In recent years, more and more colleges and universities have begun to cancel scholarships for new master's students.
Suspension of scholarships
Shenyang University of Technology
Starting from the 2024 enrollment cycle, the Freshman (Academic) Scholarship for Master's Degree students will be cancelled.
Southwest University of Science and Technology
From Level 24 onwards: Full-time master's students are no longer entitled to the Outstanding Freshman Award.
Southwest University of Political Science and Law
In the 24-year enrollment brochure and academic scholarship implementation measures of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, there is no "freshman scholarship".
In the previous enrollment brochure, there are implementation measures for freshman scholarships, comprehensive scholarships and special scholarships, and there are three levels of freshman scholarships, which are 12,000 yuan, 8,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan.
Jiangsu University
Beginning in the Class of 2022, the school canceled the Freshman Scholarship.
Northwestern University
In the 24-year enrollment prospectus, the school has made it clear that the freshman scholarship can only be obtained by exempted students, and the amount and coverage ratio of the senior academic scholarship have decreased.
Addendum: Fuzhou University has also cancelled the freshman scholarship.
Institutions that have lowered their scholarships
Nanjing Agricultural University
In previous years, the master's degree scholarship of Nanjing Agricultural University could reach a maximum of 14,000 yuan, and a minimum of 6,000 yuan.
In 2023, the overall amount of the enrollment brochure has been reduced, and the academic scholarship is 0.5-0.7 thousand yuan/year.
Shandong University of Finance and Economics
According to the new scholarship policy promulgated by Shandong University of Finance and Economics in 23 years: the first-class scholarship is 8,000 yuan (10%), the second-class scholarship is 5,000 yuan (20%), and the third-class scholarship is 3,000 yuan (20%), and the coverage ratio is only 50%, and the amount has also dropped by 1,000-3,000 yuan.
Guangxi Normal University
According to the 23-year enrollment brochure of Guangxi Normal University, the proportion and amount of academic scholarships for freshmen have decreased, of which the highest scholarship used to be 10,000 yuan/person, and after the decline is 5,000 yuan/person.
Addendum: Southern University of Science and Technology and Hefei University of Technology have also reduced the amount of scholarships.
Reasons for the reform of the scholarship policy
Alleviate the economic pressure on colleges and universities
In 2017, the number of graduate students exceeded 2 million for the first time, and in the following years, the number of graduate students continued to increase. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, the number of applicants for the postgraduate examination in 2023 will reach 4.74 million, an increase of 170,000 over the previous year. From 2017~2023, the number of graduate students will grow rapidly.
At the same time, in order to alleviate the employment pressure, the state has expanded the enrollment of graduate students. In 2017, the number of graduate students admitted was 589,800, and in 2023, the number of graduate students admitted will be 1.242 million, and the number of admissions has also doubled.
The increase in admissions means more financial pressure on universities, which can no longer afford to spend all their graduate scholarships. Therefore, in order to alleviate the pressure on graduate education funds, the university has to reduce or even cancel the scholarship. The cancelled scholarships have diversified the sources of education funding through the school's new distribution method.
Scholarship incentives are limited
Some experts mentioned that, on the one hand, postgraduate degrees themselves are becoming more and more attractive, and there is no need to increase the number of applicants through scholarship attraction, which can be seen from the increase in the number of applicants every year;
On the other hand, scholarships have limited effect on the study and academic promotion of different levels and types of graduate students. After research, it is found that the winners of the master's degree freshman academic scholarship do not show obvious advantages in subsequent study and research, which means that the university needs to consider this and consider whether the scholarship has an incentive effect.
Promote equity
In order to promote social justice, there is an inherent injustice in the way of lifelong funding, and new students not only have to bear high tuition fees, but also face various unfair treatment just because of the difference of a few points in the entrance examination scores. This is clearly contrary to the principles of justice and the spirit of impartiality.
Improve the quality of graduate students
To improve the quality of postgraduate training, the intensity of scholarships and grants after the reform has been further improved, and the evaluation of scholarships and grants has also been combined with the study and scientific research performance of graduate students, so that the enthusiasm of graduate students has been fully mobilized and brought into play, so that the quality of postgraduate training is bound to be improved.
Source of this article: Postgraduate Examination Network.