Opinion / Hot Talks
Should Beida recruit more recommended students?
By Zhang Xi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-07-09 16:37
Peking University released its recruitment plan for postgraduates on
Sunday, which raised dissatisfaction of students from other universities.
Beida plans to enroll 4,300 postgraduates and 1,400 doctorial students
this year, but not all college graduates can go there by taking an
entrance exam. The prestigious university will focus on recruiting those
who do not need to sit exams, but instead rely on the recommendations of
the colleges where they received their bachelor degrees.
The plan shows of the prospective postgraduates studying sciences, 50 to
80 percent of them will be recommended. And at least half of the new
postgraduates in other departments will also be recommended to Beida. In
total, the university will enroll seven percent more recommended students
than last year. As a result, only a few prospective postgraduates can
enter Peking University by taking entrance exams.
In the past, half of those recommended students were from Beida, and the
other came from other post secondary institutions. Peking University' s
admission policy says only excellent graduates who are from prestigious
universities and recommended by their colleges are entitled to enter
Beida without taking postgraduate entrance examinations. However, very
few students are lucky enough to get the chance.
A student at Capital Medical University is unhappy with the plan. "I
think it's very unfair!" she exclaimed. "Although Beida will enroll 4,000
postgraduates this year, only half of them will be picked by the entrance
exam." She continued, "Only one student in my class can be recommended.
We just want to go to Peking University through our hard work. But how
can we get in with such few chances?"
"I didn't do well in my college entrance exam four years ago," says Li
Chen, a graduate at a university outside Beijing . "I wish to be a
postgraduate in Beida by taking an examination. Can't postgraduate
students get in even if they don't have a bachelor's degree from a top
university? It's prejudice. All prospective postgraduates at Beida should
compete in the entrance exam."
Peking University has its reasons to recruit more students through
recommendation. Through their experience, supervisors of postgraduates
have found that recommended students "have higher academic levels and
tend to be more devoted to studying".
Professor Wen Rumin has worked as a postgraduate supervisor for a long
time in Beida's Chinese Department. He says, "The university is doing the
right thing since some prospective postgraduates are only good at taking
exams rather than academic studies." He believes the academic levels of
recommended students are higher than their counterparts who come to Beida
by taking exams.
Wen did not think the recruitment policy is unfair because the most
important goals of postgraduate education are guaranteeing the teaching
quality and selecting qualified talent.
Other supervisors think many students come to Beida by taking the
entrance exam and only want to get a degree from Beida rather than really
study a subject. From this aspect, they are not as good as those
recommended students, who are more welcomed by supervisors.
An educator and professor at Renmin University , Gu Haibing, said Peking
University has right to decide how to recruit students. Universities and
supervisors should be entitled to enroll suitable postgraduates, as long
as the recruitment process is open and with essential supervision.
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