**: China Science Daily.
Wen Zhang Xiaobao (Associate Professor, School of Education, Hunan University of Science and Technology).
Editor's note:On December 26, 2023, Bao Wanping, a researcher at the Institute of Plateau Science and Sustainable Development of Qinghai Normal University, published an article in China Science News, arguing that it will become the norm for universities to no longer provide dormitories for graduate students in the future, and proposed that universities should quickly strip away content that is irrelevant or weakly related to central tasks such as teaching, scientific research and social services, so as to allocate limited resources to core priorities.
After the publication of the article, it attracted the attention of many scholars, and at the same time aroused some different voices. China Science Daily published a special issue of one of the representative articles, hoping to provide readers with different perspectives.
Text: Recently, many colleges and universities have made it clear that they will no longer provide dormitories for some graduate students. In this regard, experts have different opinions, some believe that the proper arrangement of student dormitories is the unshirkable responsibility of universities, while others believe that it is the general trend to change the way colleges and universities manage accommodation and partially divest the function of providing accommodation in universities.
As a former student and now a teacher working in a university, I would like to comment on this issue from the perspective of student development.
It's a little cold to let graduate students "figure it out on their own".
Accommodation is not only a basic living need, but also a problem that goes hand in hand with study. If the accommodation problem is not properly resolved, it will inevitably affect the energy and mood of graduate studies. However, in recent years, the scale of graduate students in China has been expanding, and the problem of shortage of dormitory resources has become increasingly prominent.
According to the 2020 National Statistical Communiqué on the Development of Education, the enrollment scale of graduate students in China has increased from 53 in 2010820,000 to 110 in 2020660,000, doubling in 10 years. According to the basic situation of the development of national education in 2022 released by the Ministry of Education, a total of 124 graduate students were enrolled in the country that year250,000 people, an increase of 5 over the previous year61%；365360,000 people, an increase of 9 over the previous year64%。
With the expansion of postgraduate enrollment, the existing dormitories of colleges and universities, especially those with stronger student absorption capacity, can no longer fully meet the demand. From part-time graduate students to full-time professional degree graduate students, from all accommodation to applying for lottery, "not providing dormitories to some graduate students" has become an important measure for some universities to solve the problem of shortage of dormitory resources. Judging from the current trend, there will be more and more such universities.
It should be said that the move not to provide dormitories to some graduate students can undoubtedly relieve the pressure on the dormitory resources of universities, so that they can focus on graduate student recruitment and training, and no longer have to worry about the headache of accommodation arrangements. From "all-encompassing logistics" to being freed from cumbersome and heavy logistical affairs, this process of socialization of logistics is also a great progress in the process of running colleges and universities. At the same time, allowing graduate students to "solve the problem of accommodation on their own" helps to cultivate graduate students' independent living ability and problem-solving ability.
However, this approach by universities shifts the pressure of solving the accommodation problem from itself to individual graduate students.
Judging from the current news reports, the universities that do not provide dormitories for some graduate students are mainly concentrated in relatively developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Nanjing. These areas are not only areas where China's high-quality higher education resources are concentrated, but also areas with developed economy, concentrated population and high rents.
Renting a house in these areas, if you choose an area closer to the university, you need to bear more economic costs, and to save economic costs, you have to pay more time costs. The former is a huge expense for graduate students and their families, while the latter causes great inconvenience to the study and life of graduate students. Under the requirements of the state to "always adhere to the equal status of the two types of academic degree and professional degree graduate education" and "give equal importance to the two types of degrees in terms of enrollment, training, employment, etc.", it is also suspected of favoring one over the other by not providing dormitories for professional degree graduates.
In contrast, the shortage of dormitories in other regions has not been so prominent, and once this day comes, it will not be difficult for some graduate students in these areas to solve the housing problem on their own due to the relatively low cost of renting.
