(Reviewed and approved by the third plenary meeting of Academic Degree Assessment Committee of Tsinghua University in 2020)
According to several Opinions of Tsinghua University on Improving the Academic Evaluation System (Tsinghua Committee (2019) No.11) and Standards on Innovative Achievements of Tsinghua University Graduate Degree Applicants (Tsinghua University (2020) No.11), the requirements for innovative achievements of basic medical graduate degree are hereby formulated (hereinafter referred to as the Requirements).
This requirement is applicable to postgraduate students in basic medicine (1001) applying for doctor's degree or master's degree.
According to the Standards on Innovative Achievements for Graduate Degree Application of Tsinghua University, the innovative achievements for graduate students applying for master's degree and doctor's degree should be completed independently by the graduate students applying for the degree and presented completely in the form of dissertation. Dissertation is the main basis for degree evaluation.
Graduate students can present their innovative achievements in academic journal papers, academic conference papers, monographs, patents, software Copyrights, reports and other forms (hereinafter referred to as relevant academic achievements). Relevant academic achievements can be used as an important reference to evaluate the level of dissertation.
The innovative achievements of the Basic Medical Sciences doctoral dissertation should be reflected in: exploring both the nature and basic laws of life, as well as important basic medical problems and frontier research areas. They should be creative about unknown life phenomena and technologies and can represent the research direction of the basic medicine field. They should be able to address social needs related to medicine, hygiene, and health, and are willing to conduct original, high-risk, and disruptive exploratory research, which leads to breakthroughs in a certain research direction, technology, or basic theory.
The innovative achievements of the master of Basic Medical Sciences should be completed independently by the master students during the degree study and presented completely in the form of a dissertation. The research results of a master's degree thesis should be extended and expanded in a certain research field or direction of Basic Medical Sciences, have a certain value to the scientific research of this field or direction, or can solve some social needs. The dissertation is the main basis for the degree evaluation of the master of Basic Medical Sciences.
Doctoral students who have completed the personal training plan, met the requirements of the training program of the discipline and passed the peer expert review of the dissertation, can apply.
Doctoral qualification examination
According to the Regulations on the Cultivation of Doctoral Students in Tsinghua University, after a certain period of study (2 academic years for Bachelor-straight-to-doctorate students and 1 academic year for general doctoral students), students are required to pass the doctoral qualification examination. The qualification examination committee is composed of 3 to 5 doctoral supervisors or teachers with senior professional and technical positions designated by the Academic Degree Sub-committee, and are responsible for the assessment.
All types of doctoral students (including Bachelor-straight-to-doctorate students, doctoral students and postgraduate-to-doctoral students) must pass the doctoral Qualification Examination. The qualifying examination should be completed within three years of admission. The qualification examination includes: submitting a 5,000-10,000-word project proposal report, which must be approved by two assessors before being eligible to participate in the qualification examination. The tutor should withdraw from the student's oral defense. For detailed rules, please refer to "Doctoral Qualification Examination Plan of Basic Medical Sciences Department of School of Medicine". Those who fail the qualification examination twice will be dealt with according to the provisions of the training program.
Topic selection report
After the admission of doctoral students under the guidance of the instructor (group), through in-depth investigation and research, the student need to determine a specific topic and complete the topic selection report. According to "Regulations on the Cultivation of Doctoral Students in Tsinghua University", the assessment team mainly compose of supervisors (groups), and there shall be no less than 3 teachers with doctoral guidance qualification in the assessment team. Experts from other disciplines shall be invited to participate in the report on topic selection of doctoral thesis which belongs to interdisciplinary training. If there is a major change in the subject of the dissertation, a new topic selection report should be made. The time from the adoption of the selected topic report to the application for oral defense is generally not less than one year.
Doctoral students must complete the topic report as soon as possible after passing the doctoral qualification examination. The topic selection report should include literature review, topic selection background and significance, research content, expected results and possible innovations, etc. The writing and oral defense of the doctoral topic selection report shall be reviewed and assessed by the doctoral steering group. The topic selection report shall be submitted to the school or department for record in written form.
Mid-term review of paper work
According to "Regulations on the Cultivation of Doctoral Students in Tsinghua University", during doctoral dissertation work, an examination team shall be organized to comprehensively check the comprehensive ability, progress of the thesis work, work attitude and energy input of the graduate students within the scope of the second-level discipline. The assessment team should be composed of 3-5 teachers. If the student is under interdisciplinary training, experts from other majors should also be invited to participate in the mid-term assessment of doctoral thesis. Those who pass the mid-term examination are allowed to continue the thesis work. Annual progress reports and organizing a dedicated review team are encouraged to check the progress of the paper. The assessment group shall be composed with reference to the mid-term inspection assessment group.
