Review Of The Chinese Postgraduate Education History (1949-1966)

Nowdays,high-level talents have been increasingly put into the center of the fierce competition of the overall national strength. Postgraduate education, due to its significant task of cultivating creative talents with high quality, will be the strong support for our country to build the creative system and reach the peak of the global knowledge economy.Owing to some special historical reasons, postgraduate education in our country starts lately and has been interrupted for several times. In old days, postgraduate education has once been in existence on a small scale in several colleges. In 1935, the late Chinese government followed the Britain and America action of enacting a Degree Conferment Law, slotting degrees into bachelor, master, and doctor. It is the start of the modern system of Chinese academic degrees.After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the new government put emphasis on postgraduate education. In 1950, postgraduates were enrolled to get the degree from one to three years. The next year saw postgraduates through recommendation, and examination and approval. In 1953, the higher education department enacted the Temporary Regulation (draft) on Postgraduate Cultivation of Colleges, ensuring that the purpose of postgraduate cultivation is to develop college teachers and researchers. The education objects, recruit targets, admission ways, academic years and education modes are regulated in the Temporary Regulation (draft) on Postgraduate Cultivation of Colleges Directly under the Education Department of the People's Republic of China in 1961. It indicates that postgraduate education in our country has taken on a standard and systematic form.From 1962 to 1965, postgraduate education in China witnessed great developments. In 1962, we regularly educate three-year postgraduates for the first time. Two years later, the first national meeting on postgraduate education was held by the education Department, in which the Temporary Regulation (draft) on Postgraduate Cultivation of Colleges and its five appendixes were passed through. These documents offers exact provisions on enrollment, cultivation, leadership and management, treatment and job assignment, and the establishment of postgraduate schools.During the year 1950 to 1965, more than 22700 postgraduates were enrolled. Postgraduate education has contributed a lot to the start and development of higher education and scientific research in China. The national meeting on postgraduate education held in 1963 opens up a new prospect for it. The implement of the Temporary Regulation (draft) on Postgraduate Cultivation of Colleges marks the establishment of the new education system of postgraduate education. Unfortunately, from 1966, our postgraduate education has been suspended for 12 years because of the"Great Cultural Revolution".The real great development of our postgraduate education occurs after the restoration of it in 1978, and the passage of the Rules of the People's Republic of China on Degree by the standing committee of the National People's Congress in 1980, and the approval of the Implementing Regulation on the Rules of the People's Republic of China on Degree by the State Department in 1981 through which our own degree system is formally established. With its reform and development during the past 20 years, degree and postgraduate education have acheived great world-famous successes and played a very important role in our economical construction, scienctific and technological progress, and social development.On the research of postgraduate education, most researchers focus mainly on the period after 1978. Its development from the beginning of the new country to the period of"Great Cultural Revolution"is rarely mentioned or researched. This thesis attempts to explore the characteristics, development and influence of postgraduate education in that period.