Make Academics More Academic and Profession More Professional —— Practical Exploration on the Classified Development of Postgraduate Education in Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University

　　Tsinghua University is one of the earliest universities that advocated and explored the classified development of postgraduate education. Since the reform and opening up resumed postgraduate education, the school has adjusted the orientation of postgraduate education from cultivating teaching and scientific research talents with teachers as the mainstay to paying equal attention to cultivating teaching and scientific research talents and serving the national economic construction. In 1984, the school and 10 brother universities jointly suggested and explored the training of engineering master students with the support of the Ministry of Education. In 1991, the school became the first pilot unit of professional degree category-MBA. After nearly 40 years of practical exploration, the school has deepened its understanding of the development of graduate education classification and formed the following ideas and practices.

　　First, put forward the concept of classified development to make academics more academic and majors more professional.In 2014, the school’s "Several Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching" called for "improving the classified training mechanism … and further forming a pattern of paying equal attention to the training of academic talents and professional talents", and the concept that the two types of degree education are equally important and classified development has gradually become a consensus. In recent years, a new understanding has been further formed that doctoral education focuses on the cultivation of academic talents, reflecting the height of university talent cultivation, and master education focuses on the cultivation of professional talents, reflecting the vitality of universities serving the country’s economic and social development.

　　The second is to improve the setting of disciplines and specialties and form a pattern of paying equal attention to two types of degree education.Adhere to the "four orientations", speed up the layout of urgently needed disciplines and majors such as integrated circuit science and engineering, national security science, party building science of the history of the Communist Party of China, carbon neutral science and technology, ancient philology, public health and health, international affairs, technology transfer, medical management, etc., and actively adjust the scale structure of graduate students. At present, academic degrees and professional degrees account for 55% and 45% of graduate students, 26% and 74% of master students, and 87% and 13% of doctoral students, respectively. The pattern of classified development of graduate education has been formed.

　　The third is to innovate the training organization model and respond quickly and accurately to the major needs of the country.Professional degree, interdisciplinary and international postgraduate training adopts the "project system", which sets training objectives, allocates enrollment plans, formulates training plans, and carries out education and teaching according to projects. A number of projects have been built to meet the needs of the country, such as the master’s program of sports in the management of winter Olympic Games, the international professional degree program of nuclear power engineering and management, which serves the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the "going out" strategy of nuclear power, and the cross-disciplinary training program of clinical medicine, which serves the "healthy China" strategy. In 2022, the National College of Engineers for Excellence was established and the reform project of training doctors and doctors in engineering was implemented to further strengthen the training of high-level talents urgently needed by countries in key areas.

　　In 2018, Tsinghua University set up an innovative leading engineering doctoral program, which closely combined with the needs of China’s economic, social and scientific development, set up main projects, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area projects serving regional coordinated development, Southwest projects, key areas projects helping the development of key industries, integrated circuit projects, public health and wellness projects, advanced technology projects, etc., and gathered 25 engineering training departments in the school, with a cumulative enrollment of more than 1,800 people, forming a good brand effect and social influence.

　　The fourth is to improve the classified training mechanism and promote the high-quality development of postgraduate education.Explore the establishment of an enrollment and selection mechanism that adapts to different types of postgraduate training objectives and the characteristics of students, improve the training mechanism of integration of science and education and integration of production and education, and strengthen the management of the whole training process. Take the lead in completing the reform of graduate degree evaluation standards to break the tendency of "only papers", formulate innovation requirements for academic degrees and professional degrees respectively, encourage academic degree graduates to boldly break into "no man’s land" and do "first-class topics", and encourage professional degree graduates to improve their ability to discover real problems, solve big problems and define new propositions in the practice of "real knives and guns".

　　In the next stage, Tsinghua University will study and implement the spirit of the document of the Ministry of Education, further promote the classified development and innovation of academic degree and professional degree graduate education, further optimize the layout of disciplines and specialties, establish and improve the classified management mechanism for guiding teachers, improve the classified selection, classified training and classified evaluation mechanism for graduate students, explore the construction of a graduate funding system with classified support and cost sharing, and simultaneously improve the training quality of the two types of graduate students, making new and greater contributions to building an education power!