The Academic Degrees Office of the State Council recently issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in the Authorization and Granting of Bachelor's Degrees in Undergraduate Vocational Schools" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which incorporates vocational education undergraduates into the existing bachelor's degree work system and clarifies that vocational undergraduate education can confer bachelor's degrees It is equally important to achieve job universalization at the national system level.
Granting a bachelor's degree to vocational education graduates is a new thing. The actual implementation process is faced with a relatively complex practical environment, which is also accompanied by some important issues that need to be deeply thought about and must be solved.
One question: How to ensure the "equivalent value" of the degree certificate and prevent it from being "mere appearance"?
The "Opinions" make it clear that in terms of the effectiveness of degree certificates, vocational education undergraduates and ordinary undergraduates are of equal value, and have the same effect in terms of employment, postgraduate entrance examinations, and public examinations.
However, to change the public's cognitive prejudice against vocational education, and to achieve complete equality is not an easy task, it requires continuous efforts and long-term efforts.
The first is to clarify the policy direction of vocational education undergraduate degrees.
In the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Degrees", "Interim Implementation Measures for the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Degrees", "Administrative Measures for the Authorization and Granting of Bachelor's Degrees" and other policy documents, further details are made on the authorization, award, management and quality supervision of bachelor's degrees in vocational schools at the undergraduate level. Provisions in principle to promote the institutional norms of vocational education undergraduate degrees.
The second is to strengthen the public opinion guidance of vocational education undergraduate degrees.
Degrees are the key link between education and the labor market. Actively carry out activities to interpret the relevant regulations and policies of the vocational education undergraduate degree system, and improve the social recognition of the status of technical and skilled talents.
As for whether the employers concerned by students and parents will treat certificates equally, and other issues, we must take active and effective measures to gradually eliminate the concerns and estrangements of the public through strong public opinion guidance.
The third is to promote the innovative development of vocational education undergraduate degrees.
Continuously improve the degree work system, explore the diversification of the degree system, learn from the experience of developed countries in the world of vocational education such as the United States and Australia, and establish an associate degree corresponding to vocational education at the junior college level, so as to achieve the improvement of academic qualifications within the vocational education system and the generalization outside the system. Career integration, as well as the equivalence and mutual recognition of degrees with other countries, can also alleviate the anxiety of higher vocational education to a certain extent.
Second question: How to reflect "type characteristics" in degree awarding and prevent "academic drift"?
《意见》将职业本科按学科门类授予学士学位，学士学位证书格式一致，但在学士学位授予标准方面强化职业教育育人特点，突出职业能力和素养。对职教本科与普通本科在办学地位“一视同仁”的同时，又强调了办学定位的“和而不同”。
一是要兼顾学术标准和职业标准的双重属性。授予标准是学生获得学位的依据和准则，也是职教本科学位制度建立的关键环节。职教本科既是“本科教育”又是“职业教育”，理应构建起融合“学术标准”和“职业标准”的双重学位授予标准。学术标准应以理论知识、专门知识够用为度，要将重心置于职业标准，即专业技能的认定，诸如实践课程学分占比、企业问题导向的毕业论文、高级别资格证书的取得、有价值的发明专利等，切不可因学历学位层次提升而产生“学术漂移”。
二是要突出企业主体，彰显人才培养的差异性。在普通高等教育学位授予过程中，学位评定委员会发挥了决定性作用，对学位申请者的学术水平严格把关。职教本科的区域布局要求学校更加注重面向企业行业、面向地方培养特色人才，这就需要建立行业、企业多主体充分参与的学位授予工作机制，整合能工巧匠、行业企业专家以及政府相关部门共同进行职教本科学位授予工作。
三是要构建开放畅通的学位衔接和转换机制。要加快推进职业教育国家“学分银行”建设、1+X证书制度试点，有序开展职教本科学位证书和职业资格、职业技能等级证书等学习成果的认定、积累和转换。基于生源结构的多样化，建立灵活的学习机制，使各类职业技能获得者、工作经历拥有者能将已经获得的能力和学习成果通过存储、转换等方式进入学位体系中。
三问：如何提高职教本科学位“质量成色”，防止“名不副实”？
职教本科学位建设是一个漫长的过程，不会因为国家的一纸政令一劳永逸。以质量谋发展，以特色求突破，提高职教本科学位的“含金量”，需要建立和健全质量保障机制。
One is to establish a sound quality management system.
The national level should combine the restrictive standards for degree awarding and the special needs of vocational education to issue standard documents for the award of undergraduate degrees in vocational education; the provincial level should combine the needs of regional economic and social development and the needs of vocational education talents to introduce regional characteristics. Awarding standards; at the school level, a personalized school-based standard system should be formulated based on the higher-level guiding standards.
The second is to establish and improve the quality assurance system.
At the national level, the guiding opinions to guide the high-quality development of vocational education undergraduates should be issued as soon as possible, and comprehensive guidance should be given in terms of curriculum, teaching, practical training, teachers and other professional construction elements; Provide policies and financial guarantees to promote local vocational undergraduate schools to improve their school-running conditions; the school needs to practice internal skills hard, strive for survival, development, and change through connotation construction, and enhance the core competitiveness of vocational education undergraduate talents.
The third is to establish and improve the quality evaluation system.
Improve the standard system of vocational education undergraduate professional teaching standards, curriculum standards, on-the-job practice standards, practical training teaching conditions construction standards and other standard systems; establish vocational education undergraduate education teaching evaluation system, according to the implementation plan of vocational undergraduate education and teaching evaluation, and carry out vocational undergraduate schools according to procedures. Teaching work evaluation; establish a teaching work diagnosis and improvement system for vocational education undergraduate schools, and issue an annual school quality report to the society every year.
(Author: Yang Jianjing, associate researcher of Zhejiang Modern Vocational Education Research Center)