On the morning of December 16, 2017, an information session on policies of 2017 CSC program was held in the Chemistry Lecture Hall, XMU. The presenter Long Man, director of Division of Planning & Development, China Scholarship Council (CSC), was invited by the Graduate School to offer an introduction to the policies of state-sponsored scholarship for overseas study 2017. XMUers showed great interest in the session, and all 270 seats of the hall were occupied by attenders. The session was moderated by Prof. Tao Tao, executive dean of Graduate School. Other attenders were Liu Lei, an officer with CSC, Wang Xiaoli, deputy director of Human Resources Office, some staffs from Graduate School and Academic Affairs Office, young teachers, graduate and undergraduate students.

Long Man made a thorough introduction to the responsibility of CSC, polices of state-sponsored scholarship for overseas study, the information about state-sponsored scholarship for overseas study 2016 and plans and key programs for the year 2017. She said that in the past three years, more than 300 XMUers had gained the government-sponsored scholarship to study abroad, making XMU highly ranked among the “985 Project” universities. CSC would continue to uphold the policy of “individual application, college recommendation, expert evaluation and selection of excellent candidates” and the principle of “fairness, impartiality and openness” in 2017, and planned to select 32,500 candidates to study overseas, almost covering all disciplines. She focused on the “National Program for Excellent Graduate Students Studying Overseas” which students were highly interested. She gave a detailed interpretation of the procedure, application requirements and scholarship, and changes in the new polices of 2017.

The introduction was followed by a Q&A session, young teachers and students consulted Long Man with problems they met in application, and Long patiently answered their questions.

At last, Prof. Tao Tao extended a warm welcome to Long Man and appreciation for the long-term support of CSC. He stated that XMU had always attached great importance to broadening the horizon of graduate students, enhancing their international competitiveness and improving the quality of graduate education. Since the National Program for Excellent Graduate Students Studying Overseas launched in 2007, XMU has sent 887 graduate students to the program. In 2016, XMU hit a record high with 136 XMUers obtaining the state-sponsored scholarship. In the same year, Graduate School funded 728 graduate students to go abroad for academic purposes or attending international academic conferences. Since 2013, Graduate School has cooperated with 7 renowned universities in the US, Canada, England, Australia and other countries to establish international joint programs and high-level academic exchange platforms for graduate students.