Wuhan puts squeeze on profs

Source:Global Times Published: 2013-1-13 19:48:01

About 200 supervisors for doctoral candidates at Wuhan University in Hubei Province will be stopped from enrolling new prospects this year due to a lack for a number of reasons, including a lack of funds. 

The university denied media reports that the number of overall supervisors would be reduced to around 500, Wuhan Morning Post reported, with the university saying the reduction will bring the total to between 800 and 900. 

Since 2008, the university has admitted about 1,550 doctoral candidates every year across all disciplines.

These are allocated to the current number of 1,400 supervisors, with each allowed to take on one or two candidates on average. 

Some supervisors with the university's polytechnic departments and schools have started thousands of academic programs, but are struggling to find enough doctor candidates to complete them, an official in charge of the university's graduate school told the newspaper.

Furthermore, it seems academic funds are not distributed evenly.

Supervisors in humanities and social science departments, as well as the law school, see themselves short-changed for academic funds with budgets set much lower than for supervisors in polytechnic departments and schools, the official said. 

"Therefore, stopping 200 supervisors from enrolling candidates is good to allow us to reasonably re-organize academic resources. As a result, more supervisors with academic projects will get help from doctor candidates," the official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The main work for these 200-odd "unemployed" supervisors will be to teach students. Sometimes they will take on small academic projects funded at about 100,000 yuan ($16,090).

From next year, these teachers will be able to recover their positions as supervisors through a competition based on five elements including academic achievements and programs and the quality of their research fields and candidates.

Global Times



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