More Equitable Graduate Education with Higher Quality: A Comparative Case Analysis of China and the U.S.

• In Event: Experiences and Reflections of Graduate Education Improvement: Challenges, Strategies and Prospects

Proposal

Equity and quality are the two key elements in educational improvement at various levels and in all forms, including graduate education – the highest stage and form of education in all systems across the globe. Since the turn of the 21st century, graduate education has made continuous progress in quantitative expansion as well as qualitative enhancement in China. With a multiperspectival approach combined with rational and critical theories, this study examines the rationales for graduate education policy improvement by the Chinese government. Meanwhile, this study compares two governmental policy documents, i.e., The Opinions on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Graduate Education in the New Era (China, 2020) and The Path Forward: The Future of Graduate Education in the United States (U.S.A., 2010), and focuses on the commonalities and differences of the two national policies for improvement with regards to challenges, problems, strategies, outcomes, admissions, financial aid, programs, employment opportunities, etc. The authors conclude that the multiperspectival framework is suitable and powerful indeed for analyzing the government agenda of policy improvement for graduate education. This study suggests that future policy improvement for graduate education in China should adhere to the direction of modernization, the guidelines of constructing a global community of common interests, continuously increasing annual budgets, and promoting equity focusing on closing gaps in regions, financial structure, and gender.

Authors

• Zhanjun WANG, Beijing Institute of Technology

• Yonghong Ma, Beihang University

• Jun Li, Western University