Since the establishment of master's degree and doctor's degree system in China in 1980s, universities have successively recruited a large number of graduate students. So far, the postgraduate degree system, courses, defense and admission system in Chinese universities have been basically established and become mature. In just a few decades, universities and research institutes in China have trained a large number of outstanding talents for China and the world. Many graduate master students and doctoral students in China have served as important academic leaders. A considerable number of them even engage in academic research and management in world-class universities and research laboratories. These are obvious facts. However, it is worth noting that although there are certain norms and systems in China's higher education and academic research, there are still many places worthy of discussion in academic concepts, educational essence, degree definition and so on.
The concepts of doctoral degree and academic research discussed below are completely based on the model of European and American universities and the concept of western higher education. In a letter written by Professor Chen Danqing to the leaders of Tsinghua University, most of what he said was his criticism of the disadvantages of current higher education in China and his views on postgraduate education in the art field. He put forward his original views on China's education system, postgraduate training and teaching syllabus. Chen Danqing is a very famous painter in China art world. He placed great enthusiasm and hope on the education in China. Therefore, according to his years of work and life experience at home and abroad, he sincerely put forward the idea of cultivating artistic talents, which is very commendable.
Higher education itself is a complete scientific system with its unique concept and definition. The current higher education in China is actually imitating the western universities and degree system. As for the universities in New China, we are still exploring the unfamiliar western education system. In the near future, it is possible to establish higher education with China characteristics. Modern university is a concept in the western cultural system.
< The purpose of university education > [2] The article clearly expounds the modern history of China University. For convenience, I quote a passage in this article:
"Modern universities are based on the concepts of Newman and Humboldt model. This kind of university is fundamentally different from China's classical concept of university. For example, Yuelu Academy, established by China in Hunan in the Song Dynasty, is called the earliest institution of higher learning in China. However, the concept of higher education institutions in China is fundamentally different from that of western universities today. It was not until the early 20th century that some missionary universities were established in China, such as St. John's University and yenching university. In fact, it is a Newman-style university in a sense. However, in 1950s, China established more specialized colleges according to the model of the former Soviet Union, such as agricultural colleges, petroleum colleges and coal mining colleges. So in the second half of the 20th century, Newman-style Humanities University was stopped. China began to establish Humboldt-style research universities after 1980. Many colleges and universities began to build graduate schools and set up master's and doctoral systems. However, due to historical reasons, Newman-style university education has not recovered in China. "
In a sense, Newman and Humboldt models can be aimed at undergraduate and graduate education respectively. In Newman's time, research universities had not yet been established. So Newman mainly provides a basic theoretical model for undergraduate education [2]. Undergraduate education in contemporary western universities is based on Newman model. Newman model has several main arguments related to this paper. One is that universities are the premise and foundation of civilized society. Without universities, civilized society cannot exist. The establishment of a civilized society must be based on noble moral norms and values. Only universities can guarantee these basic elements of civilization. Therefore, moral and values education must be incorporated into universities. Since Oxford University in England in the first half of19th century was still a missionary school in a sense, Newman believed that the value of society, individuals and universities should be laid by the church. In fact, Christian civilization is the value concept of the western world. Western universities naturally use this kind of values and morality to educate their students.
The second is about personal growth and personality cultivation. Based on the above arguments, in addition to the establishment of the value system, there must also be personal cultivation and cultural taste shaping and edification. This kind of personality cultivation is not only behavioral, but also internal and psychological growth. Newman believes that every college student should be trained as a real "English gentleman". He believes that a young person is only an incomplete person before receiving a college education. He has no taste, no style, rude words, indecent behavior, confused thinking and lack of standards. Only university education can give students the psychological quality and behavioral norms required by a civilized society. Universities should constantly deliver well-educated, tasteful and knowledgeable gentlemen to the society. If the society is full of these college-educated gentlemen, it must be a stable, harmonious and civilized society. Because of this, university is a general education for the whole society. There is no guarantee to provide excellent elites to the society.
The third is about knowledge education and learning. He believes that universities (undergraduate courses) are only places to impart and disseminate known knowledge, not places to explore and discover new knowledge. Those activities of exploration and discovery should be outside the university. At the same time, he separated professors from researchers. It is believed that professors should only pay attention to teaching and cultivate students' all-round development, including knowledge and being a man. These academic research activities should not be confused with university education. The study of knowledge is not limited to majors, but should be very extensive, including philosophy, history, art, Latin, religion, literature and so on. Only extensive knowledge can make students develop in an all-round way.
