Chao News client reporter Ji Yuya.
On December 23, the 2024 National Postgraduate Admission Examination will begin. More than 150,000 candidates in Zhejiang Province rushed to the examination room in the cold wave.
Although the temperature in Hangzhou in the early morning was as low as minus 6 degrees Celsius, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the candidates to pursue their dreams. As soon as the sky was bright, candidates arrived outside the test centers one after another, and some of them were looking through the materials under the trees by the light of the street lamps.
The picture shows candidates preparing for the exam outside the test center of Zhejiang Gongshang University. Courtesy of the school.
Such scenes, repeated year after year, seem to have become commonplace. Today, the postgraduate entrance examination scene is still hot. However, news such as "the decline in the number of graduate students" and "the Ministry of Education promotes the development of graduate education classification" show that the situation of graduate education has quietly changed.
The inflection point is coming
There are various signs that China's graduate education may usher in an inflection point.
On November 22, the official website of the Ministry of Education announced that according to statistics, the number of applicants for the national master's admission examination in 2024 will be 4.38 million, a decrease of about 76%。Looking further back, since 2016, the number of applicants for master's degree in China has maintained a high growth trend until the number of applicants for postgraduate entrance examination rises to a peak of 4.74 million in 2023.
The decline in the number of graduate students also occurred in Zhejiang. According to the data released by the Zhejiang Provincial Education Examination Institute on the 22nd, there are 1550,000 candidates applied for the 2024 postgraduate examination, a decrease of 1 from 202390,000, down about 11%.
Looking at some of the other data, it seems more meaningful that the number of graduate students is decreasing.
In the spring of this year, the latest data from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission showed that the number of master's and doctoral degrees in Beijing will show an overall "upside-down" trend in the future. Half a year later, the number of applicants for the 2024 national examination will reach a new high, exceeding 3 million for the first time.
In these contexts, the decline in the number of graduate students is also regarded by some experts as a return to rationality under the employment orientation. "Under the current situation, more students are pursuing the value of employment than going to graduate school. Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, said.
The reason behind the decline in the number of graduate students is that some candidates have given more priority to employment, and the channel for studying abroad has become convenient again after the epidemic. The head of the graduate school of a university in the province said that although there are multiple reasons for the decrease in the number of graduate students this year, the inflection point of graduate education is now the consensus of the industry.
Uneven heat and cold
The inflection point is beginning to appear, and it is also reflected in the differentiation of the application situation for graduate students this year.
The relevant person in charge of many colleges and universities in the province that had good enrollment in previous years and were good at liberal arts confirmed to reporters that the number of graduate students applying for the examination this year has declined, with a decline of about 10%, of which the decline in education and grammar majors is more obvious.
The number of applicants for engineering colleges or majors is similar to last year, and even increased. "The number of applicants for our graduate studies this year is about the same as last year, with more than 12,000 people. Fan Yingle, dean of the Graduate School of Hangzhou Dianzi University, told reporters that the registration for postgraduate entrance examinations for popular majors is still very hot. Hangzhou Electric's ace majors such as computer science have also attracted 666 undergraduates from double first-class universities to apply for the examination.
The City College of Zhejiang University, which is recruiting master's students for the second year this year, has seen a 57% increase in applicants compared with last year. "On the one hand, compared to last year's first enrollment, this year's school is a little more well-known;On the other hand, the school is located in the main urban area of Hangzhou, and recruits science and engineering majors such as electronic information, which is more favored by candidates. Chen Ju, deputy director of the Graduate Office of Zhejiang University City College, said.
Of course, even science and engineering majors are internally divided. A person in charge of the research and recruitment office of a university said, "The number of applicants for industrial majors recruiting academic master's degrees is significantly lower than last year, and candidates prefer to apply for professional master's degrees with more convenient employment." ”
Li Qiong, deputy director of the Research and Industry Department of Zhejiang Gongshang University, found another new phenomenon in the application data. "Although the number of applicants for full-time postgraduate studies has decreased, the number of applicants for part-time postgraduate studies at our school has not decreased. Li Qiong analyzed that this shows that while pursuing employment, everyone's demand for academic qualifications still exists. With the decrease in the number of graduate students, the number of part-time graduate students applying for the examination should not decrease in the future, and it is expected to increase.
Landscape changes
Changes in postgraduate education in China are also reflected in recent documents from the Ministry of Education.
On December 19, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Development of Academic Degree and Professional Degree Graduate Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing to focus on major national strategies, key areas and major social needs, further increase the proportion of professional degree graduates, and expand the enrollment scale of master's professional degree students to about two-thirds of the total enrollment scale of master's degree students by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", and greatly increase the number of doctoral degree students.
The training orientation of master's degree and professional master's degree is different. The master's degree provides academic talents for doctoral education, with a focus on academic training for graduate studentsThe professional master is to cultivate high-quality applied talents, focusing on vocational training for students. The "Opinions" are also believed by the outside world to further promote the change of the pattern of graduate education in China.
Dividing graduate education into academic degree graduate students and professional degree graduate students is a fundamental adjustment of the talent training structure. The requirements for the classified development put forward in the "Opinions" point out a specific path for the next step of running two types of degree graduate education and improving the quality of professional master's education. Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said.
Judging from the situation of our school, the professional and master's degree is more directly oriented to employment, and it has become more and more popular with students in recent years. Fan Yingle said that since 2010, China has started the adjustment of the postgraduate training structure, and promoted the development of academic masters (masters) and professional masters (masters), and the enrollment scale of professional masters has been expanding. However, there are also doubts in the society that the quality of the master's degree is not as good as the master's degree, which has become a bottleneck restricting the better development of the master's degree.
In Fan Yingle's view, the "Opinions" represent the basic direction of the development of graduate education in China. With the continuous optimization and improvement of the system and mechanism for the development of graduate education, different types of master's education will show their own strengths.
*Please indicate the source".