Adapt to the new normal of graduate education and actively promote the reform of training mechanisms
——Promoting Graduate Education Reform Series Interviews (3)
Editor's note: In recent years, the scale of postgraduate education has shown a steady growth trend, social needs are constantly changing, and structural types have become more complex, all of which have put forward higher requirements for the quality of postgraduate training. At present, w88 casino is implementing various measures for the comprehensive reform of graduate education. The reporter interviewed Cai Yongming, director of the Graduate w88 casino Training Office of w88 casino, on steadily advancing the quality assurance system for graduate training.
Reporter：The internationalization of talent training has always been the advantage and focus of w88 casino’s graduate training. Could you please talk about the current progress of internationalization of graduate talent training in light of w88 casino’s graduate education management work?
Graduate w88 casino: The internationalization of graduate education is an important part of the reform and development of w88 casino’s graduate education, and an important support for improving the competitiveness and international influence of w88 casino’s graduate education. In recent years, the w88 casino has encouraged students to go abroad for exchanges through domestic and foreign joint postgraduate training programs, nationally-sponsored postgraduate programs, and other channels, and has selected outstanding graduate students to go to foreign universities for joint training and academic research, aiming to cultivate a group of high-end compound talents with an international vision, outstanding scientific research capabilities, and strong comprehensive qualities.
In December 2014, in order to encourage w88 casino’s graduate students to carry out overseas exchanges and studies, participate in international conferences, and make international presentations, the Graduate w88 casino revised the "Management Measures for Domestic and Foreign Joint Training Postgraduate Programs", which made clear provisions for students' overseas exchanges, promoted the w88 casino to establish cooperative relations with well-known foreign universities, and strongly supported the development of the internationalization of graduate education in w88 casino.
Up to now, w88 casino has sent and funded 54 domestic and foreign jointly trained graduate students (including 18 doctoral students and 36 master's students) to study abroad. Foreign partner universities include Harvard University, Cornell University, Oxford University, Columbia University, etc. This academic year, a total of 33 graduate students successfully completed their studies abroad. This group of students produced a total of 47 academic papers, including 12 CSSCI journal articles, 2 Peking University core journal articles, and 9 general journal articles. International exchange studies further broaden the academic horizons of graduate students, improve their academic standards, and enhance the internationalization of graduate education and teaching in w88 casino.
Reporter：How is the publication of academic papers by our graduate students in recent years? What measures does the graduate w88 casino take to encourage graduate students to publish scientific research papers?
Graduate w88 casino: In order to encourage graduate students to devote themselves to scientific research, the Graduate w88 casino revised the "Measures for Rewards for Postgraduate Academic Papers Publishing" and "Measures for Subsidy for Postgraduate Students to Participate in Domestic and International Academic Conferences" in 2015, to reward graduate students for high-quality academic papers and scientific research results produced during their studies, to provide funding for graduate students to participate in domestic and foreign academic conferences, and to provide sufficient funding for graduate students' scientific research to enhance the scientific research capabilities and academic level of our graduate students.
In the 2014-2015 academic year, the Graduate w88 casino awarded a total of 124 academic publications to graduate students, including 79 publications by doctoral students and 45 publications by master's students, including 3 English SSCI journals, 1 SCI journal, 94 Chinese CSSCI journals (including 4 AA journals), 20 CSSCI extended editions, and 6 core journals of Peking University. At the same time, the w88 casino awarded 110 articles jointly published by graduate students and teachers in 2014, including 96 articles in CSSCI journals (including 3 articles in AA journals), 9 articles in CSSCI extended editions, and 5 articles in Peking University core journals.
In 2015, the Graduate w88 casino sponsored a total of 16 students to participate in domestic and foreign academic conferences. The 16 students participated in domestic and international high-level academic conferences in various professional fields held in the United States, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, Macau, Shanghai and other places, and presented papers at the conferences.
The Graduate w88 casino hopes to encourage our graduate students to actively engage in scientific research, gain a deeper understanding and grasp of the latest developments and cutting-edge issues in domestic and foreign academia, improve their own academic level and scientific research capabilities, increase the quantity and quality of published academic papers, and produce outstanding academic results by rewarding graduate students for publishing academic papers and sponsoring participation in domestic and foreign academic conferences, in order to further promote the reform and development of graduate education in w88 casino and comprehensively improve the quality of graduate training.
Reporter：What are the measures to revise the training program and reform the curriculum system?
