Basic Requirements for Graduate Student's Training Schemes
(for International Students)
To ensure the quality of graduate education of international PhD and Master's degree students, Zhejiang University implements a supervisor responsibility system or supervisory-team responsibility system with the supervisor playing the main function. The supervisor (or the team) will be responsible for making and modifying the graduate student's personal study plan, arranging book reports and research proposals, guiding research, dissertation writing and matters of a similar nature. For international students who have registered in programs with Chinese as the working language, as specified in their Admission Notifications, their dissertations must be written in Chinese. For those who have registered in programs with English as the working language, their dissertations can be written in English, but the abstracts must be written in Chinese.
I．Time Frame for Graduate Studies
International students shall do their studies within the time frame specified in their Admission Notifications. Zhejiang University adopts a quarter for each academic year and a course credit system for graduate studies, and therefore students must arrange properly, under the guidance of their supervisors, their time for course studies according to their needs of research and dissertation writing. They must acquire sufficient credits before the thesis defense. In normal cases, students will complete their course studies in the first year of their graduate studies, and spend the remaining years on research and thesis writing.
II. Basic Requirements of PhD Candidates Training Schemes
(I) Course requirements
The minimum credits required for doctoral programs are 14, of which book reports account for 2 credits.
1. “Chinese Language” (Required Course): 2 credits
2. “China Overview” (Required Course): 2 credits
3. The minimum credits that PhD Candidates must acquire by taking specialized degree courses: 2
4. Optional Courses
PhD Candidates are required to select a predetermined foreign language course (1 credit). They must also take optional courses related to their specialized programs (2-5 credits), optional common courses offered at the university level or cross disciplinary graduate courses. If research demands it, with the consent of their college and programs, they can take new courses with cutting edge topics related to their dissertation writing. This needs to be explicated in training schemes.
5. Book Reports: 2 credits
PhD Candidate are required to present book or seminar reports at least 6 times during their doctoral studies, of which at least 1~2 reports must be presented at the academic forums organized by their disciplines or colleges. The total of the 6 presentations will count for 2 credits.
(II) Scientific Research and Dissertation
PhD candidates mainly work on scientific research and their dissertations during their university years. The topics of their dissertations should be relevant to the current research areas and conditions of the supervisors (supervisory teams), with great theoretical and practical significance, capable of representing the cutting-edginess and advancement of the discipline. The dissertation proposal is an important step of the PhD candidate's work of dissertation writing. The time for dissertation proposal writing can be determined according to the progress of the PhD candidate's research, but it must be no later than the end of the students' second year of graduate studies.
PhD candidates will not be able to apply for the dissertation defense unless they have already had their research papers published at the time of the application. Based on the university's basic paper publishing requirements for doctoral studies, the Academic Degree Committees of individual colleges (departments) faculties can set higher standards for publications in accordance with their disciplinary features. Doctoral dissertation defenses and degree conferment are arranged with reference to relevant regulations formulated by the Graduate School of Zhejiang University.
(III) Basic Requirements for Doctoral Students' Paper Publication
1. A doctoral student who applies for the degree of Doctor of Sciences must have one research paper relevant to his/her dissertation published (or accepted for publication) in journals that are included in SCI or EI in addition to one or more research papers relevant to his/her dissertation published (or adopted) in a first-class journal defined by the Personnel Department of the university.
2. A doctoral student who applies for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Agriculture or Medicine must have one research paper relevant to his/her dissertation published (or accepted for publication) in journals that are included in SCI, EI, SSCI or AHCI in addition to one or more papers relevant to his/her doctoral dissertation published (or accepted for publication)) in the Core Journals ［i.e. the source journals of Chinese Science Citation Database（CSCD）or Chinese Social Science Citation Index（CSSCI）］;
3. A doctoral student who applies for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Economics, Laws, Arts, History, Education or Management must have one research paper relevant to his/her dissertation published (or accepted for publication) in journals that are included in SSCI, AHCI, SCI; or have at least one research paper published (or accepted for publication) in a journal defined by the Personnel Department of the university as a first-class one and one or more papers published (or adopted) in the Core Journals. The publications must be relevant to the applicant's doctoral dissertation.
4. Other kinds of research achievements made by doctoral students shall be counted as follows: each invention patent will count as equivalent to one SCI journal paper; and each utility model patent one Core-journal paper. Published research papers in journals included in ISTP and ISSHP are counted as first-class or core journal papers. For books (textbook excluded) written or compiled, every 50,000 words (actual written) are counted as one core journal paper. If a doctoral student has succeeded during his/her graduate studies in his/her application for doing NSFC projects as the first participant, one project shall count as one first-class or core journal paper. Every published paper with Impact Factor over 5.0 (5.0 included) will count as two SCI included papers. For jointly published papers of high Impact Factor, doctoral students as chief collaborators can apply for a doctoral dissertation defense jointly using the paper, provided the main achievement proposed by the paper (the actual contribution of the chief collaborators) constitutes the paper's core substance. Periodicals of high impact factors will be verified and publicized by the Academic Degrees Committee of the disciplines.
III. Basic Requirements of Master's Degree Candidates Training Schemes
(I) Course Requirement
The minimum credits required for Master's degree programs are 26, of which book reports account for 2 credits.
1. “Chinese Language” (Required Course): 2 credits
2. “China Overview” (Required Course): 3 credits
3. Specialized Degree courses:
Credits gained by taking courses of the student's current first-level discipline, methodology courses or college common courses shall be no less than 6.
4. Optional Courses
The courses refer to those of the students' fields or the related fields that are offered to broaden the students' knowledge scope or deepening their knowledge in certain aspects. The courses fall into 3 categories, namely degree courses of the students' fields, university-wide common courses, and cross disciplinary courses. Master's degree students should acquire at least five credits for optional courses of their fields of studies. Master's degree students are required to select at least one common course.
5. Book Report
Master's degree students are required to present book or seminar reports at least 4 times during their graduate studies, of which at least one report must be presented at the academic forums organized by their disciplines or colleges. The total of the 4 presentations will count for 2 credits.
(II) Scientific Research and Master's Degree Thesis
Master's degree candidates generally shall complete at the end of their first academic year their thesis proposals, which demonstrate the significance of the theses topics, the main research tasks and the methodology. Master's degree candidates shall begin writing their thesis after their proposals are reviewed and approved by their supervisors (or supervisory team). Requirements for paper publication before thesis defenses are to be worked out by individual colleges or disciplines.