Editorials

Op-Ed Contributors

Chinese Press

Columnists

LETTERS

Doctors' dilemma

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-29 07:53

How many doctorates does China need in a year? This seemingly irrelevant question is becoming important in view of repeated revelations of academic cheating and the underlying motivation for doctoral degrees.

In a recent survey among more than 3,000 people, mostly university educated, over 70 percent of the respondents agreed that more doctorates do not necessarily mean better education quality. At least 40 percent said that most students choose to study for doctorates simply because it helps towards a better job or promotion.

In China, 310 institutions have the authority to confer doctorates, and the total of those with the degree exceeded 50,000 in 2007. And, the number is on the rise, making China the largest producer of doctoral degree holders in the world.

With the world's largest population, China has enough reason to have the largest number of doctorates, too. It is the quality, not quantity, that has become a matter of concern.

A survey conducted by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in September last year showed that 39 percent of doctoral degree students polled were sympathetic to those who were caught cheating in their dissertations.

It is understandable for some to have practical reasons for obtaining the degree. That does not justify less than full commitment to the requirements of the degree or recourse to plagiarism.

Some universities even organized "sideline classes" for government officials or entrepreneurs to get doctorates. For them, the degrees are purely decorative. By selling academic degrees in this manner, these universities have actually sold their reputation and devalued the highest academic degree. The propensity to favor quantity over quality also lowers the threshold of standards for aspirants.

As far as the quality of academic research is concerned, strict standards must be maintained in admitting candidates to doctoral degrees. There used to be cases when some academic fields did not enroll any student for a doctorate for several years because none of the applicants met the criteria. That was laudable. Those who care only about degrees and are not devoted to the required research in the process of obtaining the degree do not deserve to be enrolled.

It is high time that universities changed their terms of enrollment by raising the bar. Institutions of higher learning are not for assembly-line production of degree holders in various disciplines. Education must tap and develop the potential of students, create conditions for scholarship to flourish and thereby enrich society.

For this, quality of scholarship rather than quantity of scholars must be the priority of university education.

(China Daily 07/29/2009 page8)