The number of doctoral students in China has been growing very fast in the past few years. There were no less than 130 thousand doctoral students in Chinese colleges in 2005, only less than the figure in Germany and the US.

 

"There are more than 30 doctoral students under my instructor, thus it is nearly impossible for us to have a face-to-face talk with him in every 3 or 4 months," said a doctoral student. "Our instructor is more like 'letting us drift along' than 'instructing' us," complained he.

 

"Back in 1985, when I was studying for my doctor's degree, there were only 13 doctoral students in my university. However, there are more than 13 doctoral students in a department in many universities nowadays, even more than 1,000 in a university," said Liu Haifeng, the dean of the Institution of Education of Xiamen University.

 

(Chinanews.cn January 9, 2007)