2021 Seminar on Enhancement of Supervisors’ Competence for Graduate Instruction

With an increasing demand of furthering reform and rapid development of graduate education in the new era as well as a year-by-year increase of graduate enrollment in School of Automation, graduate supervisors are faced with new challenges to adhere to the educational philosophy of “innovation, internationalization and practice” and to enhance their competence in the standardization and improvement of students’ instruction.

In the afternoon of May 20, School of Automation launched a seminar on enhancement of supervisors’ competence for graduate instruction in Conference Room 316 of Information Building. The seminar, with its topic of “Promoting standardization of graduate instruction and improving quality of graduate education”, was extended from how to improve the quality of graduates’ reports and papers to how to tackle the difficulties in graduate instruction. The discussions in this seminar will promote the graduate instructing standardization and inspire supervisors to enhance their competence of instructing students.

The seminar was hosted by Chen Luefeng, vice dean of School of Automation. With the topic of “Standardization of graduate supervision”, Professor Chen Xin gave a lecture on the demand for training professionals in School of Automation and the necessity for standardization of graduate instruction, and he introduced the standardized document system of supervisor development and offered suggestions for training professionals of high-quality. Professor Zhai Chao illustrated the major problems on master dissertations found by Office of Quality Management for Graduate Education of CUG in the recent spot checks. Associate Professor Chen Luefeng delivered a report on “Quality control and innovative internationalization in graduate education”, introducing the quality control, as well as measures to promote innovative and international education.

Professor Wu Min pointed out that all graduate supervisors should actively participate in the seminar on the enhancement of supervisors’ instruction competence, and clarify their status and role. He also stressed that supervisors should assume primary responsibility for the instruction of students, so improving instruction methods and efficiency is important for them to improve their graduate management. They should also establish a good self-image, and be strict with but considerate toward students so as to praise students’ good practices and criticize their bad conduct.

Professor Cao Weihua, vice dean of School of Automation, focused on the school’s plans in graduate management and asked supervisors to instruct students with high requirements and standards. In the discussion session, Ms. Zhu Yaling mentioned that graduate supervisors should pay attention to the Program for Graduate revised in 2020 and keep abreast of its modification. Professor Zhang Chuanke gave an introduction on Briefing of Office of Quality Management for Graduate Education, supplementing the problems identified by the office in the preliminary work on the quality of dissertations and professional training. Professor Dong Kaifeng, associate professor Liu Zhentao and others shared their experience in graduate instruction.

It has always been the working focus of School of Automation to fully secure the quality of professional training and implement the fundamental task of fostering students’ integrity and promoting their rounded development. In recent years, due to the dramatical increase of graduate enrollment of School of Automation, promoting the standardization of graduate instruction and improving the quality of professional training are important guarantees for school’s educational quality of graduates To this end, School of Automation has held annual seminars on relevant topics, which have gained the attention and support from all faculty.