Research On The Operation Mechanism Of Postgraduate Education Quality Assurance System

Graduate education,which is at the top level of national education,is an important way to cultivate high-quality talents in our country.Constructing a scientific and effective graduate education quality assurance system is a systematic and complex project,which not only depends on the efforts of external stakeholders,such as the government and the society,but also the perfection of the quality culture and quality system of the university.Therefore,to improve the quality of graduate student education in our country,on one hand,it is crucial to analyze the external quality assessment subjects’ responsibilities,such as the government,society,quality assessment agencies and so on;on the other hand,the administrators in universities should also understand their own obligations.Only by combing the practical problems with the development and law of graduate education,can we provide solid quarantee for improving graduate education quality.This paper aims to improve the effectiveness of graduate education quality assurance system.Based on the theories of polycentric governance,total quality management and meta-assessment,the author here targets the operation mechanism of graduate education quality assurance system by literature research and empirical research.The goal of this paper is divided into three parts: to clarify the quality assessment subjects of graduate education;to dig out the problems and drawbacks of current quality assurance system in graduate education by case study of J university;to analyze the characteristics and advantages of quality assurance system in America and England graduate education,so as to provide suggestions for improving the quality assurance system of graduate education in China.The findings and conclusions of the thesis are as follows: First,it clarifies the external assessing subjects of China’s graduate education quality assurance system,that is,the government,society and third-party evaluation organizations,while the higher education institutions are the direct object of quality assurance mechanism.Second,using the empirical approach,which is the questionnaire and deep interview with the faculties,mentors and administrators of J university,the author gained many firsthand materials,and by analyzing these data and information,several drawbacks of the operation mechanisms of graduate education quality assurance has been found:(1)for the government,the misalignment and offside phenomenon is serious,which means the government plays the judge and actor as a whole,which makes the external assessing body a single,standard uniform.(2)for the third-party evaluation agencies,on one hand,there is no due law for them to keep independent and they are still in the subordinate position of government evaluation in China;on the other hand,the third-party evaluation agencies are not professional enough,and their evaluation results are not trusted and recognized by the public.(3)for the higher education institutions,the internal quality assurance mechanism is not perfect,and the normal monitoring and evaluation system has not been established.There is a negative attitude towards evaluation in colleges and universities,since the excellent quality culture has not been formed.The internal and external guarantee mechanism cannot work together.Thirdly,it puts forward the path to improve the operation mechanism of the quality assurance system of graduate education in China.Firstly,on the basis of multiple co-governance,the government should guide the external quality assurance of higher education,transforming direct assessment into macro management.Second,the third-party evaluation organizations should strive to build their own credibility and professionalism.In addition to the government,there can be multiple external evaluation subjects to form diversified evaluation means and purposes.Finally,as the main body of graduate education,colleges and universities should improve the self-supervision and management of graduate education quality.Only through joint efforts by the government,society,third-party evaluation organizations and universities can we effectively improve the operation effect of the quality assurance system of graduate education,effectively enhance the postgraduate education quality,and cultivate a great deal of high-level talents for China.