In fact, this concept of university is aimed at the learning style of classical society, especially the very professional technical learning. Because, in classical society, many professional studies are mostly based on small-scale personal behaviors, such as mentoring and tutoring. And learning only focuses on the technology itself. The knowledge of private education or master's degree is limited to a specific major and cannot provide other broader knowledge. After the establishment of Newman Model University, we began to pay attention to the all-round development of students. Today's modern undergraduate education is established by following this concept. For example, students of science and engineering must have a considerable part of class hours in humanities. And liberal arts students also need to master some scientific knowledge. 2/kloc-people who have received modern education in the 20th century should have certain knowledge of society, history, literature, science and engineering in any subject. Such as environmental protection, sanitation, health, law, science, computers and so on. If most members of a society are educated by Newman University, then the society can be civilized, developed and progressive.
In addition to learning knowledge, university education must also emphasize the formation of everyone's "self". Establish personality and self-esteem, and cultivate independent thinking ability. Have their own unique views and judgments on everything in the world. This kind of university education provides a necessary foundation for a society to keep calm thinking. Only in this way can all kinds of progressive ideas be implemented in society.
Humboldt model is mainly aimed at academic research. Humboldt founded the first research university in human history: Berlin University in 18 10. His thought later became the foundation of modern academic research and a model of graduate school. University research before Humboldt was mainly controlled by the church and the government. Humboldt first put forward the concepts of academic independence and academic freedom, and put them into practice in his own Berlin University. This concept makes scientific research come out of the universities controlled by the church and the government, and gradually forms a completely independent academic system and academic group. Therefore, Humboldt model is the foundation of modern research universities, and it also lays academic norms and standards for the degree system. More importantly, the Humboldt model provides an ideal and spiritual symbol for the formation of "intellectuals". "Intellectuals" is actually a very modern concept. This concept has not been clearly defined in the19th century. Because one of the core thoughts of intellectuals is "independent thinking", Humboldt's academic independence thought is the predecessor of intellectual consciousness. After the Humboldt model was put forward, intellectuals not only appeared in the society in the form of more concentrated groups (universities and academic groups), but more importantly, they found their own spiritual identity: academic independence and freedom of thought. Another viewpoint of Humboldt's theory is different from Newman's, that is, the unity of teaching and learning. This is very obvious in today's universities.
The history of establishing modern universities in China based on European and American models is not long. In fact, what we call modern higher education and academic research are both important parts of western culture and European and American society, and both have a history of development and evolution. For western culture, the establishment of many concepts has gone through thousands of years of development, and it is not until today's modern society that they are clearly defined and generally accepted by academic circles. For modern China people, the most familiar terms and concepts include: science, democracy, intellectuals, masters, doctors and so on. These nouns and concepts did not exist in China's language and social concepts before the late Qing Dynasty. Because universities and doctors are completely western concepts with far-reaching historical origins. They were very hazy and vague when they entered China at the beginning of last century. Even in the 2 1 century, we can't conclude that China society, including academic circles, has deeply understood and accepted these western concepts.
As a culture with a long history, Chinese civilization has its own unique philosophy, education system and methodology. China's philosophy, centered on Laozi, Zhuangzi and Confucius and Mencius, permeates China's culture, society, education and country. The characteristic of ancient education in China is that scholars set up their own portals and spread their knowledge and thoughts among many disciples. In the field of art and technology, the mentoring system is often used to teach. The classical education system consists of tutor, private school and imperial examination system. China's traditional methodology is the Book of Changes, Yin and Yang, meridians and so on. By analyzing the cultural tradition of China, we can find that there are obvious differences between China civilization and western civilization, especially in modern times.
