A Study On The Issues Of Master Joint Degree Program Between Chinese And Foreign Universities

With the deepening and development of economic globalization,the internationalization of higher education has become an inevitable trend.In this context,the Joint Degree Program received much attention as an important form of international cooperation in higher education.This paper defines the Master Joint Degree Program as the program which is carried between the Chinese educational institutions and the foreign educational institutions at the master degree level,when students meet degree requirements conferred by both sides will receive a separate diploma form each of the participating institutions.This program is based on the cooperative agreement,emphasizes joint training and cooperation in the enrollment,curriculum integration,credit mutual recognition and thesis.The study takes the Master Joint Degree Program as the research object,combining with literature analysis,questionnaires investigation,and semi-structured interview,the research findings are as follows:First,the backgrounds including economic globalization,political regionalization,knowledge economy,transportation network technology,internationalization of higher education,marketization of higher education,integration of higher education influence the development of Master Joint Degree Program.The action subjects including international organizations,governments,universities,social forces also have the impact on the Master Joint Degree Program.Second,based on the relevant data,the history of Joint Degree Program is divided into two stages and its characteristics as follows:master level is the main part,cooperation partners tend to Europe and the United States,collaborative fields mainly refer to natural science,national strategy and social disciplines,emphasizes the quality and reputation of foreign partners,The level of foreign universities are equal or better than the Chinese,the motivation of Chinese universities is to promote the internationalization and improve the quality of personnel training.Third,Master Joint Degree Program has certain effect in improving the comprehensive strength of universities and training the comprehensive abilities of students.But it also faces these issues:at the legal and policies level,deficiency of relative policies,lack of internationally accepted qualification standards,difficulties to coordinate Chinese and foreign academic system;at the implementation level,unbalanced discourse power of the two sides,difficulties in credits coordination and curriculum convergence,degree award inconsistency,management mechanism is not perfect,lack of financial support;at the teachers level,enthusiasm is not high,the communication is limited between two sides,the cooperation of scientific research is not deep enough;at the students level,lack of status,face high pressures,the low participation of foreign students,teachers and students are not close.Fourth,to improve the Master Joint Degree Program should be based on the correct understanding of stakeholders,put universities as a bridge to mobilize the collaboration between stakeholders:at the government level,to improve the legal policy and strengthen the macro-guidance;at the university level,to further clarify the leading position in the cooperative education and to optimize the implementation process;at the student level,pay attention to the physical and mental health of students and to meet their requirements of scientific research;at the teacher level,to inspire their research potential and guide them focus on the program and participate in the joint training graduate programs.