Does the mass of higher education highlight the importance of modern education?

before discussing the issue of popularization of higher education and educational equity, we must interpret the proposition itself. The problem of educational equity under the background of higher education popularization is actually the contradiction between the scale expansion of higher education under the background of popularization, the shortage of public educational resources and the unbalanced allocation of educational resources.

In recent 1 years, China's higher education has made brilliant achievements, but at the same time there are many problems, which are serious challenges to the sustainable and healthy development of China's higher education in the future. Mainly manifested in the following four aspects: first, the problem of educational equity, that is, the problem mainly caused by the shortage of public educational resources and the imbalance of educational allocation, which is also the problem brought about by institutional arrangements; Second, innovation, that is, the quality of talents trained in higher education and the overall quality of running schools, especially the cultivation of innovative talents in colleges and universities, still has a great gap; Thirdly, the employment problem, there is a structural contradiction between the expansion of university scale and the employment market of college graduates, that is, the employment difficulty of college graduates; Fourth, the system, the management system of higher education, such as the administration of universities. In recent 1 years, China's higher education has achieved great glory, that is, the symbolic achievement is the popularization of higher education, but at the same time, the problems brought by popularization are really plaguing higher education, and the issue of educational equity is one of them.

the theory of higher education popularization was put forward by Martin A.Trow, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley and professor of sociology in the 197s. He believes that the gross enrollment rate of higher education for school-age youth is less than 15% in the "Elite Higher Education", more than 15% in the "Mass Higher Education" and more than 5% in the "Universal Higher Education".

in Martin Trow's theory of higher education popularization, an important issue is involved, that is, the relationship between higher education popularization and educational equity. His investigation on the relationship between the popularization of higher education and educational equity from the perspective of sociology and politics is quite enlightening for us to reflect on the popularization of higher education and educational equity in China. He believes that the educational equity brought by popular education is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the starting point is equal, that is, the equality of admission opportunities. Elite education is a minority education, and the admission criteria are based on birth and status. Popular education is to select talents through the filter of modern society-examination. Martin Trow said that people must reduce the inequality of access opportunities for social groups and strata who have lost the right to a good education through compensatory programs and the introduction of other non-academic standards. Second, academic achievement is the equality of educational process and quality.

Here, there are four issues worthy of attention: First, fairness accompanies the whole process of secondary education. Educational equity runs through the whole process of education, and corresponds to every stage of education. When the enrollment rate of higher education is low, the political issues of equal educational opportunities will be more concentrated in the primary and secondary education stages, but the higher the proportion of school-age population receiving higher education, the more equal opportunities for democracy and equality will be concentrated in the important departments of tertiary education. Second, the popularization of higher education embodies the relative unity of educational fairness and unfairness, which is closely related to the social structure. In Martin Trow's view, the education in the popular stage is still to provide noble and high-paying jobs and economic and social status that only a few elites had before. However, as a large number of working-class youth began to enter universities, the influence of university expansion on the life opportunities of middle-and upper-class youth has become increasingly obvious. The third is the unfairness between universities. Popularization is based on the diversification and differentiation of higher education institutions. Diversified higher education institutions themselves are a hierarchical structure, and the top of this structure are famous universities, which basically still carry out elite education. In fact, the main force of the expansion of higher education in China is basically local colleges, private colleges and higher vocational colleges, and the scale of most famous universities has not expanded much. In order to seek a good career and gain an advantageous position in the future, students often strive to go to famous universities, which is why the competition for college entrance examination is still fierce in the popularization stage. Fourth, there is unfairness in the enrollment ratio of higher education in different regions, races, religions and social classes.

according to Martin Trow's theory and the practice of higher education popularization in China, we believe that the concept of fairness should be correctly understood under the background of higher education popularization. Fairness is a relative concept, not an absolute concept. There is no unrestricted and complete absolute fairness in the world. Fairness in any country or system is relatively fair. Education equity is the cornerstone of social equity and the basic human right enjoyed by every citizen. Every child has the right to go to school and receive education. The implementation of nine-year compulsory education in China shows that it is the obligation of the government and parents to let school-age children and adolescents receive basic education. Education is the foundation of national rejuvenation, and the fairness of education is related to the future of the nation.

