Innovative Study on Graduate Student Recruitment Work in Provincial Agricultural Research Institutions

Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China

Abstract As reserve talents for research, graduate students of scientific research institutions directly participate in the implementation process of various scientific research projects, which greatly promotes the innovation work of scientific research institutions. As an essential part of the national agricultural scientific and technological innovation system, provincial agricultural research institutions urgently need to maintain or expand the team of graduate students. Under the current graduate student recruitment system, provincial agricultural research institutions need to solve the problem of how to innovate on the recruitment methods, continuously expand the recruitment scale, and attract more outstanding graduate students to join the scientific and technological innovation team. This paper firstly introduced the institutional changes and recruitment status of graduate students in agricultural research institutions, then analyzed the problems faced by provincial agricultural research institutions in recruiting graduate students. Finally, combining the work practice of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it came up with pertinent recommendations, to provide references for graduate student recruitment of provincial agricultural research institutions.

Key words Provincial agricultural research institutions, Graduate students, Recruitment, Innovative study

1 Introduction

As reserve talents for research, graduate students are the talent resources of the national scientific and technological progress, and also an indispensable intellectual support for social development. Graduate students of scientific research institutions directly participate in the implementation process of various scientific research projects, and apply innovative thinking to daily scientific research activities, which not only enhances their own innovation awareness, but also greatly promotes the innovation work of scientific research institutions[1]. Therefore, the recruitment of graduate students in scientific research institutions and the cultivation of educational work are connected with the present situation of the institutions, and also affect the future development of the institutions[2]. As an essential part of the national agricultural scientific and technological innovation system, provincial agricultural research institutions shoulder the weighty responsibility of regional agricultural scientific and technological innovation[3]. The graduate students have the advantages of active innovative thinking, low cost of exploratory research, less family burden, and stronger execution ability than permanent workers. Thus, they are taken by agricultural scientific research institutions as talent resources in the scientific and technological innovation team, and the recruitment of graduate students is placed in a very important position. In addition, as China continues to strengthen the management of graduate education in universities and strictly control the recruitment indicators of graduate students, the resource advantages of provincial agricultural research institutions are less obvious than that of domestic universities. The cooperation between research institutions and universities becomes more difficult, and the number of jointly recruited graduate students continues to drop, the size of graduate students in schools is declining, and the conflict of growing demand of graduate students is increasingly prominent. Under the current graduate student recruitment system, provincial agricultural research institutions need to solve the problem of how to innovate on the recruitment methods, expand recruitment channels, continuously expand the recruitment scale, and attract more outstanding graduate students to join the scientific and technological innovation team.

Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS), as a research institution directly under Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government, is a provincial comprehensive agricultural scientific research institution engaged in agricultural scientific research, and shoulders the heavy responsibilities of leading the direction of agricultural scientific and technological innovation in Jiangsu Province, solving major scientific problems and key technical problems in the development of local agricultural industry, and cultivating agricultural professional and technical personnel[4]. In recent years, in order to expand the scale of graduate student recruitment, JAAS has continuously innovated on the methods of recruiting graduate students, strengthened cooperation with both domestic and foreign universities, and expanded the channels for joint training of graduate students. At the same time of stabilizing the number of graduate students, JAAS has gradually expanded the scale of graduate recruitment, which basically meets the demands of the scientific and technological innovation team for the graduate student team, and plays a greater role than expected role in the scientific and technological innovation work of JAAS.

In this study, we firstly introduced the institutional changes and recruitment status of graduate students in agricultural research institutions, then analyzed the problems faced by provincial agricultural research institutions in recruiting graduate students. Finally, combining the work practice of JAAS, we came up with pertinent recommendations, to provide references for graduate student recruitment of provincial agricultural research institutions.

