The Chinese government's decision to reduce the number of academic master's degrees awarded by universities is a welcome change for students concerned about their job prospects.

The Ministry of Education has recently asked universities to reduce enrolments of academic or research master's programs by 5-10 percent. Instead, they may offer the places to students who want to study for professional master's degrees.

At the moment, China's graduate schools award predominantly academic master's degrees, with only 15 types of professional master's degrees such as MBA or a clinical master's degree.

In the West, academic master's and professional master's students are both required to take core graduate courses. The main difference is that research candidates need to complete a research thesis, while those on the professional track can submit a project report after internship.

Chinese academic master's programs have been designed to provide advanced training for careers leading to teaching and research. But the graduate education system has been flawed by poor teaching quality and corruption in recent years.

It's open secret that many employers, including universities, will hire doctoral or master's degree holders only if they have graduated with a bachelor's degree from an elite university.

Their logic is simple: one has to pass through tough and competitive national college exam to enter a top university.

However, when one applies to a graduate program, success is mostly decided by the results of their English test during the graduate exams and their relations with supervising professors.

Once they enter a graduate program, after completing the compulsory core courses, they will probably study by themselves without supervision.

Employers also shun PhD or master's degree holders with bachelor's degrees from less illustrious universities because they might have been bent on preparing for entering a good graduate program during their undergraduate studies, which could compromise the quality of their college training.

With the introduction of more professional degree programs, graduate students on the professional track may find their graduate study experience more useful as they are required to undergo internship and skills training, instead of conducting research by themselves.

And this in turn may also help improve the employment prospects of those graduate students who don't have a degree from an elite university. After all, finding a decent job is the real purpose of education for most students, a point often overlooked by profit-driven universities.

(China Daily 11/13/2009 page27)