from the perspective of the popularization of higher education, unlike elite education, where only a few people have the opportunity and conditions to receive higher education, the expansion of the scale of higher education provides more and more admission opportunities, which makes higher education benefit the general public and meets the people's growing demand for higher education. From this perspective, popularization has played a positive role in promoting the fairness of higher education. Popular higher education can better reflect the fairness of education than elite higher education. From the perspective of class circulation, the popularization of higher education is undoubtedly the "booster" of class circulation in China. Under the strict management of household registration system in China, with the admission of colleges and universities, many students have changed from rural hukou to urban hukou, and the population has moved to a higher class. As the main mechanism for selecting talents in colleges and universities at present, the college entrance examination system is the most reasonable system among all unreasonable systems in talent selection, and it also embodies the concept of relative fairness. It is not advisable to abolish it because of its many disadvantages and throw away "children" and "dirty water" together. We use figures to illustrate the role of the popularization of higher education in promoting educational equity. Since the large-scale enrollment expansion of colleges and universities in 1999, there have been more and more opportunities for young people to attend universities. Since 21, the proportion of rural youth attending universities has gradually increased, reaching 53% in 25, which is unimaginable in the elite education stage. Moreover, China has implemented policies such as rewarding hard work and supplementing loans, which has solved the problem of enrollment of students with difficulties and basically ensured that no one can enter school or drop out of school because of financial difficulties. From this perspective, popularization promotes the fairness of education. However, with the advancement of popularization, it has brought about employment problems and difficult students' problems, which is a new round of unfairness, that is, the question of "whether you can go to college" has turned to the question of "what university to go to".

To analyze the issue of educational equity, we have to explain the relationship between fairness and efficiency. Since the reform and opening up, the issue of fairness and efficiency has been controversial in the philosophical circle. Before the reform and opening up, we paid too much attention to fairness and neglected efficiency, which led to the slow development of society. After the reform and opening-up, efficiency was emphasized and fairness was neglected, which became a factor affecting the harmonious development of society and caused the evil result of polarization between the rich and the poor. From the perspective of education, there is also a contradiction between fairness and efficiency. The expansion of the scale of higher education has greatly improved the efficiency, but at the same time it has brought a new round of unfairness in education. In terms of social development, with the advancement of modernization and the improvement of people's living standards, people's economic, cultural and educational needs are constantly growing, and the types and levels of needs are diversified. Before the reform and opening up, people pursued "food and clothing" only to meet the lowest level of life needs, that is, to solve the "temperature" problem. After the reform and opening up, people's demand for higher-level and better-quality education is growing day by day, and people pay more attention to the improvement of spiritual life, that is, to solve the problem of "demeanor". At present, China's higher education is in the transition stage from popularization to popularization, but with the easing of popularization, people's demand for high-quality resource allocation is highlighted, that is, how to ask the government to run education that people are satisfied with. On the one hand, it reflects the reality of China's higher education, on the other hand, this dissatisfaction is the source of power to promote the development of higher education. In the process of facing the problems of higher education and solving these problems, we have actually promoted the development of higher education and society.

on the basis of the previous analysis, let's look at the issue of educational equity. Education equity is the eternal theme of the development of human society, and fairness and justice, including education fairness and justice, are the ultimate goals pursued by the development of human society. At present, scholars generally believe that education fairness includes three levels: starting point fairness, process fairness and result fairness, which is the understanding reached by scholars. The problem of educational equity is not only a problem of education itself, but also a problem arising from the interaction of various complicated factors. Therefore, we should not only think about educational issues from the perspective of pedagogy, but should look at educational issues from different levels, angles, disciplines and dimensions. On the one hand, the popularization of higher education promotes fairness, on the other hand, it brings new unfairness, which is mainly reflected in the following four aspects:

First, the regional differences are mainly manifested in the differences between the developed areas in the east and the backward areas in the west, and there are huge differences between the developed areas and the underdeveloped areas in the enrollment rate, funding investment and the number of students in school. There is a great difference in the enrollment rate of ordinary senior high schools in different regions. In 25, for example, the enrollment rate of senior high schools in China was 76.25%. The lowest enrollment rate of senior high schools was only 53.64% in Ningxia, and the highest was 216.84% in Beijing, with a difference of four times between the highest and the lowest. The investment in general high school education varies greatly from region to region, with the difference of 3.8 times between Beijing, the highest, and Guizhou, the lowest. There is also a huge regional difference in the number of students in institutions of higher learning per 1, population, with the highest difference of 7.85 times between Beijing and Guizhou.

second, the differences between classes are widening. Scholars in Xiamen University used the concept of "generational rate" to express the gap between children of different classes in obtaining higher education opportunities, and made relevant investigations. The survey shows that the emergence rate of state and social managers, managers and private entrepreneurs is much higher than that of workers, farmers, commercial service personnel and unemployed people in urban and rural areas. This shows that children of higher status have more opportunities to attend school than children of lower status. In addition, there are differences in future social roles, such as jobs and jobs, which is a new round of unfairness caused by highly educated education.

