Last year, 700000 art examinees lost their qualification for art examination due to non subjective reasons. The login portal of the art examinee's official website and the APP exploded, which could not help but make people doubt whether it is reliable to upgrade the art to the app and study abroad? I hope that this year's art students under the epidemic will not be the same as last year.

Last year's event of art promotion: With the increase of the number of art examinees, it is difficult for colleges and universities to meet such a huge demand for examinations. In the face of this situation, some colleges and universities currently choose online APP to streamline the enrollment and application process with big data statistics. Theoretically, this operation actually provides convenience for both students and schools, but yesterday it was revealed that the art examination APP was due to system reasons, As a result, as many as 700000 candidates lost their qualification to apply for the exam. Many students' APP application pages have become like this.

Burst pictures from the network

The "art examination" has always been the hot spot of the last hot search every year, but the hot search in the past years is estimated to be "inferior" to this year. As an art tutoring institution, Natural Light not only has many art examinees from our students, but also most professional instructors are former art examinees. We also have complex feelings about this "hot spot", so, As art students and art education practitioners? How should I look at this matter? Can you believe the many statements on Weibo that "learning art is a dead end"? Is the art education in China really inferior to that abroad?

Picture from Weibo

First of all, it needs to be clear that although we are doing overseas art education, we have always been neutral about whether to study art abroad. Students' backgrounds and environments are different when learning art, whether they are studying at home or abroad. The answer must be different. Each student is an independent individual with personal characteristics and unique artistic demands. The educational environment required cannot be generalized.

It is very important for art students to understand the characteristics of domestic and foreign education, their respective advantages and problems, and then analyze their own situation. Today, we will talk about the current situation of art education at home and abroad from the problems exposed by the "APP" event.

The current situation of art education for art students studying abroad at home and abroad:

　 1) Different distribution of college resources and majors

What has been exposed by the "Art Promotion APP" these days is actually the lack of domestic art education resources. In the Description of Three Days' Opening of the Artistic Promotion Registration System released by Artistic Promotion on its official Wechat, it said:

"At 6:00 a.m. on January 6, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts opened applications at the same time. The maximum number of concurrent connections per second at the moment of opening was 280000, and the maximum number of concurrent connections per second continued to increase to 340000 at 23:00 p.m., far exceeding the expected number of applicants in 2019."

The number of hundreds of thousands of applicants also proves that domestic students have a high demand for art education. However, in terms of supply, there are only nine top art schools in China, namely, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the China Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts and Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, which are collectively referred to as "nine major art schools".

What does this mean for art students? It means great competitive pressure and less flexible and flexible choice of colleges and universities. Not only are the resources of colleges and universities scarce, but there are also many restrictions on the choice of majors. For some emerging industries and majors, such as interactive electronic communication, sound art, global innovation, comprehensive design, data visualization, etc., it is difficult to find suitable colleges and universities in China.

In such an environment, overseas universities will have more choices. First of all, in terms of geographical scope, it is the United States and Britain that we are familiar with. Secondly, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, which have become more and more popular in recent years, are also optional objects; Once the range of countries to choose from is expanded, the range of colleges and universities will naturally become larger. For example, comprehensive art universities, such as RCA Huangyi, UAL Lunyi 7, Parsons, MICA, SVA, CCA, Japan has the options of Tama, Dongyi, and Musashino.

Secondly, with the help of relatively independent teaching concepts, especially the concept of division of majors by department advocated by overseas universities, students also have a lot of specific options for specific majors that are particularly prominent, such as FIT, CSM, LCF, and even ESMODE in France, Marangoni in Italy, which are well known in the field of fashion design. With a wider range of vision and choices, these famous schools can be included in your Dream School roster.

Of course, what I said above is for most students. It is not suitable for students who are especially interested in traditional art and culture. I know, and in my years of work, I have also met people who are very determined to learn Chinese culture and art. For example, my colleague once received a student who wanted to learn the traditional Chinese metalwork and lacquer art. Although there are similar ancient relics repair in foreign countries, the needs and teaching points for students are completely different, Because the cultural background of the research is very different. These professional fields, which are very cultural and traditional in nature, and may not have a major that can give full play to creativity, may not be suitable for going abroad.

This is because although foreign art education has a perfect system and concept, most of them are based on contemporary art. For traditional professional fields, the choices that can be made are also based on European classical art, such as Study abroad in oil painting , prints, sculptures, etc. These majors may not be suitable for students who are interested in traditional Chinese art, so I may not recommend studying abroad for those students who have a strong demand for them.

　　 2) Collection VS "Art Examination"

On December 29, 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Doing a Good Job in Some Special Types of Enrollment of Ordinary Colleges and Universities in 2019, and its annex Basic Requirements for Some Special Types of Enrollment of Ordinary Colleges and Universities in 2019 pointed out that:

"Except for some independent undergraduate art colleges approved by the Ministry of Education (including a few colleges and universities with some art undergraduate majors as reference), in 2019, college entrance examinations will not be organized for arts and design majors in colleges and universities; from 2020, the provincial unified examination results will be used, and no college entrance examinations will be organized."

The reduction of school examinations has narrowed the scope of choice for art examinees, but the number of examination sites in major art schools has not increased, and the capacity of examination sites is extremely limited. These are also one of the reasons for the sharp increase in the number of applicants for the art examination.

