Research On Higher Education Backgrounds Of Academic Elite Group

Basic research is a strategic resource for a country, so it is significantly important to strengthen the basic research. The key of basic research is academic talents, and importing young academic talents who have strong academic potential instead of academic elites who have already succeeded is more effective for development of our basic research. The purpose of this research is exploring the higher education backgrounds of academic elite group, attempting to explain why academic elite group have these similar higher education backgrounds, and finding what we can learn from these.The samples of this research are 233 academicians selected in 2006,2007,2008 and 2009 by The National Academy of Sciences. The measurements are "Academic Ranking of World Universities", "U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools", "The Carnegie Classification".The main conclusions include the following four points:First, thanks to the policy orientation by United States Federal Government, half of the sample engaged in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Biological Sciences. Second, the ability of problem solving and analyzing is highly considered in undergraduate admission, GPA and interdisciplinary play a major role in graduate selection. Third, the samples have their undergraduate experience mainly in research universities, research universities and liberal arts colleges provide the undergraduate research opportunities programs to train the academic ability of undergraduates; basic theory studying, cross-disciplinary awareness, research activities, elimination system, internationalization are emphasized in graduate education. Fourth, "Matthew Effect" also exists in higher education backgrounds of academic elite group.