The number of people holding doctorate degrees in China has exceeded that in the United States, making China the No. 1 country in the world for awarding doctorate degrees. Half of the Chinese doctorates have become government officials, but according to one Chinese expert, this phenomenon reflects a serious problem in China’s policy on higher education.
Apple Daily reported on July 28 that a survey of China’s doctoral quality, conducted by the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Personnel, took two years and produced a 300,000-word report. The report will be released next month. The survey shows that China has already surpassed the United States in the number of Ph.D.s granted, bestowing more doctorates than any other country in the world. Half of China’s doctorates become government officials.
Additionally, a China Youth newspaper report reprinted on Xinhua Net in March revealed that China produced more than 50,000 Ph.D.s in 2008, compared to the U.S.’s 40,000. The United States has more than 250 universities capable of awarding doctorates, while China has more than 300.
Beijing University economics professor Dr. Xia Yeliang said this phenomenon reveals a serious problem in China’s educational sector. “To popularize higher education is to popularize undergraduate degrees,” Xia said. “Yet the number of high degrees has increased very rapidly. Every university wants to increase its number of doctorate degrees. Each year, in order to increase doctorate degrees, some universities have raised their public relations funds to between 3 and 5 million yuan [US$439,100 to $732,000].”
Dr. Xia added that originally, many universities didn’t qualify to award doctorates, but later became qualified. Some universities hire adjunct professors from more prestigious universities in order to meet the requirements for awarding doctorate degrees.
Researcher Zhang Boshu, from the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this trend can only be harmful to social development. “Producing so many [doctorates] to be officials is in itself a misused function!” Zhang said. “Does one need a doctorate degree to be an official? From the perspective of educational development, this is an absurd and ridiculous phenomenon.”
According to Zhang, the causes of this trend are worthy of investigation. Many Chinese officials believe that having a degree can raise their status in society. Some doctorates become officials because they believe in China’s official-oriented society—being an official can be a promising career.
Dr. Xia has lectured at Beijing University for many years, but due to his political views he’s been subjected to pressure in academic studies. He was prevented from receiving a title to match his academic achievement. Mr. Zhang has suffered even worse. Despite working at the institution for nearly 20 years and his many academic achievements, his title has not changed for18 years due to his political views.
A search with keywords such as “China’s PhDs” exceeds the United States on Google.com yields by more than 10 million results.
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