Abstract: To develop the outstanding talents is the core goal of the undergraduate education in classic universities of Britain,including Oxford University and Cambridge University.After hundreds of years of development,their undergraduate education has not only maintained the first-class teaching quality,but also formed a distinctive school characteristics.Their first-class undergraduate education pursue the idea of liberal education that emphasizes the broad academic interest,developing an independent,critical,creative mind and lifetime learning ability,and encouraging students to give a call in question,to challenge academic authority,to focus on social reality.The primary purpose of the ancient universities is training talents.The first-class undergraduate education is based on the boarding college system and the tutorial system of undergraduates.In the colleges,the tutors develop the independent thinking of students by having influence of culture on them.In the current reform process with the connotation development of higher education as the core task in China,it is important to deeply tap the beneficial experience of the first-class undergraduate education in British classical universities,establish the undergraduate education concept of pursuing excellence,innovate the talent training mode of “based on the original”,and implement the undergraduate tutor system according to local conditions,which is beneficial to the construction of the first-class undergraduate education with Chinese characteristics.

Key words: classic universities, Britain, liberal education, first-class undergraduate education