The doctoral steering group will periodically guide and examine the progress of doctoral research, and are responsible for the mid-term assessment of students.
Final Academic Report
According to regulations of Tsinghua University on The Cultivation of Doctoral Students, the final academic report should be submitted after the dissertation is approved. After the dissertation is completed and at least 3 months before the formal application for oral defense, doctoral students should make a summary report of the dissertation work, and invite more than five peer experts to evaluate the main achievements and innovation of the dissertation work. Peer experts should be doctoral supervisors of their disciplines or related disciplines or experts with senior professional and technical positions, and more than half of them should have doctoral supervisor qualifications. At least two experts from other disciplines should be invited to participate in the summary report of the thesis work of interdisciplinary doctoral students.
After completing the dissertation, the doctoral student shall make a final academic report approved by the doctoral dissertation steering group and make a summary report on the research work completed during the study. The assessment committee should be composed of at least five doctoral supervisors in the relevant field (including the doctoral dissertation steering group members and at least two other peer experts invited). The assessment format includes an oral presentation (30-45 minutes) and a Q&A session (no less than 1 hour). The examination committee should evaluate the systematisms and innovation of doctoral research objectively and impartially. The committee adopts a secret ballot to vote on whether to pass the assessment and only with the consent of all members can the student pass. After passing the examination, the thesis should be submitted for examination and oral defense, and other graduation procedures. Those who fail to pass the assessment shall supplement and improve their research work according to the suggestions of the assessment committee. The final academic report can be submitted after one year. If the final academic report fails twice, fails to meet the requirements of the training program, and students should plan to drop their doctoral degree. For specific requirements, please refer to the Implementation Rules of the Final Academic Report of Doctoral Students in Basic Medical Sciences of Tsinghua University (Trial implementation).
2、Mentor audit
According to the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of the Whole Process of postgraduate Dissertations quality”, the supervisor is the first person responsible for cultivating doctoral students and should strengthen the academic guidance and quality control of doctoral dissertations. It is encouraged to set up a supervising group after the admission of doctoral students to collectively supervise the work related to the doctoral dissertation. The instructor (group) should strengthen the guidance of the whole process in the training links of doctoral students' course learning, professional practice, thesis topic selection, research, achievement summary, thesis writing, and publication, and encourage doctoral students to achieve high-level innovative achievements. The doctoral qualification examination, topic selection report, and annual progress report should be strictly checked, and suggestions should be put forward as soon as possible for those doctoral students who are not suitable for further study.
The supervisor (group) should objectively and impartially evaluate the level of doctoral students' innovative achievements and the quality of the dissertation, and give opinions on whether to approve the dissertation submission. If there is no supervising group, then an evaluating group can be set up to independently evaluate the dissertation and give opinions on whether to submit the dissertation for review under the approval of the supervising teacher and the sub-committee of the department. The opinions of the supervisor (supervisor group or evaluation group) will be included in the doctoral dissertation.
Supervisors should guide doctoral students to independently complete a relatively independent and systematic scientific research topic, strictly check the academic quality of their dissertations, encourage and guide graduate students to think and try hard, and cultivate students' comprehensive scientific literacy and research ability. At the same time, after the rotation of the fixed supervisor (before the end of the spring semester of the first academic year), the doctoral supervisor group, composed of no less than 3 doctoral supervisors, shall be established. The doctoral guidance group will guide and examine the progress of doctoral research work periodically every year, assess the mid-term progress of students' research work, including academic guidance and guidance and supervision of other postgraduate training links, and encourage doctoral students to achieve high-level research results.
3、Paper Review
After passing the final academic report, the doctoral student should submit the application to the teaching office of the school at least 6 weeks before the application for defense. Papers that pass the formal examination can be submitted for review.
The doctoral dissertation should be evaluated by 3-5 peer experts from the university and other universities, including three forms: full disclosure, full anonymity, and partial anonymity. The number, form, and list of reviewers shall be determined by the Academic Degree Sub-committee. According to the Procedures for Doctoral Dissertation Defense and Relevant Requirements, the reviewers should be doctoral supervisors of the discipline or related disciplines or experts with senior professional and technical positions, and more than half of the reviewers should have doctoral supervisor qualifications. The relatives of the author and the advisor shall not be the reviewer of the thesis. For interdisciplinary papers, the reviewers should include at least one expert in other disciplines involved. All the public comments shall be withdrawn, and at least 2 comments shall be withdrawn before the defense can be applied.
