中国高校仍“重理轻文”吗?

Chinese universities still attach more importance to natural science than to social science?

"重理轻文"是长期以来积攒的科研弊病,那么从科研技术效率的角度来看是否如此呢?本文以2009-2014年中国大陆31个省高校科研活动为研究对象,采用随机前沿分析方法对中国大陆高校理工农医类与人文社科类科研技术效率进行测算与比较分析。研究发现:理工农医类的科研技术效率要明显高于人文社科类,且差距随着时间的推移而不断扩大;初始拥有较多科研资源的东部地区理工农医类与人文社科类的科研技术效率均较高,但后期被中西部地区赶超;不同省市的科研技术效率差异较大,少数省市依然存在"重理轻文"科研观念。因此,合理配置不同地域科研资源,实现不同学科的均衡发展,是今后一段时期内科研领域的工作重点。

"Emphasizing nature science over liberal arts" is an academic malady accumulated in China′s long-term development process. On the one hand, after the division of liberal arts and sciences, the phenomenon of "emphasizing science over liberal arts " has been triggered;on the other hand, with the nature science disciplines(e.g., science, engineering, agriculture and medicine) playing an obvious and important role in the socialist modernization of new China, the degree of "emphasizing nature science over liberal arts" has been increased. Obviously, the emphasis on nature science rather than literature arts has directly led to the focus on scientific research and engineering. However, it is the basic requirement for education to emphasize both nature science and liberal arts. Therefore, in terms of scientific research efficiency, whether or not nature science is emphasized over liberal arts? This study will discuss this topic.Several studies use the DEA method with fixed production frontier to evaluate the scientific research performance at the university or regional level, but it has not been analyzed by different subjects. Based on the panel data of R&D inputs and output of nature science and liberal arts in China's Mainland from 2009 to 2014, this paper first uses the SFA method with variable production frontier to measure and compare the scientific research efficiency of different disciplines, so as to investigate whether there is a phenomenon of emphasizing nature science and ignoring literature arts from the perspective of scientific research efficiency. We draw the following conclusion and policy implications:It is found that the scientific research efficiency of natural science is significantly higher than that of liberal arts, which means that "emphasizing nature science rather than literature arts" is still established at the level of scientific research efficiency. Moreover, in the six years of the sample range, the gap is expanding. In 2009, the scientific research efficiency of natural science was 0.8130, slightly higher than that of social sciences, 0.7441. In 2014, the scientific research efficiency of natural science rose to 0.8885, while that of social sciences was still only 0.7474, which shows that the gap is gradually expanding. The scientific research efficiency of natural science has experienced a stable upward trend, with an average annual increase of 1.79% in six years;while the scientific research efficiency of social sciences has experienced a roughly N-shaped fluctuation, with an average annual increase of only 0.09% in six years.The scientific research efficiency in different disciplines shows obvious regional differences. The growth rate of scientific research efficiency of natural science in universities located in the eastern region is relatively slow, while that in the western region is relatively high. Although the scientific research efficiency of nature science in the eastern region is the highest in the initial stage, it has been overtaken by universities in the western and central regions at the end of our sample. In terms of the scientific research efficiency of social sciences, the eastern region with higher initial level was also surpassed by the central and western regions in the later period of the sample interval. The scientific research efficiency of social sciences in the central region showed a more rapid improvement. There are great differences in the scientific research efficiency between different provinces and cities. Among them, for the scientific research efficiency of nature science, Henan Province(i.e., the highest level) is 0.53 times of that in Tianjin, which is the lowest level. Also, the difference in the scientific research efficiency of social sciences among different provinces is even greater. Henan Province(the highest level) is 1.48 times of Shanxi Province, which demonstrates the lowest level.