Postgraduate entrance examination hot
"There is almost no way out if you don't take the postgraduate entrance exam."
Employment Recruitment
"Posts that don't require graduate students are also recruiting graduate students"
a little thought
From the perspective of domestic development, what kind of talents do we need?
■ "If I can find the right job after graduating from an undergraduate degree, then I will definitely not take the postgraduate entrance examination." Recently, under the topic of "postgraduate education has become more and more the starting threshold for entry", many netizens sighed and joined the "internal volume army" for postgraduate entrance examination. It's a trend, but not entirely voluntary.
■ According to data 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.
The reporter checked the data and found that 10 years ago, the number of applicants for master's degree candidates in 2012 was only 1.66 million, that is, the number of applicants for the examination nearly tripled in ten years.
■ With the announcement of the national line for the examination in mid-March, the score lines of most subjects have generally risen, and some subjects have even increased by as much as 15 points. This year, 3 million of the 4.57 million candidates will be outside the passing line.
The reporter found that the increase of graduates with higher education is not entirely due to the employment needs of enterprises.
Under the "postgraduate entrance examination fever", who is "needing" graduate students?
Is there really an "invisible threshold" for employment recruitment?
Postgraduate student voice
It is difficult to have a counterpart job after graduation from an undergraduate degree. Graduate studies are often not for "academic work", but many people just "follow the crowd". The higher the degree, the better the competitiveness.
"There is almost no way out if you don't take the postgraduate entrance exam." For Xiao Liu, who majored in agriculture, it is a logical way for most students in the major to graduate and then take the postgraduate entrance examination. He pointed out that it is difficult for undergraduates in agronomy to find suitable jobs.
"Basically, when you come out of an undergraduate degree, you are basically selling fertilizers. It's very hard work. Some undergraduates may be paid three or four thousand."
Xiaoliu looked at the recruitment needs of enterprises. In the field of agriculture, a master's degree generally corresponds to researchers, research managers, planners, etc. "At present, what agriculture needs is high-end R&D talents, and it is basically necessary to take postgraduate entrance examinations."
"It is difficult to have a counterpart job after graduation from an undergraduate degree" is also the original intention of Xiaohan's postgraduate entrance examination.
She majored in environmental engineering. There were only a few students in her class who did not go to graduate school when she graduated, and all of them changed careers.
"In our senior year, we basically didn't discuss the topic of finding a job, because we were all going to graduate school." But graduate school is often not for "academic work", "Many people are 'follow the crowd', with a higher education, the competitiveness will be improved. Better." Xiao Han said.
The phenomenon of "postgraduate entrance examination fever" has become more and more obvious in recent years.
The reporter combed the statistical bulletin of the Ministry of Education in recent years and found that from 2012 to 2016, the number of applicants for postgraduates fluctuated between 1.65 million and 1.77 million; starting from 2017, the number of applicants exceeded 2 million for the first time, and in 2019 it has reached 2 million. 2.9 million, and this number has risen to 4.57 million by 2022.
Why do more and more people want to go to graduate school?
Xiao Ke (pseudonym), who has a master's degree, believes that from the perspective of school recruitment, the school's higher level and higher education have indeed brought many advantages to applicants.
Judging from her own experience, the undergraduate degree is two, and the graduate degree is "985", and the level of school recruitment is obviously different.
"Undergraduate school recruiting opportunities are not very good, and most of the positions are sales positions; but when graduates graduate, they can see many well-known companies. They all take our school as the first stop in the province."
As more graduate students enter the workplace, employment is like a "dimension reduction blow".
An undergraduate majoring in finance revealed that he participated in the recruitment of bank tellers in his senior year, and there were many returnee masters and 985 school masters who competed together. ."
Enterprises raise "threshold"
At a glance, you can see that a post does not require a high degree, but the employer also requires a high degree, which means that there are many people who want to work, but there are few positions. This is mainly determined by supply and demand.
Except for those R&D and technical positions, do most companies really need master's talents?
The reporter searched on a recruitment website with the keyword "clerk" and found that the applicants requiring a "master's degree" are basically "a large xx company", among which there are many state-owned enterprises such as China Unicom and China Post, as well as listed companies such as CICC .
Taking a large Internet financial company as an example, the administrative management direction is the same as other similar positions, responsible for office space management, assisting in logistics management and other overall management work.
For these clerical positions, some HR told reporters that "in principle, a master's degree is required", and some HR said, "experience can be appropriately relaxed, but the educational requirements must be from a master's degree."
"Educational education can be used as a talent screening method, and it is also a very simple and rude but convenient and effective method." Shen Yi (pseudonym) is a senior HR. He told reporters that most of the jobs do not reach the level that they cannot do without postgraduate entrance examination. Not even to the point where a bachelor's degree is required.
"Looking for people with high education is to reduce the trial and error costs of enterprises, especially school recruitment." Shen Yi said that high education does not mean high ability, but high education is generally more likely than low education ability.
"So when selecting resumes, if the two are similar in other circumstances, it is normal for graduate students to have a few more years of internship and study experience, and to have an advantage over undergraduates."
Has a postgraduate degree really become a new threshold for entry?
From the student's point of view, Xiao Ke believes that "there must be", just like "another kind of involution".
"I used to be an international student's 'roll' domestic student, but now I'm a postgraduate' 'roll' undergraduate student." She believes that fresh students rarely have the capital to negotiate conditions with companies, and everyone can only add more money to themselves by improving their academic qualifications.
