China News Service, Beijing, March 2 (Yang Yuqi) Recently, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Education made it clear that the scale of enrollment for graduate students in 2020 will be expanded, an increase of 189,000 over the same period last year.

Facing the expansion of the enrollment scale, the “graduate students” are both happy and worried. They rejoiced: the opportunity for "landing" may be greater; they worry: Will the academic qualifications depreciate in the future job market?

What does enrollment expansion mean to the postgraduate students?

Data map: In the Yifu Library of Guizhou University for Nationalities, postgraduate students are reading and reviewing. Photo by Qu Honglun of China News Agency

Postgraduate welfare! 189,000 postgraduate enrollment expansion

On February 25, the executive meeting of the State Council proposed that the scale of this year's postgraduate enrollment and graduate promotion should be expanded. Three days later, at the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, Vice Minister of Education Weng Tiehui revealed that the number of graduate students enrolled this year increased by 189,000 year-on-year.

According to the introduction of the Ministry of Education, there are about 440,000 postgraduate tutors and 12,000 postgraduate degree granting points in the country, and in particular, in recent years, more than 2,000 postgraduate programs have been cultivated and carrying capacity.

According to Weng Tiehui, this year's graduates of ordinary universities in the country have 8.74 million people. The original pressure on employment is not small. In addition, the outbreak of epidemic conditions has increased the pressure on graduates' employment. The Ministry of Education will work with relevant departments to do their best to expand employment channels, increase opportunities for further studies, and provide accurate guidance services.

Regarding the expansion of research and recruitment this year, Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, analyzed the reasons for the expansion based on two considerations: first, the number of applicants has increased year by year, in contrast, the number of applicants has been insufficient, and the competition for registration has been too fierce; Especially affected by the epidemic this year, the employment environment for graduates is not optimistic.

According to the "Statistical Bulletin on National Economic and Social Development 2019" recently announced by the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of graduate students enrolled in graduate education in 2019 was 917,000. According to this calculation, after the expansion of enrollment, the scale of graduate admissions this year may reach 1.1 million.

Data map. China News Agency reporter Liu Xinshe

There is a focus on expanding recruitment, and the country urgently needs talents in these professions

Of course, the expansion of enrollment also has some emphasis. According to the introduction of the Ministry of Education, the expansion of enrollment must ensure the quality of graduate education, while focusing on universities in the central and western regions and the northeast.

According to reports, the graduate program plans to increase the focus on clinical medicine, public health, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence and other majors, and mainly focus on professional degree training, mainly high-level application-oriented professional degrees.

Weng Tiehui previously explained that what majors are invested in depends on social needs, and it is mainly invested in areas that are urgently needed to serve the national strategy and the people's livelihood. These areas are very short of talent.

Regarding these enrollment expansion policies, Chu Zhaohui also believes that the expansion of enrollment has not adopted flood irrigation, but rather accurate placement. Enrollment has increased places in some key areas, especially public health, which is directly related to the epidemic.

"The trend of enlarging enrollment reflects the current bias in the demand for talents in medical and health, basic scientific research, and artificial intelligence in the country's economic development." Wu Rui, an expert at the Haitian Education Examination and Research Center, explained that the steady development of the economy and structural transformation have put forward a high-level talent training There is an urgent need, and at the same time, high demands are placed on candidates to improve their competitiveness.

Candidates participate in the postgraduate training course to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination. Photo by Zhang Yong of China News Agency

Enlarging enrollment to make postgraduate entrance examination easier?

Recently, some regions have put this year's postgraduate written test results on the list. Candidates who have obtained initial test results are waiting for the national line. For the "graduate entrance examinations", has the sudden expansion of enrollment policies made competition less this year?

"Expanding enrollment means an increase in the overall enrollment ratio. With a fixed number of applicants, more candidates will be successful this year because of the expansion of enrollment. For example, candidates who have pressed the first voluntary retest line may enter the retest." Wu Rui analysis.

But this does not mean that candidates are less competitive. Wu Rui explained that when more people enter the re-examination and more and more people meet the transfer qualification, the transfer will be extremely intense. In addition, the expansion of recruitment has a regional and professional category tendency, and not all candidates benefit.

Chu Zhaohui also said: "Expansion this year will to some extent ease the pressure on admissions to the postgraduate entrance examination, but this does not mean that the difficulty of the postgraduate entrance examination will be greatly reduced." He analyzed that although the admission ratio has increased, it increased from more than 3.4 million Judging from the number of applicants, the enrollment expansion was less than 200,000, and the registration ratio was still low.

This is indeed the case. In recent years, the number of applicants for postgraduate entrance examinations has continued to increase, and the increase in the past two years has been even greater. According to data released by the Ministry of Education, this year's number of applicants for master's degree examinations reached 3.41 million, an increase of 510,000 from the 2.9 million in the previous year, and a record high.

In the opinion of experts, in the face of the sharp increase in the scale of registration in recent years, the expansion of enrollment cannot significantly reduce the competition for postgraduate entrance examinations.

"For candidates, although the expansion of enrollment is good news, before the final result has come out, all we have to do now is to fully prepare for the re-examination." Wu Rui said.

Data Map: Photo by Hou Yu, reporter of China News Agency, Beijing Postgraduate Job Fair

Will my academic qualifications depreciate when my postgraduate admissions trials expand?

The expansion of 189,000 recruits also worried many students: In the future, will the quality of graduate education and social recognition "shrink"?

"China is the second largest graduate education country in the world. The number of graduate students seems to be huge, but from the perspective of the national population, it is actually a small proportion." According to Wu Rui, there are still graduate students in the current Chinese job market. Higher competitiveness, the gold content of graduate education is beyond doubt.

In addition, experts also believe that the expansion of graduate recruitment will have a certain impact on employment, but this impact cannot be overstated.

For example, Chu Zhaohui, currently the graduate enrollment scale is close to 900,000 a year, and after enrollment expansion is about 1.1 million, this number is about 1: 7 compared with the undergraduate enrollment level, which is more suitable from a structural point of view.

"However, the key to ensuring the quality of graduate education depends on implementation. For example, all new or expanded majors, admissions selection, teaching management, graduation evaluation and other aspects must be strictly controlled." Chu Zhaohui said.

Chu Zhaohui also reminded that the expansion of postgraduate enrollment can delay the employment of students, but it cannot fundamentally solve this problem. Beware of the over-education problem caused by the expansion of enrollment, which will not only increase the cost of students' reading. It will also increase the labor cost of the enterprise.

"Whether it is an enterprise or a student, it is necessary to look at the definition and selection of talents rationally, and not just academic theory." Chu Zhaohui said. (Finish)