In the afternoon of December 23, 2008, the Symposium on Commemorating Thirty Years of China's Resumption of Graduate Student Enrollment and Cultivation was held at the Yingjie Exchange Center of Peking University. On the basis of summarizing the achievements of postgraduate education in the past thirty years, more than twenty guests analyzed the opportunities and challenges facing China's postgraduate education and looked forward to the future development of China's postgraduate education.

The symposium was attended by Zhao Qinping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, Yang Yuliang, Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, Director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lin Huiqing, Director of the Department of Students of the Ministry of Education, Guo Xinli, Deputy Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and Deputy Director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, Zhao Yuxia, Director of Key Construction Division of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education. Zhou Qifeng, President of Peking University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Gu Binglin, President of Tsinghua University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yang Wei, President of Zhejiang University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ke Bingsheng, President of China Agricultural University and Dean of Graduate School, as well as the heads of graduate schools of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China, Beijing Normal University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xiamen University and Chinese Academy of Sciences and other universities and The head of graduate schools of scientific research institutions. Han Qide, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, as the former Asecretariat of Association of Chinese Graduate Schools, also came to attend this symposium, which encouraged the participants.

Professor Sun Shigang, Vice President of Xiamen University and Dean of Graduate School, presided over the meeting (first from left)

The meeting was chaired by Prof. Sun Shigang, the rotating chairman of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）and the Vice President and Dean of Graduate School of Xiamen University. Sun Shigang summarized and reviewed the achievements of China's postgraduate education in the past 30 years. He said that in the past thirty years of reform and opening up, the scale of China's postgraduate education has been expanding, making China rapidly move from a small country to a large country in the world in terms of postgraduate education. The state and postgraduate training units have vigorously carried out discipline construction, actively developed international exchanges, and the number of postgraduate instructors has grown rapidly, training many elites from all walks of life and making great contributions to the social, economic and cultural development of China.

The four directors of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council attending the meeting (from left to right: Yang Yuliang, Zhao Qinping, Zhou Qifeng, Yang Wei)

As the four directors of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, Vice Minister of Education Zhao Qinping, President of Peking University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Zhou Qifeng, President of Zhejiang University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Yang Wei, and Director of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Yang Yuliang made wonderful speeches at the symposium one after another.

Vice Minister of Education Mr. Zhao Qingping spoke

Mr. Zhao Qingping, Vice Minister of Education, said that on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of reform and opening up, this symposium would review and summarize the achievements of China's postgraduate education in the past 30 years and offer advice on the future development of postgraduate education. He pointed out that the resumption of postgraduate education in China is a wise decision made by Comrade Deng Xiaoping in establishing the policy of reform and opening up. Over the past 30 years, under the high concern of the leaders of the Party and the State, several generations of educators have made joint efforts to vigorously promote the development of postgraduate education and made visible and indelible contributions to the rapid development of reform and opening up.

Speech by Zhou Qifeng, President of Peking University and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Zhou Qifeng, President of Peking University and Secretary General of the Joint Council of Deans of Graduate Schools, said in his speech that the rapid development of China's graduate education cannot be separated from the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy. In the past 30 years, China's graduate education has progressed by leaps and bounds and undergone radical changes. The scale and number of graduate schools have increased significantly, the team of instructors has been growing, and the quality of graduate training has been improving, which has provided strong talent support for the reform and opening up. Zhou Qifeng stressed that under the guidance of scientific development concept, the country has put forward higher requirements for postgraduate education, and all universities should seriously consider and continue to make efforts on the basis of the lessons learned in the past 30 years to comprehensively improve the quality of postgraduates and strive to promote the transformation of China from a large human resource country to a strong human resource country.

Speech by academician Yang Wei, president of Zhejiang University

In his speech, Yang Wei, President of Zhejiang University and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, made suggestions on the future development of China's postgraduate education. Yang Wei said that under the current situation that the scale of postgraduate training is expanding and the number of supervisors is increasing, the academic standard of supervisors should be effectively improved, while creating a reasonable and good teacher-student relationship to effectively ensure the quality of postgraduate training. While improving the academic level of graduate students, it is also necessary to focus on diversity cultivation, enhance mutual exchanges among different disciplines and institutions, and shape a group of high-quality research talents with their own characteristics and innovative abilities.

Academician Yang Yuliang, Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and Director of the Department of Degree Management and Postgraduate Education of the Ministry of Education, delivered a speech.

Yang Yuliang, Director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that in the past three decades, China's postgraduate education has grown from scratch and from weak to strong, and has established its status as a major country in the world in terms of degree education and gained wide international recognition. On this basis, Chinese postgraduate education should complete three rationalizations: rationalization of regional structure, rationalization of degree level and type structure, and rationalization of professional field structure, so as to bring the postgraduate education career to a new level. At the same time, effective measures should be taken to improve the enrollment mechanism of postgraduates and effectively improve the treatment of postgraduates, so as to promote the improvement of postgraduates' quality.

Lin Huiqing, Director General of Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, spoke

All attendees

During the subsequent symposium, the participants discussed and exchanged views on such important issues as reasonable allocation of postgraduate education resources, reforming the postgraduate recruitment mechanism, increasing the financial support for doctoral students' life, and improving the quality of the supervisory team.

The following are the picture highlights of the symposium:

                

Guo Xinli, Deputy Director General, Department of Degree Management and Postgraduate Education, Ministry of Education, State Council, Zhao Yuxia, Director

              

Academician Gu Binglin, President of Tsinghua University Professor Ke Bingsheng, President of China Agricultural University and Dean of Graduate School

                  

Academician Mu Mu, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Professor Lin Jianhua, Executive Vice President of Peking University

             

Prof. Shi Peijun, Executive Vice President and Dean of Graduate School, Beijing Normal University Prof. Jin Li, Vice President and Dean of Graduate School, Fudan University

               

Prof. Cheng Chongqing, Vice President and Dean of Graduate School, Nanjing University Prof. Zhang Shulin, Vice President and Vice Dean of Graduate School, Chinese University of Science and Technology

             

Prof. Sun Shigang, Vice President and Dean of Graduate School, Xiamen University Prof. Wang Ying, Vice President of Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Sciences

           

A corner of the symposium (some heads of graduate schools were present)

Class of '78" guests (from left to right: Mu Mu, Yang Yuliang, Gu Binglin, Zhao Qinping, Zhou Qifeng, Yang Wei)

Photo: Qi Liang, Qu Yizhen

Asecretariat of ACGS

December 25th, 2008