"Congratulations, your thesis has passed the defense!"
This is probably the most desired sentence for prospective graduates on campus during the graduation season.
In recent years, many colleges and universities no longer require masters to publish academic papers during their study, but the corresponding is the continuous tightening of degree papers, Focus more on the quality audit of academic theses 。
Recently, the requirements for degree awarding have been greatly adjusted—— The Academic Degrees Law was issued, stipulating that applicants for professional master's and doctoral degrees can obtain corresponding degrees through the prescribed defense of practical achievements 。
This means that, Professional masters can get their degrees without writing dissertations ！
Degree awarding, not just thesis
In April 2024, the National Education Professional Degree Postgraduate Education Steering Committee issued the Guiding Training Plan for Doctoral Degree Postgraduates in Education. The training objectives point out that it is necessary to train talents who can effectively solve complex problems in the field of education and teaching, The mid-term assessment requires the submission of a practical research report, and the completion of a dissertation is a necessary link 。
According to media reports, many professional masters from different universities also said that, Completing thesis defense is the basic requirement for the university to apply for a degree 。
However, must the evaluation of the quality of talent cultivation be labeled with a dissertation? The answer is no. From "breaking the Five Only" to the "Degree Law", the state, from the perspective of top-level design, is committed to academic evaluation and degree awarding decoupling from papers.
On April 26, the Academic Degrees Law of the People's Republic of China was officially promulgated and will come into force on January 1, 2025. Since the implementation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees on January 1, 1981, The First Comprehensive Revision of China's Degree Legal System 。
In the "transformation" from the Academic Degrees Regulations to the Academic Degrees Law, Constructing the "three levels and two types" degree system is a system innovation that has attracted much attention 。 In the Degree Regulations, academic degrees are focused, and no corresponding system design is made for professional degrees. The Degree Law clearly divides the degree types into academic degrees and professional degrees, and clearly defines the differentiation evaluation criteria for the degree granting conditions and the form of degree defense of the two types of degrees. Academic degrees emphasize academic research ability, while professional degrees emphasize professional practice ability; Academic degree postgraduates can defend their dissertations, while professional degree postgraduates can defend their practical achievements and other specified achievements.
After this legislation, Dissertation becomes an unnecessary choice for graduate students 。
But, Not only the thesis does not mean that it is easier to obtain a professional degree 。 Xu Jing, a professor of the Law School of Central South University who has participated in the legislation of the Degree Law, proposed that the Degree Law puts forward different training requirements for different types of graduate students, and has higher requirements for professional practice ability.
Chen Zhiwen, member of the Academic Committee of the China Education Development Strategy Society, believes that the Academic Degrees Law, compared with other educational laws, has an all-round and profound impact on colleges and universities. On the one hand, it involves the core content and field of university running, namely, discipline construction, quality control, etc., on the other hand, it directly involves the protection of students' rights and interests. The promulgation of the Degree Law has more important significance in promoting the legalization and standardization of education, further accelerating the construction of a powerful educational country, and supporting the self-reliance of high-level science and technology.
Of course, the life of law lies in execution. Some scholars also worry about the difficulty in implementing the Degree Law, how to adjust the degree awarding standard system, talent training system, talent evaluation indicators, etc., and how to effectively implement them in colleges and universities, which remains to be tested over time.
Classified cultivation and diversified education
In the Academic Degrees Law, Behind the "differentiated treatment" of professional and academic masters, China's emphasis on classified development in postgraduate training is highlighted 。 On the one hand, we should attach importance to the cultivation of academic degrees, so that students can venture into no man's land, engage in original innovation, and make greater contributions to basic theory. On the other hand, more attention should be paid to the cultivation of professional degrees, so that students can solve some practical problems around the major needs of national scientific and technological development.
Once upon a time, professional masters were seen by people as the adjustment of Plan B after their failure in postgraduate entrance examination. In July 2020, The National Postgraduate Education Conference once proposed that in the future, the cultivation of master students will mainly focus on applied talents, that is, professional masters 。 In September 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the Professional Degree Postgraduate Education Development Plan (2020-22025), which proposed that by 2025, the enrollment scale of professional and postgraduate students will be expanded to about two-thirds of the total enrollment scale of master students. All kinds of strategic adjustments in talent training point to one end - high-level applied talents, which need to be strengthened.
in recent years, Whether it is the relevant policies issued by the state for graduate students or the changes in research and enrollment information of major universities, the concept of emphasizing academic degrees over professional degrees is highlighted, which is significantly reversed 。
According to the data released by China Research and Recruitment Network, in 2017, the number of professional and postgraduate students exceeded the number of academic and postgraduate students for the first time by 56%. Since then, the enrollment scale of professional and postgraduate students has continued to increase, showing a trend of "pressure"; The number of professional degree conferees increased from 32.29% in 2012 to 56.4% in 2022.