According to the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Whole-process Management of postgraduate Dissertation quality”, the list of reviewers needs to be compiled into the dissertation.
Before submitting the doctoral dissertation for examination, the dissertation shall be written in strict accordance with the format regulations of the university and school, and submitted for examination after the format examination.
The thesis submission should be determined by the peer review experts in the medical and biomedical degree assessment sub-committee. The Graduate Office of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences of the School of Medicine is responsible for the specific matters of the thesis submission. There are two forms of evaluation: blind evaluation and open evaluation, that is, the evaluation experts can choose anonymous evaluation or open evaluation. A list of public reviewers will be included in the dissertation. The staff of the graduate office shall not disclose the unit and name of the anonymous reviewer to the author of the paper, his/her supervisor, the members of the sub-committee, or the teachers who do not select the anonymous reviewer. To ensure the smooth selection of experts and the processing of evaluation opinions, and ensure that the evaluation experts have sufficient time to review the paper, the submission of the paper should be conducted at least six weeks before the application for oral defense. The applicant can apply for dissertation defense only after receiving at least two evaluation opinions.
After withdrawing the review opinion, the Graduate Office will feedback the review opinion (depending on whether the reviewer is anonymous or public) to the doctoral student and his/her supervisor in a timely manner. Doctoral students should carefully modify the thesis according to the deficiencies or suggestions of the evaluation experts, and write modification instructions; If the student has different opinions on the expert opinions, he should explain in the revised explanation, and submit it to the chairman of degree Committee after the supervisor's approval and signature.
The academic Degree Committee may reject the student's defense application or agree to seek the opinions of more reviewers according to the expert evaluation opinions. The evaluation opinions that have been approved by the Academic Degree Sub-committee and returned after the defense shall be directly submitted to the Defense Committee or the Academic Degree Sub-Committee and the School Committee for discussion according to the specific time points.
4、The doctoral dissertation oral defense
The members of the defense committee should comprehensively examine and objectively evaluate whether the respondent has reached the academic level of the doctoral degree from various aspects, such as the innovation, systematisms, theoretical significance or practical value of the doctoral thesis results, the basic theory and specialized knowledge level reflected in the thesis work. The students summarize their research achievements and innovations in the form of defense, answer the questions of the experts, and make special explanations for the comments of the final academic report and dissertation.
Members of the defense committee shall be determined by the Academic Degree Sub-committee. According to the “Procedure of Doctoral Dissertation Defense and Related Requirements”, the dissertation can be defended only after it has passed the evaluation and has been approved by the Academic Degree Sub-committee. In principle, doctoral dissertation defense should be held in public.
The dissertation defense committee is composed of five to seven members, who should be teachers with doctoral supervision qualifications or experts with senior professional and technical positions. The following requirements should be met: (1) More than half of the members should have doctoral supervision qualifications in their own discipline or related disciplines, and the chairman of the defense committee should have senior professional and technical positions; (2) Include at least one reviewer; (3) Include two to three experts from other universities and no less than three experts from our university. In special cases, the instructor shall submit instructions and the chairman of the Academic Degree Sub-Committee shall approve; (4) Interdisciplinary papers should apply for one or two experts in other disciplines; (5) Include at least one member of the Academic Degree Sub-committee (in special cases, teachers designated by the sub-committee can be replaced upon approval); (6) At most one of the applicant's advisors (including the full and associate advisors or the joint advisors) can serve as a member of the dissertation defense committee; (7) If one of the members of the defense committee is not the reviewer of the thesis, the thesis shall be submitted to the member at least one week in advance; (8) The chairman of the defense committee cannot be the applicant's advisor. The composition of the defense committee adopts the family withdrawal system, and the relatives of the applicant and the instructor are not allowed to serve as members or secretaries of the defense committee.
The defense committee shall have a secretary. The secretary position shall be held by professional personnel with intermediate or above professional positions or doctoral degrees in related disciplines. When the applicant's thesis defense is randomly checked, his or her advisor (including the full or associate advisor or the joint advisor) shall not serve as a member of the defense committee.
According to the “Procedures of Doctoral Dissertation Defense and Related Requirements”, the vote on whether to approve the dissertation defense and the proposal to award the doctoral degree shall be by secret ballot, and the vote shall be approved if more than 2/3 of all members agree. If the student fails to pass the defense, with the consent of more than half of the members of the defense committee, the thesis can be modified and re-applied for defense within two years, and the defense committee shall make corresponding resolutions; If the defense committee does not agree to modify the thesis resolution, any individual has no right to agree to modify the thesis and reorganize the defense.
