China officially issued a document to support graduate students with professional degrees in applying for degrees based on their practical achievements

China News Service, Beijing, October 19 (Reporter Zeng Yue) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Education of China on the 19th that the Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council recently issued opinions to support professional degree graduate students in applying for degrees based on practical results.

The opinions pointed out that practical results are an important basis for the award of professional doctorate and master's degrees, and they need to reflect the degree applicant's mastery of professional knowledge in the professional category (field) and the ability to carry out research or practical innovation in this profession.

The opinions are clear that it is necessary to effectively ensure the level and quality of practical results, especially their application value, innovative characteristics and social contributions in professional practice, improve the standards, mechanisms and processes for applying for degrees based on practical results, and strengthen the inspection of graduate students' ability to solve practical problems; strict standards for the recognition of practical results contribution, clarify that practical results must be completed independently by graduate students under the guidance of their tutors or as the main completer to assume the core content.

The opinions call for continuous improvement of policy mechanism guarantees, reform of the random inspection mechanism for practical results, and the construction of a specialized expert database for reviewing practical achievements; improving the mechanism for the use of random inspection results, and incorporating the implementation status of application for degrees with practical results into the qualification assessment system of degree points in a timely manner, and seriously handling degree awarding points that cannot guarantee the quality of practical results in accordance with regulations; exploring the establishment of an error-tolerant and error-correcting mechanism for reform pilots, and effectively protecting the enthusiasm of all units, teachers and students for reform and innovation.

The person in charge of the Academic Degrees Committee Office of the State Council of China (Degree Management and Graduate Education Department of the Ministry of Education) said in response to reporters’ questions that this reform is still in the trial and exploratory stage and should not be rolled out across the board in a “one size fits all” manner. The trial implementation of each professional degree category must be carried out in batches. Degree-granting units in various places must base on their own basic conditions, follow the "pilot-evaluation-promotion" work rhythm, classify and step-by-step promote the implementation of degree applications based on practical results.

The person in charge said that the next step will be to guide the professional degree teaching steering committees to develop the "Basic Requirements for Professional Degree Postgraduate Dissertations and Practical Achievement Applications (Trial)" for master's and doctoral degrees in this category, clarify the specific requirements for practical results in different professional degree categories, and release them in batches depending on the maturity of document development, the foundation of industry-education collaboration and other conditions. The first batch is planned to be piloted in five professional degree categories: translation, agriculture, clinical medicine, accounting, and art.