Whether because they did not feel they learned enough or because what they did learn did not help them find a job, more than half of the respondents to a newspaper survey said their postgraduate studies were not as rewarding as they had expected.
According to the results of the survey, 52.9 percent of the 7,730 respondents, which included 4,865 graduate students or alumni, said it was not worthwhile to pursue a postgraduate degree, the China Youth Daily reported yesterday.
Of the alumni respondents, 35.6 percent said they regretted their postgraduate experience because what they had learned was not worth the time and money invested.
"Sometimes I'm not sure what I achieved during my two years of postgraduate study," a respondent named Zheng Yingying was quoted by the paper as saying.
"During the first year I had to earn enough credit hours, and in the second year I had many interviews with potential employers."
Meanwhile, 39.2 percent of the respondents said they felt "confused and empty" during their graduate studies, 27.1 percent said they felt nervous and 28.5 percent felt disappointed.
A senior university student named Li Tong said she had recently turned down a postgraduate recommendation from her university in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
"I am fed up with my life of reading books for pleasure while professors teach on the stage," Li said. "For me, graduate studies are like wasting another two years of my youth."
And while 45.2 percent said they had undertaken postgraduate studies in the hope of finding a better job, postgraduates' chances of finding a job seem to be declining relative to students with bachelor's degrees.
The situation is apparently reflected in the slower rate of increase of the number of people signing up to take the postgraduate exam this year.
In January, 1.28 million people applied to take the national postgraduate qualification exam, only 7,000 more than last year. Last year's figure was up 9 percent over 2005.
The annual growth rate averaged 20 percent from 2001 to 2006, or more than 170,000 entrants each year. College enrollment figures exploded six years ago.
Nearly 4.13 million students graduated from Chinese mainland's universities last year, compared with 1.15 million in 2001, and many undergraduates have continued their studies in the hope of getting a leg up on the competition in the job market.
From 2001 to 2004, postgraduate enrollments rose from 110,000 to 330,000.
Still, 54.6 percent of the respondents to the survey said choosing between postgraduate studies and immediate employment was a matter of individual choice rather than necessity.
Source: China Daily
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