China May Have More PhDs Than the US in 2010

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 22, 2002

China May Have More PhDs Than the US in 2010

China currently has 490,000 graduate students, including 120,000 PhDs, ranking behind the United States and Germany, according to a conference held in Beijing recently.

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China currently has 490,000 graduate students, including 120,000 PhDs, ranking behind the United States and Germany, according to a conference held in Beijing recently.

The conference was sponsored by the journal "Postgraduates in China's Debut," which began publication on October 10.

"China now ranks first in the world in number of PhD candidates," said Wang Zhanjun, the deputy director of the Development Center for China's Academic Degree and Postgraduate Education.

According to Wang, as of the end of 2001, about 78,000 graduates had received doctorates.

China resumed enrollment for graduate students in 1978, and modernized academic degree systems in 1981, marking a new era for Chinese higher education.

Since 1998, China has registered an annual increase of 20,000 graduate students.

In 2002, of the total of 624,000 students who signed up to take the entrance exams, 159,000 were graduate students, and 37,000 of these were PhD candidates.

Some experts estimate that China will have more PhDs than the United States by 2010.

In 2001, about 40,000 students received doctorates in the United States.

Quality should come before quantity

As a result of China's expansion of college enrollment since the late 1990s, the rapid swell in the numbers of college students and master's degree students has provided a solid base for an increase in PhD candidates.

As experts in their fields, PhDs are supposed to be more astute in identifying and solving problems. Therefore, even the dramatic rise in the number of PhDs will never be enough given the dynamic economic development in this country.

As the number of doctoral candidates increases rapidly throughout this decade, we should see to it that educational criteria are not sacrificed. After all, a PhD is the highest degree a university can grant and it should only be given to those who are worthy of it.

Academic accomplishment should be the critical standard for judging the candidates' qualification.

Though improved economic conditions can help improve universities' infrastructure, equipment and other tangible assets in a short time, the education of qualified PhDs relies heavily on the experience, creativity and intelligence of both the faculty and the students themselves, all of which cannot be improved overnight.

Without strict academic criteria, the huge increase in the number of PhDs will only result in an erosion of the title's meaning.

But such a rigorous approach is absent at many universities. Some students can get their degrees easily, regardless of their academic accomplishments.

The problem has caught the attention of some universities. Peking University, one of the most prestigious Chinese universities, requires that all PhD candidates submit their thesis to a group of anonymous professors for evaluation before their oral thesis defence.

Such a practice should be widely adopted to guarantee the academic credentials of PhDs.

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