To further promote the comprehensive reform of graduate education in Xiamen University, on March 17-18, professor Tao Tao, executive dean of Xiamen University Graduate School, Mr. Wu Guoying, director of Admissions Office and representatives of office of academic affairs, office of postgraduate degrees and programs, and office of general affairs went to Tsinghua University and Peking University to conduct thorough investigations. Mr. Gong Qihuang, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and executive vice-dean of Graduate School of Peking University, Professor Gao Dai, vice-dean of Graduate School of Peking University and Professor Zhang Wei, vice-dean of Graduate School of Tsinghua University warmly received them. They exchanged in-depth views on many issues, such as doctoral candidate enrollment system, doctoral supervisor selection system, course management, mid-term examination, innovation and entrepreneurship education, school register management、degree and subject unit evaluation、graduate education reform on professional degree and internationalization of graduate education. All these issues are common concerns of current comprehensive reforms of graduate education.

Graduate education in Tsinghua University and in Peking University has a long history, and represents the highest level of Chinese graduate education. In recent years, Peking University and Tsinghua University aimed at building up a world class university and focused on improving the quality of doctoral students. They have carried out a series of drastic reforms on enrollment system, graduate student training mechanism, construction of supervisor team, reinforcement of capacity of practice and innovation and quality assurance system of graduate education, steering and strongly promoting graduate students especially doctoral students to engage in cutting-edge and high-profile researches, pushing forward the rapid development of emerging disciplines, interdisciplinary fields and frontier disciplines.

Xiamen University started graduate programs in 1926. It is among the universities which first started recruiting graduate students. In September, 1986, with the permission of the State Council, Xiamen University ran a pilot scheme of graduate school as an important base for doctoral and master students. In recent years, focusing on research, the Graduate School has made a series of explorations and practices on master-PhD project, revision of graduate training program, rotation system of graduate experiment, reform of the long term scheme of doctoral student, graduate supervisor group and selection of doctoral supervisor, making great achievements and attracting attentions from domestic counterparts. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the university has made graduate education reform a top priority in comprehensive educational reform, putting forward a series of specific objectives, missions and roadmaps about graduate enrollment, especially doctoral enrollmen, graduate training mechanism and quality assurance. This investigation will provide a great opportunity for Xiamen University to fully learn from advanced experience on comprehensive reform of graduate education in other universities, improve reform plan and solve problems encountered in the reform.