Preparing Future Scholars & Professionals: Facilitating Professional Development Of Graduate Students Hong GAO Vice Secretary General, Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Associate Dean, Graduate School, Tsinghua University Chengdu, August 5, 2012

Graduate education in transition Tsinghua’s practice 2

Changing landscape of graduate education Knowledge-based economy favors more educated and academically skilled professionals Transition of economic development Rapid growth in graduate enrollment 3 YearDoctoral degreesMaster’s degrees ,498 40, ,735458,214 Degrees Awarded Annual Report on Degrees and Graduate Education in China, 2010

Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education 4 Changing landscape of graduate education Diversified career paths Percentile of graduates taking academic career paths

Employer’s expectations of well-developed “soft skills”/transferable skills − critical thinking − problem solving − teamwork − oral and written communications − professionalism/work ethic 5 Changing landscape of graduate education

How responsive is higher education to the needs of the labor market? Purpose of graduate education? — Academic & professional degree programs Reshaping graduate education to better serve our nation’s economic development to better facilitate professional development of graduate students 6 Challenges to graduate education

Master’s education in transition — Enlarging enrollment in professional degree programs leading to 39 professional master degrees and 5 professional doctoral degrees — Full-time professional programs offered to college graduates aiming at non academic careers — Professional degree programs redesigned to include more hands-on experience, case study, project-based learning, internship opportunities, “soft skills”, …… 7 What can we do?

Initiative on reforming professional degree programs –64 universities –15 professional degrees Main challenges –students with no work experience –research-oriented faculty –academic-oriented curriculums –lack of effective communication between academia and industry Reforming professional programs 8

Reflection on the goal of programs, curriculum design, effective teaching and learning, format of the master’s thesis Curriculum redesigned –Case study, project based learning –Intern as a required learning experience –Substitute case study report, policy analysis, etc. for the Master’s thesis –Involvement of industry in curriculum design, teaching, and internship arrangement 9

Professional development programs –Help developing transferable skills Ph.D. students: research integrity, teaching skills, research paper writing and presentation, …… Engineering students: engineering ethics, technology entrepreneurial skills, communication and teamwork, management 10

Reforming graduate education Tsinghua’s practice 11

Goals of graduate programs Research- oriented Application- oriented  40% in academic programs How to prepare scholars and high quality professionals for diversified career paths? 12  60% in Professional programs Master’s students 14,100 14,100 Doctoral students 6,860  99% in Ph.D. programs

Academic & Professional Development Program Career planning from orientation Ten seminars each semester by experienced faculty members to help developing skills for different career paths — research integrity — research paper writing and presentation — innovation and technology entrepreneurship — communication and leadership —

International Collaboration 14

Purpose and nature of graduate education have been changing Innovation in program and curriculum design is called for Transferable skills are crucial for our students to be successful in future career Graduate school can play a role in facilitating such a change in professional development In summary