The Communication University of China (CUC) is introducing a comprehensive literature exam on Oct.22 to enhance the academic rigor of doctoral and master's students. This initiative aims to address issues such as inadequate literature engagement and subpar dissertation quality. The exam will test students' literature reading, research, and writing abilities, with strict requirements for passing. Results will be announced in mid-November. The exam includes both basic and specialized literature, tailored to students' disciplines, and follows national academic standards. Early results show improved research capabilities among students. This move reflects CUC's commitment to fostering academic excellence and rigor in higher education.
Video
The second Communication University of China literature exam will be held on Oct. 22. The literature exam was created exclusively by Communication University of China. This year‘s focus is on grammatical correctness, the group of people who need to take the exam has been expanded to include professional masters students.
This exam aims to effectively measure the problem awareness, disciplinary awareness, normative awareness, literature literacy and research ability of doctoral and master's degree students at CUC, and to test a student's ability to read literature, do research, write papers and produce results in a higher quality manner.
This year, the results of literature exam will be announced in mid-November. The requirements of this exam are very strict. Professor Meng Shanren from the Graduate School emphasized that if doctoral and master's students do not pass the literature exam, they will not qualify to start their dissertations.
Professor Zhen Mingzhu from the Institute of Communication Studies participated in the proposing of the examination. He explained the background of setting this examination. In recent years, some doctoral candidates and master's degree students usually do not read literature seriously, the literature review at the opening of the topic is improvised, and there are various problems such as changing the topic drastically after the opening of the topic, etc. These problems often result in poor quality dissertations, often lacking theoretical support and literature, and lacking reference to writing standards and research methods, resulting in the cultivation of doctoral students failing to achieve the set goals and guaranteeing the proper quality.
To address these problems, the Graduate School faculty has determined a list of literature divided into two categories: basic literature and specialized literature. Basic literature is mandatory for all students under the entire primary discipline for clarity. Regardless of whether the discipline falls within the catalog under journalism and communication or is an additional discipline, all students in the relevant discipline are required to look at the basic literature within the bibliography of journalism and communication.
"The other thing is the specialized literature. For example, if you are a doctoral student in communication, you must look at the specialized literature under the second-level discipline of communication in addition to the basic literature; those who study journalism will look at the literature of the second-level discipline under journalism," Ren said.
On this premise, the literature exam requires students to have a deep understanding of the content of literature and to test their grasp of the literature by answering the thesis questions in the written examination and answering the questions in the interview.
It is worth noting that the literature exam has been following the national requirements for master's and doctoral students. In the first year of the exam, in the face of the trend of cross-fertilization of disciplines, Communication University of China included works on scientific and technological knowledge in the basic bibliography of humanities and social sciences disciplines, and humanities and social sciences in the basic bibliography of science and technology disciplines.
This exam has been set up since last October, and according to Zhu, the literature exam has initially achieved the expected results, and students who passed the exam have significantly improved their ability to write papers and grasp the direction of the discipline, "I believe that students should be more confident in this year's exam, and I hope that they can really gain something from the exam," Zhu said.
Comments