Western civilization consists of Greek classics, Christian culture and scientific democracy. Greek philosophy has laid the ideological foundation, Christianity has established the core of western cultural values, science is the way to discover truth, and democracy is the basic form of society. Perfect scientific system and democratic politics are the products of modern western civilization, and can also be defined as modern western culture. It originated from Descartes' philosophy in17th century and the British Enlightenment in18th century. And soon spread to the whole world, becoming the main feature of modern developed society. Because of human's acceptance of science, the thinking methods in other cultures are obviously excluded or even eliminated. For example, Chinese medicine, Yin-Yang theory, geomantic omen, ancient astronomical phenomena and gossip. Even though these methods with profound cultural connotations are still popular among people in the East, they are not recognized in the field of science or science education system. It is not so much a debate about methods as a cultural conflict. Even in the western world, all scientific systems strongly resist and reject non-scientific thinking, such as prophecy, fortune telling and ancient astronomical phenomena.
Since the May 4th Movement, China began to accept the scientific thought and education system of western civilization. For example, primary schools, middle schools, universities, and even today's graduate schools. All these educational concepts and forms are based on European and American educational models. These include syllabus, degree system, admission criteria, teacher training and campus culture. All contemporary education systems in China did not exist before the end of Qing Dynasty. Therefore, for China society, modern education is basically established by imitating the western system. Although we follow the west in terms of systems and methods, there are still many misunderstandings and even mistakes in our concepts. Especially in postgraduate education, degree system and academic research. The academics referred to here include the fields of humanities and arts, and we must have a clear understanding of the degree system, especially the doctoral degree. Take Europe and America as an example. Doctor is the highest degree. However, the highest degree in higher education is not just a doctor's degree. Higher degrees in the United States and Europe can be divided into two categories: one is a research degree, and the other is a professional degree. In order to avoid mistakes in Chinese-English translation, this paper will directly explain these degrees with English names.
The English word for research degree is "doctor". It comes from the Latin word "doctor", which means "teacher". The word originated in medieval Europe. At that time, a "teacher" was a person's certificate to teach in a university. And we usually refer to the "doctor" degree in English as "ph.d" and in the British system as "d.phil". "Doctor" is the basic degree requirement for modern European and American universities to engage in academic work. First of all, the doctor is an academic research degree. Strict training and examination are needed in academic research. A doctor must know what academic research, academic norms, academic ethics and academic services are. Under the American system, doctoral students must not only pass the most basic doctoral qualification examination, complete the fixed class hours, and achieve an average score of above B, but also conduct in-depth academic research and publish certain papers in academic journals around the world. Finally, you can get a doctorate by successfully defending your academic thesis at the doctoral Committee. In science and engineering, it usually takes 3-6 years for doctoral students to complete their studies.
The doctor focuses on academic research. Without academic research, a doctorate is meaningless. So what is academic research? Modern western higher education should first engage in academic activities within the scope of "science". Besides natural science, science also includes humanities, such as sociology and art theory. There are no "unscientific" doctors or "unscientific" research activities in modern western universities. Therefore, when discussing the subject of scientific research, we must define what is "science" in a general sense. But the definition of science is not simple, it belongs to a philosophical category. For simplicity, we define "science" as academic activities recognized by modern international academic circles and all research results that can be published in international official academic journals. Academic research refers to the activities of creating and accumulating knowledge in exploring natural laws and social phenomena. Because we deliberately define this activity as a scientific category, academic research is a systematic theoretical and experimental activity based on scientific concepts and using scientific methods. For the definition of "science", please refer to the author's paper "Definition of Science". [6]
Professional doctor (professional doctor)
In western higher education, there are not only research degrees, but also vocational degrees. These degrees are designed to train high-level talents for specific social occupations. Such as medicine, law, and so on. First of all, these degrees are the basic requirements of professional work, just as doctoral degrees must be the basic degrees of professors. But the purpose of training is very different. Research doctor is to train researchers or scholars. A vocational degree is to train professionals for all walks of life. There is a big difference between a vocational degree and a research degree, that is, the former can only be listed in the industry after passing a unified vocational license examination. Such as lawyers and doctors. A research degree doesn't need this. One of the main reasons is the requirement of professional legal responsibility. For example, the profession of doctor is directly related to people's lives, and the design of architects determines the safety of houses. So there are strict license requirements.
