Summary

On 29 July, China’s Ministry of Education held a national conference to clarify the main tasks and development strategies for the country’s postgraduate education system. The main two areas of focus in the coming years will be addressing social development needs, and focusing on advanced technology and key research areas.

Many of these key research areas are in the broad fields of technology & computing and medical science & public health respectively:

  • In the broad area of technology, a guideline on strengthening basic disciplines released by the Ministry of Education early this year calls for China to train more students in areas such as advanced software, artificial intelligence and smart technology, new materials, and information security. International collaboration will also be promoted in this area
  • In medical science and public health, speakers at the conference acknowledged the important roles professionals in these areas have played during the pandemic and emphasised further developing these fields, including expanding the “5+3” training model for medical professionals which consists of a five-year undergraduate course plus three years of either postgraduate study or professional training.

Reports on the conference noted that China now has over 3 million students enrolled in postgraduate study. According to data from 2019, 58 per cent of master’s degree students are enrolled on professionally-focused (rather than academically-focused) programmes. However, professional degrees need to be further strengthened as only around 28 per cent of professional master’s degree candidates have advisors outside of the university itself and only around a third had practice opportunities outside of campus.

Promoting international collaboration is also listed as a strategic step during the conference. Speakers noted that as of 2019 there were more than 260 active transnational education joint programmes or joint institutes in China offering programmes at the master’s level or above, and that more than 91,000 international students were studying for postgraduate degrees in China.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, IES

China’s postgraduate education enrolment has increased substantially over the previous few years, with professional master’s degrees growing particularly strongly. The focus on addressing China’s development needs is in line with existing priorities at the postgraduate level as well as other levels of China’s education system.

Sources:  

1. MoE reports on national postgraduate education conference: http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/moe_2082/zl_2020n/2020_zl44/

2. https://news.eol.cn/yaowen/202008/t20200807_1750556.shtml