From November 1 to 3, 2011, the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Joint Conference was held in Tengchong, Yunnan Province, hosted by Yunnan University. Sun Yegang, inspector of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, Liang Guoxiong, deputy inspector, Huang Baoyin, director of the Division of Professional Degree Graduate Education, He Fusheng, deputy director of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education, Liu Shaohuai, secretary of the Party Committee of Yunnan University and deans or executive vice deans of 57 graduate schools of the Joint Conference of Deans attended the meeting. The leaders of the China Scholarship Council, the Department of Students of the Ministry of Education and the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education were also invited to attend the conference.

The theme of the conference was "Professional Degree Graduate Education" and "Construction of Quality Assurance System for Graduate Education". Around the theme of the conference, Sun Yegang and Liang Guoxiong made important speeches respectively; Director Huang Baoyin made a report entitled "Development of Professional Degree Graduate Education"; deans of graduate schools of ten universities including Nankai University made exchange speeches; South China University of Technology, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Xi'an Jiaotong University made speeches on the number of overseas exchange visits during the year. South China University of Technology, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Xi'an Jiaotong University reported on their overseas exchange visits during the year; East China Normal University made a report on the compilation of the Annual Report on Graduate Education in China 2011; Secretary General Chen XI made a report on the annual work and financial report of the Joint Committee. In the group discussion, the deans fully affirmed that it is the right time to vigorously develop professional degree graduate education in China and it has very important strategic significance. Although there are still some difficulties in the practice of professional degree graduate education, everyone is still full of confidence in the future development of professional degree graduate education. The deans unanimously agreed that the quality of postgraduate education is our greatest concern, and they all attach great importance to strengthening the construction of quality assurance system of postgraduate education.

As required by the Regulations of the Joint Committee, "the Joint Committee shall have four chairman units, elected by the meeting for a term of four years". The term of office of the current chairman unit expired. At the closing ceremony, the Joint Committee Secretary-General Chen XI presided over the general election. The meeting unanimously adopted Graduate School of Zhejiang University, Graduate School of Nankai University and Graduate School of Chongqing University as the next and the fourth chairman of the Joint Committee. The Secretary General also presented gifts to the three outgoing presidents on behalf of the Joint Committee to thank them for their contributions to the development of the Joint Committee. The meeting also discussed some issues about the development of the Association, such as membership fees.

Secretariat of ACGS

November 9th, 2011