Doctors and lawyers are highly specialized professions. The purpose and nature of work are essentially different from scientific research. The purpose of scientific research is to explore and explain natural and social phenomena, and doctors must cure diseases and save lives in time. Therefore, research-oriented degrees train scholars, while vocational degrees train experts. Because these professions, such as doctors and lawyers, do not engage in any experimental and theoretical research work, but solve special specific problems in practice. For example, medical treatment, litigation bills. However, due to the differences between Chinese and English, it is not accurate enough to translate professional "doctor" into "doctor". Because "doctor" in Chinese is often associated with concepts such as academics, research and scholars. The purpose of vocational degree training is not directly related to the above activities. It must be pointed out that there is another art degree system in colleges and universities. For example, the music department has a Master of Music Arts (M.M.A) for students majoring in performance, and more advanced degrees, such as a Doctor of Music Arts (D.M.A) for music theory research, as well as a Doctor of Music Arts, as well as a degree in performance and a degree in research. Acting degrees, such as MMA and DMA, focus on training in acting. During class hours, it is required to improve performance skills (such as vocal music and performance), and there are also corresponding theoretical classes. Require a certain number of music performances upon graduation. However, the doctor has no requirements for concert performance, but he must have a thesis defense. It can be seen that the acting degree mainly trains students' acting skills, while the research degree focuses on research ability, theoretical analysis, academic level and other fields.
Fine arts departments such as painting, design and architecture all have very similar degrees. Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A), as an art major, is generally the highest degree. Therefore, it can meet the requirements of art majors. You can even serve as a professor of art in colleges and universities. Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A) is rarely set up for art majors in western universities (architecture is also the case), and DFA is often an honorary degree. At present, only a few universities in the United States have DFA. For example, Yale University has a DFA with drama reviews. Other institutions of higher education offer doctoral degrees in film, visual arts and literary creation. People who already have MFA degrees will only consider taking DFA if they want to compete for the corresponding teaching positions in colleges and universities. Generally, people who are engaged in artistic creation will not study for a doctorate, but will only get a master's degree in the China degree system of fine arts, which is generally called a master's degree and a doctor's degree. The postgraduate degree of European and American universities should be clearly defined and strictly divided, including the scope of basic courses, the requirements of professional courses, research content, postgraduate education, academic evaluation and so on. Generally speaking, as long as the name of a doctor is determined, an accurate definition can be found according to the provisions of higher education. Therefore, the Ministry of Education should have a very detailed and clear scientific definition of each doctoral degree in China University, otherwise there will be similar queries from Professor Chen Danqing about the requirements of doctoral examination. As a university professor, we must first have a clear understanding of the degree system in our field.
For doctoral degrees, no matter what major, students should strictly question whether the thesis has made outstanding contributions to knowledge after the defense.
"But in the 2 1 century, knowledge is for practicality, for job hunting, for professionalism, and even for utility. At this point, knowledge has been stripped from the connotation of education and has become a means of social competition and survival. Some knowledge is of little significance in practice and will be eliminated or ignored in teaching. Most professors of any knowledge have a clear purpose, such as TOEFL English, mathematics and physics abroad, literature and history of college entrance examination, and popular majors in job hunting. However, due to teaching and professional training, universities and education are completely separated and become training places for specialized occupations. Therefore, students with intensive training can get full marks in TOEFL, but their communication skills are low. Liberal arts get high marks, but they don't have elegant temperament and noble thoughts. The first place in politics lacks thought and passion. This is as Newman said: the more professional knowledge, the less knowledge. The students trained in this way only have strong professional awareness and strong competitiveness. But they are dull, tasteless, superficial, single, lacking in taste and elegance, and have no personality and style. "
"If a person has studied a lot of advanced courses, all subjects are full marks and obtained many degrees, it does not necessarily mean that he has received a good education. Unless he went to a Newman-style university. A person has strong competitiveness and means of survival, such as unique ability in business and enterprises, and does not necessarily need a college degree. Because many successful business people don't have a bachelor's degree. So the definition of success today can have nothing to do with education. For many people, a college degree has really become a social status label and lost its original meaning.
The reason why a society can make continuous progress and keep calm thinking is that it has distinct cultural personality, humanistic spirit and traditional connotation, noble taste and gentleness is entirely due to university education and its knowledge groups. If a university leaves its own essence, intellectuals will deteriorate first. Society will degenerate and mutate rapidly. Social depravity is characterized by moral decay, anxiety and impetuousness, low taste, disregard of faith, rampant counterfeiting, destruction of culture, loss of self-confidence and disorientation. Such a society may be full of money and high technology, but it has no hope and future. "This article was published in the July 2007 issue of Shanghai Science, please indicate it.