions, and institutions are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Individuals, regardless of injustices suffered from those institutions, are considered guilty until proven innocent. ‘Education’ has long since been conflated with ‘propaganda’, and neither the sanctity of the maturation process of the social primate, nor the necessity of empathy-driven communities for sustainability is respected by the ruling powers that be.The failed idealist in me tends to agree with Stephen Hawking … Stephen Hawking: Greed And Stupidity Are What Will End The Human Race.And the pessimist in me, with J. Robert Oppenheimer …Lesson learned ...Yokoso (welcome to) Japan!A nice place to visit.—————————————————————————————————————Update, Wed. Dec. 14th, 2016Informed by Quora that this post will be sent to 1000 readers, I thought I would give an update. A couple of years have passed, and now 61, I am still unemployed, living off of borrowed money from Japanese friends, and the Hello Work unemployment system in the land of Hello Kitty … I have maybe 5 months left to pay the rent. Starting to sell off things through Yahoo auction.But looking at the homeless I still work with, the systematic bullying of school children evacuated from the Fukushima meltdown, the continuing pace of corporate-driven suicides of Japan Inc., and the bigger world picture — Trump and his cabinet of deplorables, Brexit, growing right-wing extremism in Europe, the tragedy of Aleppo, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya muslims in ‘democratic’ Burma — I should be grateful for still having a handful of friends, and for now … a roof over my head and food in the fridge. Outside of that, I am finding it harder to justify my continued existence.If nothing else, as a permanent outsider depending on a small community of culturally and ethnically different friends, I can empathize further with the minorities I attempted to help through my volunteer activities, and those minorities I will never have an opportunity to help. But how far can empathy carry me when I will no longer be able to pay my own rent?Hmm … just found the 6th ‘M’.My life as the Mandelbrot set unfolding — a microcosm of the forever-war between the authoritative right hand of man, and the would-be progressive hand on his left. Cognitive dissonance — built into our genes, we bi-polar apes. Meh … maybe this is just a fancy way of saying ‘what goes around, comes around.’ Karma, baby.Update … April 27, 2017I have about a month go left for unemployment insurance, still no sign of work. But it appears I am not the only one falling victim to the ‘Education Scams’ of Japan Inc. …Cautionary tale: Bern on how no protections against harassment in Japan’s universities targets NJ regardless of Japan savviness and skill level

Does Germany have a more intellectual culture compared to the USA?This essay answers this question from different viewpoints and explains the differences in culture and educational system.One of the difficulties in answering this question is that there is no clear way to measure intellectuality in a culture. The other answers here show that there isn't even a consensus what intellectual culture means. For example, some answers here indicate that the writers count being interested in hard sciences to be a hallmark of intellectuality, which it isn't by the traditional definition of the cultural movement [Wikipedia]. I guess these Quorans went with a more laissez-faire definition of 'intellectual = academical educated’ [Urban Dictionary], which is a fair approach but leads to a very different answer.[Socrates Statue at the Academy of Athens]DEFINITIONIn the context of this essay, intellectualism is defined as one of the following concepts. These are clearer, not contradictory and can be more readily observed.An intellectual culture rewards the inclination to think things through before applying them.An intellectual culture and all its entities honor people with academic achievements regardless of the field.An intellectual culture integrates endeavors from the classical intellectual domain (i.e., humanities) and sciences into everyday life and gives them a place in the public discourse.An intellectual culture empowers all people to participate in the scientific discourse.INTRODUCTORY REMARKSIt might be beneficiary to address some misconceptions that might result from this essay up front.It is assumed that the reader is familiar with US education system on a surface level. Only the less apparent details are covered, while the basics of the German side of things are explained as well.Germany and the United States are both diverse enough that you can find a local counterexample to every single point that is made here. This essay deals with nationwide trends. But since you are interested enough in intellectualism to read this rather lengthy text, it is unlikely that you mix up global averages with subsets, anyway.All of this has only a very narrow impact on a specific work environment. There might be subtle differences resulting from the different levels of intellectualisms in American and German teams and its effect on the general work culture. But the type of work is more significant to the point where other factors are negligible. Teams of software engineers have roughly the same inclination for intellectualism on both sides of the Atlantic because the job demands a certain level of it. Carpenters have another threshold, and so forth. If you add the variance in company culture, comparing specific workplace environments is not a suitable method to determine differences in intellectuality.More intellectual does not mean superior or more successful! This attitude can be a boon, but can also be a weakness when a stilted reverence for past achievements hampers timely problem-solving.The question how intellectualism influences academic success cannot be answered in the confines of this essay. Although it compares the educational strategies of both countries, it does not elaborate on the precise nature of the correlation between intellectual trends in society and the educational landscape.SHORT HISTORY ON UNIVERSITIES AND BOOKSSince the fall of Western Roman Empire, Europe was the home of the first institutionalized bookworms in the occident: monks, who carried the intellectual legacy of Rome. Together with the development of cities as independent political and social entities, the existence of the religious orders led to the first universities in the 11th century.Wandering scholars spread the thirst for knowledge further. And the first institutes outside of the control of the church were founded under the patronage of the nobility. It is worth to note that roaming artisans, which included scribes and other scholarly professions, were not unusual in the middle ages. And that what we call higher education and trades today had a common origin. So the dual system of contemporary Germany is in truth a reunion of this century-old tradition.The Holy Roman Empire was late to the game, the first German university in Prague was founded only in 1348. But before the German sphere could fully catch up with the rest of Europe, the invention of the printing press on German soil brought a massive political upheaval.The proliferation of books enabled the emergence and success of Protestantism in northern Europe, and the clerical dominance of the Catholic Church on the continent was broken.This affected the history of the United States and Germany alike fundamentally. But while the events lead to a strong Protestant presence in the British colonies, which shaped their history profoundly, it had no impact on the cultural memory of the United States itself.In contrast, the German states were utterly devastated as a result. The Thirty Years' War had a lasting effect on the German psyche. After the war, the German lands lagged culturally several decades behind its European neighbors, and the spread of books progressed slowly.The rivalry of the confessions and the patchwork of German states led to the founding of many new universities, but Proto-Germany played only a comparatively small part in the Enlightenment in comparison to France and Britain.When the German states almost caught up culturally with the rest of the world, books were the window into this more advanced world. And the emerging class of wealthy and good educated citizens - the Bildungsbürgertum - adopted literacy as their status signifier.Then Germany finally found an own cultural voice again in the time of Romantik. This revival coincided with a leap in technology - in large part shamelessly plagiarized from the British Industrial Revolution - and books became a true mass medium. Both developments - together with the memory of Napoleon's occupation - sparked the dream of a united Germany.And when the Germans had their revolution in 1848, again lagging behind the rest of the world, it was the book instead of gunpowder or guillotine that became the symbol and driving force. Alas, the dream died, and was followed by a century dominated by Prussian values.At first, this triggered a surge in scholarly activities and reforms. Following Wilhelm von Humboldt's philosophy, universities started to combine teaching and research. But in the 20th century, the Prussian ascension led to destruction and culminated in the most anti-intellectual period of German history.During all this time, universities were institutes for the elites. In the Protestant north, universities became gradually more secular, but in the Catholic south, this happened as late as the 19th century. Noble houses financed the universities or had the power to close them on their land. And they used this control to dictate the curriculum and keep the lower classes from entry.This changed only in the 20th century, with a last push after the Second World War. Widespread education became the cultural ideal - in part, to set a counterpoint to the book burnings of the barbaric period before. Universities were opened for all citizens. A sizeable book collection became an important status symbol for the lower middle class.Also, vast parts of the German cultural heritage were tainted, and the Germans used what was left to build a new identity. On the one hand their work ethics and on the other the ripe legacy of German artists, poets, musicians, scientists, and intellectuals.The development in the United States was different in many aspects. The American philosophy draws from the Enlightenment ideals that in an equal society all people have to be empowered by education. And this philosophical cornerstone hasn't changed that much in the centuries, except that the South was also forced to adapt it. The spirit is even visible in contemporary legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act from 2001.The first Protestant universities were founded in the 17th century but quickly became secular. In the 18th and especially the 19th century, many smaller institutes were built, with the goal to educate the masses and enable social mobility. The contrast