The Paper reporter Zhu Xuan He Peiyun
Recently, Shaoyang College of Hunan Province released the "Announcement of the Treatment of the List of Doctors Going Abroad after Graduation and Returning to School and the List of Doctors to be Introduced in the Same Type", which has attracted attention.
According to this announcement, the school has introduced 23 doctoral students majoring in philosophy (pedagogy) at Adamson University in the Philippines in this batch, with a total cost of more than 19 million yuan.
It is worth noting that among the 23 doctors, 22 were originally staff members of Shaoyang College, with titles including lecturer, associate professor, senior experimenter, etc., and the remarks were all "return to school after graduation". The average introduction cost of these 22 people was 844,000 yuan. .
Many netizens believe that this kind of "advanced study" has a lot of water, and Adamson University has appeared in the "Enhanced Certification Review List" of the Service Center for Study Abroad under the Chinese Ministry of Education.
In this regard, on July 19, a dean of a secondary college of Shaoyang College told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that the school's internal teachers were also controversial about this mode of further study; this was a decision at the school level, and it was inconvenient for him to express his position.
Zhang Ping (pseudonym), who used to work in Shaoyang College, told Peng Pai that the threshold for domestic doctoral graduation is high, coupled with the current situation that personal title evaluation is linked to academic qualifications, and the proportion of doctors in the teaching team is linked to school evaluation, resulting in many in-service teachers choosing. Philippine colleges and universities that make it easier to graduate.
"It generally only takes two to four years to study a doctorate in Southeast Asia. Due to the epidemic, online courses are still available, and domestic doctors will feel that it is not fair. Moreover, if the degree of professional matching is not enough, it will affect the quality of education."
Another consultant for studying abroad in the Philippines said that the Philippine application for the Expo is a mature industry chain. Intermediaries cooperate with colleges and universities to undertake "business" for a long time. They use the information gap to get the bulk of the fees paid by the applicants, usually three or four times the tuition fee. , and even some intermediaries "made a fortune" through this business.
Sometimes, the depth of the relationship between study abroad agencies, schools and third-party institutions also determines whether they can undertake "business".
"Wholesale" advanced study
Regarding the situation similar to the public introduction of doctors by Shaoyang College, some netizens call it an "open secret", which is not uncommon in colleges and universities; some people think that this "self-produced and self-sold" type of introduction is unreasonable and unfair, and it is easy to inject water.
Shaoyang College has introduced 23 Ph.D. students majoring in Philosophy (Pedagogy) at Adamson University in the Philippines in this batch, and one of them was introduced from another school.
For the other 22 people, the introduction fee for each doctoral student is 350,000 yuan, the scientific research start-up fee is 150,000 yuan, the transitional rental subsidy is 144,000 yuan, and the introduction fee is 200,000 yuan without the need to solve the spouse's work, totaling 844,000 yuan.
According to the above announcement, it will cost more than 19 million yuan for the treatment of 22 doctors plus 1 doctor introduced from a foreign school.
The content of the announcement also shows that 23 doctors graduated from Adamson University in the Philippines, majoring in philosophy (pedagogy), but worked in Shaoyang University's School of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Physical Education and other secondary colleges with "mismatched majors".
The batch of doctoral study time is from August 2019 to December 2021, a total of two years and four months, which is greatly shortened compared with the three to four years of doctoral students in domestic universities.
Regarding the attention caused by the announcement, on July 19, a second-level dean of Shaoyang College told The Paper that the school's internal teachers were also controversial about this mode of further study; but this is a decision at the school level, and it is inconvenient for me to express my position.
Zhang Ping (pseudonym), who used to work in Shaoyang College, told The Paper that the threshold for domestic doctoral graduation is high, coupled with the status quo that the evaluation of personal titles is linked to academic qualifications, and the proportion of doctors in the teaching staff is linked to school evaluations, resulting in many in-service teachers. Choose Philippine colleges and universities that are easier to graduate.
