Provisional Detailed Rules for Master’s and Doctor’s Degrees Conferment of Southeast University 
Provisional Detailed Rules for Master’s and Doctor’s Degrees Conferment of Southeast University
Provisional Detailed Rules for Master’s and Doctor’s Degrees Conferment of Southeast University Publisher: Luo Bin Date: 2014-09-10 Web traffic: 14543 Provisional Detailed Rules for Master’s and Doctor’s Degree Conferment of Southeast University In accordance with the Regulations on Academic Degrees of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as Regulations on Academic Degrees) and the Interim Provisions on Academic Degrees of the People's Republic of China, the following rules are made combined with our actual situation. The master's degree and the doctor's degree of Southeast university shall be conferred in accordance with the disciplines, specialties and categories approved and promulgated by China's State Council. Ⅰ. Academic standards for confering the master's degree The master's degree shall be conferred on graduate students who have passed examinations in the required and elective courses for the master's degree and successfully defended their theses and have attained the following academic standards: i. having acquired the initial ability to grasp the basic theory of Marxism; ii. having a firm grasp of basic theories and systematic knowledge in the disciplines concerned; iii. having the ability to undertake scientific research or to independently engage in a special technical work by making creative achievements or solving significant practical project problems in theses; iv. having the ability to relatively master one foreign language to read foreign documents in the major concerned and to complete thesis abstracts in foreign language. ⅠⅠ. Application for the master's degree ⅰ. Candidates who apply for the master's degree shall support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, have good morals, abide by China‘s laws and regulations, contribute to socialist modernization, have good physical condition and have attained required academic records for the master's degree. Candidates shall apply to one degree-conferring entity for only one master's degree. ⅰⅰ. Students who are pursuing the master's degree shall complete their thesis defense and academic degree application within the time stipulated in in their training programs. Relevant provisions on predated or postponed thesis defense shall be conducted in accordance with the Provisions for Graduates Records Management of Southeast University. ⅠⅠⅠ. Review, defense and procedure of graduate theses ⅰ. Graduate students who apply for thesis defense shall pass the examinations in the courses required by applied disciplines and the training programs in the major concerned, earn required credits, complete theses and fulfill the requirements to present theses defense. Candidates shall fill the Application Form for the Master's Degree of Southeast University (Form 1) before defending their theses. ii. Thesis review shall be conducted two weeks before thesis defense, and the thesis reviewer list shall be determined by the head of discipline groups concerned. Experts with "associate professor" or higher titles from the University and beyond may be recommended as supervisors, and the head of discipline groups may choose one of each from the reference list. The schools (departments or institutes) concerned shall designate specific member(s) of the faculty to deliver the theses defense reports. Graduate School may make random check on candidates' theses for blind peer review as required. Thesis reviewers shall give detailed academic comments on theses and suggestion on whether the candidate have attained the required academic standards to be approved to present the defense. The candidate shall not be approved to present the thesis defense if any one of the reviewers has a negative vote to the thesis. The candidate's application shall be invalid if the additional reviewer hired by the discipline group also has the negative vote. Blind thesis review shall be conducted in accordance with the Regulations on Blind Review of Graduate Theses of Southeast University. The candidate shall submit the review records to the graduate thesis defense committee (hereinafter referred to as "the Defense Committee") and avoid meeting reviewers and the committee members on purpose before. iii. The defense committee shall be composed of three to five members, and supervisor(s) of the candidate shall not be its members. The defense committee shall have one chairman and one secretary. All members of the defense committee shall have associate professor titles. The defense of graduate theses shall be conducted in public by the defense committee composed of experts from the University and beyond (at lease one outside expert). If there are two senior professors in the defense committee, experts from other universities may not be invited. The defense committee must adopt a rigorous attitude to ensure the thesis defense is in line with academic standards, and principles of fairness. ⅳ. The decision made by the defense committee regarding whether to approve the thesis defense and to confer the academic degree shall be be based on a secret ballot. The candidate passes the thesis defense if more than two-thirds (included) of the committee members believe the person is competent. The voting result shall be recorded in the minutes of