to Germany in the 19th century couldn't be starker, where access to universities was tightly controlled. But US universities copied the Prussian university system in this time.This lead to the meteoric economic rise of the United States. Books and libraries were profoundly revered by the educated middle and upper classes. And this educational-minded milieu pushed hard in the late 19th century to implement ideas like public libraries - with lasting success.But without the need to copy the lifestyle of the nobility or carve their own identity in the more class-agnostic society, books didn't become quite the status moniker as in German culture for a long time. Only after the emergence of other mass media, books became a means to distinguish the middle class from the other parts of society with a rampant love for moving pictures.The contemporary developments in the United States and Germany are converging. Germany tried to copy the elite university system of the United States in the last decade by pushing a handful of universities at the expense of the rest. And the US trade school and community college systems are ripe for reform with the German dual system as a model.BOOKSThe thousands of independent bookstores, the public library revolution at the end of the 19th century, huge publishing houses, the rise of Amazon through book sells, and private initiatives like the Gutenberg project, make the love of books in America quite evident.Germans love their books, too, even more so than in the United States.The first indicator is that the book market in relation to the population is significantly larger. The total revenue of US publishers including ebook and online distribution was 26.24 billion USD in 2016 [source]. The revenue of German publishers was 9.28 billion EUR (10.82 billion USD) in the same period [source]. The US population is four times larger.Of course, this is only revenue and not sold units. Gauging by two random book prices - Harry Potter and the Sorcerers/Philosophers Stone and the recent The Outsider, by Stephen King - American books are more expensive than the German versions. The result is a bit surprising because in Germany book publishers set the retail prices for books - there are no free market forces to lower book prices through retail competition.Germany also has more public libraries per capita, and they are on average better integrated into the community. In Germany there are 9000 public libraries [source], in the United States there are only 16000 public libraries [source]. And the reason for this is not that the United States is more sparsely populated, though it might contribute. There are approximately 1200 towns with 10.000+ citizens in Germany [source], while in the United States there are about 3000 [source]. So you would still expect more libraries.Of course, the United States has a whopping 100.000 school libraries, and they actually deserve the name library. In contrast, most schools in Germany have only a small library for textbooks and nothing else - in part because they can rely on the public library system for anything else and because school traditionally ended middays and there was the expectation to research at home.There are fantastic gilded libraries in the United States and even more specialized ones attached to colleges. There is indeed no shortage of high-quality libraries in the United States. And many public libraries do workshops that are more than regular bookkeeping. American public libraries in big cities are advanced and well equipped, but in smaller counties, there seems to be a large variance in quality. The online presence of American libraries is generally better than that of their German counterparts.But it is to argue that the footprint on everyday life is even more prominent in Germany. Especially in small towns, they are often the most important carrier of culture and community, supplanting the traditional role of churches.In both countries, almost all public libraries have a significant focus on children's literature, to make sure that the next generation is infected with a love of books from an early age. This benign indoctrination starts as early as kindergarten.[Stadtbücherei Hemer]There are other indicators for the larger role of books in Germany as well. The annual Frankfurt Book Fair always takes up a sizeable part of the news. This is not the case in the United States with the smaller Book Expo in New York - at least not to the same degree. Mainstream coverage is sparse and completely dwarfed by Comicon, E3 or other pop culture events unlike in Germany. Frankfurt Book Fair is evening news material.The last exhibit is the relative importance of the different Nobel Prizes in the national discourse. For this, the Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics and in Literature were compared on Google Trends.As you can see, in America the peace prize dwarfs the other two awards equally. In Germany, the literature prize is perceived as equally important as the peace prize, and the physics prize is almost irrelevant in comparison.(Please note, that one of the physics laureates in the timeframe, Rainer Weiss, was born in Germany. So both countries had equal stakes - the same is true for the other prizes.)NATIONAL MYTHOSThe first things that come to mind, when you brainstorm the US national mythos, are 'land of the free,' 'from rags to riches,' 'land of opportunity.' You can add a few more, but it always comes down to freedom and wealth.Germany has only one notable national slogan: 'Land der Dichter und Denker' - land of poets and thinkers.The reason for the limited range of the German national identity is, of course, the devastation during the first half of the 20th century. So other national mythoi, like the Prussian discipline, Arminius' fight against the Romans, and the Deutsche Frage, the struggle for unity in the 19th century, lost their relevance. Even the Wagnerian folksy mythology took a beating, because of the misuse in the propaganda in the Third Reich. So 'Land der Dichter und Denker' will be the only national description you will hear when you ask random people on the street (Maybe '…schland', if you meet a football fan).[Walk of Ideas - German Authors]These national self-descriptions are not meaningless. They shape the national conscious and what is to be expected from every citizen. Of course, Germans can descend into filter bubbles, too, where everyone tells them that is uncool to be knowledgeable. But there is always the backstop of the largest societal unit, that tells them that knowledge matters. The United States does not have this, not on this fundamental level.PRESTIGETitles in general and academic titles, in particular, are very prestigious in Germany. Academic titles like the PhD-equivalent Doktor and Professor become even an official part of the bearer's name. You are expected to address them with all their titles in situations where you would address them by their last name, which is a bit cringeworthy.But it is as it is: Having an academic title enhances your social status by a considerable amount. And while America is divided by race, Germany is mainly divided by class. So this is even more important.This results in people, who never plan to pursue a scientific career, prolonging their studies unnecessarily for academic titles which are of no use or don't justify the investment. They are nothing more than vanity titles. The system as a whole is not very intelligent. But there is no shortage of people who want to don the mantle of intellectuality because it is valued by society so much.Academic education is highly venerated in the United States, too. The difference is only quantitative and not qualitative.The American relationship with academic success is quite a bit different than the German: its status boost relies to a higher degree on wealth. In this regard, the social inertia is far higher in Germany. Being wealthy does not necessarily grant entry to the upper echelons of society.This is also true for academic status. The US rationale is often: education (1) leads to a good job (2), leads to wealth (3), leads to prestige (4). In Germany, steps (2) and (3) are not necessary - at least not to the same degree. In America, the money is a huge part of what is valued, while in Germany the intellectual achievement alone is enough.This attitude is evident in American newspaper articles [example] that are purely about academic excellence. Often, there are remarks or statistics about the monetary gain, that a particular academic degree promises. This information would be deemed irrelevant at best and shockingly out of place at worst in German articles that are not career advice.You can also see the difference in attitude when you ask for the profession of an acquaintance. In the United States, your friend will likely give you a description of his current job. In Germany, the academic degree is the default answer, no matter how many decades ago it was earned. And only in cases where the current occupation is entirely different from the academic field, the friend will add a shy, 'but I work as ... now.'As stated in the beginning, the more intellectual system is not necessarily the better one. The American system is quite cleverly designed because it siphons the brightest minds into the disciplines where they are of the highest economic value. But this is a feat of pragmatism and not intellectualism.One negative side effect of the German system is that because academic titles are rare and prestigious, the holders of such titles try everything to preserve this prestige. So every innovation that makes it easier for the next generation to attain an academic title faces fierce opposition. The standard argument: this would dilute the intellectual culture of Germany.During the Bologna reform from 2005 on, the old Diplom and Magister degrees were replaced with the international compatible Bachelor/Master paradigm. Before this reform, there were no options for courses with a prescribed period of study of under five years. This was thought to be the domain of the dual educational branch. The reform was only implemented against protests from all parts of the academia including the students because Germany was obligated to do so by the EU. Bachelor's degrees are still not widely accepted and are often held in contempt. A Bachelor graduation is often derisively called Halbstudium - half studies.EDUCATION SYSTEMSThis is just one of the many differences between the American and German education systems.In the United States, children are expected to graduate from secondary education after 12 school years, which is achieved by 75% to 90% of the children, depending on the state [source].94% of the children attend one of several types of high schools [source], either at a public or private school - the latter often religious. Charter schools, prep schools, and homeschooling make up the rest.The tertiary education is equally diversified. Besides the world-famous private colleges and often at teaching similarly