China: Quality assurance, internationalisation, doctoral employment, and COVID-19

ABSTRACT

China is an important case for examining the development of doctoral education systems as the country only recently became the largest doctorate producer in the world. This article presents and discusses recent developments in doctoral education in Mainland China by focusing on three issues: quality assurance, internationalisation, and doctoral employment. As the article was written at the early stage of China’s post-pandemic years, it also touches upon the impacts of the COVID-19, especially on international students and on the labour market. It concludes with questions regarding new initiatives for doctoral employment and emergence of new types of research universities.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral education
• China
• quality assurance
• internationalisation
• doctoral employment
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shuhua Chen

Shuhua Chen is an assistant professor at the School of Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Her research interests are mostly in doctoral education, including student learning, researcher identity development, career decision making, and professional doctorates. Her most recent completed project was about Chinese doctoral students’ career preparation, funded by the Ministry of Education of China.