Can't a professor be a doctoral supervisor?

Recently, I read a news that Peking University will relax the qualification of doctoral tutor, and associate professors and lecturers can also apply to be doctoral tutors. For this reform, some people also wrote an article to affirm it, thinking that it is "returning to the original meaning of' doctoral guidance'" and has many positive meanings. My opinion is not very optimistic.

Can't a professor be a doctoral supervisor? Now the established system is that only professors or researchers equivalent to professors are qualified to be doctoral supervisors. On the surface, this system is somewhat rigid and inflexible, but after careful scrutiny, it is not difficult to find that this system has more reasonable components under the current social conditions.

First of all, as a doctoral tutor, professors can better ensure the quality of doctoral education. Professors are titles that show the highest level of academic research, while doctors receive the highest level of education. Theoretically speaking, only educators with the highest academic qualifications are qualified and capable of cultivating talents with the highest academic qualifications. Of course, there may actually be a phenomenon that some professors are inferior to associate professors, but this phenomenon is not caused by the system itself, but mainly by human factors. If the ability of individual associate professors or even lecturers is particularly outstanding, they should be promoted or promoted to professors in accordance with the relevant provisions of the title promotion system, and then obtain the qualification of doctoral tutor.

Secondly, as a doctoral supervisor, professors can better reflect the seriousness and authority of the doctoral training system and avoid the influence of excessive flexibility and artificial arbitrary factors on the quality of doctoral training. Everyone knows that it is easier to be a lecturer or an associate professor than a professor. If the system stipulates that you can be a doctoral supervisor without being a professor, it will increase the flexibility and arbitrariness of the selection of doctoral supervisors and correspondingly increase the opportunities for educational corruption.

Thirdly, professors, as doctoral supervisors, can properly control the quantity and scale of doctoral training and avoid the phenomenon of quality decline caused by blind pursuit of quantity. There is a joke circulating in the society that a stone fell from the sky and injured four people, two of whom were masters and two were doctors. It can be seen that the current doctoral training has not emphasized the expansion of quantity, but mainly how to improve the level and quality. If the selection conditions of doctoral supervisors are relaxed, associate professors or lecturers are also qualified to be doctoral supervisors, which will further encourage the unhealthy trend of doctoral enrollment expansion.

No system can be perfect, so the desire for reform is understandable, but the specific measures for reform need to be cautious. When the reformed measures have more limitations or defects than the original system, it is best to choose a lighter one and weigh the advantages and disadvantages by retaining the original system. Who is qualified to be a doctoral supervisor? If you ask me, only the professor is the best candidate.

[Source: Red Net]

[Author: Oriental Dragon]