According to the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Whole-process Management of The Quality of Postgraduate Dissertations", the members of the defense committee should comprehensively examine the theoretical basis, specialized knowledge, research ability, achievement level and the quality of postgraduate dissertations, and give objective and fair evaluation in the defense resolution. The member list of the defense committee and the defense resolution shall be compiled into the doctoral dissertation.
5、Deliberation of theAcademic Degrees Sub-Committee
According to the “Articles of Association of Academic Degree Assessment Committee of Tsinghua University”, the vote on granting academic degrees shall be valid only when 2/3 or more of the members are present at the meeting. It shall be adopted by a majority of all the members of the sub-committee by secret ballot. On-site voting by participating members shall be valid and voting by communication shall not be adopted. Members who do not attend the whole deliberation process shall not vote.
The sub-committee will conduct a comprehensive review on whether each degree applicant meets the requirements of the training program, the mid-term assessment results, the completion of academic achievements, the final academic report assessment, the peer review of dissertation, dissertation defense, relevant academic achievements, and political and ideological performance. For the dissertation with disputes in the examination materials, the application materials shall be reviewed before the conference in advance. According to the voting results, the sub-committee will finally determine the name list of doctoral candidates and submit it to the Academic Degree Assessment Committee of the University for approval.
（2）Examination methods and specific requirements for innovation achievements of master students
1、Application Requirements
Master students can apply only after completing their personal training plan and meeting the requirements of the training plan of the discipline. Their dissertation should have also passed the peer expert review.
Topic selection report
After admission, the master students will determine the specific topic and complete the topic selection report after in-depth investigation and research under the guidance of the instructor (group). The duration of thesis research is usually no less than one year. According to the “Regulations of Tsinghua University on Postgraduate Training”, the assessment team should be composed of at least 3 associate professors or experts with equivalent titles or above. If there is a major change in the subject of the dissertation, a new topic report should be made.
After admission, master students should consult literature, conduct in-depth investigation and research to determine specific topics under the guidance of their supervisor. The topic selection report should include literature review, topic selection and significance, main research content, work characteristics and difficulties, expected results and possible innovations, etc. The approved topic selection report shall be submitted to the Graduate Office of the School for record in written form.
Mid-term review
According to "Tsinghua University postgraduate training work regulations", before the end of the third semester, an assessment team should be organized to examine the students' comprehensive ability, paperwork progress, work attitude, energy input, and other aspects. Those who pass the examination will be allowed to continue the thesis work.
The mid-term assessment is organized by the advisor (group) and should be completed before the end of the third semester. The assessment team shall be composed of 5 master's supervisors or teachers with deputy senior professional and technical positions, including at least 3 teachers with master's supervisors’ qualifications. Experts from other disciplines shall be invited to participate in the report on the topic selection of thesis for interdisciplinary training of master students. Those who pass the examination will be allowed to continue the thesis work. If the assessment is not qualified, the instructor (group) should put forward suggestions and suggestions for improvement within a time limit, and the graduate students should conduct mid-term assessment again.
2、Mentor audit
According to “Suggestions on further strengthening the whole process management of postgraduate dissertation quality”, the advisors are the first responsible person for the master’s training, the academic guidance and quality control of master's dissertations should be strengthened. The instructor should also strengthen the guidance of the whole process in the training procedures of the master students' course learning, thesis topic selection, a summary of results, thesis writing, and publication. He should strictly check the important procedures such as topic selection report and annual progress report, and put forward suggestions on the withdrawal of master students who are not suitable for continuing to study for degrees as soon as possible.
Teachers should be objective and fair on the evaluation of master's degree thesis quality and level of achievement, and determine whether the dissertation is ready for submission. If there is no supervising group, then an evaluating group can be set up to independently evaluate the dissertation and give opinions on whether to submit the dissertation for review under the approval of the supervising teacher and the sub-committee of the department. The opinions of the supervisor (supervisor group or evaluation group) will be compiled into the master's dissertation.
3、Paper Review
The master's thesis should be evaluated by 2 peer experts from our university and other universities. The evaluation form is an open evaluation. The list of reviewers should be proposed by the supervisor and approved by the Biology Sub-committee. According to "Master's Dissertation Defense Procedure and Related Requirements", the reviewer should be a teacher with master's degree guidance qualification or an expert with a professional and technical position above deputy high level. Generally, a peer expert outside the institute (team) should conduct the evaluation. The relatives of the author and the advisor shall not be the reviewer of the thesis. For interdisciplinary papers, the reviewers should include at least one expert in other disciplines involved. All comments must be taken back before the defense can be applied.
