The afternoon of February 28 saw the convening of conference of degrees and graduate education. The meeting was chaired by Tao Tao, executive dean of Graduate School. Attenders included Wu Daguang, vice president of XMU, staffs from Graduate School, Admissions Office and Examination Office, vice deans in charge of graduate education from all colleges and teaching secretaries for graduate students.
Tao Tao gave a comprehensive introduction to the situation of degrees and graduate education of XMU in 2016 and made further arrangement in 2017. He said that Graduate School would continue to focus on enhancing the quality of graduate education and adhering to self-improvement with the guidance of “The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Degrees and Graduate Education Development” issued by the Ministry of Education and Academic Degree Office of the State Council. He stressed that we shall: first, have an in-depth understanding of the thirteenth “Five-Year Plan”; second, continue to improve the graduate education and foster the practical capability of graduate students; third, expand the enrollment of excellent students who can be directly admitted for a doctoral or master-doctor combined program, enhance the quality of students enrolled, and decide specific plans for those directly admitted Ph. D candidates; fourth, strictly manage graduate education by improving the mid-term evaluation and the thesis proposal and oral defense mechanism of Ph. D candidates, the assessment of graduate courses, training programs and compulsory courses in first-level discipline and the establishment of more standardized surveillance system; fifth, carry out scientific-research-oriented reform measures, highlight the innovation of academic graduate students in scientific research, and implement and scale up the pilot program of self-selection of doctoral supervisors; sixth, promote discipline construction, do well in the fourth round national discipline-level assessment and national professional degree assessment and make adjustment and improvement in the authorization of degrees by virtue of the assessment of disciplines and degree programs; seventh, further promote the internalization of graduate education, do better in the application work of government-sponsored overseas study, and improve the management of and the service for overseas students studying in XMU; eighth, ensure the quality of graduate degrees and a proper surveillance system; ninth, push forward the work related with Academic Committee and Academic Department, give full play to pedagogical methods, and guarantee the management of staff; tenth, carefully prepare introduction courses for the 2017 new doctoral students and organize training courses for their supervisors to improve their instructional methods.
Fang Ying, vice dean of Graduate School and director of Office of Academic Affairs, shared his view about the essence of national ideological and political education and gave a clear interpretation of the ideological and political education of graduate students.
Yu Zizhong, deputy director of Admissions Office, gave a detailed introduction to enrollment plans and major arrangements for the first half of 2017.
Wu Daguang, vice president, stressed again the the focus of graduate education. He pointed out that discipline assessment is one of the most important tasks in 2016. We should make use of the assessment of disciplines and degree programs to identify problems, analyze the causes and thus make progress. He said that we should further improve a scientific-research-oriented system to develop and subsidize graduate students, better regulate the research grants for the supervisors of doctoral and master’s students, encourage more students to work in advanced scientific research, and enhance their innovation so as to promote the overall quality of scientific research of XMU. He also emphasized that midterm rating was a vital tool to evaluate the capability of graduate students, and a guarantee to standardize and improve the quality of graduate education. All colleges should establish a reasonable selection mechanism by adhering to “Interim Procedures for Midterm Rating of Graduate Students” which was to be issued by Graduate School. Meanwhile, the result of midterm rating would be an important indicator of the graduate education for all colleges.
In recent years, XMU has taken various measures to deepen reforms in graduate education, standardize the management of students, enhance internalization of education, and improve the quality of scientific research. The reform measures have attracted attentions and praise of Ministry of Education and universities home and abroad. In January, 2016, the official Wechat account of Ministry Education published an article named “Flexible Mechanism, Short Term and International Horizon—Distinctive Features of Graduate Education in Xiamen University”. In September, 2016, an article titled as “Special Reform Measures of Graduate Education in Xiamen University” was published on the official website of Ministry of Education. It gave an introduction to a series of reform measures about the development mode and mechanism of graduate education in XMU. In November 2016, representatives from Graduate School of XMU were awarded Second prize, a breakthrough for XMU, in the Graduate Educational Achievement Award offered by Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education.