the committee meeting. The defense committee shall make resolutions on whether to allow an unqualified candidate (including the one who failed to defend his/her thesis and the one considered not suitable to be granted a master's degree) to revise his/her thesis within one year and apply for defense again. The resolution shall be adopted with a simple majority of the defense committee members supporting the decision and then submitted to the academic degree evaluation subcommittee (hereinafter referred to as “the Evaluation Subcommittee” with the signature of the chairman of the defense committee. If the Defense Committee does not make such a decision, no individual has the right to revise theses and reorganize the defense. ⅴ. The secretary of the Defense Committee shall submit the application forms of academic degrees, thesis review records, thesis defense records and voting ballot results to the Evaluation Subcommittee after the defense. ⅵ. Procedure of the thesis defense 1. a member of the Evaluation Subcommittee in the discipline concerned announces the list of the Defense Committee members; 2. the chairman of the Defense Committee presides over the meeting and announces the defense procedure and other matters of concern; 3. the discipline group briefly introduces the study and work achievements, health condition, and political and ideological views of a graduate; 4. the graduate student reports the progress and main content of his/her theses (about 30 minutes); 5. the graduate student answers the questions proposed by the Defense Committee; 6. a recess for the Defense Committee's discussion; ① The thesis reviewer reads out his/her review comments (when the reviewer is not a member of the Defense Committee, the secretary of the Defense Committee shall read it out on his/her behalf); ② to evaluate whether a thesis has met the academic standards stipulated in the Regulations on Academic Degrees; ③ to decide whether to approve the thesis defense, and to confer a master's degree or to postpone the process until next year, and ask the candidate to revise his/her thesis before they apply for another defense. The decision should be based on a secret ballot (graduate students' major and name, and the voting ballot results shall be filled by the secretary of the Defense Committee); ④ to discuss and approve the defense resolution; ⑤ to sign the resolution. 7. The meeting of the Defense Committee resumes and the chairman announces the defense resolution and the voting result; 8. The chairman declares the meeting closed (the meeting duration would be better no more than two hours). ⅶ. Review, defense and procedure of graduate confidential theses shall be conducted in accordance with relevant regulations. ⅷ. Graduates students should carefully revise their theses with consideration of the suggestions proposed by the Defense Committee and reviewers, send three copies to the graduate secretariat of corresponding departments or institutes for archiving after being checked and approved by supervisors, and submit the Form of Revision on Graduate Theses of Southeast University (Appendix Ⅰ). The review records, theses re-evaluation applications and appealing forms of academic objections must be collected with other defense documents for archiving. ⅸ. Graduate students must attain the requirements of obtaining a mater's degree within one year after completing the thesis defense for conducting degree discussion, and the discussion will not be approved when it expires. Ⅳ. The evaluation and conferment of the master's degree ⅰ. The proposal for grating the master's degree approved by the Defense Committee with the signature of the chairman shall be submitted to the Evaluation Subcommittee for assessment, together with other relevant documents of candidates. The Evaluation Subcommittee shall conduct a comprehensive review of the political and ideological views, examination achievement, thesis defense results and health condition of the graduate students recommended by the Defense Committee for granting master's degrees. The resolution made by the Evaluation Subcommittee to conferring master's degrees shall be adopted by secret ballot and with a twothirds majority of the committee members supporting the decision (the number of approvals shall exceed half of the total number of members). The resolution then should be submitted to SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee by the Evaluation Subcommittee for approval. The candidates for master's degrees who have been approved by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee shall be conferred master's degree certificates and relevant academic degrees, and the conferment list shall be submitted to the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council for the record. ⅱ. If more than two-thirds of the Defense Committee members believe that a candidate's thesis has attained the academic standards of doctoral dissertations, in addition to granting a master's degree to the candidate, the Defense Committee can also recommend the SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee to present a doctor's degree to the candidate (the candidate shall apply for the doctor's degree in accordance with this Provisional Detailed Rules). Ⅴ. Academic standards for granting the doctor's degree The doctor's degree shall be conferred on the doctoral students who have passed examinations in the required courses for