In recent years, professional masters have gradually occupied "half of the country" in the enrollment plan of colleges and universities, and many "double first-class" colleges and universities have announced to stop or shrink the enrollment of professional masters in the enrollment of some majors. E.g. 2020 Sichuan University Cancel the enrollment of psychology masters; May 2021 Fudan University The School of Economics has issued a notice that it will no longer enroll academic degree graduates from 2022; University of Science and Technology of China, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Nanjing University, Northeast Forestry University Other universities have also announced that they will stop recruiting academic master's degree students in some majors by 2024.
Source: School of Software, University of Science and Technology of China
Guo Xin, executive vice president of the Graduate School of China Agricultural University, said in an interview that in the past two years, In the allocation of educational quotas, the increase of academic masters is indeed small, but the increase of professional masters is obvious This is closely related to the goal of cultivating high-level talents in China.
At the press conference of the Ministry of Education in January 2023, Jiang Peixue, vice president of Tsinghua University, said that the academic degrees and professional degrees of Tsinghua University's current graduate students accounted for 55% and 45% respectively, The proportion of postgraduates is 26% and 74% respectively 。 One by one, the data shows that the experts have achieved "counter attack".
While the enrollment of professional and professional students has been greatly expanded, The establishment of disciplines and specialties also reflects the "equal emphasis" of academic degrees and professional degrees, which has become another important symbol of the transformation of the national postgraduate training from research-based to application-oriented 。
In 2023, the Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Deepening the Classified Development of Graduate Education for Academic and Professional Degrees was released, which mentioned that, In principle, the newly added master's degree awarding units only carry out professional degree postgraduate education, and the newly added master's degree authorization points are mainly professional degree authorization points 。 This direction has been reflected in the number of professional degree authorization points and professional degree types in recent years.
According to the List of Doctoral and Master Degree Awarding Units and Their Degree Authorization Points Reviewed and Listed in 2020, 105 master degree authorization points have been added in 41 universities approved/strengthened in 2020, including 4 academic degree authorization points and 101 professional degree authorization points.
In the Catalogue of Postgraduate Education Disciplines released in 2022, the categories of professional degrees have been further enriched. In the catalog, the past professional degree category catalog is changed as the presentation mode of the schedule of the discipline catalog, and the primary disciplines and professional degree categories with similar main knowledge bases are integrated into the corresponding discipline categories. At the same time, the number of professional degree categories has increased from 47 to 67.
Cultivating high-level application-oriented talents with professional degrees is becoming the mainstream of the times.
Good employment is the king's way
With the strong support of national policies, a large number of postgraduates are also increasingly favored by the Party.
The key factors contributing to the "counter attack" of the master's degree are, on the one hand, the national policy orientation and social demand orientation, and on the other hand, the party's goal of "graduate study for employment". In recent years, the "difficult employment of college students" has attracted much attention from all walks of life. In order to get out of the strange circle of undergraduate education, many people choose to go to graduate school to upgrade their education.
However, China's economic development has entered a new era of high-quality growth. The classification of occupations is becoming more and more detailed. The proportion of graduate students in all walks of life is increasing year by year. Applied talents with strong professional ability and outstanding practical ability meet the needs of social reality. The talent cultivation orientation of professional degree graduates makes professional degree masters have more obvious employment advantages in the market, and the social recognition is getting higher and higher.
Colleges and universities are also further breaking the bottleneck of academic orientation of professional postgraduates. as South China University of Technology and Huawei carry out a joint training project for engineering degree graduates We will focus on cultivating the ability of engineering degree graduates to solve practical problems and carry out technological innovation. While ensuring the theoretical knowledge and practical ability of professional talents, they should closely meet the professional needs.
For the postgraduate entrance examination party, whether to choose a "master" who is deeply engaged in academic research or a "master" who is struggling in the social workplace depends more on his own life planning. It is the king's way to go to graduate school only when you are clear about your goal and choose the best path for yourself.
