Measurement, Attribution, and Manifestations of the Equality of Master's Student Enrollment Opportunities in China's Double First Class Universities

Abstract

An analysis of 8,541 majors of graduate student recruit students of 42 double first class universities found that departures from national requirements in the three dimensions of training type, study method, and discipline field affect the advancement of equal enrollment opportunities for Master's students nationwide in different ways, and the causes are all based on institutional partiality or discrimination against candidate origin. Therefore, we recommend that double first class universities comprehensively investigate majors with unequal recruitment and eliminate those that are not compliant or have unreasonable conditions while designing “impartial” graduate student recruitment institutions that uphold personnel and institutional views of equal opportunity.

Keywords:

• Discrimination
• double first class university
• equal enrollment opportunities
• graduate student recruitment
• partiality

Notes

1 i.e. establishing global first-class universities and disciplines, an important arrangement made by the State Council of the People's Republic of China to improve the comprehensive power of Chinese higher education.

2 See the provisions of Article 46 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

3 See the provisions of Article 15 of the “Jiaoyubu guanyu yinfa '2018 nian quanguo shuoshi yanjiusheng zhaosheng gongzuo guanli guiding' de tongzhi” (Ministry of education notice on the issuance of “2018 national management regulations on graduate student recruitment work).

4 See John Rawls, He Huaihong trans., Zhengyi lun (xiuding ban) (A theory of justice (revised edition)) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2009): 143–149.

5 See Rousseau, Li Pingou trans., Lun renyuren zhijian bupingdeng de qiyin he jichu (On the origin and basis of inequality among men) (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 2016): 47.

6 See John Rawls, He hauihong trans., Zhengyi lun (xiuding ban): 56–57.

7 See the provisions of Articles 10, 12, and 14 of “Jiaoyubu guanyu yinfa 'quanguo putong gaodeng xuexiao tuijian youxiu yingjie benke biyesheng mianshi gongdu shuoshi xuewei yanjiusheng gongzuo guanli banfa (shixing)' de tongzhi” (Ministry of education notice on the issuance of “work management measures (provisional) for national general higher education schools recommending outstanding college graduates to become master's degree graduate students without taking exams).

8 Seventeen recruited majors at certain schools “did not accept candidates with equal academic ability” and “did not accept Associate's-turned-Bachelor's, independent school, and private school undergraduate students.” Given the very limited data, for ease of statistics and measurement, this paper incorporates this data into majors that “do not accept Associate's-turned-Bachelor's, independent school, and private school undergraduate students” for statistical purposes.