After nearly 10 years of rapid development, China's doctoral education has gone to the forefront of the world, but at present, the training and education of doctoral students has also entered a bottleneck period.Especially in the process of changing the admissions system from "assessment system" to "application-assessment system", some problems are becoming more and more prominent.However, in addition to policy and directional guidance, the current management system of graduate schools lacks macro guidance for doctoral education, and cannot control the individualized training of doctoral students.
Therefore, in my opinion, China's comprehensive research universities, especially the "double first-class" construction universities, should gradually establish doctoral institutes, and then build a three-level management system.
National needs and real needs
The establishment of Ph. D. institutes in comprehensive research universities is based on the national needs of the development of Ph. D. education in China.
In the past 10 years, China's doctoral education has made rapid progress.According to the data released by the Ministry of Education, more than 600,000 doctoral students have been trained in China over the past 10 years.The number of doctoral programs in agronomic medicine in science and engineering increased from 1944 to 2,575 in 2012.
Hong Dayong, director of degree management and postgraduate education department of the Ministry of Education, said that "double first-class" construction universities have undertaken more than 80% of doctoral students and nearly 60% of master's students.
I believe that for comprehensive research universities, especially "double first-class" construction universities, the establishment of doctoral colleges will help meet the needs of building a first-class university system.
At the same time, the establishment of doctoral institutes in comprehensive research universities is also a realistic need in the development of doctoral education in China.
First of all, the size of doctoral student enrollment is constantly expanding.The 2021 National Graduate Survey Report shows that from 2004 to 2017, the average annual increase in doctoral student enrollment in China was about 3.2%.After 2017, the scale of doctoral enrollment entered a stage of rapid development, with the number of doctoral enrollment increasing by 13.9% in 2018 compared to 2017, and by 10.1% in 2019.In 2021, figures released by the Ministry of Education show that a total of 125,800 doctoral students were enrolled in the country that year.
Second, the graduation rate of doctoral students has been decreasing year after year.According to the data released by the Ministry of Education, the graduation rate of doctoral students in China in 2019 is as high as 40%, of which nearly half are postponed for one year and 20% are postponed for two years.Lu Jian, president of Nanjing University, said at two national conferences that in 2012, 40% of China's doctoral students could not graduate on time.That percentage may be higher now.
Again, cross-disciplinarity is on the rise.In the past two years, more than 200 degree-granting units in China have independently set up more than 700 interdisciplinary points, many of which are doctoral degree authorization points.At present, the degree committee of the State Council has organized a new round of revision of the professional catalogues of disciplines, and the new catalogues will be issued and implemented soon.It can be said that the future of this development scale should be realized, and the independent academic and management institutions of universities must guide and manage it.
extension of the system
The gradual establishment of doctoral institutes in comprehensive research universities is a kind of perfection of doctoral education and an extension of the postgraduate education system.
At present, the education and management of doctoral students in universities are responsible for graduate schools.There are three main aspects of graduate school work: first, teaching management, teaching and learning planning, second, administrative management, formulating relevant management systems, including day-to-day management of tutors and students.
However, with the increasing scale of postgraduate students in various comprehensive research universities, the combination of master and liberal education has made graduate schools feel powerless.Take the current number of students in several top comprehensive research universities in China as an example.According to data released by Peking University in 2020, the number of undergraduate students is 16,372, master's students 17,277, and doctoral students 12,464.Tsinghua University announced 16,363 undergraduate students, 21,587 master's students and 19,375 doctoral students in 2022.Shanghai Jiaotong University announced 17,460 full-time undergraduate (domestic) students, 14,670 full-time master's students, and 11,031 full-time doctoral students in 2022.
The above-mentioned universities such a large-scale postgraduate and doctoral education, placed in any country or place, can be built into two independent universities.Therefore, the current graduate school system is reluctant to play a leading role in doctoral education and personalized training, both in terms of the size of the staff, in terms of its mission and function, in terms of its work coverage and responsibility.
According to the 2021 National Graduate Admissions Survey Report, as of 2020, there are 127 "double first-class" construction universities in China that implement the "application-assessment" system, accounting for 92.7 percent of these institutions.Not only that, but the transition from the unified examination to the "application-assessment" system will be the general trend of China's doctoral students.
In this way, the admissions process is mainly based on the applicant's educational background, academic level, work experience, research interests and career development.Therefore, in the future, institutions that are more in line with this trend will need to be managed.
Therefore, from the institutional point of view, the establishment of doctoral institutes in comprehensive research universities, especially in "double first-class" construction universities, will be an important measure to focus on doctoral education.In addition, the current graduate school discipline construction work, the future (partial) adjustment to the doctoral school, more in line with the development of discipline construction.
New experience abroad
The concept of a doctoral school first appeared in France in 2000 and is similar to a graduate school, but limited to a doctoral level.The doctoral school mainly provides doctoral-level study, training and education in related subject areas.Some universities have their own independent doctoral institutions, while two or three universities share a doctoral institution.
In European and American universities, there are few master's degrees, and most doctoral students are selected directly from undergraduate students.However, the current doctoral institutions generally require applicants to have a master's degree, but also require high scores, and future learning and training are both research-oriented and subject-oriented.
In recent years, doctoral schools have become popular in Europe, especially in British universities.Take the University of Edinburgh, for example.The school's doctoral school was established in January 2020 to provide services and assistance to doctoral students and mentors throughout the school.The mission of the institute is to promote the cooperation and development of doctoral students, promote contacts and exchanges between doctoral students, coordinate and support the interaction and exchange between doctoral students and mentors.
At present, the establishment of doctoral institutes in British universities is the University of Bath, Queen Mary College of the University of London, Exeter University and so on.Most of these colleges and universities emphasize providing high-quality doctoral education and training to prepare the world's rigorous researchers for future careers, both academic and non-academic.
Mission and Functions
The establishment of doctoral institutes in Chinese universities will bear the unique mission and responsibilities in the construction of national strategic demand structure, scientific and technological innovation system, and "double first-class" universities.
Academics acknowledge that doctoral education is at the highest end of national education, its mission is to train high-level talents and innovative talents, and in the process of national development and social progress, doctoral education bears important responsibilities.The doctoral school should provide world-class standards and support for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers.
At present, many problems in doctoral education are also urgently needed to be solved by doctoral institutions.For example, the training of doctoral students is far from the requirements of knowledge inheritance and system innovation, and the requirements of national demand and innovation ability are not matched.The training objectives, curriculum system, practical training system, process management, dissertation writing and so on, more and more follow the training of undergraduate and master's degree.
In the future, independent doctoral institutions will have to make a difference in many ways.
First, clear training objectives.We will establish a "doctoral student-centered" and "research-centered" educational philosophy and a personalized human resources development system.
In my opinion, the concept of "student-centered" should be divided according to the different levels of talent cultivation.For undergraduates, it is necessary to train them as generalists to adapt to social development, to further forge into society, and to develop them into social pillars over a long period of time.