China produces more PhDs than the United States. That is the good news. Less than cheering is that half of Chinese doctorates become government officials.The number of people holding doctorate degrees in China has now passed that of the United States, making China the No. 1 country in the world when it comes to awarding doctorate degrees.
One expert, Dr. Xia Yeliang, reflects on the fact that half of the Chinese doctorates have become government officials and is of the opinion that this phenomenon reflects a serious problem in China’s policy on higher education.
Dr. Xia Yeliang said, "To popularize higher education is to popularize undergraduate degrees. Yet the number of high degrees has increased very rapidly. Every university wants to increase its number of doctorate degrees. Each year, in order to increase doctorate degrees, some universities have raised their public relations funds to between 3 and 5 million yuan (US$439,100 to $732,000)."
Researcher Zhang Boshu, from the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this trend can only be harmful to social development. He said, "Producing so many doctorates to be officials is in itself a misused function! Does one need a doctorate degree to be an official? From the perspective of educational development, this is an absurd and ridiculous phenomenon."
The Epoch Times reports Dr. Xia Yeliang has lectured at Beijing University for many years, but due to his political views, he’s been subjected to pressure in academic studies. He was prevented from receiving a title to match his academic achievement. Zhang Boshu has suffered a similar fate. Despite working at the institution for nearly 20 years and having many academic achievements, his title has not changed for 18 years due to his political views.
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