An Empirical Study on Chinese Provincial Doctoral Education Development Index

Abstract

The high-quality development of doctoral education is an inevitable requirement for the high-quality development of Chinese society, and an important demand of relevant stakeholders. The study selects 31 provinces in China as the empirical objects and constructs an index for the development of doctoral education in China’s provinces by using seven indicators as core indicators: the number of doctoral students in school, the number of doctoral supervisors, the intensity of R&D funding, the number of world-class universities, the number of well-known doctoral students who were trained, the number of doctoral degrees awarded per million population, and the number of doctoral graduates from R&D personnel, and determines the weights by using principal component analysis and coefficient of variation method. The index divides the development status of doctoral education in 31 provinces in China into three types, i. e. , Type I, Type II, and Type III of doctoral education development. The type I of doctoral education development is represented by Beijing whose development is far ahead of other provinces. Type II, represented by Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hubei, and Guangdong, is the "second echelon" of doctoral education development in China. The remaining 26 provinces are represented by Type III of doctoral education development. The study found that the provincial doctoral education development in China is not only closely related to the development of the provincial economy, but also shows certain regional common features, and is affected by the national macro-policy to a certain extent. The research suggests that, firstly, strengthen the strategic cooperation of doctoral education in neighboring provinces to form. regional advantages in the development of doctoral education, and secondly, formulate flexible and diverse doctoral education management policies to encourage reform. and innovation in doctoral education management.