After experiencing two unsatisfactory college entrance examinations, Qin Zhifei, a young man from Zhejiang, was admitted to a junior college, and when he entered the school, he buried the desire to "upgrade his education" in his heart.
To this end, he signed up for an off-campus tutoring class, participated in weekend training, winter and summer vacation intensive training and pre-exam intensive training, first listened to the class, and then brushed up on the questions. In 2022, he was admitted to the environmental engineering major of a two-book college with a score of two points above the admission line.
Qin Zhifei studied engineering cost at junior college. The school often asks the head of the company to explain the current situation of the industry to students, and holds a job fair on campus every year, but he is so focused on advancing to higher education that he does not think about working after graduation. He also noticed that half of the students in the class had taken the college entrance examination.
In February 2022, at a press conference held by the Ministry of Education, Chen Ziji, director of the Department of Vocational Education and Adult Education of the Ministry of Education, said, "At present, the proportion of vocational school graduates in the country has reached 2%, and in the next step, we will strive to allow more vocational school graduates to receive high-quality vocational undergraduate education." ”
However, recently, Wuhan Textile University and Wuhan University of Light Industry, two public undergraduate colleges, stopped enrollment, which caused widespread attention and discussion on "Is the college school cool".
Has the Zen Sheng Ben cooled down? What do all parties think about the craze? Our reporter investigated this.
Some undergraduates have stopped enrolling junior college students
Regarding the suspension of enrollment at the junior college level, Wuhan Textile University announced: "After the school's research decision and the approval of the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, our school will stop carrying out the enrollment of 'general higher education junior college level starting point to undergraduate education' (junior college) from 2023." ”
Wuhan University of Light Industry said: "The university will continue to strive to comprehensively improve the quality of talent training, focus on building first-class undergraduate education, and make new contributions to serving the economic and social development of countries and regions with high quality." ”
In fact, the phenomenon of reducing or suspending enrollment in public undergraduate colleges also exists in other provinces.
Wang Ping, vice president of Shaanxi Vocational and Technical College, told reporters that this year, Shaanxi Province's ordinary colleges and universities have arranged a total of 31 majors in 70 ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities and 22 majors in two vocational education undergraduate colleges and universities; It can be seen from the enrollment plan in recent years that the enrollment of private institutions and independent institutions in 2022 has expanded compared with 2021, while the enrollment plan of public institutions as a whole shows a trend of reduction. In the past two years, Xi'an Polytechnic University, Xi'an University of Posts and Telecommunications and other universities have stopped recruiting junior college students.
How is the Admission Plan determined?
The person in charge of admissions of a university in Jiangsu analyzed that the enrollment of colleges and universities is not that each school "recruits as much as it wants", but that the competent department is based on factors such as the number of applicants, the acceptance rate, and the conditions for running colleges and universities, and has a set of scientific calculation methods. "The acceptance rate of the college entrance examination usually remains the same level as the previous year or slightly increased, and the most important reason for the expansion of the college entrance examination is the increase in the number of applicants year by year."
She said that the enrollment channels of vocational undergraduate colleges and some applied undergraduate colleges are more diverse, in addition to the ordinary college entrance examination, there are secondary vocational education college entrance examination, special transfer unified examination, five-year consistent special transfer examination and other enrollment methods, the school in the research and formulation of the current year's proposed enrollment plan, reported to the provincial education department for approval, by the provincial department unified regulation of the enrollment plan, "in this process, some schools expand enrollment, some schools reduce recruitment, not blindly expand enrollment." ”
So, what are the reasons for the reduction of enrollment and suspension of recruitment of students from public undergraduate colleges and universities? Many interviewees mentioned that this is related to the fact that public schools have higher goals and hope to improve the quality of students.
In this regard, Wang Ping gave three points of analysis.
The first is to adjust the focus of enrollment to general college entrance examination enrollment. Undergraduate college enrollment is to recruit a group of new students on the original number of students in the school, due to the limitations of school conditions, the enrollment plan of college entrance examination is increasing, which is bound to crowd out the general college entrance examination enrollment plan.
The second is to reduce the teaching pressure of the school. Wang Ping explained that for the students enrolled in the unified enrollment and promotion program, due to the certain differences between the training plan and mode, learning foundation and ability and the survival of the school, in order to teach according to aptitude, the school needs to arrange teaching separately, which increases the difficulty of teaching management.
Third, there are certain misunderstandings in society. In recent years, the "Double First-class" construction universities no longer recruit junior college students, and many colleges and universities have also cancelled their enrollment.
Wang Ping said: "This may be related to a misunderstanding in society, some people will be prejudiced against the college entrance examination, thinking that 'the institutions that participate in the college entrance examination are not good institutions'." As a result, some institutions will consider canceling the enrollment plan for post-secondary education. ”
Specialized promotion is a kind of "just need"
Although some undergraduate colleges and universities have reduced or stopped recruiting junior college students, from the data of recent years, the post-secondary education has continued to heat up.
In September 2020, the Ministry of Education and other nine departments issued the Action Plan for Improving the Quality and Training of Vocational Education (9-2020), which requires: "Appropriately expand the enrollment plan for junior college to provide opportunities for some willing higher vocational (junior college) graduates to continue their studies." "In that year, the enrollment of 2023,32 people was expanded.
In the past three years, the number of applications and enrollment in the national college entrance examination has still shown an upward trend. For example, Zhejiang Province will enroll 3,2021, 2022,2023 and 28388,34724 students in 38248, 3 and 30335, respectively; The enrollment of Jiangsu Province in the past three years was 32795,33525, 5220,7427 and 10006,<> respectively; In Shanghai, the figures were <>,<>, <>,<> and <>,<>.
