Graduate tutors are "workaholics"
The rapid development of higher education in Japan is a solid cornerstone to support Japan's economic development. After 1990s, the Japanese government paid more attention to postgraduate education to adapt to the new round of international competition in knowledge economy. According to the data recently released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, there are currently 649 universities in Japan, including 99 national universities, 72 public universities and 478 private universities. Among these universities, 479 have established graduate schools, including 99 national universities, 50 public universities and 330 private universities, with nearly 265,438+00,000 graduate students.
Du Qungui worked as a lecturer in the Ministry of Education at Nagaoka University of Technology in Japan, and later as a visiting researcher and postgraduate tutor at Tsukuba Center of Japan Institute of Technology, engaged in scientific research, and personally engaged in postgraduate education in Japan. He thinks that the graduate tutors in this country have many unique features in guiding students.
First of all, what he feels most obviously is the diligent and rigorous work style of Japanese graduate tutors. The Japanese use the word "violent members" (violent staff) to describe "workaholics", which can appropriately describe the extent of their crazy work. This is more vividly reflected in the graduate tutor. Many tutors regard their research room as their home except sleeping at home and having breakfast and dinner. Even in the middle of the night 12, 1, students can see teachers. The "violence" of his work attitude makes some foreign students who have just arrived in Japan feel unbearable. Japanese graduate students, like China, must first publish a certain number of research papers in important journals. Before an article is submitted, the tutor should make suggestions for revision repeatedly within two or three months. It is very common to discuss, revise, discuss and revise it seven or eight times.
According to a doctoral student studying in China at Changgang University of Technology, the first paper he submitted after his doctoral graduation was revised 14 times, and it took him five months to get permission from his tutor. At first, the student mistakenly thought that the Japanese tutor was making things difficult for him and was ready to give up his studies. Finally, with the encouragement of many brothers, he persisted, and later published an article, and became accustomed to the work style of the tutor. To be sure, the meticulous and rigorous work style of Japanese graduate tutors has played a subtle role in the future research work of graduate students.
Attach importance to academic exchanges with scientific research institutions
After all, the capacity of personnel and equipment in a research room is limited. If students can enter the relevant institutions in society, directly contact with more advanced instruments and equipment outside the school, face-to-face receive the guidance of senior experts for a period of time, and increase their knowledge with the help of these social forces, thus effectively improving the scientific research level of graduate students. Therefore, Japanese tutors actively establish good research relations with scientific research institutions and other universities in society, and strive to create conditions for graduate students to have the opportunity to enter these institutions for short-term cooperative research. In addition, these students also entered these well-known companies and research institutions directly after graduation through this kind of cooperation and exchange; In this way, these companies and research institutions have directly obtained the talents they need and become the beneficiaries of society.
Japan Industrial Technology Research Institute is a research institution with more than 2,000 people. Received many doctoral and master students from Tokyo University, Keio Private University and Korea University of Science and Technology. These students directly participate in various scientific research activities in the laboratory, including weekly scientific research meetings, discussing problems with tutors and experts, and expressing opinions.
A weekly research conference
Graduate tutors in Japanese national universities generally recruit 2-3 master students and 1-2 doctoral students every year. A laboratory composed of professors, associate professors and teaching assistants generally manages about 15 graduate students. If we add undergraduates who enter the laboratory to study and engage in research in the fourth grade, the number of students will be certain; In addition, many young professors and associate professors have set up their own research rooms, with doctoral students and master students generally around 7- 10, and one research room conducts research in multiple directions at the same time. Therefore, how to manage these graduate students, manage many research directions, grasp the research progress of students in time and supervise their research, undoubtedly, the weekly research meeting in the research room plays a very key role.
This seminar is held once a week, and doctors, master students and undergraduates who enter the research room must participate; It is as important as a compulsory course for students and is arranged in the teaching schedule of students. At the meeting, graduate students should submit their own written research report to each tutor and other students in the research room, and make a report of about 10 minutes, mainly telling the latest progress of their research last week, introducing the existing problems and the next work ideas. After that, other people in the research room can ask questions and explain their different views and opinions. This seminar is actually an exchange and promotion meeting for research. Through this meeting, teachers can master the latest research trends of students, systematically answer the problems existing in the research, and put forward suggestions and guidance for the next research; This is also a good learning opportunity for students and broadens their research horizons.
In addition, the weekly research meeting requires the submission of written research reports and oral reports, which will make students feel pressure, which will also have a good supervision effect on their research work and exercise their scientific research ability.
Du Qungui has been to Mazuda Automobile Research Institute, Hitachi Machinery Research Institute, Mitsui Shipbuilding Company and other companies and research departments, and they all have such weekly research reports. At first, he doubted the necessity of this kind of meeting, but when he left the institute, he saw the research reports piled up on his desk, about a foot thick, and felt very rewarding. Every report has progress and suggestions from others. Only then did I realize that I had done a lot in a few months and made a great breakthrough in my research work.
In addition, through this kind of meeting, everyone's research process and achievements are serialized and made public in the research room, so the continuity of a research will not be affected by the graduation of graduate students and the high-speed flow of researchers. The arrival of new researchers will only inject more fresh blood into the research and replace new propellers.
Encourage active participation in academic conferences.
Compared with domestic graduate tutors, Japanese tutors pay much more attention to graduate students' participation in various academic conferences. Tutors not only encourage students to participate in relevant domestic conferences, but also encourage students to participate in international conferences held around the world as long as funds permit.
In Japan, the main way to get the latest research results is to join a community. Generally speaking, the members of various societies are mainly experts in their respective fields or senior people in the affairs departments, and the topics of societies are generally forward-looking. By attending the meetings organized by these associations, you can quickly understand the development trend of the industry; You can talk face to face with experts in this field and get their guidance. From them, you can feel the rigorous academic attitude and good scientific research style of scientists. This is a rare good learning opportunity.
In addition, by attending the conference, students can also introduce their research results to experts and possibly establish research relationships. One of Du Qungui's Japanese friends, when attending an international conference during his master's degree at the University of Tokyo, boldly asked a professor at Stanford University in the United States and expressed his views. Later, he was invited to study for a doctorate at Stanford University. Now, he has become the head of a national research institute in Japan, which has established a long-term cooperative relationship with Stanford University.
Excavate talents from undergraduates.
Undergraduate education in Japan is generally four years. In many universities, when undergraduates reach the fourth grade, even in the second half of the third grade, they can start to enter different research laboratories of their departments according to their own interests, participate in graduate research work, attend research meetings in research laboratories once a week, and engage in some auxiliary work in scientific research, such as the preparation of experimental instruments and the collation of research materials. In a series of research activities, undergraduates completed their graduation design and thesis. While learning a lot of scientific research methods, I have grasped the development pulse of related fields. Even if you work directly after graduating from college, you have some basic scientific research ability. Graduate tutors also find outstanding students in the process of guiding undergraduates and actively encourage them to apply for their own graduate students; At the same time, on the basis of undergraduate research, students can further engage in research and better complete their master's studies.
Japanese graduate tutors have formed a set of effective graduate management methods in the process of guiding graduate students for a long time, which is worth learning. (