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Higher education resources have become one of the most important factors of competitiveness in a country or region due to the rapid development of the knowledge economy. Many studies have shown that rich higher education resources promote the development of human resources and improve labor quality (Jiang et al., 2019; Lao & Xue, 2016). The uneven regional distribution of the resources gathered or brought about by higher education is deemed an important reason that leads to the development disparity in different regions of a country. Since the 1980s, China has increased its investment in higher education, leading to a stable development trend. However, due to differences in geographic location, policies, and economic development between regions, an uneven distribution of higher education resources has gradually emerged.
Postgraduate education in China is the highest level of national higher education. Postgraduate students fall into two types, divided into master and doctoral students. Unlike undergraduate education, which is usually completed in universities, postgraduate education is generally conducted in various postgraduate education institutions, such as research institutes, well-known enterprises, colleges or universities, and government organizations. During the undergraduate stage, students typically receive general education and have a theoretical basis after obtaining their bachelor’s degree, whereas the postgraduate stage is more likely to focus on professional education and on improving students’ professional skills (Borodako et al., 2021; Grierson & Munro, 2018; Olivier et al., 2020). Therefore, the geographical distribution of postgraduate cultivation institutions reflects the general information on postgraduate education-related resource allocation over a given historical period (Baillette & Barlette, 2021; Guo & Wang, 2020; Gibbons & Vignoles, 2012; Kumar et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2021; Rouibah et al., 2020).
On the one hand, postgraduate education institutions are usually located where higher education activities occur. These locations are chosen by various research institutes, well-known enterprises, colleges, or universities based on the natural and social environment on which they rely. Therefore, the spatial distribution pattern of postgraduate education institutions reflects the relationship between social politics, economy, culture, and education in a certain space (Ali et al., 2021; AI-Hasan et al., 2021; Islam et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2021; Meso et al., 2021; Sohaib, 2021; Zhang & Srite, 2021). On the other hand, the characteristics and rules of the spatial distribution of postgraduate education institutions provide a reference for the development of regional social, political, economic, cultural, and educational activities, which influence not only current but also future social development, particularly many aspects of the development of higher education (Ahluwalia, & Merhi, 2020; Chang et al., 2020; Ensslin et al., 2020; Ge et al., 2020; Liu & Du, 2020; Sengupta, 2020).