"The enrollment of professional masters should be expanded!" This is the best news that He Lian (pseudonym), a third-year student at Shandong Normal University, has heard recently. She plans to apply for a master's degree in journalism, and the expansion means more opportunities.
At a press conference held by the Ministry of Education on December 19, Ren Youqun, director of the Department of Academic Degrees Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, said that the proportion of professional degree graduate students will be further increased, and the enrollment scale of professional degree master's students will be expanded to about two-thirds of the total enrollment scale of master's students by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan". As soon as the news came out, while the students were excited, Shandong High School was thinking about how to better implement the policy. How to ensure that the trained professional and master's students meet the needs of the country and society is a practical question that colleges and universities urgently need to answer.
Specifically, in Shandong universities, what is the enrollment ratio of professional and master's degrees, and when professional and master's students go to the society, can they smoothly connect with vocational qualifications?
"The growth rate of our school's master's enrollment is slightly higher than that of master's students. According to Li Dongxiang, deputy director of the Graduate Work Department of Shandong University of Technology, in 2023, the number of students enrolled in Shandong University of Technology will be 1,245 and 426 respectively, with a ratio of 2.922:1.
According to a set of data, the enrollment scale of graduate students of Shandong University of Technology has increased significantly in 2020, of which the number of professional and master's students has increased from 779 to 1016, an increase of 30.4%, and the number of master's students has increased from 280 to 363, an increase of 29.6%. After 2020, there will be a steady and low-speed growth, of which the number of students enrolled in 2023 will increase by 229 compared with 2020, with a growth rate of 22.5% and an average annual growth rate of 7.5%, and the number of students enrolled in master's degree will increase by 63, with a growth rate of 17.3% and an average annual growth rate of 5.8%.
Academic degree master's degree students highlight "integration of science and education and collaborative education", while professional degree master's students highlight "integration of industry and education and collaborative education".
The reporter noted that in order to enhance the practical innovation and vocational ability of professional and master's students, Shandong University of Technology pointed out in the "Guiding Opinions of Shandong University of Technology on Revising (Systemizing) the Professional Degree Postgraduate Training Program" issued in June last year, "focusing on cultivating professional quality, practical innovation and professional application, and strengthening the school-enterprise-school-local cooperation and industry-university collaborative training." Intensify the opening of teaching case library courses, introduce vocational certification, innovation and entrepreneurship and other related courses, and invite experts from relevant industries and enterprises to participate. ”
"In the formulation of training programs for all professional categories (fields), our school invites industry experts to participate in ensuring that the training programs meet the career requirements of industry enterprises. Li Dongxiang revealed that Shandong University of Technology has increased the construction of the professional degree teaching case library, and carries out the project selection of the professional degree teaching case library every year, "The teaching case library can allow teachers to use actual cases to help students understand the professional background, industry characteristics and challenges, help them better integrate with practical work, and provide practical guidance." ”
It is worth noting that Shandong University of Technology has also set up practical and practical credits Xi and innovation and entrepreneurship credits in the compulsory links. Among them, the practical Xi credits require all professional degree master's students to complete more than 6 months of practical Xi in enterprises, and the innovation and entrepreneurship credits encourage students to participate in national science and technology competitions, creative design, etc. and win awards.
How to improve vocational ability through further study in school? Shandong University of Technology has made some explorations in this regard.
According to public information, Shandong University of Technology has 14 provincial-level postgraduate joint training bases, 2 industry-education integration postgraduate demonstration bases, and 185 university-level postgraduate joint training bases. Li Dongxiang pointed out that through the construction of the joint training base for graduate students, the professional master will be arranged to the joint training base for professional practice, solve the problems in the actual production of the enterprise, and effectively improve the practical innovation ability of the master's degree, and at the same time, it can also enable the professional master to contact the profession in advance in the practice process, understand the enterprise, and do a good job in vocational qualification training, so as to realize the "order-type" enterprise innovation talent training.
In the past, some netizens once expressed their feelings on social platforms that "master's students are more popular in job hunting". The reporter noted that the Ministry of Education made it clear in the "Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Further Promoting the Development of the Classification of Academic Degree and Professional Degree Graduate Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") that academic degrees and professional degree graduate students are equally important, and the training unit should pay equal attention to the two types of degrees in terms of enrollment, training, and employment to ensure the training quality of the two types of degree graduates.
