Typical problems of unqualified theses of engineering master: Analysis based on expert review opinions of Tianjin's sampling theses in 2017

Abstract

Background: The evaluation of the quality of professional master's degree theses has attracted less attention. This paper analyzes the content based on the expert review opinions of the engineering sampling theses in Tianjin in 2017. Methods: This paper focuses on the review opinions of unqualified theses, and extracts three core characteristics of unqualified theses: lack of innovativeness, academic inadequacy, and poor standardization. Results: Lacking in innovativeness means topics, method, and applied value are outdated. Academic inadequacy means the author does not possess adequate knowledge, does not pay sufficient intellectual effort and the dissertation's design is unreasonable with the content irrelevant to the subject. Poor standardization is manifested in poor writing, inappropriate disciplinary paradigm, and academic misconduct. Conclusions: Therefore, strictly monitoring the quality of theses from the system, setting up standardized courses for theses, and improving the academic quality of graduate students have become the priority to the cultivation of engineering masters.