good public universities, there are also community colleges that grant 2-year degrees, private religious institutes, for-profit universities and a staggering amount of combinations of the types above.The United States has a mix of public and private trade schools, but the vocational sector is underdeveloped in comparison with other countries.Germany has a tracked school system. From the 5th (7th grade in Berlin and periphery) on students are sorted into one of three school types [source]:Gymnasium, graduation after 12th or 13th grade, 30,8% of the populationRealschule, graduation after 10th grade, 22,7% of the populationHauptschule, graduation after 9th grade, 31,4% of the populationThere are combinations of the school types, Gesamtschulen. And private schools, and boarding schools, but they make up an even smaller percentage than in the United States. Homeschooling is illegal.The highest track, Gymnasium, makes the student eligible for admittance to a university. The curriculum is very broad, often in the tradition of classical education. This is the reverse dynamic of the US system, where high school subjects are very customizable and can be more focused while undergraduate studies can be very unfocused.The middle track, Realschule, caters to jobs in commerce and administration. The bottom track, Hauptschule, mixes school education with trade skills. But in the last decades, it became more of a dead end. Because alumni of the Gymnasium track took over lots of fields that were previously a mainstay of the Realschule track, for example, banking. Graduates of the Realschule turned to craft, and Hauptschul students were left empty-handed. The resurgence of the German industry in the 00s partially alleviated the problem, though.One positive of the system is that it ensures that students in the higher tracks are not mocked for their successes in school. And the best pupils are generally also among the most popular. And in turn, students in a lower track with more practical inclinations are not looked down to. As the use of the terms 'higher' and 'lower' indicate, this is only true inside the community of the school, and not necessarily in society at large.It has to be noted that German teachers are not severely underpaid like their US counterparts [source]. Germany values the unique service teachers provide and the vital role in society. As a result, better talent enters the profession.A mainstay of the German education system is the dual vocational system. More than 47% of Germans were trained in this system. During the 24 to 40 month long training, the student receives on-the-job education at a company, which is accompanied by more theoretical lessons at a trade school.The academic landscape is dominated by public universities with 69% of all enrolled students [source]. 29% are enrolled at a Fachhochschule, which is limited to only one or two academic fields of a full university, but with more focus on employability. Art schools account for the remaining 2%. In comparison to the United States, this is pretty straightforward, because other schools of higher learning are integrated into the vocational branch and are commonly not counted as academic.As mentioned before, German universities have adopted the graduation system from the Anglosphere, but with some differences. In general, German Bachelors don't stand on their own but are seen as stepping stones to a master's degree. This is a legacy of the traditional German Diplom and Magister system, where students did not have the option to attend interdisciplinary subjects freely. In general, you still cannot switch the field of study after attaining a bachelor's degree, even though this is a stated a goal of the system.In addition to the teaching universities, there are pure research institutes without teaching facilitates, which often produce the top scientific results in Germany.According to the OECD [United States] [Germany], the achieved tertiary education graduation for both countries breaks down as follows (percentage of the population between 25 and 64):Short-cycle tertiary: USA 11% Germany 1%Bachelor or equivalent: USA 22% Germany 15 %Master or equivalent: USA 11% Germany 11%Ph.D. or equivalent: USA 2% Germany 1%Total: 47%* Germany 27%**not an addition error, its the exact value given in publications, i.e., after adding non-rounded partial valuesThis looks pretty damning for Germany at first sight, but it is not as bad as it seems. The fine details of the methodic of the OECD play a large part in the result.To compare the very distinct educational systems, different international degrees have to be mapped to the ISCED level of educations.For the United States this is easy because it's the international prototype. The only detail that needs explanation is that short-cycle tertiary mainly refers to 2-year degrees, i.e., community colleges.Germany is a mess in comparison, but after some cross-referencing with German statistics, you can decipher the mapping.Since bachelor's degrees were only introduced in 2005 and are not in high demand (1.9% 'genuine' Bachelors), most of the Bachelor-tier consists of vocational professions where the initial training is longer than two years, i.e., mostly technical professions. The rest of the vocational sector is mapped to ISCED level 4 - non-tertiary. This explains why there are next to no short-cycle degrees in Germany - it's either Bachelor-grade or none at all.Once you count out all the associate degrees from the American side, the systems are pretty equal. Only the century-old headstart in the adaptation of undergraduate studies in America shows. In the higher tiers of tertiary education, Germany is competitive with the United States even without fudging statistics.Disregarding 27% of all degrees (2/3 of 40% according to this) is of course not fair. But it helps to pinpoint the deficiencies of the German system. Because of the success of the vocational system, there is no impetus to change it and make lower tier education more academic.So if you define intellectualism as enabling as many citizens as possible to visit an academic institute, no matter how short, you could very well argue that America is more intellectual than Germany.CULTURAL SUPPORT FOR INTELLECTUAL ELITESEven when the United States does a better job of bringing more children from diverse backgrounds into the academic system, Germany does a better job of ensuring that the people who stay out of the university, have fewer excuses to loathe academics and in turn intellectual principles. There are several reasons for this.The divide between the white-collar and blue-collar worlds is not that stark in Germany. There is a gradual shift from low-education to high-education professions without the college/no-college faultline of the United States. There are still lots of well-paying non-academic careers to pick in Germany. And the general income spread is not as wide as in the United States. There is less societal tension, which leads to fewer resentments and more acceptance of intellectualism.Of course, there is a certain disdain for educated people in both countries in the less fortunate demographic. But in Germany, there is no-one that reinforces these resentments. There is not a single party in the Bundestag that exploits the notion that higher education is terrible. Even the ultra-rightwingers of the AfD, the closest you get to the GOP in Germany, take their academic achievements very seriously.[AfD election poster]Where in the United States, there were several candidates for Senate and even the inner-party presidential nomination, who openly support the idea that less education makes you somehow smarter. And it is not hard to find ironclad evidence for this - the incumbent US President, 26.02.2016:"We won the Evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. We're the smartest people, we're the most loyal people."This wouldn't fly in Germany. There is the same or even more pandering to the lower social levels of society. The very same feelings of class envy and disenfranchisement are exploited. But disdain for education is not part of this demagoguery. Often the opposite is the case. Usually, these discussions end with the left parties demanding that employers should be forced to pay more off-the-job training for less paid professions.[President of the United States]The closest we got to this US level of disdain for education were two incidents in 2004 and 2005.1. In 2005 Angela Merkel ran against the then chancellor Gerhard Schröder. She brought an outsider as shadow finance minister into her team: Professor Paul Kirchhoff, who presented his libertarian tax reform. Unfortunately for Merkel, he was unsuited to work with the media, and some of his far-reaching ideas were silently opposed even by his own party. This reached a point where he was internally mocked by his team as inept and stripped of all agency in the election campaign.But chancellor Schröder went a step further and openly ridiculed him as 'the Professor from Heidelberg' - as a Frankensteinesque caricature, whos uncaring and calculating reforms would endanger the social contract of the republic. This tactic was exceptionally effective, and Merkel managed to squander a dominating position and only edged it with a 1% lead. Schröder voluntarily or involuntarily managed to hit an anti-intellectual nerve. She became chancellor nonetheless but dropped Kirchoff [further reading].2. In 2004 (very low) tuition fees were introduced to German universities. The main soundbite of the right-wing coalition parties CDU, CSU, and FDP, who were in favor of the fees, was: 'It is not fair that a nurse should pay for the education of the doctors in her clinic with her tax money.'There was a massive outcry from the left, middle, and even large parts of the right because this was such a dishonest argument and hostile towards education. Ten years later, almost all tuition fees have vanished again, but you can hear the slogan every time financing of the education system is on the agenda.These two pinnacles of anti-intellectualism in German politics would be considered very tame in a US context.Another reason that the less educated have no reason to see education itself as something bad is that educated people as a group cannot be framed as 'the others'. The higher ranking professionals in every trade have received theoretical education at a Fachschule or similar institution. It is deemed on par with an undergraduate degree by the EU [source]. Because this tertiary education usually does not follow directly after school, but after working in the trade for many years, these better educated come from the ranks of the craftsmen. They do not change their socio-economic class upon finishing their education.If someone identifies deeply with a trade, that is not inherently anti-intellectual, because if he wants to be successful on his career path, a certain amount of intellectual curiosity is a prerequisite. And if he is not successful and resents his more successful colleagues, he still cannot point the fingers on them and see them as something completely different, because they are still part of the same group - but with more education.Another fact that reinforces this cohesion between non-academic and academic milieus of German society is that universities are an organic part of their city. For example, in Hamburg, there is a small central campus in the city center, but most departments have their faculties somewhere else in the city. Very few universities have a dedicated campus outside the city and none of the old prestigious ones. Most students have their own rented flats somewhere else in the city. The few halls of residency are likewise scattered around the city. There are fraternities, but they are a relic from the 19th century and are rather insignificant. Students party where all the other young people party. There is no college culture detached from the rest of the country.There is absolutely no 'Oh my god, my virgin daughter goes to an 800 miles distant college alone, is housed with a crowd of young people, who are unsupervised for the first time and can consume alcohol for the first time in her lives unhindered.'