JM Review | No Innovation Environment Here

By Jointing.Media, in Shanghai, 2023-12-30

The number of college and university graduates in China is expected to reach a record high of 11.79 million in the 2024 academic year, 210,000 more than in the 23rd academic year, the Ministry of Education announced on 5th December.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate for young people (aged 16-24) was 21.3% in June this year, the highest since the start of the graduation season in January 2018.
According to statistics recently released by the Ministry of Education, the number of applicants for the 2024 postgraduate entrance exams fell sharply for the first time in a decade, to 4.38 million.
As of 24 October, more than 2.91 million people had registered for the 2024 national exam, a new record high, according to statistics provided by Zhonggong Education. The average competition ratio is 66:1. Judging by the registration situation for the National Examination in the past three years, the fever has not abated: the number of applicants for the National Examination in 2021 is more than 1.5 million, the number of applicants for the National Examination in 2022 is more than 2.02 million, and the number of applicants for the National Examination in 2023 is more than 2.5 million.

11 December 2023 will be the 112th anniversary of Qian Xuesen’s birth. Thirteen years ago, Qian Lao said that after returning to China after so many years, he felt that there was no such school (like Caltech) in China, and there was no university in China that could run a school according to the mode of training scientific and technological invention and creation talents. The words are still ringing in my ears. The environment is an important educational resource. The university environment is influenced by the social environment, whether our social environment is free and relaxed, suitable for innovation, whether there are channels to express different opinions, and whether those who dare to challenge authority are not suppressed…

The German philosopher Jaspers believed that the process of education is first a process of spiritual growth and then it becomes part of the process of scientific knowledge. The school should create an intellectual and spiritual foundation for a person. The purpose of the school is to translate the spiritual content of mankind in history into the dynamic spirit of today, and through this spirit to lead all students to acquire knowledge and technology. Today, in universities and colleges, the endless recruitment of students, the multiplication of so-called necessary lectures and exercises, the stuffing of students’ minds with such things as “instruments” under forms, while the repeated loss of the “way” of true existence, undoubtedly blocks the passage of the student to the spirit of freedom. The unsystematic specialisation and knowledge, the teaching of examination skills, etc., all weaken the original spiritual life, weaken the student’s ability to reflect, as well as the independent personality and the habit of repeatedly thinking about a problem.

China’s higher education reform started in 1978. In the comprehensive reform period from 2010 to now, the theme is comprehensive quality improvement, and the main measures include promoting innovation and entrepreneurship education, transforming and developing local undergraduate colleges and universities, and implementing “double first-class” construction. More than ten years later, what is the state of our university’s environment? Is it developing in the direction expected by Qian Lao?

Edited by Wind, Youdao and DeepL

中文原文