According to the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the whole-process management of graduate Degree thesis quality”, the list of public reviewers is compiled into master degree thesis.
4、The oral defense of the doctoral dissertation
Members of the defense committee shall be determined by the Academic Degree Sub-committee. According to the "Master's Dissertation Defense Procedure and Relevant Requirements", the dissertation can be defended only after it has passed the evaluation process and has been approved by the Academic Degree Sub-committee.
In principle, the oral defense of master's degree thesis is organized in a relatively centralized manner by discipline (professional degree category, project, etc.), and the defense committee is composed of five to seven members. If there is no condition to organize a centralized defense, the defense committee shall be composed of three to five members. There may be one supervisor in the team only if the number of members exceed three.
The members of the defense committee shall be teachers with master's supervision qualifications or experts with senior professional and technical positions, among which :(1) more than half of the members shall have senior professional and technical positions, and the chairman of the defense committee shall be an expert with senior professional and technical positions; (2) one member of the sub-committee shall be included (in special cases, a teacher designated by the sub-committee may be substituted); (3) the member of the dissertation defense committee for professional degree master's degree shall be an expert with senior professional and technical positions from the relevant field of industry practice (except the joint advisor); (4) the chairman of the defense committee cannot be the applicant's advisor or his/her relatives. (5) the composition of the dissertation defense committee shall implement the system of family withdrawal, and the relatives of the applicant and the advisor shall not serve as members or secretaries of the defense committee.
The defense committee shall have another secretary, who shall be a professional with primary or above professional technical positions or a master's degree in related disciplines. When the secretary is a teaching assistant doctoral student, the department should provide special training. When the applicant's thesis defense is randomly checked, his or her advisor (including the full or associate advisor or the joint advisor) shall not serve as a member of the defense committee.
According to "Procedures and Requirements for Dissertation Defense of Master's Degree", whether the thesis defense and the proposal are qualified to be awarded the master's degree shall be voted by secret ballot, and the approval of 2/3 or more of all members shall then be considered as approval. If the thesis fails to pass the defense, with the consent of more than half of the members of the defense committee, the thesis can be modified and re-applied for defense within one year, and the defense committee shall make corresponding resolutions; If the thesis defense committee does not agree to modify the thesis resolution, any individual has no right to agree to modify the thesis and reorganize the defense.
According to the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Whole-process Management of The Quality of Postgraduate Dissertations", the members of the defense committee should comprehensively examine the theoretical basis, specialized knowledge, research ability, achievement level, and the quality of postgraduate dissertations, and give an objective and fair evaluation in the defense resolution. The name list of defense committee members and defense resolutions shall be compiled into master's dissertations.
The members of the defense committee shall judge whether the respondent has reached the academic level of the master degree from many aspects, such as the innovation of the thesis results, the theoretical significance or practical value of the thesis topic selection, the basic theory, and specialized knowledge level reflected in the thesis work, and the summary and writing level of the thesis.
According to the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Whole-process Management of The Quality of Postgraduate Dissertations", the members of the defense committee should comprehensively examine the theoretical basis, specialized knowledge, research ability, achievement level, and the quality of postgraduate dissertations, and give an objective and fair evaluation in the defense resolution. The name list of defense committee members and defense resolutions shall be compiled into master's dissertations.
5、Deliberation of the academic degree sub-committee
According to the “Articles of Association of Academic Degree Assessment Committee of Tsinghua University”, the vote on granting academic degrees shall be valid only when 2/3 or more of the members are present at the meeting. It shall be adopted by a majority of all the members of the sub-Committee by secret ballot. On-site voting by participating members shall be valid and voting by communication shall not be adopted. Members who do not attend the whole deliberation process shall not vote.
The Sub-committee of Medical and Biomedical Degree Assessment will regularly review the degree application materials of those who apply for master's degree within the discipline, determine the list of those who will be awarded master's degree, and submit it to the Academic Degree Assessment Committee of the University for approval.
The sub-committee will conduct a comprehensive review of the political and ideological performance of the degree applicants, whether they meet the requirements of the training program, the completion of academic achievements, the peer review of the dissertation, the dissertation defense, and relevant academic achievements. For the dissertation with certain disputes in the examination materials, the application materials shall be reviewed before the conference in advance.
4、Supplementary Provisions
1、The requirements shall come into force on the date of approval by the Academic Degree Committee of the University.
2、The right to interpret this document belongs to the Medical and biomedical Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of Tsinghua University.
