Canceling the "hard leverage" of the thesis is an innovative move for graduate education
[Bright Times Review]
Recently, Communication University of China announced a number of reform measures for graduate education. Among them, the establishment of a diversified academic evaluation index system in terms of standardizing the scientific research training of doctoral and master students, and the practical training of masters and masters, and the abolition of stereotypes related to academic papers published by master students have attracted a lot of attention.
Whether graduate students should publish papers or not is an old question that has been discussed for many years. The renewed attention to old issues is not a rehashing of the old tune, but the situation is compelling. Since the reform and opening up, my country's graduate education has achieved a historic leap, especially since the beginning of the new century, the scale of my country's graduate education has developed rapidly. In 2000, the total number of graduate students admitted nationwide was 103,000. According to the news from the recent National Graduate Education Conference, in 2019, the number of graduate students in my country reached 3 million, and the enrollment of graduate students in 2020 will reach 1.1 million.
The rapid increase in the number has brought about the continuous expansion of the field of graduate education, the continuous expansion of the region and the increase of the types of graduate training. In March of this year, the Ministry of Education issued a notice calling for the expansion of the enrollment scale of postgraduate students this year, mainly in favor of related disciplines and professional degree categories that are urgently needed in the field of national strategy and people's livelihood, and to universities in the Midwest and Northeast regions. In addition, in recent years, special masters have expanded their enrollment at a greater acceleration, and the trend of special masters being regarded as niche and "lower class" has been reversed and has become the choice of more people. Since 2017, for the first time, the proportion of post-graduate applicants has surpassed that of academic masters and continues to grow. Especially in key universities, it has gradually become a trend to moderately reduce the scale of academic masters and expand the scale of professional masters.
Under such a general background, the evaluation mechanism of graduate students will inevitably change. The stereotype that graduate students can only obtain a degree by publishing a thesis is obviously not suitable for all kinds of training directions, especially for professional masters. Generally speaking, the training goal of academic postgraduates is academic excellence, while professional degree postgraduates should be oriented towards serving the needs of the country and society. Obviously, publishing a paper is hardly the best or only way to serve the needs of the country and society.
For this reason, the "Overall Plan for Deepening Educational Evaluation Reform in the New Era" reviewed and approved at the 14th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Deepening Reform not long ago pointed out that for different subjects, different stages of education, and different types of education characteristics, the evaluation of results should be improved and process evaluation should be strengthened. , Explore value-added evaluation, improve comprehensive evaluation, focus on eliminating the stubborn diseases of only scores, only advancement, only diplomas, only papers, and only hats, and establish a scientific education evaluation system and mechanism that meets the requirements of the times. Communication University of China breaks the stereotypes of linking thesis to degree and promotes the establishment of a multi-dimensional tutor evaluation standard system, which is the inevitable measure of graduate education.
Of course, the exemption of postgraduate papers does not mean that academic research is no longer valued. In the reform of postgraduate training, the Communication University of China has implemented a graded basic literature reading system, requires graduate students to participate in the thesis writing training program, set up a compulsory course of "academic writing", rewards the publication of high-quality academic papers, and standardizes the work of dissertations Requirements, strengthen the evaluation of the dissertation process, make it clear that the defense time for the dissertation of masters and masters is not less than 1 hour, etc., all are guided by the hierarchical classification ideology, adhere to the bottom line requirements, and replace the “one size fits all” rule with rewards to empower students and truly Practical measures to improve the level of papers and academic quality.
In the current and future postgraduate training, we must focus on enhancing the practical and innovative capabilities of postgraduates, focusing on categorized training, open cooperation, and cultivating high-level talents with research and innovation capabilities. It is also necessary to improve the education evaluation system for different degree types and make bold reforms. Outdated rules, innovative systems and mechanisms, and guide the high-quality development of graduate education.
(Author: Xiao Luo, Department of young scholars)