-angsty dynamic - for all the bolded reasons.STEMAlthough, the percentage of STEM graduates in Germany is with 37% in 2015 higher than the United States with 23% and the highest in the world [source].Despite the relatively low participation rate, the United States is the scientific leader in many STEM fields, especially in sciences, including computer sciences, mathematics and certain engineering disciplines like aerospace engineering. The US dominance at the Nobel Prize nominations is evident.The reason for this is that the Ivy League colleges have a unique spot in the scientific world. A combination of the economic power of the United States, excellent funding and the English language as the lingua franca of the world created a virtuous circle and made these elite colleges into a major draw for top scientists from around the globe.If you ignore this highest echelon, German research can compete with US research in the STEM fields. If you account for the smaller population, all major metrics are equal with or below but not significantly below the United States [source]. Some disciplines like medical engineering are even ahead [source].Institutes are well funded and integrated into the scientific network of the EU. Germany is part of CERN.German university lag in ranking behind their counterparts from the Anglosphere. The most important contributors are that most universities teach in German and that top research is often done at specialized institutes and scientific networks in addition to universities - at the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and Frauenhofer Institut are examples. The institutes siphon top researchers and funding away, and publication produced by them cannot be accounted for in the university rankings. Therefore, these rankings are unsuitable to gauge the scientific capabilities of Germany as a whole.[ZVE Fraunhofer-Institut]But German politicians have recognized that Germany has to compete for the best international minds if they want to keep up. The government started to give less than a dozen universities extra funding to counteract the bad publicity from low university rankings and boost their international footprint.All this doesn't change the fact, that the crown jewel - Nobel Prizes - is still firmly in American hand. And if this is your sole metric for intellectual culture, the United States wins hands down. But classically, intellectualism is more associated with humanities than natural sciences, so we have to examine these disciplines, too.HUMANITIESWhile Germany has the highest STEM graduate rate, the United States is world-leader in humanities and arts graduations [source].But despite this popularity, the humanities have to defend themselves permanently against demands to strengthen the STEM fields at the expense of the liberal arts. This discussion rages on, and there is an expectation for liberal arts graduates to justify their decision while this isn't the case for STEM graduates. Also, there is the stereotype that degrees in the humanities are career killers.Both observations are true for Germany as well. There is a whole joke category about unemployed sociologist.What does an unemployed sociologist say to an employed sociologist?..."A hamburger with french fries, please!"Humor notwithstanding, humanities are revered in Germany. Liberal arts, or humanistische Bildung in German, are a focus at the Gymnasium and are unavoidable for all students on this track and hence, all university students. Because of this and the focussed Bachelor system in Germany, there is no need and no option to study liberal arts during the postgraduation, unless you want to major in this field. In the United States, often, liberal arts are only a means to reach law or medicine graduate studies.[Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar: Schiller-Goethe Denkmal}In addition, a factor already mentioned plays a role in explaining why humanities are held in such high regard in Germany: The economic viability of a field does not necessarily correlate with its prestige. And academics defend their status with every ounce of political capital they have. So every time someone - usually from an industrial lobby group - suggests, to put a bigger focus on sciences, there is a severe backlash, and the proposal dies a sudden and violent death.You can see the attitude towards the humanities also in the German language. In English 'sciences' refers strictly to natural and social sciences and the humanities is a complementary set of academic fields. In German, the word 'Wissenschaft' encompasses all academic fields, with 'Naturwissenschaft' as the subset of natural sciences and 'Geisteswissenschaft' as the rest. In truth, it is a little bit more complicated than that, but all disciplines contain the word 'Wissenschaft'. So the language itself gives all academic fields the same rank.The biggest reason why humanities are culturally significant to such a degree, is, that Germany has excelled in these disciplines in the past and even today. It is the same phenomenon that everyone suddenly becomes an <insert obscure sport> fan during the Olympic Games when the national team is unexpectedly successful.You could do the same for all humanities together, but alone the list of famous German philosophers - arguably the prototypical intellectual discipline - is exceedingly long: Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Leibniz, von Humboldt, Heidegger, Marx, Adorno, and so forth. On the American side, Chomsky, Arendt, Gödel, Lewis come to mind. There are without a doubt more, but Team America is still dwarfed by Team Germany. This puts the contemporary situation in the sciences on its head.EDUCATION AS A RIGHTSince the creation of the Federal Republic, Germany is dedicated to the principle that education is a fundamental human right. It has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which codified the rights for discriminatory-free education for all citizens and took the message to heart.Hence, all universities are tuition-free, only a minimal administrative fee is applied. And the government bound to ensure that the teaching quality is uniform in all institutes. Germany still struggles to make the academic system social permeable. There is a gap between pretense and reality that is only slowly closing.The United States is one of the few countries that has not ratified the treaty. American politics hesitated to make the tertiary education free of cost because the specter of socialism started to haunt them. This upsets the development of the 19th and early 20th century, where bringing education to all parts of society was a hallmark of the Enlightenment philosophy of the United States. The internal quality differential both in the secondary and the tertiary sector is massive.[Eleanor Roosevelt and the Declaration of Human Rights 1949]Education as a right is not only upheld by all politic parties; it is a subsidiary right, derived from the German constitution and enforceable by law [source]. The US constitution grants the citizen many anachronistic rights, but no right for education. Attempts to deduce this right from other parts of the US constitution were unsuccessful so far.Violation of this principle is one of the few ways to rile up Germans enough to bring them in protest to the streets. Students, parents, and teachers demonstrate in both countries regularly for education-related goals. German teachers are often not allowed to demonstrate because they are officers of the federal states, so it is ubiquitous that students and parents carry the protests alone, with only symbolic support from the teachers. In the United States, teacher unions are among the more effective, but their influence is gradually waning [source].Protests in Germany are often state-wide, which gives the false impression that German education protests are more widespread than in America. In the USA the target is often a local school board - something that does not exist in Germany. Curricula are almost entirely defined by the states, and there are very few disagreements about them anyway.POPULAR SCIENCEPopular science is a very... popular... genre in the United States. Again, the country keeps up with the trend of attempting to bring all parts of society into the academic fold. The list of notable authors reads like the who-is-who of the American scientific world: Sagan, Hofstadter, Einstein, Fossey, Wilson, and Quora's own Richard Muller. If you have read this essay thoroughly, you know that Team America has a score to settle - this is their time for revenge.The depth ranges from publications that explain complex scientific facts in layman terms, to ones that are way below the usual scientific level of the author but still require the reader to have some prior knowledge in the field like Feynman's 'The Character of Physical Law'.Magazines are as prolific as books. Only the television side gets a bit overshadowed by the BBC and skews too much to the entertainment side.While Germany can keep up with high-quality magazines, German popular science books are a severely neglected genre. The most popular science books are translations from the Anglosphere. TV documentations are - due to a well funded public broadcasting system - on par with the BBC. Germany has even its own Neil deGrasse Tyson: Ranga Yogeshwar - a science journalist, who is the first address when a TV station needs someone to explain a complex scientific context.