On the morning of February 28^th, Graduate School held a meeting for the steering group of graduate education. The meeting was chaired by Tao Tao, executive dean of Graduate School. Attenders were Xue Chenglong and Xu Lan, vice directors of Office of Academic Affairs, members of XMU steering group of graduate education from 2016 to 2017 and staff from Graduate School.

Tao Tao first showed appreciation for the contribution of the steering group of graduate education. He said the “The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Degrees and Graduate Education Development” issued by the Ministry of Education and Academic Degree Office of the State Council in January, 2017 presented more requirements for the graduate education. XMU had always highly valued the development of degrees and graduate education. The comprehensive reform launched in 2014 mainly targeted the length of schooling, training program, research grants for supervisors and scholarship so as to standardize the management of graduate students and improve the graduate education. However, there was still much left to be improved. He hoped that this meeting could be rewarding by identifying deficiencies of recent work and figuring our possible solutions to improve the quality of education.

Attenders had an active discussion and achieved an agreement that XMU had standardized the management of graduate students and improved pedagogical measures. They also proposed some insightful suggestions on teaching, research and management. Prof. Wang Guizhong from College of Ocean and Earth Sciences stated that all colleges should fully implement the syllabus and improve the quality of teaching. Prof. Yuan Dongxing from College of the Environment and Ecology said that teachers should improve pedagogical methods to meet the requirements of higher education in the new age. Additionally, she also proposed that graduate courses should be classified according their nature, and different courses should have different standards and requirements so as to inspire students and offer them more innovative ideas. Prof. Chen Binghui from School of Public Affairs offered his advice that the length of each course should not be too long and there should not be no many courses in the same day to ensure the quality of each course in case that both teachers and students were tired. All professors present hoped that Graduate School should enroll better students and improve the quality of the training program of graduate students, doctoral students in particular. At the same time, more attention should be paid to the psychological health of students.

At the meeting, the steering group of graduate education offered suggestions on the assessment of graduate courses which was soon to be carried out.

At last, Tao Tao thanked the professors for their suggestions. He said that their suggestions could offer Graduate School with possible solutions to deal with problems concerned, improve and standardize the management of graduate students and help to attract more attention to class discipline. Self-assessment of compulsory courses in first-level disciplines for academic graduate students would be carried out soon to get a whole picture of graduate education in XMU. Successful pedagogical methods shown in the assessment would be popularized as excellent pedagogical models to improve the graduate education. Besides, training courses for supervisors of graduate students would also be launched this semester to improve their instructional capability, and thus to enhance the quality of graduate education.