Research on the Development of Number of Postgraduate Students on Campus in China

Graduate education is an important part of higher education; it plays an important role in promoting national innovation capability and economic development. This paper uses the data from China Statistical Yearbook to analyze the development of number of postgraduate students on campus in China, analyze the growth of the total number of postgraduate students on campus, compare the number of doctoral and master students, and the number of students from universities and institutions, at last, analyze the distribution of postgraduate students in different disciplines. The result shows that, from 1952 to 2015, the number of postgraduate students on campus in China has increased from 2763 to 1911406. From 2005 to 2015, the number of doctoral students on campus increased by 70.76%, the number of master students on campus increased by 101.29%; the proportion of doctoral students on campus is less than 20%, and the proportion of master students on campus is over than 80%. In 2015, the proportion of academic degree students is 64.79%, and the proportion of professional degree students is 35.21%. The proportion of postgraduate students on campus from universities is over than 95%, and the proportion of postgraduate students on campus from institutions is less than 5%. In the 12 disciplines, education is growing fastest in the last 10 years, and engineering has the largest proportion in 2015.