But for overseas colleges and universities, there is no such thing as "school examination" and "art examination". The corresponding thing is "Portfolio", which is an application oriented, ability and thinking oriented collection of personal works. The collection of works focuses on personal expression, without rules and regulations, and has a lot of space to play freely, which can fully display students' ideas. This is an advantage, but it also brings problems. Because there are no too many restrictions and frameworks, and the subjectivity is extremely strong, the collection of works does not have a common evaluation standard, and it is difficult for students to know what kind of overseas study work gathering is favored by teachers, What kind of works can better reflect your own ability.

However, such a subjective oriented process of preparation of works that emphasizes the development of personality actually requires higher teaching quality. Only by improving students' comprehensive ability, from thinking to skills, from ideas to practice, can they create more competitive and attractive works.

Different from the fluidity and subjectivity of the collection of works, the determination of students' ability in the art examination is based on evidence. Portraits, colors, lines, and graphics all have nearly perfect high standards. Although it is difficult to exercise students' thinking ability, such high standard framework learning can cultivate students' high-level painting skills. In fact, the domestic art education is more biased towards "craftsmen", and pays more attention to techniques than the thinking ability that artists need.

Our colleagues once said with a smile that in the studio of each collection organization, there is a "god" of domestic art academies. These "great gods" often have exquisite writing skills and superior abilities, but their application results are often not the best. The year-round framework teaching has given them a "good" standard, but not a "good" idea. They can draw ten lifelike fine brushwork, but it is difficult to express even the simplest emotion with paintings.

There are also many teachers and students in natural light. Many of my colleagues have gone through the road of art examination. They have a deep understanding of the differences between domestic and foreign art education. In 2016, there was an undergraduate student of Gome, who had strong professional ability at school. She was at the level of being a god. During the art examination and undergraduate, the teacher attached great importance to professional painting skills, which enabled her to have a solid professional foundation and draw everything lifelike. It's no exaggeration to say that when she first came to the natural light, she produced more than ten paintings. Even the professional instructors who graduated from RCA couldn't help praising them, and several flower works were even more excellent. But when the teacher asked her what content and concept she wanted to express in her works, she thought for a long time before she was sure to say: "That is... beautiful flowers...?".

Although such things may seem "extreme", such events are not rare. For example, a student who graduated from the High School Affiliated to the Central United States in the 2019 art study abroad application season, but in high school, she also developed the habit of asking teachers for advice no matter what she did, However, the teaching style of natural light teacher guidance made her feel uncomfortable at the beginning of class.

Foreign colleges and universities attach importance to the creativity of students. We often share cases of student works on the public account, and some students leave a message: Why did xxx's works seem to be unfinished, but they were awarded the RCA Royal Academy of Arts Parsons Award offer? This is also the reason why foreign universities pay more attention to their ideas than their students' basic skills.

　 3) "One exam determines one's life"

First, the registration process of European and American art schools.

As in China, European and American art schools also apply online. But unlike in China, many art schools in Europe and the United States enroll students in batches. In this way, we can avoid the situation that many students pour in together at the same time.

Different from China, there is a time limit for the application of European and American universities. After the application is opened, you can apply for schools for almost half a year, and most schools apply through the slideroom online. A collection of works+application materials can be delivered to multiple schools after targeted fine-tuning. Such periodic application+online application can better adjust the time and be more flexible, and there will be no time conflict between college applications. However, such flexibility is very unfriendly to students with serious procrastination. If they do not plan well, they may not be able to apply in time.

In China, however, it is more like "one exam determines one's life". If art students want to enter the university, they have to go through three passes: the joint exam, the school exam and the college entrance exam. First of all, you should take part in the joint examination. The results of the joint examination determine whether you can study in the province. If you have excellent results in the joint examination, you will have more choices. You can not only choose schools outside the province, but also "guarantee the minimum" in the province.

The second is the art exam. Different schools have different exam questions, and there are more training courses for different schools. For example, in Beijing, there are hundreds of professional tutoring studios only for one school of Communication University of China. The last one is culture class, that is, college entrance examination. As an art examinee, passing the art exam does not mean that you are 100% sure of being admitted. Even if you get the first score in the art exam, there is a risk that you will not be admitted in the end, because your final fate depends on the college entrance exam results. After the art examination results and college entrance examination results are converted in proportion, you will get a comprehensive score. Only when the score is high, you will have the final opportunity to compete. If the score is not so advantageous, the chance to get the admission notice will be slim.

Unlike foreign countries, which can apply for multiple schools at the same time, although domestic students can also apply for multiple schools at the same time, they often encounter various restrictions. For example, your Dream School has limited enrollment in your province, or even does not enroll students this year; For example, when two schools that both want to take the exam collide, you need to make a choice; Another example is that there is a limit on the number of applicants at the local examination points, and no test places are available. These restrictions have increased the difficulty of the difficult art examination.

To sum up, how do art students plan their way to school?

Many people, in order to avoid greater domestic competitive pressure, turn their attention to the choice of studying art abroad. Is it a good choice to choose to study art abroad?

　　 First, on the choice of opportunities

In the face of fierce domestic competition pressure and the admission ratio of top universities of 60:1 and 70:1, if the selection opportunities are extended to the whole world, the pressure of competition will naturally be much less.

　 Secondly, in terms of teaching mode

Compared with the traditional domestic teaching mode guided by teachers and professors, students studying abroad will have greater freedom and autonomy. Teachers focus more on correction than traditional guidance. Domestic schools have always had higher requirements for students' basic skills, while foreign universities have higher requirements for students' independent thinking and thinking ideas.

　　 Finally, consider the cost of learning

stay Overseas art study fees In this respect, compared with studying art abroad, it can be imagined that studying art in China has incomparable advantages. But there will also be corresponding rewards for the efforts of studying abroad. Specifically, students should make choices based on their family conditions and their own demands for art.

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