2 Graduate student recruitment policy and scale of agricultural research institutions

2.1GraduatestudentrecruitmentpolicyofagriculturalresearchinstitutionsIn China, the graduate education system has been formally established only for several decades. Especially since the reform and opening up, the graduate education has developed rapidly after the introduction of China’s system of academic degree[5]. However, because China’s positioning of agricultural research institutions is based on major theoretical issues and key technical bottlenecks in industrial sustainable development, agricultural research institutions that apply basic research and applied research focus on industrial demands rather than higher education[6]. In China, except Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, agricultural research institutions basically have no independent graduate student recruitment qualification[7]. In order to attract young scientific and technological personnel with high activity, passion and unlimited potential, and in view of no qualification for independent recruitment of graduate students, the provincial agricultural research institutions generally cooperate with agricultural universities that have recruitment qualification to jointly cultivate graduate students[7]. Through cooperation in joint cultivation of graduate students, provincial agricultural research institutions can participate in the graduate student cultivation in advance, select suitable outstanding young talents to join in the scientific and technological innovation team, strengthen the scientific and technological personnel team, and improve the level of scientific research, such as the cooperation between Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Central South University, cooperation between Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Huazhong Agricultural University, and cooperation between Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Nanjing Agricultural University.

2.2RecruitmentscaleofgraduatestudentsofsomeprovincialagriculturalresearchinstitutionsIn recent years, some provincial agricultural research institutions strengthened the recruitment of graduate students and continuously expanded the recruitment scale. The recruitment of graduate students in 2015-2017 was listed in Table 1. According to the statistical data, provincial agricultural research institutions have different levels of difficulty in recruiting graduate students, and both the graduate students in school and the graduate student recruitment scale are generally small.

Table1Recruitmentsituationofgraduatestudentsinsomeprovincialagriculturalresearchinstitutions(2015-2017)

No.Some provincial agriculturalresearch institutionsGraduate studentsin school Annualrecruitment1Beijing50152Shanghai81103Jilin121344Liaoning45105Henan130306Jiangsu179707Zhejiang240808Hunan172609Hubei30910Guangdong1503011Yunnan3010

3 Graduate student recruitment of JAAS

3.1HistoryofgraduatestudentrecruitmentJAAS is a comprehensive agricultural research institution directly under the leadership of the Jiangsu Provincial Government. Its former was the Central Agricultural Laboratory established by the National Government in 1931. JAAS is the earliest agricultural research institution established in accordance with the modern agricultural scientific and technological innovation organization structure and plays an important role in the history of agricultural scientific and technological development in China. After the founding of New China, it was renamed East China Agricultural Science Institute and Jiangsu Branch of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and finally Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1977. In the 1980s, JAAS had independently recruited graduate students. Although the time for independent recruitment is short and the recruitment scale is not large, JAAS is one of the few provincial agricultural research institutions with independent master’s degree-granting units, so it has far-reaching influence on the training of graduate students at provincial agricultural research institutions[8]. Since the reform and opening up, the graduate student recruitment of JAAS experienced three stages.

(i) 1981-1986: JAAS graduate student cultivation program was launched in 1981. Since it had an independent master’s degree granting right, it was able to recruit graduate students independently. At this stage, it recruited 6 students and cultivated 59 graduate students. Some of the outstanding graduate students have become well-known scholars and graduate tutors at home and abroad.

(ii) 1987-2003: Due to the adjustment of national policies, JAAS no longer had the qualification to independently recruitment graduate students since 1987. However, at this stage, the joint cultivation of graduate students with universities such as Nanjing Agricultural University has not been interrupted. At this stage, due to the insufficient funds for scientific research in universities and the insufficient strength of the teaching staff, JAAS generally accepted graduate students recruited by universities. It annually recruited about 20 graduate students, and had cultivated about 340 graduate students in total. The management mode was mainly based on tutor management.

(iii) Since 2004: In 2004, JAAS and Nanjing Agricultural University established the graduate education center in accordance with the spirit of the relevant documents of the Ministry of Education. The Graduate Education Center not only undertakes graduate management work jointly organized with Nanjing Agricultural University, but also undertakes the joint cultivation of graduate students with other universities. Since 2013, JAAS has signed cooperation agreements including joint cultivation of graduate students in cooperation with 14 universities including Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing Normal University, Yangzhou University, Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College of Tibet University, Jiangsu University, KwaZulu University of South Africa, Mississippi University, Thai Agricultural University, Punjab University of India and Murdoch, Australia. Recently, it is negotiating closely with the University of the Philippines about jointly cultivating graduate students. Since 2004, a total of 1 005 graduate students have been cultivated, including 49 doctoral students.

