On December 15th, the symposium celebrating the 35^th anniversary of the establishment of BIT Graduate School was held in the lecture hall 101 of the Graduate Teaching Building. The opening ceremony was hosted by Wei Yiming, vice president of Beijing Institute of Technology.

Looking back, the Graduate School of BIT was established in 1984, standing as one of the first 22 universities in the country to establish graduate schools. Over the past 35 years, graduate education in this university has developed rapidly thanks to the strong support of relevant authorities like China Academic Degree and Graduate Education Development Center. The help from sister universities and the dedication of leaders and faculty members of all graduate departments are also highly valued. At present, there are more than 17,000 graduate students, 1002 doctoral supervisors, and 2038 master supervisors in this university.

Present at the symposium were more than 150 leaders from various institutes and associations, including Tang Jiwei, deputy director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, Lin Mengquan, deputy director of the Center for Degree and Graduate Education Development of the Ministry of Education, and Li Shanting, director of the Office of Science and Technology and Graduate Work of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and Zhou Jie, Secretary General of China Degree and Graduate Education Society. Directors of graduate schools from more than 15 sister universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University also showed up. Besides, Director of China Weapons Industry Group Co., Ltd, Former Deputy Director of the Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education, Vice President of the Chinese Degree Graduate Education Society, Director of Planning and Development Division, leaders and former leaders of BIT Graduate School also attended the meeting.

Wang Junzheng, Executive Deputy Dean of the Graduate School reported at the symposium the development of graduate education in BIT. He reviewed the history of graduate education in this school, summarized the reform measures and achievements in recent years, and uncovered the challenges ahead. He also gave his opinions on the establishment of classified training system of graduate students and the postgraduate education management organizations in grass-root units for the better implementation of mentor's role in "Fostering Talents with Integrity".

Wang Xiaofeng, vice president of BIT announced the employed experts for postgraduate education development consultation and members of the BIT graduate education development editorial committee.

Kuang Jingming, former president of BIT reviewed the development of discipline evaluation mechanism in this university. Hu Haiyan, former president of BIT suggested that the reform of talent training system should be promoted by integrating post-graduate and undergraduate education.

Wang Tianbing, Deputy Dean of the Graduate School of Peking University, Zhou Jie, Deputy Dean of the Graduate School of Tsinghua University, and Tang Jiwei, deputy director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education of the Ministry of Education, all expressed their congratulations on the achievements of BIT Graduate School during the 35 years of development. Tang also mentioned the important contributions of BIT Graduate School to China's graduate education. He suggested that the improvement of graduate education quality should always be highlighted since there will always be new challenges and opportunities ahead. Colleges and universities should have greater autonomy to explore a better development model of graduate education and promote the modernization of education.

At the end of the meeting, Secretary of Party Committee of BIT, Zhao Changlu delivered a concluding speech. He first extended his warm welcome to the leaders, guests and fellows present at the meeting. Then he congratulated on the 35th anniversary. At last, he put forward three requirements for the qualitative development of graduate education in the new era:

The first is to further improve the talent fostering system and strengthen the effectiveness of ideological and political education. The second is to establish a high-level education and teaching system to improve the quality of graduate education and the third is to strengthen the integration and interaction of scientific and technological innovation system and the education and teaching system and expand educational potential. He said that next year this university will have its 80th anniversary and the first step of its "three steps" strategic goal is also expected to be achieved by then. It is thus necessary to work on the second step strategic goal to further advance the development of talent training system. He hoped that higher-education authorities, sister universities and faculty member in this school can continue to work together towards one common goal-- make BIT a world-class university with Chinese characteristics.

After the opening ceremony, participants of the meeting had a in-depth exchange on the cultivation of outstanding graduates in the new era. When the meeting was over, they visited the smart classrooms in the Graduate Teaching Building, the teacher service hall, the monitoring and recording hall and the top-talent training base of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in BIT. They also went to see the exhibition of the national excellent doctoral dissertations and works winning the national and international science and technology innovation contests in the past 4 years at the first floor of the Graduate Teaching Building.

Looking forward, the Graduate School will promote development and consolidate joint efforts guided by Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and  the party's education policy, digging deep into the laws of graduate education and building a high-level education system to cultivate leading talents for the party and the country.