He said that there are indeed many cases of going to Southeast Asian countries to study for Ph.D.
In his view, local colleges and universities often apply for the Expo like "wholesale" according to the policy, batch after batch.
But this kind of study abroad model generally needs to go through a third-party institution, "the institution must be for the purpose of making money."
According to a report from Southern Weekly, a second-level dean of Shaoyang University said that according to what he has learned, among the school teachers who graduated with doctoral degrees this year, far more than the 23 people who have been announced so far, there may be more than 100 people.
In his own college, there are also teachers on the introduction list.
In his opinion, the majors of education and the teachers of the colleges themselves do not match. "If you are applying for jobs, you will definitely not want teachers who do not match the majors, but we must accept the ones sent by your college, right?"
The Paper noted that Adamson University is on the list of Philippine institutions of higher learning recommended by the Philippine Higher Education Commission, but it has also been included in the list of "enhanced scrutiny" on the official website of the Overseas Chinese Service Center of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
On the official website of the Service Center for Study Abroad of the Ministry of Education, on November 26, 2021, the "Announcement on Strengthening the Certification Review of Academic Degree Certification of Some Foreign Universities and Colleges" shows that "Our center will continue to pay attention to the certification data and related reports, starting from now on. Enhanced review of accreditation applications from the following institutions." Adamson University of the Philippines on this Enhanced Accreditation Review List.
Shenbo Industry Chain
"It's already a very mature industry chain." Zhao Lin (pseudonym), who once studied for a PhD in the Philippines and engaged in consulting for studying abroad in the Philippines, told The Paper that the Chinese market is the main battlefield for study-abroad intermediaries in the Philippines.
He mentioned that there are not many personal applications for studying abroad due to the complicated process and high cost. Most of the people who come to the Philippines to study for a Ph.D. are in-service teachers in colleges and universities.
"But their English is generally not very good, even if they are agents or recruiting agents, they have seized business opportunities."
Peng Mei News noticed that many Philippine study abroad institutions on the Internet have advertised slogans such as "graduation is easier", "no language requirements", and "the schooling system is as low as two years", and listed various advantages of studying in the Philippines, such as "most of them". Institutions do not need to issue core journals.”
In the application list, the cost of applying for a Philippine program ranges from 70,000 yuan to 130,000 yuan, of which Adamson University has the highest price of 130,000 yuan.
Xiao Zhang, an employee of an intermediary company that specializes in studying in Southeast Asia, also said that applying for a doctorate in most universities in the Philippines does not require language scores, but only needs to provide a master's degree certificate, transcripts, and no criminal records.
Xiao Zhang said that for individuals applying for a Ph.D. in the Philippines, his company provides two services: taking the application for a Ph.D. in education from Adamson University as an example, the first type of business mainly includes applying for an "offer", and the fee is about 30,000 yuan. It pays about 60,000 yuan for tuition fees in Philippine colleges and universities alone; the other is a full-service project, which charges about 140,000 yuan, including application, post-admission tutoring assignments, and essays.
He introduced that among Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, Philippine doctors are more "watery".
"This 'water' is to say that graduation is good, such as education at Adamson University, and it is not required to publish an article, just write a graduation thesis."
He also said that most of the people who choose the Philippines for doctoral studies are in-service teachers in domestic universities. "Our institution also cooperates with domestic universities. (This situation) is relatively common in Southeast Asian countries and South Korea."
Zhao Lin said that the fees charged by online study agents are much higher than the actual fees, and many publicity is just a gimmick.
He said that the Ph.D. system in the Philippines is short, usually two to four years, and the difficulty of graduation is relatively small.
"Many intermediaries in the Philippines now charge about 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, but in fact the official tuition fee is only 30,000 to 50,000 yuan." Zhao Lin said that, as far as he knows, there are Philippine study abroad intermediary companies that have only opened for two years and are profitable Over ten million.
