Shanghai to release quality report on postgraduate study

Shanghai has announced it will release an annual report on the quality of the city's postgraduate education.

The report will include a comprehensive summary of postgraduate programs of the previous academic year.

It also will clarify university concepts and goals for postgraduate study, according to a notice recently released by the Shanghai Academic Degree Committee.

"This report will not only help a university constantly improve educational quality but will also give students and parents a better understanding of the university," said Shu Jinlong, head of the committee.

The report will feature information regarding admissions, degree requirements and employment opportunities. Educational reform work, existing problems and responding policies will also be included.

A number of higher education institutions in the city have already started working on compiling data for their quality reports.

"We have been establishing an official online platform to release the quality reports," Shu said.

He said the report for the 2013 academic year should be released by the end of the year.

In addition to the reports compiled by universities, Shanghai educational authorities also plan to release quality reports based on various disciplines.

Earlier this year, the academic degree committee of the State Council, or China's cabinet, and the Ministry of Education jointly issued a series of statements geared toward improving the quality of postgraduate education and strengthening its supervisory system.

The supervision work is designed to maintain standards for postgraduate education. Schools will lose their capability to confer degrees if they fail to meet the standards.

The enrollment of postgraduate students has been rapidly expanding in recent years.

Huang Baoyin, an official from the Ministry of Education, disclosed at a previous education forum that about 4.2 million master's candidates and 500,000 PhD candidates received degrees over the past 35 years.

However, the quality of higher education has received low marks from the public.

A survey by Wuhan University and Wuhan University of Science and Technology showed that about 62.7 percent of respondents said the quality of postgraduate study has fallen off. And 60.5 percent said the enrollment scale of postgraduate students should cut back.

wanghongyi@chinadaily.com.cn