A few days ago, China Education Online released the "2024 National Graduate Enrollment Survey Report", through the statistics of the unified enrollment plan for master's students (excluding scientific research institutes and party schools) of 662 universities (excluding scientific research institutes and party schools) this year, the proportion of colleges and universities that only enroll professional and master's programs is 11.03%, and the proportion of colleges and universities with a unified enrollment of professional and master's programs is more than 60%, which is nearly eighty percent. This reflects a general trend: the number of students enrolled in master's programs exceeds that of master's degrees, and in terms of enrollment ratios, master's programs are rising and master's degrees are declining.
In recent years, it has been very common for prestigious universities to reduce or suspend enrollment for master's degrees. Many majors have reduced the number of master's degree programs in the unified admission, or even only accept push-exempt methods or direct doctoral studies. At the same time, the proportion of professional and master's students has been expanding, and it has become the main force of master's degree enrollment. This year, many universities such as the School of Economics and Management of Southwest University, the University of Science and Technology of China, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Northeast Forestry University announced that they would no longer recruit graduate students in some majors.
What are the driving forces for colleges and universities to do this?
In 2009, the Ministry of Education issued the "Several Opinions on Doing a Good Job in the Training of Full-time Master's Degree Students", stating that "in order to better meet the urgent needs of national economic construction and social development for high-level applied talents...... Since 2009, our ministry has decided to expand the scope of full-time master's degree mainly for fresh undergraduate graduates", and defined the training goal of professional and master's degree as: mastering a solid basic theory and broad professional knowledge in a professional (or occupational) field, having a strong ability to solve practical problems, being able to undertake professional technology or management work, and having good professional quality of high-level application-oriented professionals.
According to the "Professional Degree Graduate Education Development Plan (2020-2025)" issued by the Ministry of Education in 2020, by 2025, the enrollment scale of professional and master's students will be expanded to about two-thirds of the total enrollment of master's students. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Development of the Classification of Academic Degree and Professional Degree Graduate Education" (hereinafter referred to as the "2023 Opinions"), clarifying that the new master's degree authorization points are mainly professional degree authorization points, and will further increase the proportion of professional degree graduate students.
According to the data, from a national perspective, the proportion of professional degree grants increased from 32.29% in 2012 to 56.4% in 2022, and the total number of professional degree authorization points increased from 37.6% of the total number of degree authorization points 10 years ago to 44.2%. It can be seen that according to the policy plan, there is at least 10 points of room for the increase in the proportion of professional masters.
As for the difference between a master's degree and a professional master's degree, people who have gone to university are basically familiar with it: the former is to cultivate academic research talents, and the latter is to cultivate high-level applied talents; the former emphasizes theory and the latter emphasizes practice; and the school duration of the former is often longer than that of the latter. Needless to say, in the minds of many people, a master's degree seems to be more "high-end" than a master's degree.
But those who have gone to graduate school know that in many colleges and universities, especially for majors that recruit master's and professional masters, there is almost no difference between the two types of graduate students. For employers, there should be no preference for master's degree and master's degree. In the job market, we have heard of complaints about being discriminated against, or complaints about "discrimination in the first degree" of those who were admitted to 985 and 211 masters, but we have rarely heard of complaints about not getting the same treatment as master's degrees in the same university.
The "2023 Opinions" also require that the two types of postgraduate education for academic degrees and professional degrees should be of equal status and importance, and that training units should raise awareness and pay equal attention to the two types of degrees in terms of enrollment, training, and employment, so as to ensure the quality of training for graduate students of the two types of degrees.
Therefore, if you work after graduating from a master's degree, especially if you have a master's degree and a master's degree in the same major in the same university, I am afraid there is no substantial difference.
The main difference between the two is that because the master's degree is oriented to academic research, it focuses more on basic disciplines, and also encourages direct doctoral studies, and in the future, it will mainly be non-market employment (such as universities and research institutions in the system), and the training can get higher financial subsidies, so the tuition fee is relatively low;
In recent years, some colleges and universities have made it clear that they do not provide accommodation for full-time master's degrees. Peking University's 2024 Master's Degree Enrollment Guide (Headquarters) clearly states that the school will not arrange accommodation for professional degree graduates, while Nanjing University clarifies that the university will not provide on-campus accommodation for 2024 professional degree master's degree students in principle, and students need to arrange accommodation by themselves, and the university will provide appropriate transportation subsidies to full-time professional degree master's students.
The logic behind this is: there are not many people who are really engaged in academic research, the focus is to screen out those who really love and are interested in academics, and the government can focus on subsidies; as for others, including those who want to enhance their employment advantages by improving their academic qualifications, they will go to the college master's degree, and the school will try to let them bear the accommodation costs themselves to maintain the balance of the school's income and expenditure.
Therefore, it goes without saying that the school is keen to expand the number and proportion of students enrolled in professional and master's degrees, which is a realistic consideration.
Under this design, students are encouraged to go straight to the doctorate rather than go to work, so as to give full play to their academic talents. The "2023 Opinions" stipulate that the basic disciplines should be mainly positioned to cultivate doctoral students with academic degrees, and the proportion of direct doctoral students should be further increased, and those who are not suitable for continuing to study for doctoral degrees in the process of Xi and meet the corresponding conditions can only be awarded an academic master's degree or transferred to a professional master's degree. This means that in some cases, a master's degree is just a "consolation prize" given by a doctorate.
Finally, are you going to study for a master's degree or a professional master's degree? Here is a point of consideration: if you have academic talent and are interested in pursuing an academic career, you may wish to study for a master's degree or even a direct doctorate, and the tuition fee is also low. If you just want to improve your academic qualifications, and then take the public examination or go to the market for employment, then go to a professional master's degree, the tuition fee is higher, and you may have to rent a house by yourself, then you have to consider the cost-benefit ratio of studying for a master's degree. This year, in the context of the continued expansion of master's enrollment, the number of graduate students has declined for the first time in many years.
Chen Bin
Editor-in-charge: Xin Provincial Chronicles