Why was the social work major of a prestigious school removed?

Lead: On May 5, 20 17, the Department of Social Work of Sun Yat-sen University (hereinafter referred to as CUHK) reported that the social work major of history major was revoked by the school. This news has had a completely different impact in the CUHK circle and the social work circle respectively.

For people in the big circle, a series of teacher-student frictions since the new principal took office for more than two years have finally come out of the campus and become public events that can be seen by the outside world. However, CUHK's cancellation of the social work undergraduate course brought a shock to China's social governance, which completely exceeded the degree that the school management could have predicted beforehand: the incident shocked the social workers in South China.

Nearly half of social workers in China are in Guangdong, and CUHK is the only 985 university in Guangdong that offers undergraduate courses in social work. As a profession, social workers appear in China and are expected to become professional groups like doctors and lawyers one day. Along with this hope, there are all kinds of calls for improving treatment and even recruiting civil servants. The most important purpose is to attract this group of famous schools to enter the industry and promote its specialization process. However, CUHK's abolition of social work while retaining its medical and legal majors is equivalent to announcing the separation of high-quality talents from social work, which will be a major setback in its professionalization process.

In the eyes of the teachers and students involved, it seems that the arbitrary decision of the school management can't get rid of morality? Original sin? . However, the alienation between high-level talents and the social work industry may not be decided by one or two principals. who is it? Murder? The social work major of a prestigious school needs some calm analysis.

Being a social worker in China mainly depends on social service projects purchased by the government. In fact, local governments in China have purchased social workers on a large scale for less than ten years. In Guangdong, taking the family integrated service center in Guangzhou as an example, it was gradually rolled out after 20 12 from 2008. Although several universities in Guangdong have set up social work majors, many projects can't attract graduates from these schools because of the low salary provided by family integrated service centers. After 20 12, a group of two universities competed to offer social work majors, and even some TV universities and technical secondary schools participated. In this process, the employment rate of social work graduates in a university has further declined. This was the situation of the whole labor market before CUHK cancelled the undergraduate major.

Let's review an unavoidable fact: in the early days of CUHK's social work major, some graduates did join the social work major. However, these graduates and those who later joined the job are now either engaged in the management of public institutions, or government civil servants, or engaged in teaching related majors in colleges and universities, and only a few are still doing practical work in the front line. Now some successful social work alumni in CUHK are raising money to donate to their younger brothers and sisters who are still studying, hoping to continue their dreams, while another group of alumni sent an open letter asking the principal to keep this major. However, it may be well known to all that even if we donate money and keep this major, the future social work graduates of CUHK are still the same as in the past few years, and no one wants to practice. This, of course, the school also know fairly well.

What is the reason for this phenomenon? If we are willing to face the reality of stratification in the labor market, we can easily observe that there is a structural problem in the current social work industry, that is, the threshold is too low and the treatment is too poor to attract graduates from prestigious schools to join. According to many reports from Guangdong media, a person who works as a front-line social worker in Guangzhou Family Comprehensive Service Center earns only about 3,000 yuan a month. The graduates of CUHK, with famous degrees, are looking for jobs casually in Guangzhou, and their wages are much higher than this level. From the point of view of rational economic man, the decision not to enter the business is understandable. Experts in social work like to use it? Value pursuit? And then what? Feelings? These words, in the labor market, these pursuits are always powerless for most people. After all, you can't eat it.

I have to admit, especially in the first few years when CUHK started this major, the whole industry has not yet developed, but some people are still willing to enter this industry. So, what completely destroyed the pursuit of these years? In addition to economic incentives, another important factor for a person to find a job is satisfaction, especially the social status brought by a job. From the perspective of occupation, the establishment of social status often has a great relationship with the threshold of a profession. The higher the threshold, not only the more secure the economic income (excluding the vicious competition of human resources), but also conducive to the establishment of public respect (elitism). Doctors, lawyers and even university teachers are the same. However, what has happened in Guangdong social work industry in recent years is completely destroying the necessary threshold of this new major: from the qualification examination of almost zero exams regardless of majors to the indiscriminate opening of majors in colleges and universities at all levels.

In Britain, Hong Kong and other developed countries and regions, only those who have a professional degree in social work and pass a strict qualification examination can call themselves social workers, otherwise it is illegal. However, in China, because the salary is too low, it is impossible to recruit people from regular schools to be social workers, so people from any background, regardless of their educational background, can come to work as social workers as long as they want. Up to now, nearly 50 universities in Guangdong have set up social work majors, but there are less than 20 teachers with doctoral degrees in social work or social welfare in Guangdong. It is worth mentioning that the admission score of CUHK social work major is more than twice that of the lowest institution.

Looking around the world, I'm afraid it's hard to find another country to send talents to the social work industry like this. More importantly, there is no professional group with social status, and its main manpower supply can have such a big gap in the entrance score of college entrance examination. Conversely, when a professional group cannot identify the qualifications of its new members, its original group will inevitably be reorganized, and the elite among them will find another way to distinguish themselves. In this way, the disintegration of the original professional groups will only be a matter of time.

Cuhk's cancellation of the social work undergraduate course happened at the time when the threshold of social work industry in China was trampled on. Cuhk still retains the master's or even doctoral education in this major, because the relevant management and teaching and research personnel still need elites. However, the undergraduate course is no longer open, because the group that has entered the profession can no longer hold the necessary threshold of this major. The funds for social work projects are mainly purchased by the government, and the manpower supply for social workers is in the education system. The collapse of social workers in China, the collapse of social workers in famous schools? Strangled? In the final analysis, whether it is the arbitrariness of the management of famous schools or the laissez-faire of buyers and education administrators is a question worthy of long-term consideration by all sectors of society.