In l978,with the implementation of Chinese reform and open policy, and with the overall recovery and development of education and science, graduate education was restored after 12 years broken. Over 63, 000 persons throughout the country applied for graduate studies that year and 10,000 were admitted after the strict examinations.

The total enrollment of the postgraduates had reached 21,000 by 1980. The Standing Committee of National People's Congress approved the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees in 1980. In 1981, the State Council approved the Provisional Measures for Implementing the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees in which the academic standards are regulated for three grades of academic degrees, Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree and Doctor's Degree. The degree system has been set up from then on, which has strongly promoted the quality of graduate education, and standardized and systematic management. According to the Regulations and Provisional Measures, Bachelor's Degree shall be conferred after the undergraduate study, and Master's and Doctor's Degree shall be conferred in the period of the graduate study.

The Catalog of Disciplines and Specialties of Conferring Doctor's and Master's Degrees and of Postgraduate Training was approved by the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council and pro-State Education Commission. Now is Ministry of Education, the same below. It serves as an important basis for defining specialties, for the admission and training of postgraduates, and for degree conferment. In the Catalog 1997, there are altogether 12 major fields including Philosophy, Economics, Law, Education, Literature, History, Natural Sciences, Engineering, Agronomy, and Medicine, 88 first grade disciplines and 382 second grade disciplines.

A list of units that may admit doctoral students and confer doctoral degrees and their disciplines, specialties, supervisors were regulated for the first time in 1981. With the approval of the State Council, the educational authorities concerned printed the Provisional Regulations on Admission of Doctoral Students in 1982, followed by a sery of regulations formulated by the pro-State Education Commission and the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council on the training goal, length of study, training program and plan, degree examinations and requirements for dissertations. The training units have selected and confirmed supervisors for doctoral students since l995 in the process of making admitting and training plans.

The Guidelines for the Education Reform and Development in China jointly promulgated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council in l993 made certain regulations for the concrete target of the higher education development in China, higher education institutions shall educate specialized personnel to meet the requirement of the economic, scientific and technological development, resources shall be mustered on running well some key universities and specialties, high-level specialized personnel shall be primarily trained in domestic institutions, there shall be obvious improvement of education quality and profits, science and technology. According to the target, the pro-State Education Commission promulgated a sery of regulations in 1995, such as Suggestions on the Improvement and Enhancement of Graduate Education. Basic policies have been raised in these regulations for the reform and improvement of graduate education. Concrete arrangement has been made simultaneously for the development scale and speed of graduate education, for structural optimization, for promotion of postgraduates' quality, for base construction, for perfecting examination and evaluation system and for strengthening the work of leadership during the period of the ninth five-year-plan.