Sun Xiaolei, dean of Anhui Communications Vocational and Technical College, observed that not only in his school, but also in the province and the whole country, the willingness of junior college students to advance to higher education is still relatively strong: the number of applicants for the college entrance examination in Anhui Province in 2021 increased by 2020.18% compared with 56, and the number of applicants in 2022 increased by 2021.36% compared with 33; The two data of Anhui Communications Vocational and Technical College were 25.43% and 41.92% respectively.
Sun Xiaolei believes that on the whole, whether from the perspective of social needs or students' will, the college is a kind of "just need": for example, in Anhui, the Department of Education will reasonably arrange the majors to be expanded from the perspective of industrial upgrading and improving people's livelihood, including electronic information, machinery manufacturing, biomedicine, green environmental protection, health services, emergency management, elderly care services, housekeeping services, etc.
However, Sun Xiaolei also believes that the heating up of vocational colleges and universities also reflects that vocational colleges and universities have not done enough in terms of industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation. "Taking our school as an example, few students in rail transit major choose to go to higher education, because this major is jointly trained with Hefei Rail Company, also called 'order class', and students can directly enter the employment of municipal state-owned enterprises after graduation. If vocational education can enable students to achieve 'recruitment is recruitment, graduation is employment', then more and more students may be willing to work directly after graduation, and local economic and social development will not lack high-quality skilled personnel. ”
Sun Xiaolei pointed out that nationwide, majors with strong students' willingness to advance to higher education are usually concentrated in non-real economy majors with fierce homogenization competition. "For example, general employers will not recruit graduates of finance and accounting in large quantities, especially accounting at the college level, so finance students are more willing to advance to higher education, and the application rate and acceptance rate are relatively high. This shows that there is a disconnect between the professional setting of vocational education and the needs of the industry, which involves another problem, that is, the cost of running a school for finance and economics majors is lower than that for engineering. To solve this problem, organizers at all levels need to increase their concern, support and investment in vocational education. ”
The educational challenges caused by the post-secondary education
Liu Xingyu, a junior student majoring in digital media art design at a junior college in Shandong, noticed that almost all students majoring in art at the school, including herself, had applied for the college entrance examination.
"I failed the college entrance examination and got into the junior college, and I was ready to go to higher education when I enrolled. My dream is to be admitted to the university in the future and become an art teacher in a public high school. And whether it is to take the public examination, the editing examination or find a job in the future, each unit will have academic requirements, even if you graduate from a bachelor's degree, it is not easy to find a decent job, let alone a specialty. ”
Liu Xingyu found that the school very encouraged students to go to school, and many students also "rushed to improve their education". "In the previous sessions, the school set up a special special course; For unknown reasons, we have not had a special education course at the beginning of this session, but the school will invite external tutoring institutions to give lectures in the school, and will also provide convenience such as winter and summer vacation dormitories and study rooms for students who have advanced to colleges. The school's graduation internship is relatively 'water', as long as you go to the entire internship report, you can hand it over. After all, if we really go to the internship, we will not be able to take care of the preparation for the college entrance examination. ”
For vocational colleges, how to ensure the study arrangement with a strong desire to advance like Liu Xingyu, and at the same time to complete the education and teaching requirements required by vocational education, is a great challenge for many vocational colleges.
In addition, for students who have successfully studied in undergraduate colleges, it is still a big challenge.
Since entering the undergraduate college, Qin Zhifei feels that the learning atmosphere is obviously much more nervous than when he was in the junior college. "First, our students have to finish the content of others for 4 years in two years, and the course arrangement is almost full every day; Second, everyone is preparing for graduate school entrance examinations, editing examinations, and public examinations, and making plans for graduation next year. There is a difference between my current major and junior college, and I am studying hard while preparing for the certificate of second-level construction engineer, and I plan to work in environmental engineering in the future. ”
Wang Ping noticed that some junior college students chose to abandon their studies after going to school. He analyzed that this is because some students do not have scientific career planning at the junior college level, and choose to advance to undergraduate because they are not admitted to the undergraduate program. However, after being admitted to the undergraduate, I found that the major I studied was not my real favorite major, nor did it conform to my career direction. There are also students who cannot adapt to the teaching style, learning pace, course difficulty and living environment at the undergraduate level, so they choose to abandon their studies.
Sun Xiaolei believes that the two years of undergraduate study after students are admitted to the junior college are somewhat "decoupled" in the way of talent training: "These students are technical skills training at the junior college stage, and they are trained according to discipline talents in the undergraduate, and the two are not completely connected, resulting in some students struggling to study in undergraduate schools, and their theoretical mastery after graduation is not as good as that of full-time 4-year students, and their skills are rusty." To solve this problem, it is urgent to do a good job in vocational education at the undergraduate level, after all, vocational education and higher education are two systems and two types. ”
In Sun Xiaolei's view, the training model of college is only a transitional stage, in order to meet the educational needs of the people, it is "no way". In the future, skilled talents should be promoted through the reform of vocational college entrance examination and the construction of vocational undergraduates.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, there are currently 32 vocational undergraduate colleges in the country. It is understood that many schools are preparing for upgrading costs through strong alliances and the construction of new campuses.
In 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education", which proposed that by 2025, the pattern of vocational education will be more optimized, the school-running conditions will be greatly improved, the enrollment scale of vocational undergraduate education will not be less than 10% of the enrollment scale of higher vocational education, and the attractiveness and training quality of vocational education will be significantly improved. The heads of the enrollment and employment departments of some vocational undergraduate schools said that they hope to expand the group of vocational education undergraduate colleges as soon as possible by increasing the construction of vocational education undergraduates, and join forces to form a certain scale and have a certain influence to improve social recognition.
(According to the requirements of interviewees, Qin Zhifei and Liu Xingyu are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily / China Youth Net reporter Wei Qiming Source: China Youth Daily