Graduate School Holds a Symposium on Improving the Quality of Graduate Dissertations

CUG News (Correspondent Ye Jing, Photographer Wang Siyun) On March 18, a symposium on improving the quality of graduate dissertations was held in CUG. President Wang Yanxin, vice president Lai Xulong, faculties from Graduate School and Department of Development Planning and Discipline Construction attended the symposium. Wang Lizhe, executive vice president of Graduate School, chaired the symposium.

Professor Lai Xulong said that according to CUG’s working arrangements, all schools and departments systematically sorted out the weak links in the quality control of dissertations during this winter vacation, and submitted the work report on the improvement and rectification of dissertations to Graduate School. Based on the practical situation, thoughts and ideas should be collected and innovative measures should be taken to improve the quality of dissertations. He also stressed that the quality control of dissertations should be taken systematically. With the quality construction of graduate training as the starting point, all schools should have overall layout and consider the methods of improving dissertation quality. Attention should be paid to the “starting and ending” parts, namely, topic selection & thesis proposal and the verification of academic degrees committee. Meanwhile, the process management should also be strengthened. In addition, Lai Xulong proposed that the training of supervisors, especially young supervisors, was the key of the quality control of dissertations, needing close attention. We should focus on the major problem of newly recruited supervisors with insufficient experience and thoroughly solve the problem of the quality of dissertations.

Liu Heng, vice president of Graduate School, made a report entitled “Improving the Quality of Academic Degree Dissertations”. Firstly, he introduced the current situation of doctoral and master’s dissertations and pointed out their existing problems through analyzing the scores and evaluations of CUG doctoral dissertations in recent ten years which have been carried out anonymous reviews or spot checks conducted after students’ graduation. Secondly, he suggested that in order to guarantee dissertation quality of CUG, we should control the quality from the starting part --- topic selection and thesis proposal, initiate anonymous reviews to all dissertations, and monitor the ending part --- thesis defense and degree application. We should also improve young supervisors’ abilities of instructing students.

During the symposium, faculties shared their practice on quality control of dissertations and discussed Regulations on Strengthening the Whole-Process Quality Management of Academic Degree Dissertations. After that, they exchanged their experience on the quality control and management in the key parts such as thesis proposal, review, thesis defense and degree conference.

Professor Wang Yanxin pointed out that graduate training was a systematic project, and we must keep exploring the most suitable reform mode of graduate education. The quality of dissertations was the final result of graduate training while the problems of dissertations also reflected the problems of graduate training system. He emphasized that we should raise a strong awareness of quality and carry out the general principle of “CUG’s strictness” throughout the whole process of talent cultivation. To hold the bottom line of academic atmosphere and education quality, all schools and departments should take feasible measures to strengthen the quality management of dissertations and supervisors should be brought to account for the dissertations with problems. In addition, development of high-quality supervisor groups and competence building of degree-conferring entities should also be facilitated because they should assume the main responsibility for students as well as their dissertations. Professor Wang Yanxin also asked all departments and schools to implement the “one ballot veto” system for those against teacher ethics. Meanwhile, the problem of some supervisors’ incapability must be tackled as soon as possible. We should work together to figure out ways to improve the quality of dissertations in all round, build a complete graduate training system, raise students’ academic level, enhance their caliber as well as their international communication skills and break new ground in CUG’s graduate training.