Following the school motto “Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection”, the graduate programs of Xiamen University has gone through 87 years, making itself one of the first universities to carry out graduate programs in China.
Xiamen University started graduate programs in 1926. After the National Liberation, Xiamen University restarted its graduate programs in 1950 and established graduate office in 1952, in order to meet the demand of the Chinese Socialist Construction and the advancement for the cause of higher education. From 1950 to 1965, 22 majors of the university had a total enrollment of 110 graduate students, which had produced a number of talents for the country. Owing to the opportunity of national recommencement of graduate education in 1978 and the establishment of academic degree system in 1981, the Graduate School of Xiamen University was founded in September, 1986, and after ten years’ trial, it was officially approved by the former State Education Committee in March, 1996.
Under painstaking reforms and development, the graduate education of Xiamen University has preliminarily established a research-oriented system, in which graduate students constitute the principal body, and faculty team, Dissertation Committee, responsible chiefs of colleges, Subcommittee of Academic Degree Evaluation, graduate school and Academic Degree Evaluation Committee play initial roles. Comprehensive and significant progress has been made in every aspect, such as discipline construction, faculty team building and cultivation of learning, etc.
With 31 Doctoral degrees in first-level disciplines, and 50 Master degrees in first-level disciplines and it has 5 national first-level key disciplines and 9 national second-level key disciplines (covering 38 second-level disciplines), 26 post doctoral research centres, and 9 subjects of “national educational centres for talents”. Besides, 46 first-level disciplines such as philosophy are approved as provincial key disciplines, and 17 first-level disciplines such as theoretical economics are approved as provincial key characteristic disciplines.
The university has a well-structured and highly-competent faculty team. It has 767 doctoral advisors and 2213 graduate advisors, among whom 23 are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (12 are double-hired). There are 6 chief scientists of the National Major Research Projects, 31 that have obtained the "Science Grant for National Outstanding Youth" from the state, and 15 special and 13 speech professorships of “Yangtze Scholar”.
Up to March, 2013, Xiamen University has 19807 registered graduate students, including 10024 master’s academic degree candidates, among whom 322 are overseas, 6574 master’s professional degree candidates and 2887 doctoral candidates, among whom 155 are overseas.
The graduate school of Xiamen University has always been concentrating its work on improving the quality of its training programs. It promotes bachelor-master programs and master-doctor programs to select more outstanding graduate students; establishes a strict supervisor qualification system and strengthens the supervision of the degree-granting quality; applies flexible educational system and deepens the reform of teaching and curriculum; advances the construction of creative talents projects including outstanding doctors training plan, talents training, etc., focusing on cultivating innovative and experimental capabilities of graduate students; adheres to the open education, launching a full range of international and regional academic exchanges and cooperation. Currently, Xiamen University has inter-university cooperative ties with over 170 institutions of higher education at home and abroad. Xiamen University vigorously promotes the campaign of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The university has co-established 15 Confucius Institutes with universities in the Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Russia, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, etc. Because of its especially favourable geographical location and advantageous human resources, it is the key university most actively engaged in cross-straits educational, scientific and cultural exchanges.
Stick to the guidance of “Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection”, Xiamen University is now making great strides towards its goal of “building a high-level university well-known both at home and abroad”, and making great efforts to cultivate top talent with creativity and practical abilities for the country and the society.