3.  Higher Education

Who turned the future Professors, Scientists, Scholars, and Surgeons into Bureaucrats and Salesmen from our Youth

Ever remember only 3 decades ago, those of us who made to the colleges were referred as Elite Class of the society. Now with some 7 million college graduates each year in China, no one will give you a second look even you are a PhD student. How great is that. Oh China really now become a power house in higher education. Really? You don’t need much a deep look to find out that the answer is NO.

With a second largest GDP, the government and its greedy officials have so many other agendas to spend or steal people’s money. So there is far from enough funds spared to education budget. Even less when the money comes to the higher institutions after traveling through government branches at different level. So the shameless Communist government invented a genius concept ‘Revenue Initiative’ (ChuangShou), create money yourself  in layman’s term. The concept invaded to all teaching and research institutions at all levels in China. Let’s focus on Colleges and Universities. In no time, administrators, educators, professors and almost all who supposed to be teaching and educating, switched their focus to make money out of whatever resources they have.  Recruiting students ‘out of plan’ can make extra revenue, so go ahead recruit as much at all degree levels. Who cares about qualities and not enough education resources. Or they’ll cut corner and get around making it like education resources is no problem. For instance, not enough professors? No problem, let all the faculties get a PhD if they don’t have one. So in a blink of eyes, professors with legit PhD are filled into university campus and it is believed that there are more PhDs in China than in the US.  A sick joke on our higher education system.

Now it’s more like a sales event that higher institutions sell education and degrees on one hand and people buy their education out with a degree on the other. What’s wrong with buying your education? Don’t you pay for your education here in Canada and US?  Nothing wrong only if your products are quality and sound from both end. Meaning that your education quality and degree is academically sound and your recipients are academically qualified ‘buyers’ to receive your product, a degree. Because of the quality assurance from the schools and qualification requirements to the student, you’d see less than half of the students who will eventually make out of colleges even they are also paying out their education in US and Canada. How many of the Chinese students who either buying in or tested in to college come out empty handed? Next to none. The problem is, with limited education resources and certain percentage of IQ qualification among any group of people, there are major quality issues at both end of buying and selling education and degrees in China. It also create an opportunity for government bureaucrats to buy their way with tax payer’s money to their degrees at all level, notable ones includes the nation’s vice chairman Dr. Xi Jingping.

The situation becomes even worse in the wave of college merger to become bigger to suit all kinds of political agendas. The bigger the better, of course includes the numbers of students recruited. Overnight, many community colleges and professional training schools become 4 year colleges to take the places of those merged into bigger universities. Plus so many private schools started offering higher education with very little to none quality assurance. The results, student’s numbers sky rocketed in colleges, the quality of higher education went down to the toilet.

Don’t we have good and quality institutions and qualified students? The answer is of course yes, if not so many. The problem is that when higher institutions are twisted into this kind sales events, force by lack of funding and driven by the government ‘favoured policies’, they forfeit their education qualities; they jeopardise the fairness and competitiveness for their students to get their degrees; they violate the basic rule of education to enlighten the young and promising minds of our future. Can’t positively enlighten anyone when your professors’ energy and efforts are not in the class room. Can’t encourage any academic competitiveness if people can buy out or cheat out their way to get a degree, not even for the most scientist, professor, and surgeon track minded students. Can’t guarantee a decent quality education when the resources are overly abused even in some top Universities.

The biggest problem is that there are easy ways and quick corners for people to get around even in our higher education system, when higher institutions lose their control on education qualities and qualification requirements. In my opinion, education at elementary stage has little to do with academics; has more balanced academics with physical and mental E., as well as social and community awareness and involvement at secondary stage; and has everything to do with academic excellence and achievements going into post secondary stage. The sequence of education priority again goes to the opposite at high education stage where both educators and students should put their 100% energy and efforts on academics but failed .The educators and professors put their attention to Revenue Initiatives and personal agendas. Students slack off their energy in extra curriculum not related to academics, like cheating on exams, fabricating lab and research results, copying and faking their term papers and thesis. How much energy have the students spent on party and dating? At dinner and drinking table? On internet gaming and chatting? How many of the female students nowadays are selling their body and soul as their extra curriculum and a way to pay their education, or simply become rich. There leaves only a few and rare bunch who can hardly place their emphasis on academic studies at full swing. 
 
Let’s face it and ask this, with a battered and shattered heart and soul from elementary school, a heavily one dimensionally developed mind from secondary school, and a easy and cheaty way out of college, our youth at their early 20s to 30s who went through three stages of education with wrong and crooked mechanism, how many can we expect them to be academically serious and truthful, morally sound, and socially and personally responsible. They got to be corrupted at one stage or other or all, in one area or other or all. How many of them are in the righteous mind on their track to be professors, scientists, scholars, and surgeons, etc. Or they’d rather being and/or to be government bureaucrats, or being and/or to be salesmen in a market orientated higher education system in China, while only holding their academic and professional posts as first step to climb up the political and social hierarchy.

 Note: The author is only expressing his view of the Education System in China based on common sense and observation as a non educator, non social worker, non politician, nor an economist. This is not intended for research or political correctness. So keep that in mind when you read it or wish to comment on it. Thank you so very much for stopping by my place.

Special thanks to 伊萍’s comment which makes me easier to draw a conclusion on this education series.