Graduate w88 casino: In order to deepen the reform of postgraduate education and teaching, innovate talent training models, and continuously improve the quality of postgraduate training in w88 casino, since last year, the Graduate w88 casino has continuously optimized the postgraduate curriculum system in conjunction with the academic system and student employment needs. The main methods are to reduce the total credit requirements; cancel professional required courses and direction courses; academic graduate students set required courses according to first-level disciplines, encourage cross-major and cross-department course selection, etc. This year, based on extensive listening to students’ opinions, the Graduate w88 casino plans to add methodological topics and sports courses such as swimming, yoga, and tennis to the 2015 fall semester courses. In the future, it will gradually select and add some cultural courses to enrich and improve the graduate curriculum system.
Reporter：Because of the series of reforms in the training program, are there any corresponding changes in the course selection system?
Graduate w88 casino: In order to increase students’ freedom in course selection, based on the opinions raised by students at the mid-term teaching symposium for graduate students, the Graduate w88 casino conducted a survey on the current course withdrawal system in many universities in the Beijing area, and plans to implement a mid-term course withdrawal system starting from the fall semester of 2015. That is, except for the self-scheduled courses of some colleges, for all postgraduate courses, in addition to the normal make-up and withdrawal procedures within two weeks of each semester, courses can be withdrawn in accordance with the new regulations in the seventh week of each semester.
Reporter：Many colleges and universities have actually implemented flexible academic systems for many years. What does w88 casino do to establish a flexible academic system?
Graduate w88 casino: According to the relevant notice requirements of the Ministry of Education and the actual needs of the reform of the graduate training mechanism, w88 casino plans to implement a flexible academic system based on the credit system from the 2015 grade. The purpose of implementing a flexible academic system is to give students greater autonomy in learning. Students who perform well at w88 casino can graduate early. They can go abroad for exchanges or choose to start a business during the study process. Their student status will be retained during the period. As long as they complete the credits within the flexible academic system, they can graduate. That is to say, a flexible academic system of 3 to 6 years for doctoral degrees and 2 to 3 years for master's degrees is implemented. Relevant management policies such as graduate student status management methods and scholarship evaluation methods will also be revised.
Reporter：What monitoring and management measures has the Graduate w88 casino introduced regarding the quality of postgraduate classroom teaching?
Graduate w88 casino: The starting point of graduate education and reform work is to serve the growth and success of graduate students. The closest daily contact with graduate students is the postgraduate classroom teaching work. The Graduate w88 casino carries out quality monitoring of postgraduate classroom teaching from two levels: teaching supervision and student evaluation.
Since its establishment, the Graduate Teaching Supervision Group has conducted in-depth classroom lectures, inspected teaching rules and regulations and training links, put forward rational suggestions, and formed a powerful supervision system for the quality of graduate classroom teaching. Postgraduate teaching supervisors not only play a role in course teaching, assessment methods, etc., participate in daily teaching and lectures, check final examination papers and papers, and regularly publish supervision work briefings; they also supervise the graduate thesis defense work, inspect multiple thesis defense sites in multiple colleges, and provide guidance on the standardization of graduate thesis defenses. With the help of the supervision expert group, the Graduate w88 casino promptly learned of the problems existing in graduate teaching and urged each w88 casino to make rectifications. Leaders of each w88 casino will also be invited to the supervision work meeting to strengthen communication between the supervision and the w88 casino, provide timely feedback, and jointly promote the improvement of the quality of graduate education and teaching.
At the same time, in order to further improve the scientificity and effectiveness of teaching quality evaluation, the Graduate w88 casino revised the teaching evaluation indicator system based on soliciting opinions from various colleges and graduate teachers. The modifications include: optimizing options, reducing the previous 10 items to 4 items, and adding overall evaluation; adding points minus items to intuitively reflect teachers’ teaching attitudes. After adopting the new teaching evaluation index system, graduate students can more truthfully evaluate each teacher in terms of teaching attitude, teaching content, teaching methods, teaching effects, etc. The reliability and validity of graduate teaching quality evaluation are gradually improving, and students have effectively participated in the quality monitoring of graduate classroom teaching. In addition, the Graduate w88 casino has formulated the "Measures for the Evaluation and Management of Graduate Classroom Teaching Quality" this semester, which stipulates the evaluation process, evaluation standards, evaluation rewards and punishment methods and measures, in order to further improve the level of graduate education and teaching in w88 casino, improve the teaching quality supervision system, comprehensively improve the quality of graduate training, strengthen and standardize the management of graduate classroom teaching quality evaluation, and promote the reform and development of graduate education in w88 casino.
The Graduate w88 casino will attach great importance to the various problems discovered during the quality monitoring of graduate classroom teaching as well as the opinions and suggestions put forward by teachers and students across the w88 casino, and will arrange and improve related work. In accordance with the spirit of the w88 casino's instructions, the Graduate w88 casino will make clearer arrangements for the next stage of postgraduate classroom teaching. It is hoped that through the w88 casino and the Graduate w88 casino, in close cooperation with the w88 casino and other departments, we can work together to solve problems in postgraduate classroom teaching.