the doctor’s degree and successfully defended their dissertations and have attained the following academic standards. i. having a relatively good grasp of the basic theory of Marxism; ii. having a firm grasp of basic theories and systematic, specialized knowledge in the disciplines concerned; ⅲ. having the ability to independently undertake scientific research; ⅳ. having creative achievements in scientific research or a special technical work; ⅴ. having the ability to relatively master one foreign language. Ⅵ. Application for the doctor's degree i. Candidates who support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, have good morals, abide by laws and regulations, contribute to socialist modernization, have good physical condition and have attained required academic records for the doctor's degree may apply for the doctor's degree in accordance with the Rules. A Candidate shall apply to one degree-conferring entity for only one doctor's degree. ⅱ. Doctoral students shall complete their dissertation defense and academic degree application within the time stipulated in their training programs. Relevant provisions on predated or postponed dissertation defense shall be conducted in accordance with the Provisions for Graduates Records Management of Southeast University. Ⅶ. Review, defense and procedure of doctoral dissertations ⅰ. The doctoral students who apply for the dissertation defense shall pass the examinations in the required Marxist theory courses, basic theory courses, specialized courses and foreign language courses for the doctor's degree, complete the dissertation and fulfill the requirements of presenting the dissertation defense in accordance with Article 11 of the Regulations on Academic Degrees of the People's Republic of China. ⅱ. Doctoral students shall complete manuscripts and detailed abstracts of dissertations, and fill the Application Form for the Doctor's Degree of Southeast University (Form 1) three months before applying for the doctoral dissertation defense. Supervisors shall be responsible for reporting doctoral students' dissertation titles, their academic levels, accomplishment condition of their required degree courses and their dissertation defense schedule to the heads of schools (departments or institutes). ⅲ. The evaluation of doctoral dissertations shall be conducted in accordance with the Regulations on Blind Review of Graduate Thesis of Southeast University. ⅳ. The Defense Committee shall be composed of five to seven experts with doctoral supervisor, professor or higher titles. Two to three members among them shall be experts from other universities. Doctoral supervisors with professor titles should account for no less than three fifths of the total members of the defense committee. The Defense Committee shall have one chairman (and the chairman should be a doctoral supervisor with professor title). The candidate’s supervisor(s) shall not be included in the Defense Committee. The Defense Committee shall have one secretary. ⅴ. The decision made by the Defense Committee of whether to approve the dissertation defense and to confer the academic degrees shall be based on a secret ballot. The candidate passes the dissertation defense if more than two-thirds (included) of the committee members believe the person is competent. The resolution shall be submitted to the Evaluation Subcommittee with the signature of the chairman of the Defense Committee. The Defense Committee shall make resolutions on whether to approve an unqualified candidate of revising his/her dissertation within another year and applying for dissertation defense again. The resolution shall be adopted with a simple majority of the Defense Committee members supporting the decision. The resolution shall be submitted to the evaluation committee with the signature of the chairman of the defense subcommittee. If the Defense Committee does not make any resolution of revising dissertations and reorganizing the defense, no individual has the right to do so. ⅵ. If the Defense Committee members believe that a candidate's dissertation has not attained the academic standards of a doctor's degree but a master's degree, the Defense Committee may approve the resolution on the conferment of a master's degree to the candidate if the candidate has not been granted this degree before, and submit the resolution to the Evaluation Subcommittee. ⅶ. The secretary of the Defense Committee shall submit the application forms of academic degrees, dissertation review records, dissertation defense records and voting ballot results to the Evaluation Subcommittee after the defense. ⅷ. Procedure of the dissertation defense 1. a member of the Evaluation Subcommittee in the discipline concerned announces the list of the Defense Committee members; 2. the chairman of the Defense Committee presides over the meeting and announces the defense procedure and other matters of concern; 3. the discipline group briefly introduces the study and work achievements, health condition, and political and ideological views of a doctoral student; 4. the doctoral student reports the progress and main content of his/her dissertation (about 50 minutes); 5. the doctoral student answers the questions proposed by the Defense Committee; 6. a recess for the Defense Committee's discussion; ① The dissertation reviewer reads out his/her review comments (when the reviewer is not a member of the Defense Committee, the secretary of the Defense Committee shall read it out on his/her behalf); ② to evaluate whether a doctoral dissertation has attained the academic standards stipulated in the Regulations on Academic Degrees; ③ to decide whether to approve the thesis defense, and to confer a master's degree or to postpone the process until next year, and ask the candidate to revise his/her thesis before they apply for another defense. The decision should be based on a secret ballot (doctoral students' major and name, and the voting ballot results shall be filled by the secretary of the Defense Committee); ④ to discuss and approve the defense relolutions; ⑤ to sign the resolution. 