3.2GraduatetutorsandstudentteamsIn JAAS, there are 124 graduate tutors, including 16 doctoral tutors and 108 master tutors. These tutors come from Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Jiangnan University, Nanjing Forestry University, Yangzhou University, Northeast Forestry University, and Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College of Tibet University. Besides, JAAS is constantly exploring ways to recruit graduate students in cooperation with foreign universities. It has established relationships with Murdoch University in Australia, the University of Mississippi, Nottingham Trent University, KwaZulu University in South Africa, Thai Agricultural University and Punjab University in India to jointly cultivate doctoral students. Now, there are 27 senior technical staff members serving as doctoral tutors at foreign universities.

By the end of 2017, JAAS held 167 graduate students, including 20 doctoral students; 120 cooperatively cultivated graduate students, so the total number of graduate students was close to 300. In addition, since 2016, JAAS has expanded the number of doctoral students jointly cultivated with overseas universities. Currently, there are 12 doctoral students studying in the academy.

3.3Jointcultivationofgraduatestudents

3.3.1Joint cultivation of graduate students with Nanjing Agricultural University. From 2004 to 2014, JAAS and Nanjing Agricultural University jointly recruited about 60 graduate students every year, and the number reached the peak (90) in 2009. After 2012, the number of students enrolled at Nanjing Agricultural University declined rapidly, and the number of graduate students enrolled in 2015-2016 reduced almost by half. Especially for enrollment in Veterinary Medicine, the number of enrollment was zero in 2015 and 2016, while it was 10 annually in several years ago. Furthermore, the number of academic graduate students sharply declined in recent three years (Table 2). The above changes in the scale of joint recruitment of graduate students between JAAS and Nanjing Agricultural University are associated with the state’s admission policies for universities and research institutions.

Table2JointcultivationofgraduatestudentsbyJAASincooperationwithNanjingAgriculturalUniversityandotheruniversitiesinrecentsixyears

Cooperative universities 201220132014201520162017Nanjing Agricultural UniversityDoctor 334321Academic master232926991Professional master 363436282417Subtotal626666403519Other universities151716222542Total778382626061

3.3.2Joint cultivation in cooperation with other universities. Over the years, apart from joint cultivation of graduate students in cooperation with Nanjing Agricultural University, JAAS tutors have also tried to recruit graduate students in other universities through various channels, with an average annual enrollment of about 20 graduate students. On this basis, in 2013, JAAS further strengthened contact with other universities which have signed cooperation agreements, and expanded the recruitment channels for graduate students. The number of enrollments in the past two years has also increased significantly, with annually around 33 people, as shown in Table 2. Particularly, after cooperation with Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College of Tibet University in 2015, JAAS recruited 21 students in Veterinary Medicine in 2016 and 2017, including 12 academic masters. This, to a certain extent, makes up for the overall decline in the total number of graduate students.

4 Difficulties faced by provincial agricultural research institutions in recruitment of graduate students

4.1ContinuouslystrengtheningoftherigidmanagementofgraduatestudentrecruitmentindicatorsAfter the state strengthened the management of graduate student indicators, Nanjing Agricultural University, for instance, has annual enrolment of graduate students about 2 200, including 450 doctors, and the number of professional masters increases by 30-50 each year. However, Nanjing Agricultural University holds about 1 100 tutors, including about 400 doctoral tutors and about 700 master tutors. With the continuous increase of young teachers in the university, there are 20 new tutors each year. As a result, the number of off-campus part-time tutors is decreasing.

4.2HighrandomnessanduncertaintyofgraduatestudentenrollmentindicatorsWith the continuous investment in the construction of scientific research platforms, the continuous growth of scientific research projects and research funds, the growing strength of the teaching staff and the increasing demand for the number of graduate students in colleges and universities, the number is very random for the enrollment of graduate students by off-campus part-time tutors. Besides, in the actual enrollment, the number of students that can be recruited or recruited by each tutor is directly connected with the closeness of the tutor to the research institutions’ tutors, and connected with the personality charm and academic status of the tutor. Therefore, there is high uncertainty of enrollment of graduate students by off-campus part-time tutors.

4.3GrowingcontradictionbetweenenrollmentdemandandenrollmentindicatorsIn recent years, the number of doctors in JAAS has been increasing, and the number of projects obtained also has been increasing. The requirements for the number of graduate students have been raised in the requirements of discipline construction and major achievement cultivation. In addition, the number of university tutors is increasing year by year, and the enrollment indicators are generally satisfied with priority. The contradiction between the increasing demand for graduate students in agricultural research institutions and the decreasing enrollment indicator of off-campus tutors has become increasingly prominent.

