Experts suggest that the research ability of candidates should be comprehensively assessed
On March 11, the national line for postgraduate entrance examination in 2022 was announced.
Except for a few majors, the score line has generally risen sharply, and some majors have increased by more than 10 points.
Compared with 2021, the master degree in history and art in Area A will increase by 15 points, philosophy, education and law will increase by 14 points, economics, literature and management will increase by 12 points, and science, engineering and medicine will increase by 10 points.
In addition to the three majors of agronomy, military affairs, and business administration and tourism management, the postgraduate programs have also risen across the board.
The reporter looked through the materials in recent years, and the floating space of the national line for the postgraduate entrance examination is basically about 5 points.
This time, the national line has generally risen sharply. Under the dual background of the year-on-year increase in the number of applicants and the expansion of master's enrollment, has the postgraduate entrance examination become more difficult?
What exactly is causing this?
What trend does this indicate?
"Above 400 points is not a high score"
Even if he scored 410 points, Jiangxi candidate Zou Yun (pseudonym) did not dare to take it lightly. "There are many high scores this year. In general, more than 400 points are not considered high scores."
The English major that Zou Yun applied for has always been popular, and the score line remains high.
This year, the professional national line has set a new record for nearly ten years, with an increase of 12 points to 367 points.
While the number of postgraduate entrance examinations is rising rapidly, there are endless high tiers and competition is becoming more and more intense.
"On the surface, this problem is caused by the expansion of education scale." Luo Yan, an associate professor at the Institute of Education of Tsinghua University, analyzed that when the gross enrollment rate of higher education in my country reaches the popularization level, going to university will lose the social screening function that it once had.
She said, "Undergraduate education has become popular, and postgraduate education has naturally become a social filter. Postgraduate entrance examination has become the 'gaokao' in the era of elite higher education, and it is still a single-plank bridge with thousands of troops."
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, the number of college graduates in my country will exceed 9 million and 10 million in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
In order to cope with the tense employment situation, a considerable number of graduates choose to continue their studies to increase their competitiveness.
The "2022 National Postgraduate Enrollment Survey Report" released by China Education Online shows that nearly 60% of candidates choose to postgraduate entrance examinations because of the pressure of employment and want to enhance their competitiveness in employment.
The report paints a picture of the psychology of most candidates: earning a postgraduate diploma in order to "stand out" in the job market.
"The popularity of postgraduate entrance examinations is not receding, and there are two factors behind it that deserve attention." Xie Ailei, an associate professor at the School of Education of Guangzhou University, analyzed that one is the increase in the number of college graduates, which has pushed up the base number of applicants, and the other is that the phenomenon of diploma "inflation" is gradually emerging.
Some sociologists once questioned the pursuit of higher education by ordinary people, and believed that it was not the result of complex work and ever-increasing requirements for knowledge and technology.
Xie Ailei said: "At this stage, many people choose to use diplomas as a specific means to enhance their competitiveness. From this perspective, if students want to maintain their social status or achieve social mobility, they must continue to pursue higher types of diplomas. "
"High scores are not the same as high-quality students"
On March 11, the Ministry of Education held a video work conference to deploy the 2022 national re-examination for postgraduate admissions.
Each admissions unit will independently determine and announce the requirements for candidates of each major of their unit to enter the re-examination on the basis of the national score line according to the regulations.
The "National Postgraduate Admissions and Adjustment Service System" will be launched around the end of March.
With the general increase of the national line, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Harbin Institute of Technology have announced the situation of independent marking.
The re-examination line for applied statistics of Tsinghua University is 420 points, of which business I and business two require 140 points and 130 points respectively, and the economics re-examination line of Zhejiang University is 395 points.
"High scores are not the same as high-quality students. In particular, we need to pay attention to how to select students who do have innovative potential among the many high-scoring candidates." said Bao Shuimei, a professor at the Institute of Higher Education of Lanzhou University, working in the postgraduate re-examination work. It is necessary to urge the tutors to participate in the enrollment, and conduct a comprehensive and scientific evaluation of the research ability of the students according to the application materials.
"Quality" is the lifeblood of graduate education.
Enrollment and selection is only the first step in postgraduate training. How to ensure that the training is not "watered" and the degree is not "depreciated" in the whole process of subsequent postgraduate training is an urgent problem to be solved in my country's postgraduate education in the future.
Bao Shuimei believes that postgraduate education must deal with the relationship between scale and quality, not only the quality of enrollment, but also the quality of training must be strictly controlled.
Beware of postgraduate entrance exams becoming a "score game"
In 2022, the number of applicants for the National Postgraduate Admissions Examination will be 4.57 million, an increase of 800,000 or 21% over 2021.
Judging from recent data, the number of applicants for postgraduate entrance examinations in 2020 increased by 510,000 compared with 2019, and 360,000 in 2021 compared with 2020.
Since 2016, the number of postgraduate candidates in my country has maintained a high growth trend.
From 2015 to 2022, the seven-year average growth rate will be 15.8%.
Xie Ailei predicts that the competition for the postgraduate entrance examination will only become more intense, but it is necessary to beware that the postgraduate entrance examination becomes an anxious "score game".
"In order to get a higher score in the test, the preparation for the test is long and difficult. And the score line pushed up by competition will only bring more psychological pressure." In Xie Ailei's view, only by adjusting the income gap reasonably, the whole society will work together to create a better More employment opportunities and less education discrimination can encourage individuals to choose a life path according to their own needs, rather than "rolling" in the same direction.
"In addition to stratification, higher education in many countries also has rich classifications within the stratification, which has an objective effect of diversion, and the allocation of human resources by the market has also adjusted and diverted education demand." Luo Yan said, "Promoting classification of higher education Developing and establishing a diversified education circulation mechanism is the fundamental solution to realize the effective allocation of talents and alleviate the overheating of postgraduate entrance examinations."
(Reporter Chen Peng of this newspaper)