PhD – Page 3 – Junjun's Home

To Be A Teacher: Why Only For PhD?

Quite occasionally I get the ticket for admission of a employment conference this morning, accompanying with my friends I participated the employment conference as my first time of doing so after the last participation of such activity two years ago in Nanjing. But this conference, frankly speaking, is not a good one, no matter whether it is evaluated under the organization or its size. While, it does offer quite numerous positions for those who are willing to be a teacher.

For those who are holding a master’s degree and with strong willing of being a teacher in a college, the experience today seems to be a dilemma. If you are willing to be a tracked for a teaching position in an acceptable university, a PhD degree seems to be a must. But if you can accept the comparative low salary for the similar position in a technical school, then you have the opportunities of being accepted. While once accept such position, new problems will occur. The low probability of being a professor and tutor for doctoral students, and the enforcement of taking the Ph.D study can all be coming problems that are waiting to be solved.

There has been quite long for me to consider, but never provide a substantive answer that, whether it is necessary for a teacher holding a Ph.D degree, especially for those technical school. It is of no doubt that teachers with good academic training, and holding an advanced degree can obviously help students broaden their horizon, rather than keeping a narrow vision on the skills and knowledge points printed on the books. However, with the concern that the main task for the undergraduate students is to build a solid foundation, I don’t know if the research experience of a Ph.D students or a Master’s student would help. What I argue more practically, is to hire some teachers with working experience in an accounting or consulting firm, who can deliver some practical skills.

However, for the training on academics for graduate students, things are totally different. These students require more training on the research issues, such as the theory explanation, research methodology and some introductory lectures on contemporary research. For undergraduate students on accounting, they are not required to know Williamson, Coarse, Watts, Beaver, etc, but for graduate students, good familiarity on such classical works is to be a must. So with full experience of research can help the lecturer deliver a better and deeper understanding on these issues. For these purposes, Ph.D graduates is a good source to get the candidates of the lecturers of the issues on graduate levels.

This is only quite an initial consideration on the issue of employment for colleges, for any comments, you are welcome to follow and discuss.

Staying at Home: A Review of My Summer Vacation

It is getting more difficult to remind myself of the old times when I was still a boy that was interested in wandering around the garden in my grandma‘s house and playing some tricks with my friends. In fact, I am getting more and more preferred of staying at home or the dorm, spending the whole day on writing, reading and PC games. The summer vacation this time follows this ‘tradition’ thoroughly that I spent quite little time of going outside.

The mere reason for this staying comes from the GRE failure. That is, I would have to spend more time that I firstly anticipated to prepare for that exam in October. Memorizing the words and phrases in a glossary for GRE is not an easy job since you have to revisit the words from time to time to avoid them from being forgotten. In fact I doubt myself sometimes why I made the choice on pursuing my PhD program overseas, which lead me to the dilemma at present. But once it is determined, okay, just go forward. The exam in October is to be my last chance in Wuhan. I do admire the atmosphere overseas since my visit to Hawaii last year.

The rearrangement on time for the GRE exams totally abandoned the plans that I made previously which involves reading classical literatures and visiting some parks. I even prepared an annual card for my travelling. While, what a pity, the card was used for only once when Jiang and his wife came in July. The books I ordered from the Amazon are also put aside. In fact, I was just willing to take some study on economics and accounting theory in this summer originally, aiming at preparing for the PhD entrance exams in China. However, the fact is quite apparent: they are all substituted and occupied by the GRE again.

I am scheduled to be back to Wuhan in September 7^th, too many affairs are waiting for me. Perhaps, it is also the time for my change of the living style.

Some Doubts on PhD: Is it a must?

呵呵，刚看了一位同仁的空间，提到了我们学院最近发布的MPAcc的通知。事实上，我开始也没有过于关注，因为我也觉得MPAcc就是一个烧钱的主，我实在不知道跟我们会有什么相关性。也就无视掉了。但是现在，我突然发现，问题非常严重。因为，这个决策，反映了国家的信心，同时也反映了学校的态度，更严重的是，我们不得不调整下我们的期望了。昨晚我还在写一个关于投资者期望模型修正的东东，没想到，我自己先用上了。

近几年的改革大家都有目共睹，大学生的就业问题也日益突出。作为我而言，从底层的一个三流学校的专科走进一个国家重点学科的天堂。我所见的，更多的是找工作的痛苦。我专科的同学，有很多人在我拿到研究生录取通知书的时候都没有一个安稳的工作；我本科的同学相对好，都留在了地级市，南京，苏州或者上海。研究生的同学估计相对还好，毕竟是个不错的学校。但是呢，我认识的苏大研究生，比如教育学院的学生，却在几年前就有了问题。我的家人因此跟我说研究生不值得一读，我总以为她不懂统计学，犯了一个样本的抽样偏误（Selection Bias），不管它。但是，今年的经济危机却凸显了学生的就业问题。事实上，我并不认为中国的经济受到了很大的威胁。毕竟我们有很多自主企业。而金融危机主要导致的是外国公司裁员和中国的进出口。当然，这和中国，尤其是中国南方一直做来料加工，却没有做好产业调整有关。我一直以为，我们的决策层可以理解，可以做出产业调整来应对。但是，显然，我错了，国家做出了一个逆向选择。我不知道这是不是所谓的国家的委托代理问题。但是，研究生扩招，后果极严重。

本科的扩招，我们有目共睹，直接导致了教学资源的匮乏，工作压力加大。如果说当时的扩招是因为中国的经济发展而需要更多的人才的话，那么，今天的研究生扩招就完全没有这方面的制度因素。更多的，只是一个Arbitary Decision。因为中国的研究生教育本来就是一个学术研究的入门教育。类似于美国PhD项目的初始阶段。我实在不知道，尤其作为我们会计，一个基于经济学和管理学的实践性科目，需要那么多学术研究的人才干嘛，而事实上，大部分毕业的硕士根本做不了研究，无非只是为了一纸文凭而已，然后以此去换孔方兄。现在的研究生教育，大家都有目共睹，给我们代课的大水货也让我们大开了眼界。而可以预见的是，大规模扩招，必定重复本科扩招的后果，资源紧缺，质量下滑，然后这种大水货越来越多。这是一个恶性循环，而且还是一个单调递减函数。其实我很庆幸我有一个认真负责，而且很有学术修为的导师，我也学到了很多。但是如此扩招，我担心，这样的好事恐怕不会再有了吧？

要不要读博，其实我周围很多人都在考虑。我其实早就被大伙儿定位成了去读博士的人选了。但是扩招的加剧，使我们不得不去考虑下读博的Cost-and-efficiency。如果说我们硕士是入门级，只需读几篇文章而不需做研究，那么博士再以此推脱恐怕就会贻笑大方了。但是硕士的扩招，如前面所言，必然会导致硕士水准进一步下滑，而这显然就降低了博士的入门标准。北大的校长就说过，为什么北大的博士要四年？因为，三年改两年的效果直接导致了硕士毕业生无法符合他们的要求。而在此基础上下滑，即使增加教育年限，恐怕也难以弥补水平的缺失吧？另外，我们为此付出的青春，是否能够用我们所得来弥补呢？这是一个待解的方程。

恐怕，要不了几年，考博就会跟今天的考研一样了吧？我真怀疑，若干年以后，我们侥幸博士毕业，我们还有脸面在我们的英文签名上写Ph.D么？我们是否对得起我们名字前所加的Dr.呢？

一点拙见，仅供参考，文责不负。