In recent years, with the acceleration of college enrollment expansion, China's postgraduate education has also entered the fast track, not only the scale of master's postgraduate education has increased abnormally, but also the scale of doctoral education.According to the news of China Youth Daily: China's first doctoral student enrollment system in 1978 since the enrollment of 18 people, by 2007 China's number of doctoral students has exceeded 50,000, an average annual growth of 23.4%.According to this momentum, China's doctoral education in 2008 is definitely larger than the United States, becoming the world's first.This is tantamount to saying that we have walked the road that Americans have walked for more than 100 years in 20 years, and if we borrow the popular saying, our doctoral education can be described as a miracle on earth.
But after all these years of sustained high-speed recruitment, what is everyone seeing?On the contrary, the negative effects such as "bubble", "celebrity", and academic misconduct are common, and the doctoral education environment is deteriorating day by day.Some scholars sharply criticized, "The 'flooding' of doctors is not only irresponsible in education to society, but also indiscriminate cutting of national educational resources."”
In 1927, Mason, the fourth president of the University of Chicago, pointed out the special role of research and graduate work in the rush to expand enrollment at some American institutions.It is clear that our particular role lies in a willingness.The intention is to alleviate mediocrity, not to expand recruitment in pursuit of quantity, not to pursue the total volume of books, but to encourage teachers to do their best and ensure that teachers do their jobs and have the impact they deserve in the United States.We must ensure that the quality of our graduate school is improving without regard to its student population.”
I am not only interested in Mason's insight into the quality of graduate training, but also in his willingness to mitigate mediocrity.The reason why we must resolutely oppose mediocrity is that it can fully reflect the "special role of research and graduate work."So what is Mason's "special role"?I think that's the nature of a research university.The core value of the University of Chicago's philosophy is the search for truth and the discovery of knowledge, which is the capital of the university's reputation.As early as 1925, Mason praised the quality of the Ph.D. in philosophy produced by the University of Chicago: "These people have been adding bricks to the halls of human knowledge."This is the positioning of doctoral education: theoretical originality, scientific breakthroughs, academic innovation, in short, the standard of doctoral talent training is to add new content to the treasure trove of human knowledge, otherwise it is mediocre."
Obviously, ensuring high quality is the soul of doctoral education, and the guarantee of doctoral education is originality, that is, the search for truth and scientific discovery, not imitation, not speculation, not disguised academic falsification.To achieve this kind of pure and high academic state, there are both high standards in academic level and learning, and strict requirements in academic personality and style.According to an American scholar, in order to get a doctorate in the United States, it usually takes seven or eight years to prepare for a long war.It takes nine years to get a doctorate in history.In Germany, where doctoral requirements are more stringent, it may be even more difficult to read.There are still a lot of people who have been eliminated in the middle.
The high standards and strict requirements of doctoral education are not imposed, but are determined by the objectives of doctoral education and the motivation for choosing a bachelor's degree.The goal of doctoral education is original contribution, and the motivation to choose a bachelor's degree is a strong interest in science and academia, hobby, or driven by strong curiosity and imagination.It is mainly influenced by the researcher's own subjective desire and inner spiritual factors, rather than the temptation of various utilitarian factors outside.Kim Burton, the sixth president of the University of Chicago, believes that curiosity is one of the purposes of scientific pursuit."There is nothing to be desired except to play it out.”
Mason shared the same attitude, saying: "If we can stimulate their interest more through some means, we will have access to many of the best people in the world."”
On the other hand, it is difficult to produce a qualified doctor without curiosity and fantasy about science, interest and desire for truth exploration, and academic pursuit and hobby.That is to say, the main basis for deciding whether to study at a liberal arts college is their own academic ability, not the external Vanity Fair effect.
However, one of the common diseases of our doctoral education over the years is that the number is first, and the recruitment is imminent.However, many of these people choose to read eras because of impure motivation, and the subjective desire to read eras is not interest and hobby, but because of some utilitarian consideration.Today, the primary function of doctoral education in China is not to train academic personnel, but to meet the needs of society for "doctoral personnel", or, frankly, the deformed needs of "doctoral title", which has led to rapid expansion and rapid decline in quality.”
The proliferation of doctors has led to the popularity of the saying that a brick can knock down three doctors.The expansion of the Ph.D. program continued to stimulate the expansion of the Ph.D. program, which in turn continued to ferment the Ph.D. program. In a few years, the Ph.D.'s enthusiasm for politics and government education was mixed.
In the face of this fact, if we do not step on the rush to kill the car, the quality of doctoral education caused by the comprehensive factors such as quantity expansion, academic integrity, scientific research conduct and innovation level will endanger the whole.Doctoral education is a big leap forward.