China aims to boost proportion of postgraduates with professional degrees

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China will strive to further increase the proportion of postgraduates with professional degrees to promote the development of postgraduate education in the country, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said on Tuesday.

By the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the enrolment of professional master's degree students in China is expected to rise to around two-thirds of all master's students, MOE official Ren Youqun said at a press conference, citing a set of recently released guidelines on advancing the development of both academic degrees and professional degrees.

The MOE official added that the admission scale of professional doctoral degree students will also substantially increase.

China has 3.65 million on-campus postgraduate students, ranking second in the world. As of 2022, around 56.4 percent of China's postgraduates hold professional degrees, compared with 32.29 percent in 2012, according to official statistics.

China currently offers professional degrees in 67 disciplines, meeting the country's requirements and contributing to the high-quality development of industries, Ren said.

Since the introduction of the professional degree system in 1990, professional degrees in China have witnessed a growing diversity of disciplines and a marked increase in admissions.

The framework for both academic degrees and professional degrees has fundamentally taken shape, Ren said, adding that both types of degrees are of equal importance and equal emphasis must be placed on them.

According to the guidelines, more degrees should be allocated in favor of professional ones, and newly established master's degree-conferring institutions only grant professional degrees in principle.

The new policy aims to bolster the growth of industries and regional development, the guidelines stated.

As for the difference in their education objectives, academic degree programs should highlight cutting-edge theories, interdisciplinary education and the cultivation of innovative spirit, while professional degree programs should aim to help students hone their skills to solve practical problems in industries, Ren said.

According to him, the prevailing notion of prioritizing academic degrees over professional ones still needs to be further reversed.

"More efforts must be made to cultivate high-caliber innovative talent for the high-quality development of industries," Ren said.