7. the meeting of the Defense Committee resumes and the chairman announces the defense resolution and voting results; 8. the chairman declares the meeting closed (the meeting schedule should be no more than two hours). ⅸ. Review, defense and procedure of doctoral confidential dissertations shall be conducted in accordance with relevant regulations. ⅹ. Graduates students should carefully revise their dissertations with the consideration of suggestions proposed by the Defense Committee and reviewers, send four copies to the graduate secretariat of concerned schools (departments or institutes) for archiving after being checked and approved by supervisors, and submit the Form of Revision of Graduate Dissertation of Southeast University (see the download part of SEU graduate school website homepage). The review records, dissertations re-evaluation applications and appealing forms of academic objections must be collected with other defense documents for archiving. ⅺ. Doctoral students must attain the requirements of obtaining a doctor's degree within two years after completing dissertation defense for conducting degree discussion, and the discussion will not be approved when it expires. Ⅷ. The evaluation and conferment of the doctor's degree ⅰ. SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee and the Evaluation Subcommittee shall conduct a comprehensive review of the political and ideological views, examination achievement, thesis defense results and health condition of the doctoral students recommended by the Defense Committee for grating doctor's degrees. The decision made by the Defense Committee to refuse to grant a doctor's degree often does not have to be reviewed again. However, the candidates with controversial evaluation results enjoy the right of asking the special group designated by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee for reexamination. The candidate can obtain a doctor's degree if the group believes he or she has indeed met the academic standards. The dissertations approved by the Defense Committee but denied by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee may be approved to revise their dissertations within one year and apply for defense again. ⅱ. The resolution made by the Evaluation Subcommittee of whether to confer doctor's degrees or to approve to revise the dissertation within one year and apply for defense again shall be adopted by secret ballot and with a two-thirds majority of the committee members supporting the decision (the number of approvals shall exceed half of the total number of members). The resolution made by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee to conferring doctor's degrees or approving to revise dissertations within one year and applying for defense again shall also be adopted by secret ballot and with a two-thirds majority of the committee members supporting the decision (the number of approvals shall exceed half of the total number of members). The correspondence voting is invalid. iii. Doctoral dissertations or abstracts approved by the Defense Committee shall be made public (except for confidential dissertations). The list of students approved by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee to grant doctoral degrees shall be made public as well. If there is no objection after three months of publication, the doctoral degree certificate may be issued to the candidates and the list shall be submitted to the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council for the record. ⅳ. The candidates who have been approved by SEU Academic Degree Evaluation Committee to revise the dissertation and apply for defense again could be provided a course-completion certificate for job applying considerations. The candidates themselves shall bear all expenses for re-defending. The candidates who have difficulty in afford the re-defending expense may be subsidized by the departments concerned. Ⅸ. Besides the candidates failed to attain the required academic standards, the academic degree shall not be granted to the candidates listed below: ⅰ. the candidates who seriously violate the Four Cardinal Principles or have poor morals; ⅱ. the candidates not suitable to be granted the academic degree. Ⅹ. The secretary of the Defense Committee shall submit the following documents to the Defense Committee after the graduate thesis or doctoral dissertation defense: ⅰ. the Application Form for the Doctor's (Master's) Degree (Form 1); ⅱ. the Review Record of Graduate Thesis (Form 2); iii. the voting ballot results of the graduate thesis or doctoral dissertation defense; ⅳ. the 2000 words abstracts of graduate thesis or doctoral dissertation (the number of copies should be determined by the number of the Evaluation Subcommittee members).