Comparison of undergraduate chemical engineering curricula between China and America Universities based on statistical analysis

Abstract

In this work, we first sketched out a representative China undergraduate chemical engineering (ChE) curriculum based on statistical analysis. The derived results were further compared with those of America ChE programs adopted from literature. It’s observed that China’s ChE curriculum (180.6 ± 11.8) consisting of three course clusters requires much higher average Total Credits than that of America (129.6 ± 3.6) since a number of required courses in China are barely listed as required in America. Programs in both countries have very similar core courses in spite of different courses names used while China requires fewer credits than America for each core course. Model/Numer. is the only course that America has a significantly higher course frequency than China among all 12 core courses while topics covered within the course in two countries are also completely different. Safety course is listed by nearly 100% of China ChE curricula while only 23% of America ChE departments offer it. Finally, the rise of bio- trend in the America ChE curriculum is unlikely in China. The results presented in this work may be used by ChE educators intending to improve their curricula in the future.