Xi stresses role of education in graduate school

President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of cultivating more high-level talents with both ability and integrity to meet the development needs of the Communist Party of China and the country.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark in a recent instruction on work related to postgraduate education.

Xi stressed that postgraduate education has an important role in cultivating innovative talents and improving the capacity for innovation, serving economic and social development and modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity.

He urged Party committees and governments at all levels to pay high attention to postgraduate education, promote the in-depth adjustment of disciplines and specialties by focusing on scientific frontiers and key fields, strengthen the capabilities of postgraduate tutorial staff and speed up the cultivation of high-level talents urgently needed by the country.

As China embarks on a new journey to fully build itself into a modern socialist country, valuing postgraduate education will contribute to developing socialism with Chinese characteristics and realizing the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

Premier Li Keqiang said in another instruction that postgraduate education serves as an important cornerstone of national development and social progress, and China's postgraduate education has cultivated groups of excellent talents since the start of reform and opening-up.

According to the premier, China's postgraduate education should take into consideration the country's economic and social development, the people's needs and the world's cutting-edge scientific development in order to cultivate talents that meet requirements in various fields.

He also called for efforts to deepen the reform of postgraduate training, improve the enrollment system, strengthen international cooperation and enhance postgraduate students' capabilities in practical work and innovation.

More than 10 million students in China have obtained master's or doctoral degrees from domestic higher education institutions, according to the Ministry of Education.

More than 3 million Chinese students will be pursuing postgraduate studies this year at domestic universities or research institutes, skyrocketing from 629 in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded, it said.

In addition, enrollment in postgraduate studies increased from 242 in 1949 to 10,700 in 1978, when the country adopted the reform and opening-up policy, and to more than 1.1 million this year, it said.

More than 90 percent of the 139 newly elected academicians last year at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences received their postgraduate education in China, the ministry said.