【On the Two Sessions】 Liu Changjun: To Optimize the Enrollment of Postgraduates and Increase the Proportion of Doctoral Students

On May 21, Liu Changjun, a CPPCC National Committee member and professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology of Tianjin University told a reporter of Science and Technology Daily, "In current China's graduate enrollment, the proportion of doctoral students is relatively small, and the number of master’s candidates is too large, which is not suitable for the demand of current domestic economic and social development or disciplinary construction and basic research, especially in some key disciplines . It is urgent to change the enrollment structure and increase the proportion of doctoral students."

Liu pointed out that according to the data released on the Internet, in 2012, the enrollment scale of Postgraduates in China was about 584000, including 517000 master’s candidates and 67000 doctoral candidates. In 2018, the total enrollment of postgraduates nationwide reached 884000, including 790000 postgraduates and 94000 doctoral students. In addition to a few universities, master’s students are the main body of postgraduate training in the most of the world-class universities in China. Thus, a large number of scientific research and technological development are mainly conducted by master students, which seriously restricts the development of scientific and technological innovation.

"Due to the short training period of master’s students and various constraints, the time for carrying out substantive research is reduced, so it is impossible for master’s students to integrate into scientific research deeply enough." said Liu.

"Recently, the ability and level of doctoral student training has been improved greatly. In some disciplines and fields, the training of doctoral students has reached the world-class level. China has trained a large number of top-notch innovative talents for socio-economic development, which has provided talent guarantee and intellectual support for implementation of the major national development strategy." Liu suggested that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance and other relevant departments should negotiate as soon as possible to reposition the objectives and methods of graduate training, adjust the enrollment proportion of master’s and doctoral students in China and improve the proportion of doctoral students as soon as possible, fundamentally optimizing the enrollment structure of postgraduates.

By: Li Jinhua

Editor: Sun Xiaofang