[Ranga Yogeshwar]In Germany, the best scientists and science teachers, seldom write popular science books and leave this to science journalists. In the humanities, the situation is a little bit better but still worse than in the United States. The reason is a mix of indifference and fear of a reputation loss among their peers. This is the siege mentality of the German scientific elites at work again. Another reason is that it is impossible to reach pop star status in Germany without being an actual pop star or sport professional.This deficit is well known and acknowledged by top politicians, for example by the President of Germany in his renowned Academy of Sciences Leopoldina speech in Halle [source]. But to date, there are only small initiatives underway to correct this problem.CULTURAL TRAITSSome traits in the culture of a country lend itself more to intellectuality. This alone does not necessarily produce scientific excellence. For example, when the academic community is detached enough from the macroscopic culture, its subculture is far more relevant for the outcome and can counteract overarching cultural trends. But since the question was about the culture as a whole, it is worth to take a look. This section covers just the five most evident traits, so their veracity shouldn't be in doubt. The search for sources is left as an exercise for the reader ;).Planning and rigor: Germans are famous for their foreplanning even for trivial things and their adherence to rules. Both traits are intellectual qualities. The ability and inclination to think things thoroughly through before acting is a prerequisite for all academic endeavors. In every-day life, this might not be the most effective way, but it the most intellectual way. And scientific rigor in the time of the reproduction crisis is more important than ever.Introversion vs. Extroversion: The more introverted nature of German culture aligns better with the classical image of intellectuals as observant thinkers. The American extroverted culture helps in building essential networks and propagating the knowledge to the persons who can build upon it.Honesty: America is more boastful than Germany, and personal honesty is often sacrificed for the sake of keeping face. Lies in politics are acceptable to the point where politicians do not feel the need to veil them at all. German culture is committed to the truth and hence, more intellectual virtuous.Autonomy: Americans lack the strong deference to authority, Germany is so notorious for. This blindness for superficial and potential misleading characteristics is an integral part of critical thinking.Inquisitiveness: With its origins in the settler mindset of the 17th/18th centuries, American culture is more open to new things. Old mantras are generally faster replaced and new technologies more quickly adopted. Inquisitiveness is a prime trait of intellectualism.ANTI-INTELLECTUALISMThere is the usual crop of anti-science groups in Germany: anti-vaccination movements, spiritualist, holocaust-deniers, conspiracy theorists. The latter has a uniquely German subgroup, Reichsbürger, who pretend that there is no formal German federal state and do not feel obligated to follow any laws. They are one of the few sources of gun violence in Germany. But all these movements are tiny.The anti-nucular and anti-GMO movements have a large footprint. Both tolerate unscientific elements in their midst, but it would be misleading to characterize the whole movements as unscientific.The one anti-intellectual ideology which is truly pervasive in Germany is homeopathy. The quack medicine has found its way into German faculties of medicine, and medical students can take courses in homeopathy as part of their curriculum. Almost all German health insurances cover homeopathy. A disgraceful 75% of Germans want the government to finance homeopathic ‘research’ [source]. Only 25% of Americans think homeopathy is effective [source]. Though the phrasing is not directly comparable, Americans are more intellectual in this regard.In other areas, the situation is direr in the United States. There is a sizeable societal milieu that openly supports anti-intellectual views, which does not exist in this magnitude in Germany.['evolution']38% of Americans believe in the creation by god instead of evolution [source], and the proponents of this view are a significant political and cultural force.In Germany, only 20% hold a similar view [source], though the phrasing of the poll does not match the American survey exactly - probably because there is no public discourse about this question and no established terminology.Even more important than the polls, is the fact, that these views are aggressively repressed by the German mainstream. These views have no chance to influence the curriculum at schools or the public discourse. It is notable that no dominant Christian denomination in Germany questions the principles of evolution. This view is only supported by some splinters of the Muslim community, which in turn have virtually no influence on the German Leitkultur - mainstream culture.49% of Americans believe in the scientific consensus on climate change, 59% of Germans do [source]. Once again, the main difference is that human-made climate change denial is not reinforced by any sizeable public group, except the ultra-rightwing AfD, which accounts for 13% of votes in the last Bundestagswahl.In contrast, straight out of the party platform of the GOP [link], which won the last presidential elections:"The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a political mechanism, not an unbiased scientific institution. Its unreliability is reflected in its intolerance toward scientists and others who dissent from its orthodoxy. We will evaluate its recommendations accordingly. We reject the agendas of both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which represent only the personal commitments of their signatories; no such agreement can be binding upon the United States until it is submitted to and ratified by the Senate."In addition to those two contentious topics, there are many instances of politicians who openly stated disdain for science or an embarrassing lack of knowledge. The important part and which elevates it from mere anecdotes to a repeating pattern is that these statements were not sanctioned by the party or even explicitly backed."Public schools would have to teach that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are normal, natural and that maybe children should try them."Michelle Bachmann, 2006, defying scientific knowledge about homosexuality, went on continuing her career in the House of Representatives [source: David Lampo, A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians should support Gay Rights, p. 138].Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2014Defying scientific knowledge about vaccines, went on to become POTUS.It has to become as damning as Todd Akin's infamous rape comment, for the own political party to make a lukewarm intervention.Once again, you have to cite the AfD again and again to find similar egregious statements. And in contrast to the Republican party, who provide the current POTUS, the AfD has not even a remote chance to nominate one of their members as chancellor. When politicians from other German parties make outlandish statements, their political career is over [example]. Even if they hold on to their elected posts, they are kicked out of the party and lose their influence and their seat in the next election. There is a healthy intellectual immune system in the German society which seized to function in the polarized US society.SUMMARYAmerica's intellectual culture draws predominantly from Enlightenment ideals and achieves its goals to bring education to a large part of the citizens exceptionally good and is home to the leading scientific cluster in the world. German intellectual culture is a mix from a long history of medieval, Enlightenment, humanist, and contemporary traditions. Widespread scientific education was long hampered by the class distinctions in society and the enduring success of the vocational system. Germany produced and still produces top scientific results and has overtaken the US tertiary education proliferation policies, but still trails it in graduation statistics.In German culture, academic achievements, the love for books, and the scientific heritage are part of the country's identity and of singular importance. The same is true for sections of American society, but there is also a ghastly underbelly of anti-intellectuality, which the nation fails to keep in check.CONCLUSIONSo, does Germany have a more intellectual culture compared to the United States?Even though the situation should be more apparent now, the answer still depends on which factors are weighted more. You can argue both ways. But while US intellectuality is past its zenith, facing challenges in the public discourse and political sabotage alike, Germany catches up in areas such as mass education. Maybe in 50 years, there is a definite answer.tl;drIntellectuality rocks!IMAGES[1] CC BY-SA 4.0 image by C messierFile:Σωκράτης, Ακαδημία Αθηνών 6616.jpg[2] (Public Domain) Datei:Logo Karls-Universität Prag-schwarz.svg – Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Logo_Karls-Universit%C3%A4t_Prag-schwarz.svg)[3] CC BY-ND 2.0 image by Fachstelle für Öffentliche Bibliotheken NRWStadtbücherei Hemer[4] Google Trends[5] CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 image by venanaWalk of Ideas - German Authors[6] CC BY-SA 4.0 image by TookiethesecondMagnolia High School (Texas) - Wikipedia[7] CC BY-SA 3.0 image by Florian Deckerhttps://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Gymnasium_Wendalinum_Nordseite.jpg[8] (German public domain) image by ZDFhttps://www.zdf.de/politik/frontal-21/meuthen-sagte-unwahrheit-ueber-wahlkampfhilfen-100.html[9] CC BY-SA 2.0 image by Gage Skidmorehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/32758233090[10] CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 image by Schub@https://www.flickr.com/photos/schubi74/8119707737/[11] (Public Domain) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Weimar_Goethe-Schiller-Denkmal_2012_02.jpg[12] (Public Domain) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eleanor_Roosevelt_and_United_Nations_Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights_in_Spanish_09-2456M_original.jpg[13] CC BY-SA 3.0 image by Axel Hindemithhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ranga_Yogeshwar_Ideenexpo_Spule.jpg[14] CC BY-SA 3.0 image by Philip Wilkehttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evolution-des-wissens.jpg