In the Philippines, studying for a Ph.D. is not as simple as what the intermediary said. Many schools are taught Ph.D., with a lot of homework and writing papers. Many students will also be very busy. After paying high intermediary fees, many students It is found that graduation is not as simple as the agent said, but there is no way out.
He said that Adamson University itself is still good, and its ranking is not low. There are not too harsh requirements for Chinese students as international students to study, but there are also more than a dozen courses, and they are all taught in English.
On the other hand, Zhao Lin said that the epidemic has also become a "stop solution" for many people to choose the Philippines to study for a Ph.D.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, many colleges and universities in the Philippines have chosen to teach students online.
"It's okay to speculate, or it's okay to use the dividend mentality. They have a way to read a blog at the lowest cost without going abroad." Zhao Lin said.
"Quick success"
Many interviewees mentioned that Shaoyang College is not an isolated case.
Behind the introduction of Philippine doctors in batches, the "hard copy" of the domestic education evaluation system by relevant colleges and universities is also the reason.
The reporter's inquiry found that the basic requirements for degree authorization review applications issued by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council in 2020 show that the basic requirements for the application of new doctoral degree-granting units (humanities single subject) are required, and the proportion of full-time teachers with doctoral degrees in the applicant unit is not low. at 45%.
The basic requirements for applying for a master's degree-granting unit (single-subject of liberal arts) are required. The proportion of full-time teachers with doctoral degrees is not less than 25%, and the proportion of teachers with a master's degree or above is not less than 80%.
According to the updated teacher profile on the official website of Shaoyang College on April 25, 2021, the school has 1,474 full-time teachers, 1,206 with master's degrees or above, including 452 doctors (including those currently studying) and 1,002 with master's degrees.
According to the information published on the official website of the Hunan Provincial Department of Education, in 2017, Shaoyang University was included in the third batch of the list of the units to be awarded a master's degree in construction projects.
Zhao Lin said that the state has quantitative indicators for the proportion of doctors. Based on the quantitative indicators, the school will make the aforementioned "batch introduction".
From the personal point of view of teachers, there is also a big difference between those with a doctorate and those without a doctorate, which is crucial for teachers to evaluate senior professional titles, evaluate professors, and take projects.
Zhang Ping, who used to work in Shaoyang College, also said that objectively speaking, teachers' professional titles are linked to their degrees and academic qualifications, and their treatment is definitely different. Any evaluation and scoring in the school is also related to these (faculty's doctorate) ratios.
Subjectively speaking, he believes that it takes more time and energy to study for a PhD in China, and because of the impact of the epidemic, many times you can only take online courses, and the amount of money is different, and the psychology of domestic doctors will also be unbalanced.
Furthermore, many doctoral majors do not match, or have an impact on the quality of teaching.
In his view, the gold content of full-time doctoral studies in China is higher, but it corresponds to the shortage of doctoral enrollment places.
"The aforementioned phenomenon reflects the eagerness of some schools for quick success and instant benefits, and also shows that there are some loopholes in our current education management and evaluation system." Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, told The Paper that there are indeed some schools where Dr. Foreign education and foreign academic status are regarded as higher than domestic ones, and they do not go to the field to check their quality and level.
Chu Zhaohui said that such schools are not only Shaoyang College, but also more than one or two schools.
He mentioned that, in fact, the Ministry of Education has issued relevant documents that require that foreign academic qualifications and domestic academic qualifications cannot be compared with each other, but it may not be implemented in every local college.
"The source and starting point of Shaoyang College's introduction of Filipino doctors is not at the moment. A similar operation is to sign agreements with (colleges and universities) in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, give them a sum of money, and then send their own teachers over there, after After a period of study, get your degree certificate back." He said that this process is relatively lack of strict academic evaluation, and there may also be a phenomenon of "water release".
Chu Zhaohui believes that this is inconsistent with the current Chinese higher education needs to transform from the extensional development characterized by scale expansion and space expansion to the connotative development centered on improving quality and optimizing the structure. This phenomenon should still be regulated and managed according to academic logic and rules.