third, the unfairness between urban and rural areas, that is, the embodiment of regional unfairness in urban and rural areas. Relatively speaking, high school education in rural areas is relatively backward. The number of high school schools in cities is far more than that in rural areas, and high school education affects the later higher education. Therefore, rural youth have lower opportunities to receive higher education than urban youth.

fourth, social polarization affects the fairness of higher education. First, it is difficult for children from poor families to go to college. Second, social polarization directly affects children's choice of colleges and universities. Recently, there was a report in Weibo, "Children from high-income families are more likely to enter prestigious schools". Peking University in the Capital Higher Education Quality and Student Development Survey Report. According to the survey of more than 7 universities in Beijing, 2% of the families with the highest family income are defined as high-income families, and it is found that there are more students with high-income families in "211" and "985" universities than ordinary colleges, higher vocational colleges and independent colleges. About 7% of students in higher vocational colleges come from rural families.

Fifth, gender differences, especially in rural areas. The gender difference of urban school population has been very small, but in poor rural areas, the difference of school opportunities between boys and girls is still very large. In particular, education fees have had a negative impact on the school opportunities of rural women. Not only in terms of educational opportunities, there are differences between men and women, but also in terms of employment. It is relatively more difficult for female graduates to find jobs than male graduates.

To sum up, the fairness of education is mainly reflected in regional differences, class differences, urban-rural differences, family economic differences and gender differences. We advocate educational equity, which does not mean to achieve equality in the allocation of educational resources, educational opportunities, educational investment, etc., but rather to narrow the differences between urban and rural areas, classes and regions and reflect relative fairness and justice.

what is the reason for the unfairness of higher education? We take the recent hot topic-"off-site college entrance examination" as a starting point, and analyze the deep-seated causes of educational equity from multiple perspectives and disciplines.

The "college entrance examination in different places" can be said to be a continuation of the problem of "college entrance examination immigrants" in previous years. "College entrance examination immigration" is to move students' household registration to areas with high enrollment rate to take the college entrance examination, which highlights the unfairness of the education system and is also a kind of corruption to some extent. After the "college entrance examination immigrants" were severely punished a few years ago, the current "college entrance examination immigrants" have turned from domestic to foreign countries. In China, it is manifested in the appearance of the appeal of "college entrance examination in different places". The problem of "college entrance examination in different places", like the problem of "college entrance examination immigrants", essentially reflects the unreasonable design of the education system.

in terms of education itself, it reflects the unreasonable layout of colleges and universities in China. Colleges and universities are concentrated in central cities, eastern regions and developed regions, but few in non-central cities, backward regions and central and western regions. As far as higher education is concerned, universities are concentrated in central cities, developed regions and eastern regions, where the gross enrollment rate is high and there are more employment opportunities, which attracts many students to apply for these schools, and these cities attract more migrants, especially migrant workers, so the demand for "college entrance examination in different places" has become inevitable.

from the perspective of system design, the household registration system and the dual structure of urban and rural areas are the fundamental reasons for the appeal of "taking exams in different places". The household registration system is a deep-rooted obstacle to the rational flow of population. Household registration system is the product of planned economy. Under the existing household registration system, from the perspective of compulsory education and basic education, it is the basic principle and practice to go to school on the spot, that is, to carve by region. However, on the other hand, the division of "key schools" is prevalent in China, so "choosing schools" is inevitable in China. In order to get a good and key school, parents spend huge sums of money to gain connections through the back door, which at the same time brings serious corruption problems. Both "college entrance examination immigrants" and "college entrance examination in different places" highlight the problem of "choosing schools", basically because the household registration system has not been abolished. Therefore, to solve the problem of education equity in China, it is essential to reform the system and design a scientific and reasonable system.

The call for "off-site college entrance examination" has increasingly become a social appeal. Not long ago, Jiangsu Province announced that it was preparing to introduce the "off-site college entrance examination" policy, which was regarded as an ice-breaking move. Then, 13 provinces and cities, including Shandong, Fujian, Shanghai, Tianjin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong, made it clear that the specific plan for the "college entrance examination in different places" for the children who moved with them will be announced by the end of 212 at the latest. We hope that the actions of "breaking ice" and "testing water" will be rolled out as soon as possible.

Educational equity, as the extension and embodiment of social equity value in the field of education.