In my view CU is institution which as made good reputation in INDIA with their ranks and Awards here is some information regarding CUChandigarh university is is a leading Indian Institution offering its students a unique amalgamation of professional and academic excellence. The University has been accredited with the prestigious A+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Chandigarh University has become Youngest and the only private university in India to bag A+ grade in the first cycle of the accreditation process and has also become the only state private university of Punjab to be accredited by NAAC.Also, ranked among Asia’s best and fastest growing universities, CU has coupled the experience of top industry leaders and renowned academicians to foster a global approach.In the times of COVID 19 also everything was taken care a software was introduced by the university “blackboard” on which all the classes and work is done its new platform of teaching that had helped so many students as they did not lose there precious time and continued to study and there evaluation was also done.CU also provide various platforms for students so that they can explore their talents along with education and at the times of COVID 19 proper precautionary measures are taken so that students don't have any difficulty in their curriculum.Platforms are like - CU fest, CU parade, AAGAAZ,1st AIU INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVALDANCE WORLD CUPNothing is more worth than a healthy body. Sports and games are an essential part of an individual's life, contributing in enhancing the quality of life. Understanding the importance of sports, Chandigarh University promotes the sports activities and ensures the student participation. The university organizes inter university and inter college/department events that foster team spirit among the participants and make them disciplined.Playing competitive sports has also proven to increase the rate of positive academic achievement among the students. Dedicated sports department of Chandigarh University provides students with a plethora of opportunities to maintain healthy & active lifestyle while pursuing academic goals. This dedication makes sports an integral part of the University's academic structure. Chandigarh University has many accolades to its credit both nationally & internationally.SportsMeet Chandigarh University’s Roll Ball Champions! - https://youtu.be/fmEvTeTpMpANATIONAL WUSHU CHAMPION SUPRIYA SAH - https://youtu.be/8Ce8bmVN4o0Meet Asian Rowing Champion from Chandigarh University - https://youtu.be/33VxPdArPAgUniversity Sports Achievements● Gold Medal for India in 3rd ASIAN ROLL BALL (M)Championship 2018-19● Gold Medal for India in Asian Powerlifting Championship 2018● Gold Medal for India in 2nd International Kukkiwon Cup 2018● Silver Medal for India in Asian Rowing Championship● Silver in World Taekwondo Challenge Tournament● Gold in Senior National Taekwondo Championship● Silver Medal at AIU for American Football● Overall All India Inter-University Weightlifting Championship Trophy● Overall Inter-Polytechnic State Basketball Championship Trophy● Overall All India Inter-University Weightlifting Championship Trophy● Overall Inter-Polytechnic State Basketball Championship TrophySportsMAKING INDIA PROUDNot only in academics, but CU have been scaling new heights in sports as well. CU is home to winners in Asian Games, Commonwealth games and many national competitions.InternationalNational87 MEDALS IN THE YEAR 2018-19GOLD 24SILVER 28BRONZE 35Chandigarh University Department of SportsYouth Summit | EVOKE - Chandigarh UniversityCulturalUniversity Fest - https://youtu.be/ya6QjZtI7XgSunburn - https://youtu.be/Gu90n1su8fYHeritage Festival - https://youtu.be/t8q9q6o9vCMChristmas Celebration - https://youtu.be/JvXdDYFsKmAAIU Champions for 4th Year in a Row.International and National Conferences - Chandigarh UniversityInternational Credit Transfer- International ProgramsPrerequisites for Articulation Program through Chandigarh UniversityWhat are the other benefits for students?Answer. 1. Up to 100% scholarship2. Save 2 years of tuition fees in dollars3. Up to 3 years work permit4. An opportunity for Permanent Residency5. In-built IELTS program6. Higher Probability of Visa ApprovalBYTEInternational Credit Transfer Programs at Chandigarh University is your best opportunity to study abroad in the current scenario.Spend 1 or 2 years at CU and move to foreign University to attain your overseas education.Take a step closer at www.cuchd.in/studyabroadStudent Reviews about the International Credit Transfer Program at Chandigarh UniversityChandigarh University is a full-fledged university established by the Punjab State Legislature and is recognized by University Grants Commission under Section 2(f) with the right to confer degrees as per Section 22(1) of the UGC Act, 1956.Chandigarh University, Punjab Ranking and AwardsChandigarh University, Punjab enjoys high standing among many national rating services that evaluate quality of education, research activity, affordability and athletic excellence. These rankings recognize not only CU as a whole, but also our many respected schools and departments. Chandigarh University, Punjab is proud to be recognized by the organizations and publications listed below for our excellence in education.Chandigarh University Gharuan Has Been Ranked ‘A+’ by NAACChandigarh University has been awarded the prestigious A+ grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The A+ grade has placed Chandigarh University amongst the India’s most elite and prestigious Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) which is maintaining top standards in delivering and disseminating of quality education to its students.CU awarded Diamond rating by QS I-GAUGEChandigarh University has now received ‘Diamond’ Rating from QS I-Guage Ratings based on globally recognized QS World Rankings. A unique rating system, QS I-GAUGE brings together the global expertise, experience and reputation of UK based QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) & captures the essence of the dynamic Indian higher education system & conforms to international standards & best practices.CU awarded Diamond rating by QS I-GAUGEChandigarh University has now received ‘Diamond’ Rating from QS I-Guage Ratings based on globally recognized QS World Rankings. A unique rating system, QS I-GAUGE brings together the global expertise, experience and reputation of UK based QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) & captures the essence of the dynamic Indian higher education system & conforms to international standards & best practices.Chandigarh University is now certified by E-LEADChandigarh University has received another major certification with QS I GAUGE E-LEAD (E-Learning Excellence for Academic Digitisation) certifying the preparedness of the intitution to conduct online Teaching & Learning. The certification involves rigorous data collection, evaluation and assessment of performance metrics as set out in the methodology.Ranked 10thAmong Top 50 Private State Universities of IndiaRanked 7thin Top 25 Young Universities of IndiaRanked 3rdAmong Top Private Universities of IndiaOur consistent hard work have made us climb the ladder of success . Here we are in Top 3rd private University as per India Today 2017National Award for Highest Number of Companies – Limca Book of Records (2017)Chandigarh University is now in Limca Book of Records for Highest Number of Companies for Campus Placements in a single academic year.Best Student Friendly University – Star Group (2017)Chandigarh University has stepped up the ranking ladder by bagging a title of “BEST STUDENT FRIENDLY UNIVERSITY” from India's leading Rating Agency - Star Group.University with Best Placements – By WCRC (2016)For providing impeccable placements to its students since inception, Chandigarh University has been honored with the award of "University with Best Placements" by WCRC Leaders.Top 10% Educational Institutes for providing Employability – Aspiring Minds (2015 & 2016)Chandigarh University has been ranked amongst the best Educational Institutes for providing Employability by Aspiring Minds.Asia’s Fastest Growing Private University – By WCRC (2015)Chandigarh University has been honored with the title of Asia’s Fastest Growing Private Education Institute by WCRC Leaders.7th Among Top Socioversities of India - By A Career is a life (2015)Chandigarh University has been ranked 7th among Top 25 Socioversities of India by Careers 360 for its popularity on various social media platforms.Eduprenuers Award – By Discovery Watch (2014)Chandigarh University has been awarded with "Edupreneurs Awards" for Ensuring Collaboration with Government/NGOs/Other Developmental Agencies.Ranked 2nd among Private Engineering Colleges in North Zone – The WeekUniversity Institute of Engineering (UIE) has been ranked #2 for the Best Private Engineering College in North Zone by The Week College Rankings 2020 and ranked #42 overall.Ranked 14th among Private Engineering Colleges in all Over India – The WeekUniversity Institute of Engineering (UIE) has been ranked #14 for the Best Private Engineering College in all over India by The Week College Rankings 2020 and ranked #42 overall.Ranked among India’s Top 30 Engineering Institutions - Times Engineering (2020)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been ranked amongst the "Top 30 Engineering Institute Rankings 2020" by Times Engineering. In the Top private Engineering Institutions, UIE, Chandigarh University has managed to bag All India 19th rank, while in North Zone, UIE emerged as Top 6th Engineering Institution and 1st in Punjab.Ranked among India’s Top Engineering Research INSTITUTIONS - Times Engineering (2020)Banking on quality research and 700 patents filed in just 7 years, University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been ranked amongst the "Top 5 Engineering Institutions with outstanding research capabilities.Ranked among India’s Top 50 Private Engineering Institutes on Placements - Times Engineering (2020)Registering record placements in 2020 with more than 691 multi national companies selecting 6617 students, UIE Chandigarh University is ranked 35th in ALL India Top 50 Private Engineering Institutions ranking in placements domain.UIE Ranked 16th among the Top 25 Emerging Colleges in the Country – India TodayThe University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been ranked 16 among the Top 25 Emerging Colleges in the country by India Today.UIE Ranked 45th among Top Private Engineering Colleges in the Country – India TodayThe University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been ranked #45 among the Top Private Engineering Colleges in the country by India Today.Youngest University to be Ranked by NIRF India 2019Ranked 117th Engineering Institute of India by NIRF Our constant hard-work has made us hike to the top most level of success. We have been ranked 117th for our excellence in education by NIRF, Govt. Of India.AAA+ Ranking by Careers360 (Engineering)Assessing more than 3500 institutes nationally on various parameters such as faculty quality, student quality, research and innovation, India's only Education Magazine Careers360 in its annual Engineering Rankings has given University Institute of Engineering, Chandigarh University AAA+ Ranking.Ranked 16th Among Top Engineering Institute of India – THE OUTLOOK (2017)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University is ranked 16th among the Top Engineering Institutes of India by The Outlook Magazine.Ranked 1st Among Private Engineering Institutes of North India – THE OUTLOOK (2017)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University is ranked 1st among the private Engineering Institutes of North India by The Outlook Magazine.Ranked 1st Among Private Engineering Institutes of North India for Industry Interface– THE OUTLOOK (2017)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University is ranked 1st among private Engineering Institutes of North India for Industry Interface by The Outlook Magazine.Ranked 8th Among Top Private Engineering Institutes of India – THE OUTLOOK (2016)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University got ranked 8th among the Top private Engineering Institutes of India in the year 2016 by The Outlook Magazine.Ranked 5th Among Top Private Engineering Institutes of India – THE WEEK (2016)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University grabbed another ranking in the year 2016 i.e. 5th among the Top Engineering Institutes of India by The Outlook Magazine.Ranked among India’s Top 5 Emerging Engineering Institutes - Times Engineering (2015)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been ranked amongst the "Top 5 Emerging Engineering Institutes" by Times Engineering.Outstanding Engineering Institute - ABP News (2014)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has been honored with the title of "Outstanding Engineering Institute" in the year 2014 by India's leading News Channel - ABP News.Outstanding Engineering Institute - ET NOW (2013)University Institute of Engineering (UIE), Chandigarh University has also been honored with the title of "Outstanding Engineering Institute" in the year 2013 by India's leading English Business News Channel- ET NOW.