In other words, in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it is precisely because of the higher cost of renting a house for graduate students that universities in the relevant regions need to come forward to solve the problem, and the responsibility of providing accommodation cannot be stripped away from the university. This is actually an important peculiarity of the accommodation problem in these economically developed areas and universities with high academic standards. In this case, the emphasis on graduate students "self-solving" is undoubtedly a bit cold.
The educational implications of student dormitories
The university campus itself is an influential educational field, and it is also an implicit classroom with important educational value. Living in such a field is an important part of graduate education.
When recalling the study life of Tsinghua University, Mr. Ji Xianlin, a master of Chinese culture, once said: "As for the scenery of Tsinghua Garden, it is even more well-known, and the four seasons are different: spring is full of flowers, summer is the sound of vine shadows and lotuses, autumn is maple leaves like fire, winter is white snow and pine, and others such as the purple air of the West Mountain and the moonlight of the lotus pond are also unforgettable." Therefore, if the teaching time is limited to the campus, it will cause the alienation of graduate students from the campus, the educational value of the university campus itself will be greatly reduced, and the communication and interaction between teachers and students, and students will also be limited.
In other words, the issue of accommodation is not simply a matter of life, but an educational issue that is closely related to the development of graduate students.
In addition, some scholars have pointed out that it is true that some foreign universities do not provide dormitories for students. However, we also need to realize that there are still a number of world-class universities such as Oxford University and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and Princeton University in the United States to provide dormitories for students, and their residential college system is an important feature of their talent training, with multiple functions such as teacher-student interaction, academic exchanges, and moral education.
Jin Yaoji, the former president of the University of Chinese of Hong Kong, described the residential college in Cambridge in his book "Cambridge Language": "The classical and elegant temperament still permeates the courtyard, cloister and lawn of the college; The mental activity of arguing and arguing is also filled with wine and conversation in the cafeteria and lounge. ”
In other words, while some universities in China are only using dormitories as accommodation places and considering whether to provide dormitories in the future, these first-class universities are thinking about how to inherit, play and improve their educational functions. This should undoubtedly become an important reference for Chinese universities to consider the issue of accommodation in the future.
Three strategies to solve the shortage of accommodation resources
In the period of shortage of dormitory resources, this problem must be solved, and the main body of its solution may only be the university and graduate students, and there are often only two ways to live on campus and off-campus housing. Compared with the power of universities as organizations, individual forces often seem small and helpless in solving the accommodation problem, and they can also feel helpless about the unilateral non-provision of accommodation by universities. In fact, this situation is more of a test of humanistic care, responsibility and action consciousness of colleges and universities.
In terms of specific measures, on the one hand, colleges and universities should maintain the expansion of enrollment at a level roughly equivalent to the dormitory resources, and on the other hand, they also need to make comprehensive efforts from the following aspects to solve the accommodation problem:
First of all, it is a priority for universities to fully tap the potential of on-campus resources and enable graduate students to live on campus. To this end, colleges and universities can appropriately expand the capacity of existing dormitories, increase the supply of beds, and also transform idle faculty dormitories, teaching and research buildings and other buildings into residential buildings. In addition, it is possible to use the existing vacant land to build new student dormitories.
Secondly, in the case of limited on-campus resources, colleges and universities also need to actively expand off-campus accommodation resources and make centralized arrangements for graduate students. For example, you can rent a private house and other buildings nearby and transform them into graduate student dormitories, and you can also contract off-campus hotels, apartments, and other places to provide graduate students with residence.
Again, help and subsidies for graduate students to rent a house. In the case that the above two methods still cannot comprehensively solve the problem of graduate student accommodation, colleges and universities should actively provide assistance for graduate students to rent a house, find and provide safe, comfortable, convenient and preferential housing. At the same time, in order to reduce the cost of renting and commuting for students, colleges and universities can appropriately subsidize them.
In short, in the period of shortage of dormitory resources, colleges and universities should take how to promote the growth and development of students as the fundamental starting point for dealing with the accommodation problem, actively assume the main responsibility of guarantee, stand on the same position with students, and provide more powerful support for the solution of the student accommodation problem.