Shen Yi admitted that it is really fast for enterprises to screen by academic qualifications, so there is a situation where "you know at a glance that a position does not require a high degree of education, but the employer still requires a high degree of education".
"It shows that there are many people who want to work, but there are few positions. Refer to civil servants and public institutions. This is mainly determined by supply and demand rather than technical demand." Shen Yi said.
Graduate and undergraduate employment has always been different.
Shen Yi said that in the early stage, it was more reflected in the treatment, rather than in the opportunity.
"In the past two years, the reason why everyone feels that the difference in academic qualifications is more obvious is that the number of head companies has begun to decrease, but the supply has become larger and larger, so the volume is more severe."
"Going ashore" is not easy
On the one hand, the scores of most subjects have generally risen this year, and some subjects have even increased by as much as 15 points; on the other hand, some people think that the topic of "graduate students becoming the entry threshold" is "creating anxiety"
Regarding the topic of "graduate students become the entry threshold", some people think that it is "creating anxiety" and aggravating the "postgraduate entrance examination fever".
"Counting from the first year of postgraduate admissions, for more than 40 years, my country has cultivated a total of 9.69 million postgraduates. The employment population in my country is more than 700 million, and the new employment population (urban) is about 13 million every year. It is not at all to say that graduate students Education is the starting threshold for entry." A teacher from a postgraduate entrance examination institution believes that it is a good thing to improve education to achieve better employment, but there is no need to panic, thinking that you are not qualified to enter the workplace without graduate school.
From the data point of view, although the number of postgraduate applicants has increased dramatically, the number of admissions has been steadily increasing.
To this day, graduate degrees are still "scarce".
According to the "China Population and Employment Statistical Yearbook", in 2007, the proportion of postgraduate education among the employed population in my country was only 0.2%.
As of 2019, this proportion reached 1.1%, which means that only one in every 100 employed persons has a postgraduate degree.
So far, graduate students are still "one in a hundred" talents.
The number of postgraduate admissions has grown from 521,300 in 2012 to 1,050,700 in 2021, only doubling in ten years.
The continuous increase in the registration ratio since 2017 means that it is very difficult to "go ashore" for postgraduate entrance examinations.
With the announcement of the national line for the examination in mid-March, the scores of most subjects have generally risen, and some subjects have even increased by as much as 15 points. This year, 3 million of the 4.57 million candidates will be outside the passing line.
This also shows that postgraduate qualifications are beginning to "tighten".
"Everyone goes to graduate school for employment, not really likes research. Education and recruitment are no longer essential issues, they have become a social issue." Shen Yi said.
According to the "2021 Report on the Demand and Job Search Status of China's Key Universities Graduates" published by 51.com, the increase in highly educated graduates is not entirely due to the employment needs of enterprises.
More and more graduates from 985 and 211 universities have jobs after graduation.
During the survey, some employers put forward the current situation - "Blind postgraduate entrance examination will only lead to the devaluation of academic qualifications, while for enterprises, it is more and more difficult to do accurate recruitment, and the cost of employment is getting higher and higher." "The root cause of employment difficulties is the supply side. , the demand side is unbalanced, and the needs of enterprises and students are dislocated."
perspective
Technical talent vs academic talent
What kind of talent do we need?
When most undergraduates regard postgraduate entrance examination as a way out for graduation, the characteristics of postgraduate entrance examination "college entrance examination" appear.
After the popularization of higher education and the admission rate of the college entrance examination exceeding 90%, "going to university and crossing a single-plank bridge" has gradually become a "single-plank bridge for postgraduate entrance examinations".
In the view of Xiong Bingqi, a well-known education scholar and director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, the situation of "college entrance examination" must be paid attention to.
"The current postgraduate entrance examination is, in a sense, the university entrance examination 20 years ago." Xiong Bingqi told reporters that the number of graduate students in 2021 has basically reached the number of undergraduate and junior college students in 1998, and the number of doctoral students has exceeded the total number of graduate students in 1998. .
"If you continue to strengthen your academic qualifications, it may evolve into a 'doing a single-plank bridge for doctoral studies' in the next 10 or 20 years, which will create serious problems of high academic qualifications and involution."
Xiong Bingqi believes that the most urgent task is to promote the reform of education evaluation that eliminates "only academic qualifications".
Guide undergraduate colleges and universities to reverse the tendency to run schools around postgraduate entrance exams.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, also proposed to oppose the trend of "education-only theory".
"In fact, we have 'over-education' now, and there is a tendency to place too much emphasis on academic qualifications." Chu Zhaohui told reporters that recruitment and applicants should return to rationality.
From the perspective of domestic development, what kind of talents do we need?
"At present, we are still biased towards 'specialists' as a whole, making it difficult for talents to adapt to social development." Chu Zhaohui believes that we should rely on the direction of "generalists", and on this basis, individuals respond to market needs.
Xiong Bingqi proposed that 90% of universities in China should carry out vocational education and cultivate vocational and technical talents and applied talents.
Xiong Bingqi said that in any country, including the United States now, there are less than 10% of academic talents at most, and the rest are applied talents and vocational and technical talents.
"China doesn't need so many academic talents. However, universities are usually reluctant to do so, which creates a disconnect between talent training and social needs."
Xiong Bingqi emphasized that local undergraduate colleges must return to vocational education and must be employment-oriented, which is the core and key to solving the problem.
Also, the entire vocational education can no longer be considered a low-level education, but a higher-quality education.
"In the future, the country will change from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power. Where do the manufacturing 'heroes' needed to make a powerful country come from? This is a question worth pondering."
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Wang Tian