■ Observation of the Two Sessions
A high-quality education system is by no means a high-academic education system.
The National Two Sessions also coincide with graduate student recruitment, and related topics attract attention.
According to reports, Pan Fusheng, a representative of the National People's Congress, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a professor of Chongqing University, submitted suggestions at the National Two Sessions on how to effectively eliminate the school-based "origin theory" in the postgraduate admissions and employment process.
Academician Pan Fusheng pointed out that in recent years, in the postgraduate enrollment and employment process, the phenomenon of "original discrimination" has appeared again, emphasizing that one must be 985, 211, double first-class or university ranking, or even only recognize the "first academic degree" origin .
This phenomenon is very harmful and needs to be eradicated urgently.
This is a fact.
Many graduates from ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities are very anxious about the upcoming re-examination after taking the preliminary examination, worried that their "first academic qualifications" will affect their interview scores.
In postgraduate admissions, some tutors do prefer students from 985, 211, and double first-class universities.
There are two main reasons for this.
On the one hand, some colleges and universities use the proportion of newly recruited students from 985, 211, and double first-class colleges and universities as an indicator to evaluate their enrollment performance; on the other hand, local ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities have also adopted a school-running orientation to strengthen postgraduate entrance examinations in recent years, and some even The school organizes teaching around postgraduate entrance examination subjects.
This has led to the problem that postgraduate students from these schools have very high initial test scores but lack overall quality.
Therefore, to eliminate the “first degree” discrimination, it is necessary to improve the postgraduate admissions re-examination and establish a scientific academic evaluation system based on ability.
At the same time, it is necessary to clearly require all admissions units not to publicize or hype the number of students admitted to 985, 211, and double first-class colleges and universities, and to clean up all relevant admissions performance indicators in the evaluation of disciplines and majors.
Local general undergraduate colleges and universities must change their academic orientation and focus on students’ complete undergraduate education.
If we only pursue the postgraduate entrance examination rate, it will not only encourage the “first degree” discrimination in graduate admissions, but also intensify the “first degree” discrimination in employment.
The reason for evaluating and selecting talents based on "first academic qualifications" is that school origin determines the overall ability and quality of students. Individual students may be unfairly treated as a result, but overall such evaluation is not a big problem and can improve evaluation efficiency.
But there is no doubt that strengthening the recruitment of "first academic qualifications" will not only stimulate the involution of academic qualifications and lead to high consumption of academic qualifications, but it is also not conducive to talent cultivation and requires great attention.
Educational equity and employment equality are important cornerstones of social equity.
This year’s government work report proposes to implement pilot comprehensive reform of higher education, optimize the layout of disciplines, majors and resource structure, accelerate the construction of world-class universities and advantageous disciplines with Chinese characteristics, and enhance the strength of universities in the central and western regions.
This requires colleges and universities to take building a high-quality education system as their own responsibility, but a high-quality education system is by no means a high-academic education system.
In particular, my country's gross higher education enrollment rate will be as high as 60.2% in 2023. It has entered the era of popularization of higher education. It is time to promote the transformation of the entire society from an academic society to a capability society.
□Xiong Bingqi (educational scholar)