【Vocational Education Practice】
Original title: Vocational schools "get together" to upgrade their costs, is it to seize the opportunity or deviate from the positioning? (Theme)
Experts pointed out that vocational colleges need to adhere to the positioning of vocational education, not to run schools based on academic qualifications, and to adhere to the development of types (subtopic)
Workers' Daily-China Workers' Network reporter Tao Wen
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The number of vocational and technical universities in mainland China has reached 51, and this year is the largest number of vocational undergraduate schools, with a total of 18. The team of vocational undergraduates is growing day by day, but the trend of "getting together" to increase costs is gradually emerging. Experts pointed out that on the road to higher capital, vocational colleges need to adhere to the positioning of vocational education, not to run schools based on academic qualifications, and to adhere to type development.
A vocational undergraduate has been added in a certain place, and some higher vocational schools are expected to upgrade their costs this year...... Recently, the Ministry of Education released a list of national ordinary colleges and universities, showing that the number of vocational and technical universities in the mainland has reached 51, and this year is the largest number of vocational undergraduate schools, a total of 18.
Since 2019, when the country launched a pilot program of vocational education at the undergraduate level, the "ceiling" of vocational education college degree has been broken, and students have a broader development path. In recent years, the number of vocational undergraduates has also been growing. However, I don't know when the trend of vocational colleges "piling up" to upgrade the cost has gradually emerged, and many schools are also preparing for the upgrade regardless of whether the positioning and strength of the school are in line with it.
"Rise to survive"
A teacher at a preschool normal vocational school told reporters that their school had a plan to upgrade its capital for a long time, but due to various conditions, it has not been able to be promoted. Talking about the reason for going to a vocational bachelor's degree, the teacher bluntly said: "Only when you go up can you survive, and if the school level is improved, the quality of students will be better." The teacher believes that vocational undergraduates are the development trend, and even if the overall number of students decreases in the future, undergraduate-level colleges will still be better.
According to Mr. Guo, the head teacher of a vocational school in Wuhan, Hubei Province, the quality of students is indeed an important reason why many vocational schools want to go on to vocational undergraduates. "If the source of students is poor, students have no intention of learning at all, they are either addicted to watching videos on their mobile phones, or playing games, teachers are difficult to teach, and the school has no hope."
Wang Jingjie, an associate researcher at the Institute of Vocational Education and Continuing Education of the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, believes that vocational colleges are committed to undergraduates, first, due to the needs of vocational colleges for their own development.
"The second is the need for local development, from the perspective of industrial structure transformation and upgrading, local economic development urgently needs a higher level and a higher level of skilled talents, from the perspective of optimizing the spatial layout of regional education and increasing the supply of high-quality educational resources, the local government also urgently needs more undergraduate schools to provide more higher education degrees." Wang Jingjie said that in addition, vocational colleges are committed to undergraduate studies in order to get rid of the embarrassing situation of being discriminated against.
With the kick-off of this year's college entrance examination voluntary filling, many candidates have set their sights on vocational undergraduates. Zhang, a candidate from Jiangxi, whose score had just crossed the undergraduate line, said: "This score is difficult for public ordinary undergraduates, and I am considering applying for vocational undergraduates." "With the increase in popularity, in the past two years, the score line of some vocational undergraduate schools has also risen.
If the work of upgrading is too urgent, teachers and students will be physically and mentally exhausted
In the interview, some vocational school teachers said that although many vocational colleges hope to upgrade to vocational undergraduates, they actually need more conditions, which are difficult for ordinary schools to meet.
Mr. Guo said that it should be the vision of every vocational college to improve the level of running a school, but one of the indicators is limited, and the other is that the conditions are strict, especially for school facilities and area.
The reporter learned that in 2021, the Ministry of Education has successively issued two trial documents, proposing specifications for the setting standards and professional setting management of vocational colleges at the undergraduate level, for example, requiring that the scale of full-time students in the school should be more than 8,000, the total number of full-time teachers should meet the standard of no more than 18:1 student-teacher ratio, the total number of full-time teachers should not be less than 450, more than 20 scientific research projects at the department level and above in the past 5 years, and the campus area should not be less than 800 acres.
"These two documents are the most basic policy reference for vocational colleges to go to undergraduates, and they are also the bottom line requirements." Wang Jingjie said that vocational colleges are committed to advancing to undergraduates, which will bring positive changes to the school, such as the increase in the total number of full-time teachers, the increase in the proportion of "double-teacher" teachers, and the improvement of hardware facilities such as school training sites and top-post practice bases. However, there may also be some negative effects along the way.
"When the school is full of efforts to promote to undergraduates, teachers may undertake more work in the preparation of materials other than teaching, and at the same time, the school will have higher requirements for teachers' scientific research standards and professional titles, which will lead to a shift in the focus of teachers' work." Wang Jingjie added.
For example, the policy requires that the proportion of teachers with senior professional titles is not less than 30%, and the school will actually account for no less than 50%, which invisibly increases the pressure on teachers' professional titles.
In order to meet the policy requirements of the proportion of teachers with doctoral degrees, vocational colleges that plan to upgrade have an urgent need for doctoral degree talents, and some schools "no matter what the doctoral graduation school is, they are all well paid, and there are no scientific research requirements, which is easy to make the psychological imbalance of the master's degree teachers who have previously joined the famous schools, and their work enthusiasm is affected". A higher vocational teacher said that some schools force teachers to study for PhDs in order to meet the requirements.
"Vocational colleges are not an overnight thing, it often takes years to plan and implement, long-term, high-intensity, fast-paced work, will make teachers and students physically and mentally exhausted, and then affect the teaching effect of teachers and students' learning performance." Wang Jingjie said.
Vocational education should adhere to the development of types
Vocational colleges want to upgrade their school running and administrative level through capital upgrades to meet the needs of students and the market for diplomas. Industry insiders said that blind cost upgrading may make some vocational schools that were originally anchored to employment advantages fall into low-level imitation of research universities.
Xiong Bingqi, president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said in an interview with the reporter of the "Workers' Daily" that in the eyes of many higher vocational school students, the promotion of undergraduate education is their greatest achievement in running a school, which can not only improve the status of the school and expand the space for running a school, but also after the popularization of higher education, it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit students at the junior college level, and upgrading the capital has also become the way for the survival and development of these schools.
"The establishment of vocational undergraduate courses has reversed the society's prejudice that higher vocational education is only at the junior college level, but it has also brought another problem, that is, local colleges and universities that should have taken vocational education as their orientation have begun to pursue the establishment of comprehensive and academic universities with 'peace of mind', deviating from the original positioning of running schools." Xiong Bingqi said.
Therefore, he suggested that the development of vocational education at the undergraduate level should not be understood as the development of vocational undergraduates, and most local undergraduate colleges and universities should be guided to train skilled personnel to hold vocational education, and vocational colleges should also adhere to the positioning of vocational education, not education-oriented, and employment-oriented. Relevant departments should also prevent higher vocational colleges from blindly chasing higher costs, and avoid the disconnection between the talent training structure of higher education and social needs.
"The development of vocational undergraduates cannot follow the path of ordinary undergraduates." Du Anguo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangdong Light Industry Vocational and Technical College, said that compared with students in ordinary vocational colleges, vocational undergraduate students should have certain research and development capabilities, stronger hands-on practical ability and the ability to solve complex problems on the front line.
Wang Jingjie also suggested that vocational colleges should further strengthen their determination to run schools, get rid of their dependence on the school-running mode and development path of ordinary colleges and universities, and achieve scientific positioning and characteristic development.
Source: China Workers' Daily