The Students and the College Students

Nowadays, education becomes one of the human needs which have to be fulfilled. Based on PP no. 19 tahun 2005, minimally, Indonesian people must get nine years education, primary level and secondary level. Additionally, for those who have ability, they can continue their study into the high school and then to the higher level, the university. Generally, we call them differently, the students and the college students. The students are described as those who still study in primary up to secondary schools. The other one, the college students, refers to students who study in the university. Basically, the students and the college students have several similarities, one of which is the educational purposes and they have several differences as well, two of which are the independence of study, and the learning system.

In the beginning, I would like to start from the similarity between them, which is the educational purposes. The educational purposes here include the goal of both of them which is to gain their knowledge as they are the successor generation. They together have the duty to continue leading our country to be better than the previous leader. The knowledge which the students have gotten in their school can be the basic when they are being a college student.

Not only the similarity, in the following explanation, we are going to deal with the two differences of the students and the college students. The first one is the independence of the study. While you are still a student, every single matter has been arranged and provided by the school for you, and then you should do as what it has to be. Take the lesson, as the example. Every new school year when the lesson starts (tahun ajaran baru), your school will provide your lesson schedule from Monday through Saturday which means that those are your lessons you are going to have along the year till the next year comes. In a contrast, we will not find that kind of “service” in the university. As the college students, you are obligated to be more independence. Your lesson schedule will change every semester not every year, as the students have. The college students are given freedoms to manage their needs by themselves. In the lesson schedule case, as the college students, you have a freedom to choose your lessons. The university only provides you the lessons that have to be fulfilled along you are a college student. Each lesson has several classes, and you can choose which class that matches with you. You will compete with others to get the class that you want. Otherwise, the class has been already full and you have to take another class. Thus, which one do you prefer, take the lesson that have been provided for you with the tight schedule from Monday through Saturday, or you can choose your own classes that match with you and your time.

The next difference that I am going to talk is the learning system. Considering from the age point of view, the students still have simpler way of thinking. Automatically, the learning system that is applied by the teacher is different from the college students’. It is the time for the teacher to give the basic of knowledge for their students. The kinds of fields are more than those in the university. The students are given all of the basic knowledge, for instance, natural science, social science, mathematics, English, and so on. Contrastively, in the university the basics of knowledge that have been studied in the school will be the consideration to choose which major that will be taken. For example, you take the English as the major, along your learning process you will only study about English and several subjects which relevant with your major. You will not get the natural science or mathematics anymore. Furthermore, considering of the age, the college students have wider knowledge and way of thinking along the class, the college students are obligated to have the critical thinking and able to share their ideas by discussions, presentations, etc.

To sum up, we have already known two of differences between the students and the college students, which are the independence of the study, and the learning system. Yet, they also have similarity, which is the educational purpose. In addition, as a recommendation, if you are still a student who expects to continue your study into the university and become a college student, you should be ready dealing with what the college students are supposed to be.

Asizah