http://edu.qq.com/a/20070709/000001.htm
Yesterday, Peking University announced its 2008 graduate admissions plan. Of all the places available, the number of students admitted as recommendation-exempt candidates (guaranteed admission) accounts for 50% to 80% of the plan, which is to say that more than half of Peking University’s graduate admissions slots are given to guaranteed-admission students. This policy has made many students from ordinary universities who want to apply to Peking University’s graduate programs feel “very unfair.” Peking University, however, says that this is done in accordance with the advisors’ opinions, with the hope of admitting students of a higher level.
– Policy recap
Only graduating students from national key universities are eligible for recommendation
Yesterday, Peking University announced its 2008 graduate admissions plan. Peking University plans to admit 4,300 master’s students and 1,400 doctoral students. But these places are not fully open to all applicants. Peking University says that in the admissions plan, the proportion of students exempt from the entrance exam accepted by its science and engineering departments ranges from 50% to 80%, while other departments generally do not fall below 50%. This year the number of recommendation-exempt students accepted by the university increased by 7% over last year. Looking through the graduate admissions brochure, the reporter found that according to this policy, the proportion of applicants admitted by each department is extremely small. For example, the School of Engineering plans to admit 68 students, “of whom 55 are expected to be recommendation-exempt admits.”
Generally speaking, among the recommended students admitted by Peking University, half come from Peking University and half from other universities. What kind of students are eligible for recommendation exemption? According to Peking University’s relevant policies, these students must be “outstanding graduating undergraduates from national key universities who have obtained recommendation-exemption eligibility from their alma mater.” The reporter learned that very few students obtain recommendation eligibility: at ordinary institutions it is generally below 10%, and some schools have no quota at all.
– Students’ doubts
“Peking University is discriminating against students from ordinary universities”
“I think Peking University’s policy is very unfair!” a student from Capital Medical University told the reporter. “Although Peking University says it recruits 4,000 graduate students, the number of slots actually open to us is only half. Most students do not have guaranteed-admission eligibility; in our class, only one classmate can be guaranteed admission. We just want to get into Peking University through solid results—why are the chances given to us so small?” The student told the reporter that she wants to apply to Peking University’s Institute of Molecular Medicine, but that institute is recruiting 18 students and has left only 4 places for applicants.
“I didn’t perform well on the college entrance exam and ended up at an ordinary university. I just hope to realize my ‘Peking University dream’ through the graduate entrance exam,” said a boy named Li Chen from a university in another city. “If you didn’t attend a key university as an undergraduate, does that automatically mean you’re inferior? I think this is discrimination. I think all students who want to pursue graduate study at Peking University should be compared on an equal footing—don’t divide them into winners and losers beforehand!”
– Peking University’s response
“Students admitted by recommendation are better than those who apply by exam”
Why has Peking University reduced the number of places for applicants this year? A person in charge at Peking University told the reporter that in the long-term work of graduate admissions and training, the university, especially frontline graduate advisors, has found that students admitted by recommendation are “at a higher level and more willing to devote themselves to scholarship” than those who get in through examinations.
Wen Rumin, a Peking University professor in the Department of Chinese who has long served as a graduate advisor, believes: “This reform direction in Peking University’s graduate admissions is correct.” In his long years of work, he too has found that the quality of applicants is gradually declining: “Some students are very good at taking exams, but their actual level is indeed not up to par.” The level of recommended, guaranteed-admission students is “higher” than that of the applicant pool. In response to some students’ claim that this is “unfair,” Professor Wen believes that graduate education is not compulsory education; ensuring teaching quality and selecting qualified talent come first.
Some teachers also believe that many students applying for Peking University’s graduate programs “just want a Peking University diploma to help them find a job; they are not here to do scholarship, but to gild themselves.” Some teachers do not like admitting such students, whereas guaranteed-admission students tend to have relatively less of this mindset.
– Expert opinion
The practice is beyond reproach; the key is transparent procedure
Education expert and Renmin University of China professor Gu Haibing believes that universities have autonomy in running schools, and that Peking University’s approach is beyond criticism. Graduate education should hand admissions power over to teachers and schools, so that suitable teachers can admit suitable students. But the key to this issue lies in procedures that are open and transparent, and brought under necessary supervision.
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What certain people call “fairness” is nothing more than the belief that a person’s ability can be fully and properly displayed in a single exam; so they think that if a student can score higher, that means he or she has abilities equivalent to Peking University’s guaranteed-admission students. This is, of course, wishful thinking, and I won’t say more about it. In any case, Peking University’s increase in guaranteed-admission slots is something to be congratulated on—though it seems our philosophy department appears overly conservative. I remember that when I heard Teacher hj speak on that occasion, he seemed to care enormously about public opinion, which really disappointed me.
Most places in society should be governed primarily by rule of law; only universities should be governed primarily by rule of man, with great masters at the core and professors as the backbone. Fairness is still necessary, of course, but formal rules cannot guarantee substantive fairness. The key is simply “openness” and “transparency.”
Latest comments
- mist
2007-07-09 22:29:53 Anonymous 124.17.16.80
Given P University’s degree of openness, anyone who wants to study does not necessarily need P University student status in order to learn basically the same things as students in the regular track—P University diplomas are often used as a stepping stone.
Among today’s students at P and T Universities, there seem to be only a few who can still use after graduation and employment the knowledge they learned at P University—the meaning of university seems to be, besides giving people something to reminisce about, only utilitarian after all—it can be used to indicate one’s distinguished background, to seek a high position, and so on - Gu Dā
2007-07-09 22:39:11
Even if one learned many things useful for work at P University, wouldn’t the meaning of university still be “utilitarian”?
In fact, in the science and engineering departments, especially the engineering departments of T University, there are still quite a lot of things learned in university that can be used after graduation—only in our philosophy department is there especially no directly related job to be found…
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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