Zuojiantai
undergraduate level vocational education: "Who will do it" and "How to do it"
Following the approval of the first batch of 15 undergraduate-level vocational education pilot schools, on June 22, the Ministry of Education officially approved the second batch of 6 undergraduate vocational education pilot colleges and universities. ", carry out the pilot of vocational education at the undergraduate level.
With the introduction of the "National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Plan" in January 2019, undergraduate level vocational education came into being. Although during this period, 21 clear colleges and universities have launched pilot programs for undergraduate vocational education. However, issues related to this type of schooling have aroused widespread concern, especially the questions of "who will do it" and "how to do it". To answer these two questions, some key questions need to be clarified urgently.
Higher vocational colleges are mainly upgraded, and other colleges and universities hold the supplement. From the current perspective, in addition to more than 20 undergraduate-level vocational schools that have been born, there are also some ordinary undergraduate colleges (such as Kunming University of Science and Technology) that hold higher vocational undergraduate majors and some vocational colleges (such as Shenzhen Vocational and Technical College) and related Undergraduate colleges and universities jointly trial run higher vocational undergraduate majors. Most newly-built undergraduate colleges have chosen application transformation in the past few years, but so far no one has found a newly-built undergraduate college publicly announced or positioned as a professional undergraduate.
This shows that it is very difficult to guide such colleges and universities to the vocational undergraduate track. The enthusiasm of higher vocational colleges for upgrading or piloting vocational undergraduates is very high, especially the vocational colleges of the "Double High Plan" already have a good foundation for running schools. Requirements for undergraduate education. Therefore, the source of undergraduate-level vocational school groups should be mainly upgraded to higher vocational colleges, supplemented by other types of undergraduate colleges. This is a rational choice to complete the task of building an undergraduate level vocational education system.
Maintain the attributes of vocational education and pay attention to the improvement of education level. The country has made it clear: "Vocational education and general education are two different types of education and have the same important status." In December 2019, the "Revised Draft of the Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China" was released, modifying the concept of "higher vocational schools" to "Vocational colleges" in parallel with "ordinary colleges". Undergraduate level vocational schools are just one level in vocational colleges and are the highest level in the current vocational higher education system. In the reply letter of more than 20 undergraduate-level vocational schools, the Ministry of Education clearly required it to "maintain the attributes and characteristics of vocational education" and "adhere to the orientation of cultivating high-level technical and skilled personnel."
It should be said that due to the accumulation of years of vocational education, the undergraduate level vocational schools upgraded from higher vocational colleges will not have much problem in maintaining the attributes of vocational education. But upgrading from junior college to undergraduate has reached a new level. There is currently no existing model to learn from. It belongs to "crossing rivers by touching stones". It is relatively difficult to reflect the undergraduate level in the construction of connotation. Whether it is the education administration department, the organizer or the scholars, they need to think deeply in accordance with their respective functions, clarify the questions, and give answers.
Give full play to the leading role of the profession and develop corresponding disciplines in moderation. The undergraduate-level vocational school is a university. If it is a university, it is not about whether or not to talk about disciplines, but about how to locate the disciplines and what disciplines to build. Undergraduate-level vocational schools need to build disciplines. Naturally, they cannot follow the research universities, nor can they build like applied universities, but should have their own discipline construction positioning. From the perspective of the relationship between disciplines and majors, if the disciplines of research universities are the leader and the major is supported, and the disciplines and majors of applied colleges are equally important, then the disciplines of undergraduate vocational schools should be the support of the majors. Undergraduate-level vocational schools train "high-level technical skills talents". We must adhere to the leading position of professional construction and the principle of discipline construction serving professional talent training. That is, the main task of discipline construction is not to focus on basic or applied research. Rather, on the basis of collating and using the existing occupation-related knowledge, the research work of technology research and development, process improvement or skill optimization is carried out to increase the knowledge related to career development in the discipline.
Issue vocational degree certificates, highlighting the characteristics of vocational education. For a long time, graduates of vocational colleges have always had a strong desire to obtain degree certificates, and many experts are also calling for the award of associate degree, but there is no breakthrough. Graduates of undergraduate-level vocational schools are also undergraduates of colleges and universities, as long as they have good grades and a certain academic level, they should be awarded a bachelor's degree. However, the connotation of its academic level requirements is somewhat different from that of research universities and applied universities. In order to reflect this difference, corresponding bachelor degrees have been established in Western countries. For example, France has created a vocational bachelor's degree in addition to a bachelor's degree in technology, a bachelor's degree in general science, and a general bachelor's degree. There are three types of degrees awarded by the British Higher Vocational Education: master, bachelor and associate degree. Including vocational degrees, Switzerland also has a professional bachelor's degree.
If our country’s undergraduate level vocational schools rely on the vocational disciplines they build, granting a vocational bachelor’s degree that is different from research universities and applied universities not only meets the legal requirements of the “degree regulations of the People’s Republic of China”, but also highlights this type of college vocation The essential attribute of education can also fulfill the requirement that vocational education and general education have “equal importance”.
(The author is the principal of Tongren College)
Hou Changlin Source: China Youth Daily