The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）was held in Hangzhou from October 15 to 17, 2008. The meeting was attended by the leaders of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, the leaders of Zhejiang Provincial Education Department and the deans of 57 graduate schools in China.

　　The theme of the annual meeting was "Further and Steady Reform of Postgraduate Training Mechanism". The conference listened to the report of Liang Guoxiong, deputy director of Academic Degrees Office of the State Council on "Reform of Postgraduate Cultivation Mechanism: Ideas and Countermeasures"; listened to the report of Chen Ruimu, director of Student Department of Ministry of Education on "2009 Postgraduate Enrollment Work Deployment and Ideas of Reform". The conference exchange report of Dean Ding Xuemei of the Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology, Dean Gu Yunshen of the Graduate School of Fudan University and Minister Shen Manhong of the Graduate School of Zhejiang University was heard. The deans at the meeting, after serious discussions, agreed that postgraduate education is the highest level of talent training in China, and the reform of postgraduate training mechanism is to further coordinate resources, reform the postgraduate selection mechanism, optimize the postgraduate training process, strengthen the construction of postgraduate supervisors, improve the postgraduate award system, stimulate the intrinsic enthusiasm of management, supervisors and postgraduates, and establish a  The meeting also adopted in principle the report of the Joint Committee of Deans of Graduate Schools on "Suggestions on Steady Reform of Postgraduate Training Mechanism" to be submitted to the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and National Development and Reform Commission. The meeting also adopted in principle the report of the Joint Council of Deans of Graduate Schools on "Proposals for Steady Reform of Postgraduate Training Mechanism" to be submitted to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission.

　　In his speech, Xu Zhihong, Secretary General of the Joint Council of Deans of Graduate Schools and President of Peking University and Dean of Graduate School, made three suggestions for the postgraduate education in China: First, to strengthen the reform of the enrollment mechanism. He pointed out that the existing admission system makes most of the candidates have to spend nearly a semester or even more time to prepare for passing the graduate entrance examination, which will greatly affect the quality of teaching and training at the undergraduate level. Therefore, there should be a gradual transition to an internationally accepted admissions system in which students apply and supervisors and schools are responsible for selection, so that we can really recruit innovative and research-loving graduate students, rather than students who are only good at taking exams. As for the problems of corruption that the society is worried about, they can be solved by establishing a corresponding supervision mechanism. The second is to improve the efficiency on the basis of stable scale. The current scale of postgraduate enrollment is not small, but the results are not proportional to it, how to make good use of the existing resources of postgraduate education, to obtain greater benefits is a problem that all postgraduate training units should consider. Among them, how to solve the problem of the way out of the graduate students who are not suitable for scientific research, should attract the attention of everyone. Thirdly, the treatment of postgraduates, especially doctoral students, should be improved. Many famous colleges and universities in China are called the preparatory classes of foreign universities, and they cannot keep the best students. China wants to build an innovative country in 2020, so it is crucial to retain these talents. A big part of the reason why these people want to go abroad is that the treatment of foreign graduate students is high, and the existing subsidy system for graduate students in China makes it difficult for them to solve their own living problems, so that they cannot devote themselves to scientific research work, and the existing financial system also prevents instructors from using vertical research funds to improve the treatment of graduate students, and in the long run, it will be more and more difficult for graduate students to keep a good source of students.

　　In the closing ceremony, Yang Yuliang, the director of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, made a wonderful report on disciplines and discipline construction with reference to the scriptures; Gao Zeli, the dean of the Graduate School of Tsinghua University, made a summary report on behalf of the delegation of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）of research universities to the United States; Wang Yanglin, the executive vice dean of the Graduate School of Peking University, made a report on the work of the Asecretariat of Association of Chinese Graduate Schools. "Wang Yanglin, Executive Vice President of Peking University Graduate School, gave a report on the work of the Asecretariat of Association of Chinese Graduate Schools (including financial report).

　　At the annual meeting, the deans also expressed that the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）is an important bridge to communicate with all parties, and that they should support the work of the Joint Council and work together to make the Joint Council better.

Asecretariat of ACGS

October 19th, 2008