Research On Graduate Enrollment Institutional Reform

Comprehensively speaking, the shift of the world center of science and technology in modern time as well as the rise and fall of a country is closely related to the development of postgraduate education. High-quality degrees and postgraduate education can supply a nation's development with a wide range of intellectual support and a solid foundation of talents, and at the same time top-notch innovators and leaders are in dire need of the self-training of postgraduate education in the country. Therefore, reflections on China's current graduate enrollment management system must be made. For example, varieties of resources which are meant to maintain the normal operation of postgraduate education, such as sources of funding, major setting, and enrollment plan, are basically administration-oriented by competent education departments, resulting in a lack of competition and incentive mechanisms in postgraduate education. If the innovative enthusiasm of postgraduate education is constrained, it is impossible to work out the development system of self-development and self-restraints in higher education institutions.Considering the status quo of current systems, there exist many problems: lack of manpower demand forecast, imperfection of the management system of enrollment plan, too high administrative cost in examination selection session of the second phase, to-be-optimized re-examination programs and procedures, effectiveness of re-examination in selecting talents, problems in identifying the validity by way of multi selection forms and criteria, to-be-promoted enrollment. All these indicate that comparatively speaking, the examination theory of Graduate Entrance Examination and the research of reform practice are lagging behind, which affects the selection of the high-level innovation personnel.With the purpose of achieving the national innovative development strategies and the healthy postgraduate education development, it is especially important to establish a simple and efficient enrollment management system, and meanwhile to reform the postgraduate enrollment system, aiming at solving the contradictions and institutional problems brought about by postgraduate expansion. Just as the Minister Zhou Ji said, "To carry out reform in postgraduate enrollment system is to expand higher education institutions' enrollment autonomy and to entrust academic teams and supervising teachers with more management powers". Only through establishing effective, scientific and fair selection mechanisms for postgraduate students, only through actively absorbing and learning from the beneficial factors in advanced western enrollment modes and only through reforming China's postgraduate admission requirements and examination styles, can we select all-round and potential talents and furthermore promote high-level innovative intellectuals to come to the fore, reducing the outflow of outstanding new students and enhancing the quality and international influence of degree and postgraduate education in China.As the post-graduate enrollment system involves various kinds of benefit-based relationships between different groups and individuals, such as the government, enrollment colleges and universities, supervisors and candidates with different groups such as the relationship between personal interests, our study, by means of combing the questionnaires and interviews from the relevant stakeholders and referring to the supply & demand framework of institutional transition in new institutional economics, attempts to summarize the main factors influencing the institutional reform. Directing at those factors, this doctoral dissertation puts forward the applicable principles, strategies and guarantee mechanism for reforming China's postgraduate enrollment system.With the supply & demand analysis of institutional transition in new institutional economics as framework and combined the extensive analysis and research of the basic profiles and the allocation of enrollment resources as well as power adjustments during the three decades' postgraduate enrollment systems' evolution, this thesis makes reflections on the emphasis of China's postgraduate enrollment system reforms in different periods and moreover demonstrates the key elements constituting China's postgraduate enrollment system and the characteristics of the organizational structure. Finally it comes to a deduction that the cause resulting in the repetitiveness of China's postgraduate enrollment system reform is the government-based coercive force and the "path dependence" of institutional reform. The reason to explore the major factors affecting the institutional reform of China's postgraduate enrollment is that the author tries to introduce some innovations in the theoretical application and analytical approaches.The second innovation lies in that from the perspective of the stakeholders, the author conducts a large quantity of researches, surveys and interviews and therefore understands the views and suggestions from supervisors, administrators, and students towards the enrollment sections and specific enrollment systems. As a result, this dissertation comes to several conclusions of the main problems existing in China's postgraduate enrollment system design: (1) insufficient observation of applicants' motivation (2) the system design doesn't take the selection into consideration (3) the effectiveness of centralized examination and re-examination forms (4) lack of relevant institutional supporting reforms and lack of evaluation in the effectiveness of enrollment resources allocation (5) not enough disclosure concerning the relevant enrollment information (6) colleges, universities and supervisors do not show enormous enthusiasm in participating the enrollment's institutional reform (7) the sense of fairness is constrained by the exam-oriented culture (8) the examination of innovative potentials and comprehensive quality lacks effective means.This doctoral dissertation is divided into six chapters. Based on the examination of the process of China's postgraduate enrollment system and with a reference to the postgraduate enrollment systems in developed countries, the first three chapters propose the basic characteristics and idealized state of the innovative postgraduate enrollment system. The following three chapters focus on the demand of different stakeholders and the requirements that this era has for postgraduate education reform and then summarizes the factors affecting the reform. What's more, from the new angle of reform, it brings forth the aim, principles, guarantee mechanism and measures of China's postgraduate enrollment reform. There are many new suggestions and views in the research conclusions, including (1) establishment of a mechanism for different stakeholders to express their benefits (2) the dynamic balance mechanism of relevant stakeholders' enrollment powers (3) during different enrollment sections, a model that multi-center governance and relevant stakeholders' joint management should be adopted (the governance model of "university-dominance+cooperation" in the design section of enrollment planning, the governance model of "government-dominance+cooperation" or "examination institution-dominance+cooperation" in the preliminary examination session, the governance model of "supervisor-dominace+cooperation" in the re-examination session) (4) supervision and restraint mechanism of the power operation.To conclude, the author presents the measures and major tasks for reforming the enrollment system, including change of the decision models of postgraduate enrollment plan and other related institutional supporting reforms.