Some time ago, the 2022 postgraduate re-examination scores were announced one after another.
Among them, we should pay more attention to the trend of "college entrance examination" in postgraduate entrance examination.
According to the news released by the Ministry of Education, for the 2022 National Postgraduate Admissions Exam, the number of applicants nationwide will be 4.57 million, an increase of 800,000 or 21% over the previous year.
Why is the scale of this application so amazing?
You must know that in 2003, the number of applicants for postgraduate entrance examinations nationwide was only 797,000, which was not as much as the increase in the number of applicants this year compared to last year.
Why is there a continuous upsurge in postgraduate entrance exams?
This is mainly caused by the rising threshold of recruitment.
The popularization of higher education has brought about the relative depreciation of academic qualifications.
At present, a postgraduate degree has increasingly become the starting threshold for entry.
It can be said that the current postgraduate entrance examination has become a precondition for social competition and screening.
Previously, the college entrance examination was responsible for this function, but after the popularization of higher education, the pressure of this kind of pre-screening has gradually shifted to the postgraduate entrance examination.
As a result, the postgraduate entrance examination has become the core goal of many college students, and the postgraduate entrance examination itself has become more and more test-oriented.
At present, not only are there many training institutions for postgraduate entrance examinations, but in some "double-non" colleges and universities, college life has also become a "senior senior". Many people concentrate on preparing for postgraduate examinations from the moment they enter the school, and real university professional studies are not valued. .
In some major provinces for postgraduate entrance exams, many students who are preparing for the exam are as hardworking as the hard-working middle school students in the "super middle school".
Daily lighting and night battles, queuing up to grab a quiet desk in the library have become the daily routine of many students.
At the same time, many colleges and universities are also creating various conditions to support these students who are determined to take the postgraduate entrance examination early, because the graduate student rate and the postgraduate retention rate can become the publicity highlights of colleges and universities in the enrollment competition.
Nowadays, the concept of "excellent = graduate school" is more and more popular, and the postgraduate entrance examination is becoming more and more "hot", and it has gradually become the de facto "second college entrance examination".
However, after all, graduate students are not ordinary higher education, but high-level personnel training.
In reality, too many students and parents regard graduate school as a higher-level university.
For a time, suitable and unsuitable students poured in.
In 2020, at the postgraduate re-examination site of a famous university in Beijing, the dialogue between the interview teacher and a candidate is worth reflecting on.
Under the continuous questioning of the tutor, a candidate who was excellent in the written test could not answer, and could only say: Teacher, can you ask me multiple-choice questions?
I am good at doing multiple choice questions.
The re-examination tutor said helplessly: classmates, there are no multiple-choice questions for graduate students, they are all exploratory questions.
Zeng Yong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, believes that undergraduate education is the root and foundation of a university. Too many outstanding students spend a lot of time repeatedly reviewing the questions to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination, which not only results in the incompleteness and research of the knowledge system at the undergraduate level. The lack of ability, practical ability, innovation ability, etc., affects the quality of undergraduate talent training, and also becomes a potential risk for the decline of the quality of graduate training, and even leads to a new state of weariness and lack of curiosity and interest in further research and innovation.
The college entrance examination for postgraduates is caused by complex social reasons, which cannot be solved by the education department alone. It is fundamental to change the employment standard of only academic qualifications.
However, strengthening the reform of the entrance examination, curbing the trend of excessive test-taking, and ensuring and improving the quality of postgraduate enrollment are urgently needed now.
Different from the college entrance examination, the postgraduate admissions system has always been a selection form of "written test + re-examination".
Among them, the written test focuses on examining the basic knowledge reserve, and the re-examination is an examination of comprehensive abilities such as academic and scientific research.
However, under the influence of misunderstandings such as the "second college entrance examination", the postgraduate admissions test has become more and more college entrance examination, and the written test scores are defaulted to "core scores", or even the only yardstick.
This concept, while aggravating the application of postgraduate entrance examinations, also makes it difficult to expand the weight of the re-examination in postgraduate admissions.
In this regard, many people also actively offered suggestions.
At this year's National Two Sessions, some members of the CPPCC suggested that postgraduate admissions should follow the example of other countries, introduce their own university academic proficiency tests, and implement an "application review system".
The author believes that, considering the different national conditions and cultures, under the current circumstances, promoting and expanding the exemption system may be an easier and more practical way to implement.
The "push-out" system introduced many years ago is an active attempt to reform the enrollment system in my country.
Recommending postgraduate exemption from examination refers to a form of admissions that directly participates in the re-examination without taking the postgraduate written examination.
It is based on the three-year school achievement of college students, and comprehensively conducts “exemption” based on various performances.
Under this system, the quality of postgraduate enrollment has been significantly improved, and it has also won the general welcome of colleges and universities and tutors.
Many postgraduate tutors told the author that the comprehensive quality of the students who are exempted from the program is often higher, and they are more suitable for further study in the academic and scientific research fields.
But unfortunately, this more scientific enrollment reform has not been able to continue to expand in recent years due to disputes such as the high proportion of students who are exempted from admissions and affecting fairness and justice.
In fact, the exemption system not only achieves comprehensive evaluation and scientific selection, but also guarantees fairness and justice.
The qualifications for exempting students are mainly confirmed according to the students' three-year university results, and then publicized in the class and school, that is, they are subject to the supervision of stakeholders - classmates.
This kind of supervision is actually more meaningful than generalized online publicity, and it also effectively guarantees the fairness of the push-and-pull system.
Of course, some students also have doubts about the exemption system.
For example, for many ordinary college students, there is a problem that the quota cannot be exempted, or the quota is too small.
In this regard, it is entirely possible to consider expanding the proportion of schools and exempted schools to solve.
Of course, the original national unified examination channel can continue to be maintained at a certain percentage (for example, no less than 50%), and gradually through the reform of the entrance examination, students who perform well in ordinary times and are really suitable for further study can stand out.
In a word, behind the increasingly "internal examination" of the postgraduate entrance examination, there is a trend of social competition leading to the increasing "college entrance examination" of postgraduate entrance examination.
The reform of the relevant enrollment system can reverse this trend to a certain extent, and the fundamental solution needs to return to the level of social competition and evaluation.
(The author is a member of the Academic Committee of China Education Development Strategy Society)
Chen Zhiwen Source: China Youth Daily