#9 among Top 15 Private Universities in the Country (2020) by Times B-SchoolUniversity School of Business (USB) at Chandigarh University ranked #9 among Top 15 Private Universities in all over India by the Times B-School in Times B-School Rankings 2020.University School of Business ranked #25 among Top 100 Management Institutes (2020) by Times B-SchoolUniversity School of Business (USB) at Chandigarh University ranked #25 among Top 100 Management Institutes in all over India by the Times B-School in Top 100 Management Institutes Overall Ranking (2020) by Times B-SchoolUniversity School of Business ranked #12 among Management Institutes in North Zone (2020) by Times B-SchoolUniversity School of Business (USB) at Chandigarh University ranked #12 among Management Institutes in North India by the Times B-School in their 2020 Survey.USB Ranked 59th among Top Colleges in the Country for offering World-Class BBA – India TodayThe University School of Business (USB), Chandigarh University has been ranked #59 among Top Colleges in the country for offering World-Class BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) by India Today.Youngest University to be Ranked by NIRF India 201964th Management Institute of India by NIRF Chandigarh University has been ranked 64th among fully fledged Universities (Management) of India by NIRF for continuous efforts to escalate quality education to the students.5th Among Emerging B-Schools of India – Times of India (2017)University School of Business (USB), Chandigarh University is ranked 5th among Emerging B-Schools of India by the third-largest Indian newspaper - Times of India.2nd Best MBA-Finance B-School in Non-metros category – Outlook Money (2016)Chandigarh University's Apex Institute of Technology MBA is ranked 2nd Best MBA- Finance B-School in Non-metros category in North by the OUTLOOK MONEY.3rd Among 'Top-5 Women Friendly B-School' - OUTLOOK MONEY (2016)Apex Institute of Technology (AIT), Chandigarh University has been ranked 3rd among 'Top-5 Women Friendly B-School' by OUTLOOK MONEY.AAA Ranking by Careers 360 Magazine (2015)University School of Business (USB), Chandigarh University has been given AAA ranking by leading education portal - Careers 360.AA+ Ranking by Digital Learning (2015)Digital Learning Magazine has ranked University Business School (USB), Chandigarh University as AA+.Ranked 3rd among Private Hotel Management Colleges in North Zone – The WeekUniversity Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (UITHM) has been ranked #3 for the Best Private Hotel Management College in all over India by The Week College Rankings 2020 and ranked #23 overall.Ranked 7th among Private Hotel Management Colleges in North Zone – The WeekUniversity Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (UITHM) has been ranked #7 for the Best Private Hotel Management College in all over India by The Week College Rankings 2020 and ranked #23 overall.UITHM Ranked 2th among all Colleges to offer Best Value for Money – India TodayChandigarh University's UITHM (University Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management) has been ranked #2 among all colleges in Hotel Management to offer best value for money by India Today.UITHM Ranked 25th among Top Colleges in the country – India TodayApart from being #2 ranked college to offer Best Value for Money, Chandigarh University's UITHM (University Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management) has been ranked #25 among the Top Colleges in the country.Ranked 7th Among Top Pvt. Hotel Management Institutes of North India – The Week (2017)University Institute of Tourism & Hospitality Management (UITHM), Chandigarh University is ranked 7th among the Top Pvt. Hotel Management Institutes of North India by the Indian newsmagazine - The Week.Ranked 25th Among top Pvt. Hotel Management Institutes of India – The Week (2016)University Institute of Tourism & Hospitality Management (UITHM), Chandigarh University has been ranked 25th Among Top Private Hotel Management Institutes of India by "The Week" magazine.Best Hotel Management Institute 2014-2015. (Awarded for consecutive 2 years by Indian Restaurant Congress)University Institute of Tourism & Hospitality Management (UITHM), Chandigarh University added another feather to its cap by grabbing the title of Best Hotel Management Institute consecutively for two years (i.e. 2014 & 2015) by Indian Restaurant Congress.ComputingBCA Ranked 50th among Top Colleges in the country for offering World-Class BCA – India TodayThe University Institute of Computing (UIC), Chandigarh University has been ranked #50 among Top Colleges in the country for offering World-Class BCA (Bachelor of Computer Application) by India Today.CommerceRanked 45th in Commerce College Rankings 2020 – The WeekUniversity School of Business-CommerceRecognitionsUniversity Grants Commission (UGC)Chandigarh University is recognized by University Grants Commission (UGC), a statutory body of the Government of India established for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India.All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)The engineering programs at CU are approved by AICTE. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was set-up in November 1945 as a national level Apex Advisory Body to conduct survey on the facilities on technical education and to promote development in the country in a coordinated and integrated manner.Membership & Approvals12 B status to Chandigarh UniversityBar Council of India (BCI)All programs of Law at Chandigarh university are approved by Bar Council of India (BCI), body established under the Advocates Act 1961 that regulates the legal practice and legal education in India. It prescribes standards of professional conduct, etiquettes and exercises disciplinary jurisdiction over the bar. It also sets standards for legal education and grants recognition to Universities whose degree in law will serve as a qualification for students to enroll themselves as advocates upon graduation.National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (Society) was set up in the year 1982 by Govt. of India as an autonomous body for coordinated growth and development of hospitality management education in the country.Aims and objectives of National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology and its role as the apex formation in the country to ensure coordinated growth and development of hospitality education through its affiliated institutes.Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)All programs related to Pharmacy at Chandigarh University are approved by PCI. The Pharmacy education and profession in India upto graduate level is regulated by the PCI, a statutory body governed by the provisions of the Pharmacy Act, 1948 passed by the Parliament.Council of Architecture (COA)All the architecture programs at Chandigarh University are approved by COA. The Council of Architecture (COA) has been constituted by the Government of India under the provisions of the Architects Act, 1972, enacted by the Parliament of India, which came into force on 1st September, 1972.The COA oversees the maintenance of the standards periodically by way of conducting inspections through Committees of Experts.National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE)All the programs of education and physical education at Chandigarh University are approved by NCTE. The National Council for Teacher Education, in its previous status since 1973, was an advisory body for the Central and State Governments on all matters pertaining to teacher education, with its Secretariat in the Department of Teacher Education of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).Association of Indian Universities (AIU)Chandigarh University is a member of Association of Indian Universities. AIU serves as the representative of universities in India and undertakes various programs as would help to improve standards of instruction, examination, research, textbooks, scholarly publications, library organisation and such other programs which may contribute to the growth and propagation of knowledge.Computer Society of India (CSI)Chandigarh University is a member of CSI. Formed in 1965, the CSI has been instrumental in guiding the Indian IT industry down the right path since its formative years. Today, the CSI has 73 chapters all over India, over 500 student branches, and more than 100000 members including India's most famous IT industry leaders, brilliant scientists and dedicated academicians.Chandigarh University joins Association of Universities of Asia and The PacificChandigarh University stands amongst Nation's most prestigious higher education institutions. With Memberships in National & International associations and bodies already in place, Chandigarh University is now a member of the Prestigious Association of Universities of Asia and The Pacific. Chandigarh University's membership with AUAP will help explore more possibilities at international level.PETEX donates Chandigarh University with Software worth Multi-million PoundsIn recent development, Chandigarh University has received a multi-million pound software donation from Petroleum Experts (PETEX). The donation by the Edinburgh-based Petroleum Experts is worth £2,025,307.17 and aims to undertake relevant research activities and to support the teaching receiving first-hand experience of industry-standard software.Kappa signs Software License Agreement with Chandigarh UniversityChandigarh University has signed the Software License Agreement with Petroleum Engineering Software Company, KAPPA. Availing a boost to Engineering programs at Chandigarh University, KAPPA has granted the educational type network license to use 6 softwares - Saphir, Topaze, Rubis, Azurite, Emeraude, Citrine, valued at €4,500,000.Rock Flow Dynamics grant tNavigator Software Licenses worth $14, 080, 000 to Chandigarh UniversityChandigarh University has received a donation of tNavigator software licenses from Rock Flow Dynamics to enrich the learning experience of Petroleum Engineering & allied streams students and to boost the Engineering programs. RFD has granted free-of-charge 88 Single-User licenses valued at $14,080,000.International MembershipsInternational Association of Universities (IAU)The International Association of Universities (IAU) is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-based worldwide association of higher education institutions.It brings together institutions and organisations from some 120 countries for reflection and action on common concerns and collaborates with various international, regional and national bodies active in higher education. Chandigarh University is honored to have received the membership of the global association of institutions and organizations of higher education.Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)Established in 1913, the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) is the world's first & oldest international university network. A UK-registered charity, ACU has over 500 member institutions in over 40 countries across the Commonwealth. It brings together many of the most prestigious and well-funded universities internationally with relatively new institutions in some of the world’s least developed countries with a common belief to enhance excellence in everything that ACU and its member universities do.Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through IEEE's highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities.The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)The American Society of Mechanical Engineers promotes the art, science & practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe. ASME is a not-for-profit membership organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, career enrichment, and skills development across all engineering disciplines, toward a goal of helping the global engineering community develop solutions to benefit lives and livelihoods. Founded in 1880 by a small group of leading industrialists, ASME has grown through the decades to include more than 130,000 members in 151 countries.Indo US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE)The Indo US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE), with headquarters at University of Massachusetts Lowell, was conceptualized by over 150 leaders of engineering education and businesses from US and India in 2007. The vision of IUCEE is to improve the quality and global relevance of engineering education and research in India and related benefits to US engineering educators, with focus on faculty development, student development, curriculum development, as well as improved teaching technologies & research.American Chemical Society (ACS)ACS is a congressionally chartered independent membership organization which represents professionals at all degree levels and in all fields of chemistry and sciences that involve chemistry.CU ScholarshipsChandigarh University is fully committed to its Institutional Social Responsibility. The University, besides being pioneers of quality education is proactive in uplifting the education standard and qualification of students of the nation in general and North region in particular, is ever enthusiastic to encourage and motivate bright students by providing additional benefits and facilities to shining stars and super achievers. As a sequel to this, it is proposed to introduce a more attractive Scholarship scheme for those seeking fresh admission from Academic session 2021.Chandigarh University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) For The Academic Year 2021-2022To provide an opportunity to bright and inquisitive young minds from across the country to study in most challenging and diverse academic environment, Chandigarh University has launched CUCET, a common entrance exam with double benefits. The scholarships worth Rs. 33 Crores is aimed at rewarding the brilliance and potential of young aspirants to win scholarships and study in futuristic courses of their choice.Click here to view more about CUCETMerit Scholarship Schemes for the Academic Session 2021-2022‘Let your hard work pay off your university fees›The Merit Based Scholarship is particularly designed for meritorious students who had displayed an outstanding level of academic achievement in their previous years.Click here to view the policyOther Concessions for the Academic Year 2021-2022Click here to view the policyScholarship Scheme for Wards of Defence Personnel for the Academic Year 2021-2022Click here to view the policyCU Sports Policy for the Academic Year 2021-2022Click here to view the policyARCHITECTURE SCHOLARSHIP ON THE BASIS OF NATA/JEE (Main) SCOREClick here to view the policyScholarship for Family Members of Chandigarh University Staff for Session 2020-2021Click here to view the policyNote:-All Eligible students can avail one scholarship at one time.Get in TouchFor any information please contact the below mentioned helpline nos:General Inquiries:+91-160-3044444Mobile: +91-99159-99223, +91-99159-99224Toll Free: 1800 1212 88800Email: [email protected]: Although CU endeavors to ensure the accuracy of this information, there is no guarantee it will remain accurate all year. Applicants are advised to confirm program details before making an application.Institutional Social ResponsibilityInstitutional Social Responsibility (ISR) is one of the mainstays of Chandigarh University and we as an institution believes that our role involves something more than simply imparting of knowledge and skills to the students. As an active agent of social change, CU takes on voluntary actions in the creation of a culture of social responsibility in society through a myriad of activities that address both our own competitive interests & welfare of the society.Hunar Se RozgarThe Ministry of Tourism launched a special initiative called Hunar Se Rozgar Tak (HSRT). This Short-term course is being run at Chandigarh University which Started in 2011.Students trained by CU so far:Year (2012-2013)60 studentsYear (2013-2014)60 studentsYear (2013-2014)210 studentsYear (2014-2015)320 studentsTotal students trained 650Areas:CookeryBakeryHouse KeepingFood ProcessingProject for upgradation of roadside eateriesChandigarh University Collaborated with Punjab Heritage & Tourism Promotion Board (PHTPB).CU is offering six months training+ six monthshandholding of Dhabas in the areas forfollowing aspects -Guest satisfactionSanitationHygieneFood presentationGrooming of staffThis project has in turn benefitted Dhabas as following -Certification by PHTPBQuality AssuranceIncrease in SalesEnvironment ProtectionChandigarh University has launched ‘Save Me- My Environment, My Earth’ Campaignin collaboration with National Green Tribunal (NGT)Chandigarh University is maintaining a green belt of 2 KMS (1kms either side of the university)New trees have been planted and the old trees has been preserve by the universityUniversity has also Practical based Environment Training Course in Curriculum from academic year 2016Jyot-e- Haryaval (Mission green)Project Jyot-e- Haryaval is an initiative of Chandigarh University to heal the planet, where every student contributes something that aggregates into a colossal protection for life on the planet. It aims to increase the green cover of the State of Punjab. The project is bringing respite to the ecology without imposing any financial burden on the state.SEE MORETree PlantationMother earth that has already lost much of its forestlands - is the major concern of the hour. As an initiate to make the world a greener place, Chandigarh University solely or in association with different organizations often organizes a couple of Tree Plantation Drives. The purpose of initiative is to grow more and more trees in the campus and surrounding areas.SEE MORENo CrackersAs the festival of light comes, there come the exorbitant firecrackers that give us nothing but massive air pollution - this is what volunteers of Chandigarh University attempt to spread. Under ISR, they are spreading the message among the natives to avoid crackers and take the festival as an opportunity to reconnect with family.SEE MORECleanliness at KhararExhorting to fulfill Mahatma Gandhi's vision of Clean India, Chandigarh University often organizes cleanliness drives in varied areas of Kharar, Mohali under the Swachh Bharat initiative that seeks to create a Clean India. CU believes that the best place to start the Cleanliness is from the home itself. Therefore, we ensure that our campus and nearby places are clean and healthy.A SMART Junior ProgramThe SMART Junior program is an initiative of Chandigarh University, which is aimed at transforming the school students into the smart juniors by providing them skills and platform to exhibit their talents.The sole purpose of this program is to motivate the children so that they could confidently bring out their innate capacity, further contributing to the betterment of the Indian society.SEE OUR PROGRAMSenior Citizen WelfareAgeing is an inevitable process of life. Thus to support the physical and holistic wellness of elderly, Chandigarh University has launched Senior Citizen Welfare that provides more effective provision for the welfare of senior citizens.Seminar for Senior Citizen CareTo shore up the integral wellness of elderly, Chandigarh University organizes Seminars for Senior Citizen Care, which is dedicated to aware senior citizens about good physical and mental health, essential for happiness.SEE OUR PROGRAMNeighborhood School ProgramKnowledge is power and has been the significant in the growth and development of the youth. Paving the path to the same, CU runs a Neighborhood School Program that organizes various quizzing, mind grilling, dancing, music and more competitions under its umbrella.Quiz CompetitionThe objective of initiative is to encourage students to look beyond their textual knowledge and establish a relationship between theory and practical of the learnt concepts.Stationery Distribution Education, we believe is the greatest wealth that one can ever have. But, the basic cost incurred on educating a child is so high that it becomes difficult for poor people to provide necessary educational materials to their wards. Therefore, from the past few years Chandigarh University has been reaching the needy children in the nearby villages and made it a mission to donate books, pencils and uniforms to the underprivileged