5 Recommendations for innovation in the graduate student recruitment

5.1GrantingindependentqualificationofgraduatestudentrecruitmentIn China, provincial agricultural research institutions are an important base for cultivating graduate students. As early as the early 1980s, many provincial agricultural research institutions had strong scientific research strength and thus were qualified for independent recruitment of graduate students. In recent years, the state has also increased investment in scientific research funds, equipment, and the construction of science and technology innovation platforms. Therefore, the provincial agricultural research institutions have important resources for cultivating graduate students and strong application research advantages. It is recommended that the state grants the independent qualification of graduate students to provincial agricultural research institutions and gives certain number of recruitment indicators.

5.2MakinginnovationinthejointrecruitmentmethodFirst, it is recommended to take the project cooperation as the link to negotiate with relevant universities, to obtain a certain number of student sources in the method of scientific research project cooperation. Second, it is recommended to strengthen the cooperation with universities in old, small, remote, and poverty-stricken areas taking innovation, joint declaration, and undertaking major scientific and technological projects as the carrier, to further expand the recruitment channel. Third, it is recommended to strengthen the cooperation with universities in the joint cultivation of graduate students, provide the tutors that actually undertake the cultivation of graduate students with the right to share the intellectual property, make proper adjustment to the assessment policies, and give certain degree of approval to the performance of these tutors, to promote the enthusiasm of tutors in recruiting graduate students.

5.3ExpandingthejointrecruitmentchannelThe propaganda of graduate student recruitment is an essential part of the graduate student recruitment and is a link between graduate student candidates and recruitment institutions[9]. It is recommended to propagate the graduate student recruitment policy and expand the recruitment channel. (i) It is recommended to lay stress on bringing into play the initiative of the tutors, expand channels, encourage them to apply the tutor qualification in their Alma Mater or universities in old, small, remote, and poverty-stricken areas, explore the student sources, and open the multi-channel recruitment situation. (ii) It is recommended to guide the institutions to pay more attention, and strengthen the exchange and communication with relevant colleges and universities on the basis of existing cooperation with relevant universities in the recruitment, to break the difficulty in recruitment of graduate students. (iii) It is recommended that the leadership level of provincial scientific research institutions should strengthen the work, and establish the joint cultivation mode with domestic and foreign universities in a planned and organized manner.

5.4StrengtheningtheconstructionofscientificresearchsupportteamScientific support personnel refer to scientific research service personnel engaged in social science publishing, magazine editing, book management, scientific research assistance and social science propaganda[10]. According to the current stage and future enrollment development trends, domestic colleges and universities will provide less and less graduate enrollment indicators to provincial scientific research institutions and it becomes more and more difficult to increase the number of enrollment. Under the premise of striving for student sources by multiple channels, if there is still a surplus of funds for graduate student management and hardware facilities, it is recommended to convert existing graduate student support resources to strengthen the construction of non-staff personnel, to replace the graduate students with non-staff personnel, so as to establish a "graduate student" type research support team.

5.5StrengtheningthetutorteamconstructionTutors are the leaders graduate student education, their ability directly affects the quality of graduate student cultivation, thus how to establish a high quality and high level graduate student tutor team becomes an essential part of graduate student education management[11]. Research institutions should appropriately raise the right of tutors and graduate students in research institutions[12]. Some tutors said that there is problem of valuing the use but belittling the cultivation in the graduate student management. In view of such phenomenon, it is recommended to strengthen the construction of tutor team, and make effort to build a high level tutor team. (i) In the process of declaration for adding tutors, it is recommended to strengthen the checking, to strictly guard the pass in accordance with the conditions for adding university tutors. (ii) It is recommended to carry out relevant training, for example, invite experienced tutors from relevant universities to give lectures, so as to further improve the quality of tutor team. (iii) It is recommended to introduce the third-party evaluation mechanism. For example, university research institute managers, graduate student and graduate student team members may assess the mentors’ ability and academic level of tutors, and establish a team of excellent tutors, to promote the tutors to strengthen their quality and ability.