The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）was held in Changchun from October 16 to 18, 2006. The deans or executive vice presidents of 57 graduate schools from all over China attended the meeting. Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, Director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, Academician Yang Yuliang, Deputy Director Comrade Guo Xinli and some directors of the Department of Graduate Studies attended the meeting.
At the opening ceremony, academician Zhou Qifeng, President of Jilin University and Dean of Graduate School, delivered a speech first, expressing his warm congratulations to the conference and a warm welcome to the deans to Jilin University; Comrade Liu Yongbing, Deputy Director of Jilin Education Department, introduced the situation of degree and postgraduate education in Jilin Province, expressed his great pleasure and welcome to the annual conference held in Changchun, and wished the annual conference a complete success. Comrade Guo Xinli, Deputy Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and Deputy Director of the Department of Degree Management and Postgraduate Education of the Ministry of Education, delivered a speech on behalf of the leaders of the Ministry of Education, fully affirmed the work of the Joint Conference and the support of the deans, gave a high overview of the status of degree and postgraduate education in China and the future work, and put forward higher requirements and hopes for the future work of the Joint Conference of Deans. Professor Wang Yanglin, Deputy Secretary General of the Joint Conference of Deans and Executive Vice Dean of Graduate School of Peking University, presided over the opening ceremony.
At the meeting, Director Chen Ruimu of the Department of Students of the Ministry of Education introduced the new initiatives and ideas of the reform in the enrollment of graduate students; around the theme of "further deepening the reform of postgraduate training mechanism", Director Liang Guoxiong of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council explained the issues related to the reform of postgraduate training mechanism; ten universities will pilot the postgraduate training mechanism in the next two years. Ten schools that will pilot the reform of postgraduate cultivation mechanism in the next two years made speeches in the conference. The deans who spoke introduced the ideas of the reform of the postgraduate cultivation mechanism and the trial scheme of their universities, gave their thoughts and analysis on the problems that might arise in the trial, and put forward their opinions and suggestions to the Ministry of Education and other relevant departments on how to further cooperate with the schools in the trial implementation of the reform of the postgraduate cultivation mechanism.
In the closing ceremony, each seminar group made a report on their respective seminars; academician Yang Yuliang, director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, gave a speech, especially emphasizing the important role of tutors in the process of postgraduate cultivation, and sincerely exchanged his feelings about the work of degree and graduate education and his thoughts on the future work with everyone. Academician Zhou Qifeng, President of Jilin University and Dean of Graduate School and the first Secretary General of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）, presided over the closing ceremony.
The meeting achieved the expected purpose and was a complete success.
Asecretariat of ACGS
October 19th, 2006