Financial Aid To Ph.D Candidates In China

As an institutional arrangement of doctoral education, financial aid to Ph.D candidates concerns their survival conditions, possible development and environment for scientific research and innovation, so it receives high attention by the society. Under the historical background of constructing innovative country, financial aid to Ph.D candidate is not only a difficult point in current practice, but also a main point that concerns between financial aid to Ph.D candidate to innovating papers and cultivating high-quality talents. The questions brought by doctoral education's fast development and the adjustment of generalized policies of financial aid to students, which are in urgent need of theoretical research achievements and actions of exploration in practice of financial aid to Ph.D candidate.This research bases on qualitative analyses about the course of doctors' production and the nature of doctors as education goods from the angle of educational economics, and then constructs a theoretical framework about how financial aid influence academic output of doctoral education as well as what factors influence financial aid. With the help of "the topic-based group of students' assistance in Huazhong University of Science and Technology", gathering information from questionnaires taken from 913 Ph.D. candidates of 12 different types of universities in the east, middle and west of China as well as the interview materials from the doctoral candidates, the tutors of Ph.D. candidates and the administrative personnel of doctoral education, this research follows the path of empirical study and carries through comprehensive and systematic theoretical study and analysis of the present condition . The research not only pays great attention to the collection of empirical evidences, but also to the excavation of theoretical meaning of experience materials.Via empirical analysis and discussion, new discoveries have been brought in the research. It indicates that current situation of financial aid to Ph.D candidate in China has following characteristics: assistance amounts for living are low, which embarrass the Ph.D. candidates' lives ; the way of financial aid to Ph.D candidate is unitary, which regards fixed subsidy for livings as the main way; the structure of financial aid to Ph.D candidate is unreasonable, which is unbalanced in fair and efficiency; the differences between disciplines of financial aid to Ph.D candidate are big, and the living conditions of PhD candidates in liberal arts are worrying; the subject of financial aid to Ph.D candidate is in vacancy, the tutors and universities have been over-weighted. The level of financial aid to Ph.D candidate is influenced by individual characters, social backgrounds of family, educational experience of doctoral candidates, policies of educational finance and scientific research inputs, which decide the total amounts of financial aid to Ph.D candidate together.Through two dimensions of the value orientation and the level of aid, the author divides financial aid to Ph.D candidate into four types: high-aid level and efficiency-leading, high- aid level and fair-leading, low- aid level and efficiency-leading, low- aid level and fair-leading. The empirical study finds that the types of aid accepted by most Ph.D candidates in China are low- aid level and efficiency-leading & low- aid level and fair-leading. Comparing with other types, high- aid level and efficiency-leading is more advantageous in academic outputs, personnel bringing up, attracting distinguished students as well as the completion of degrees, which is a relatively ideal type. The financial aid to Ph.D candidate in Germany and U.S belong to the type of high-aid level and efficiency-leading, which brings superiorities, such as the enhancement of doctoral education's quality, the realization of national strategy and high efficiency in the use of funds. However, it also brings negative influence of violating the ideal of doctoral education because of excessive dependence on research spending.The PhD candidates has dual statuses, they are both senior students in campuses and workers in scientific research, which are in transitional stage from student to academic personnel. They are independent of parents in economy, and majority of them have been married that need to undertake economical responsibilities for families. These characteristics decide that financial aid to Ph.D candidate mostly reflects on the salary of scientific research and the reward of encouraging studies, but the nature of undergraduate assistance is allowance for living and social relief. This article also proposes that modern financial aid to Ph.D candidate has three attributes, which are the payment for labor, the reward of encouraging studies and the allowance for living. The payment for labor is the born essential attribute of doctoral education, but the reward of encouraging studies and the allowance for living is the emphasis to efficiency and fair of doctoral education. The ideal pattern of financial aid to Ph.D candidate should have following connotations, taking cultivation as an objective, embodying high-aid level, manifesting the orientation of efficiency and reflecting on encouraging Ph.D candidate innovating scientific research.This research also discovers that the fostering-mechanism reform of graduates promotes the level of financial aid to Ph.D candidate. The institution of tutor aid is a double-edged sword, which has two aspects both in positive and negative aspects.Finally, in the light of above conclusions, the dissertation brings forward following policy advices, such as making clear the assistance responsibilities of government, increasing the funds investment, raising aid level and let the PhD candidates live on dignified lives, improving the structure of assistance, combining the reward, salary. allowance orderly, carrying on diverse assistance to different PhD candidates, impelling assistance system in both efficiency and fairness, emphasizing the match of multi-dimensional policy.The innovations of the dissertation manifests in several aspect, such as constructing an analysis framework of financial aid to Ph.D candidate, proposing four types and examining the effect of different assistance types to attracting the source of distinguished students, the time of completing the degrees and academic output, bringing forward three attributes of financial aid to Ph.D candidate.