Problems and Alternatives

Abstract

In one of his speeches, Professor Fang Lizhi, member of the Board of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the following. We should attach importance to the graduate students we have trained ourselves. Now that our degrees are equal to those in other countries, we of course should treat them equally without discrimination. Recently, the newspapers have given a scholar who got his doctorate in West Germany wide coverage. We have our own doctors, so why don't we publicize them? Since it will have a very bad influence on students, I hope this kind of publicity will be stopped immediately. I happened to be in Japan at the time. When some Japanese asked me why we made such a fanfare about one who had merely received a doctoral degree [we used more space in this newspaper to cover this doctor than Japan did to report the Japanese chemist's winning of the Nobel prize], I was rendered speechless. Foreign degrees are not acknowledged in Japan; even a degree from Cambridge or Harvard isn't very useful in helping you land a job. Rather, you have to get your degree in a Japanese university—Tokyo University or Kyoto University, for example. This is a question of national pride. However, things in China are the opposite. Foreign doctorates are more welcome. One of my graduate students is now studying in England. I planned to have him study there for two years and then have him return to get his degree in China. But I was thwarted in my plan; the department in charge held that the student would show himself to be a failure should he return without obtaining a degree. Under the circumstances, he has no choice but to stay there and get his degree. Foreign degrees bring high pay and enjoy good repute. When such an atmosphere prevails, how can we expect graduate students to have a correct and healthy view on this matter?