At a national seminar on the system of graduate study, presidents and experts from about 20 universities called for reducing the current three-year schooling term for graduate programmes to two years.

Regulations state that postgraduate courses should be two or three years long. The three-year term, widely adopted by institutions of higher education, aims to cultivate reserves for academic research.

But most postgraduates choose non-research jobs after leaving school. Renmin University of China statistics show that 75 percent of its graduates enter enterprises or public institutions, 13 percent continue with their doctoral studies and only 12 percent take up teaching and academic research.

Recently, a large number of students with master's or doctor's degrees have swarmed into the job market. But in non-academic enterprises or public institutions, employees with master's or doctor's degrees often do not hold an obvious advantage over their colleagues with bachelor's degrees.

Outstanding graduates usually have no problems finding good jobs when they finish their four-year studies. For those who do not, staying on campus to get master's degrees has become a temporary solution.

For professionals in the field of academic research, the higher the level of degree, the better. But this rule does not fit all positions. Simply pursuing high-level degrees reflects some employers' misunderstanding of human resources.

In this way, reducing the schooling term for graduate programme is a practical solution. But if the public cannot improve their understanding of the relationship between degrees and real work capability, the outcome will still fail to come up to expectations.

(People's Daily January 18, 2005)