Qualitative Investigation And Quantitative Research On China's Doctoral Enrollment Policies(1981-2017)

The enrollment of doctoral students as an entrance to the doctoral education in China is closely related to the quality of doctoral education.The policy literature truly reflects the government's action route on relevant public affairs.The study of doctoral enrollment policies is helpful in clarifying the government's management thinking and motivation for the enrollment of doctoral students.The paper adopts the method of quality and quantification,takes 177 state-level doctoral enrollment policies from between 1981 and 2017 as the research sample and quantifies the structural elements and content of it.Firstly,using bibliometric analysis method,the author analyze the characteristics of these policies structural elements,such as time dimension,enacting agencies and policy type.Secondly,using the content analysis method,based on the theory of policy tools and the process of doctoral enrollment policies,we construct a two-dimensional analysis framework to study the overall situation and historical evolution of its policy tools and normative focus,as well as overall application of the policy tool portfolio in the enrollment of doctoral students.The results show that the Ministry of Education is the main body for enactment and the working paper ranks first.The overuse of the authoritative policy tools leads to misuse of the other four policy tools.The "application-assessment" policy is missing and the link of "re-orientation" is weak.Besides,the policy tools mix used in the enrollment process have a diversity.In the coming reform of doctoral enrollment policies,our country should optimize the structure of policy tools and use of multiple means of policy tools,promulgate the "application-examination" policy and improve the "re-orientation" regulation,reduce policy tool differences and optimize the mix use of policy tools.The innovation of this research is to provide a new research perspective for the literature research on doctoral enrollment policies by conducting bibliometrics and content analysis on it.It makes up for the limitation of literature research on the doctoral enrollment policies by pure qualitative methods.It optimizes policy quantitative analysis method.