"Shandong University of Technology has always insisted on the equal importance and classified training of academic degree graduates and professional degree graduates, and the training quality of professional degree graduates and academic degree graduates has maintained a high level. Li Dongxiang said.
Specifically, there are currently 3,921 full-time master's students in Shandong University of Technology, including 2,699 professional master's students, accounting for 68.83%, more than two-thirds. Li Dongxiang said, "Judging from the employment situation of graduate graduates of our university, the vast majority of enterprises do not give 'special treatment' to professional masters when recruiting. ”
According to Li Dongxiang, in 2023, Shandong University of Technology will have a total of 1,242 master's graduates, including 335 master's degrees and 907 professional masters, accounting for 73.02%. From the perspective of employment, 1,149 master's graduates have been employed, including 308 master's degree and 841 master's degree, and the employment rate of professional master's degree is slightly higher. "After the relevant documents of the Ministry of Education are issued, we will further optimize the training program for professional degree graduates, continuously improve the quality of talent training, and ensure the high-quality employment of professional degree graduates. Li Dongxiang said.
In Li Dongxiang's view, there is still a lag in the school's professional and master's curriculum in terms of industrial frontier and practical application.
"In the process of joint training of graduate students through the integration of industry and education, the goals of the school and the enterprise are quite different, the long-term construction mechanism is lacking, and the enthusiasm of the enterprise has not been effectively stimulated. Li Dongxiang also noticed that the professional dissertation evaluation index system and the professional degree practice results writing norms still need to be further optimized, and the participation of industry experts in the professional dissertation review work is not high. ”
The Ministry of Education proposes to "further increase the proportion of postgraduate, master, and doctoral students", what should be paid attention to in the process of expanding enrollment?
Zhang Jiming, executive secretary general of the Shandong Provincial Association of Higher Education and a researcher at the Institute of Higher Education of Jinan University, noted that the "Opinions" emphasize the equal importance of academic and professional degree graduate education, strengthen differentiated training based on the differences between the two, and highlight the collaborative education of industry and education in the training of professional degree graduates, which has important guiding and normative significance for the reform and development of graduate education in the mainland in the future, but it is also necessary to guard against misleading in the practice of reform.
"Whether it's an academic degree or a professional degree, the scale of graduate education should reflect systems thinking. Zhang Jiming said that first, it is necessary to scientifically set up according to multiple and complex factors such as science and technology, industrial development needs and higher education carrying capacity, beware of the quality of graduate education caused by the expansion of enrollment, face up to the possible conflict between scale and quality, and coordinate the relationship between the two. Second, it is necessary to avoid the expansion of graduate student enrollment and further raise the academic requirements of the employment market, and avoid the occurrence of de facto "academic qualifications".
In Zhang Jiming's view, the expansion of enrollment is not a simple extensive increase in scale, but a scale adjustment on the basis of scientific research and judgment, different disciplines have increased and decreased, including the scale of academic graduate students, which needs to be increased or decreased according to the needs of scientific and economic and social development of different disciplines, optimize their discipline ecology and talent training capabilities, and optimize the talent supply structure for different industries.
"From the perspective of historical experience, it is necessary to guard against the ratio of 2/3 being set as a rigid planning goal, or even regarded as a quantitative indicator to identify the quality of the development of professional degree graduates, ignoring the structural and qualitative requirements behind the figures, and hindering the connotative and high-quality development of graduate education. Zhang Jiming suggested that in the process of implementing the national postgraduate education policy, it is especially necessary to avoid rigid implementation of tendencies and planned implementation according to numerical indicators.
Zhang Jiming said that the expansion of professional degree graduate students must adhere to the quality orientation, under the premise of scientifically formulating and clarifying the literacy structure of professional degree talents, the first is to explore the evaluation and selection mechanism in line with the orientation of professional degree graduate education talents, the second is to change the mismatch of academic tutors to cultivate professional degree talents, and the third is to solve the integration of industry and education Fourth, reduce the evaluation of professional degree graduate students based on criteria such as single paper publications.
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