Abstract:

Based on the administrative data of ten cohorts of doctoral graduates of a “double first-class” construction university in China, this paper examines whether there exists the discrimination of educational background for “Gold Bachelor, Silver Master and Bronze Doctor” when looking for an academic career and draws the following conclusions. First, overall “Gold Bachelor”, “Silver Master” and “Bronze Doctor” are not effective labels that reflect doctoral graduates’ research ability: there is no significant difference in various research ablity indicators among these three types of doctoral graduates majoring in humanities and social sciences, while only the impact factors of English papers of “Gold Bachelor” and “Silver Master” are significantly higher than “Bronze Doctor” with science and engineering majors. Second, doctoral graduates of “Gold Bachelor”, “Silver Master” and “Bronze Doctor” have significantly different opportunities in acquiring academic careers, which to a certain extent, reflects the discrimination of educational background. The probability of pursuing postdoctor positions for a “Bronze Doctor” majoring in science and engineering is significantly higher, while the probability of obtaining faculty positions in a more selective university for a “Gold Bachelor” majoring in humanities and social sciences is significantly higher.

Key words: academic career, academic discrimination, employment of doctoral graduates