1949 In old China before the founding of New China, postgraduate education was very backward and developed very slowly. 1935, the then "National Government" promulgated the Law on the Granting of Academic Degrees, which stipulated that academic degrees were divided into three grades: bachelor, master and doctor. Master students and doctoral students need to study in universities or research institutes for more than two years, pass the examination and pass the evaluation of the Ministry of Education before they can get master's and doctoral degrees. At that time, China was in a state of war (civil war and War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression), and universities were severely disturbed and destroyed, so it was impossible to carry out doctoral training, and only a small number of graduate students were enrolled. From 1935 to 1949, old China held nine degree examinations and awarded 232 master's degrees. 1949 after the founding of new China, with the development of economy and society, graduate education has been developing continuously, but it has also gone through a tortuous process. When the country's political and economic development is smooth, higher education (including postgraduate education) develops smoothly. When the political and economic development of the country encounters setbacks, higher education is disturbed and destroyed, and its development is not smooth enough. Prior to this, China mainly focused on training graduate students. The requirements for graduate students are: "having the ability to engage in scientific research or independently undertake specialized technical work"; The requirements for graduate students with doctoral degrees are: "have the ability to engage in scientific research independently and make creative achievements in science or specialized technology." In the stage of elite education, it is necessary and inevitable for graduate students to focus on academics, mainly to train talents for universities and research institutes. However, after entering the stage of popular education, the enrollment scale of graduate students has expanded. If it is still academic-oriented, it will be difficult to find employment after graduation, and most employers are in urgent need of applied senior professionals. Therefore, the graduate structure should be adjusted, that is, some graduate students should be retained, mainly undertaken by research universities, and most universities and majors should train applied graduate students with a certain theoretical basis, that is, professional graduate students. Its goal is to cultivate applied senior professionals with a solid theoretical foundation and meeting the actual needs of specific industries or occupations. In developed countries, professional degree graduate students have existed for a long time and the scale is very large. For example, from 65438 to 0987, there were more than 500 masters and 47 doctors in the United States. In 2000, Britain has set up 153 professional doctoral programs in 33 disciplines [2]. The development history of postgraduate professional degree in China is not long. 1988, the State Council Academic Degrees Committee first discussed the establishment of professional degrees. 199 1 offered the first master's degree-MBA degree, and then offered master's degrees in architecture, law, education and engineering. 1992 The the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, at its 1 1 meeting, approved the "Proposal on Granting Professional Degree Certificates by Specialty" put forward by Huang Da and other academic degree members, and divided the degrees in China into two categories: degrees and professional degrees. There are also two ways to award degrees, namely, according to disciplines and according to professional degree types. It marks the formal establishment of the professional degree system [3]. 1996 the the State Council14th meeting deliberated and adopted the interim measures for the examination and approval of professional degree setting, which made detailed provisions on the purpose, characteristics, levels, examination and approval, training and management of professional degree setting, and established a stable institutional platform for the development of professional degree postgraduate education. From 65438 to 0999, the Ministry of Education and the State Council Academic Degrees Committee held the first national conference on professional degree education, and issued "Several Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Professional Degree Education", which further clarified the status and role of professional degrees and effectively promoted the rapid development of professional degree postgraduate education. Up to now, there are 39 kinds of master's degrees and 5 kinds of doctor's degrees in China, and the enrollment scale of professional degree graduate students is increasing at a rate of 5% ~ 15% every year. In August 2009, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Doing a Good Job in Postgraduate Enrollment in 20 10, requiring all enrollment units to gradually reduce the enrollment of academic postgraduates, reduce the enrollment by 5% ~ 10% on the basis of the enrollment scale of academic postgraduates in 2009, and increase the enrollment of professional postgraduates. In 20 10, the proportion of professional degree graduate enrollment in the whole graduate enrollment scale has reached 24.67%. The Ministry of Education also requires the recruitment of full-time professional master students, which will change the situation that professional degree postgraduate education is mainly based on on-the-job degree study. Full-time postgraduate education will gradually change from cultivating academic talents to cultivating applied talents, and postgraduate education will further change from a single model to a diversified model. At present, China's professional degree postgraduate education has gradually formed two forms, one is to recruit on-the-job part-time students, and the other is to recruit full-time students of recent graduates. Why should we develop professional degree graduate education? First, the needs of economic and social development. With the advent of knowledge economy, the demand for knowledge, technology and high-level applied talents from all walks of life is becoming more and more urgent. Second, today's world science and technology competition is playing an increasingly prominent role in the competition of comprehensive national strength. Science and technology are increasingly becoming the main driving force of economy and society. China must speed up the construction of an independent innovation-oriented country and realize innovation-driven development. Enterprises are the main body of independent innovation, and high-level applied talents are the most dynamic strategic elements in enterprise innovation. In the past, China's graduate students were mainly academic, and most of them flowed to the fields of scientific research and education. However, thousands of enterprises urgently need a large number of applied senior professionals. Therefore, we must vigorously develop professional degree graduate education to meet the demand of enterprise innovation for talents. Third, the need for structural adjustment of degree and postgraduate education in China. After the expansion of colleges and universities, China's degree and postgraduate education still focuses on cultivating academic talents, which leads to oversupply. Developing applied professional graduate students and reducing academic graduate students will help to make the educational structure of graduate students more reasonable and more in line with the actual situation in China. To sum up, after the founding of New China, China's graduate education has gone through eight stages and experienced a tortuous development process of "sharing weal and woe with social politics and economy". What kind of relationship should be presented between higher education and society? Some people think that higher education should not adapt to the development of social politics and economy, but should "break through" and "surpass" the theory of adaptation, and should "return to cognitive rationality and build a perfect academic market" to deny the "adaptability" of higher education to society. Others argue that universities should stay away from society and the market and remain independent [4]. The author thinks this view is unrealistic. Judging from the eight stages of the development of postgraduate education in China, each stage is adapted to the current social situation and determined by social politics and economy. In the second stage, especially in the fourth stage of the Cultural Revolution, the "adaptability" of education was destroyed. In the other six stages, the "adaptability" of education has promoted the development of education because of the rising development trend of society. Education is the product of social development, education exists because of the existence of society, and it is impossible to be separated from and far away from society. The fundamental purpose of running education in any country is for the benefit of the country, for the development of society and for the development of mankind. The adaptability of education cannot be denied just because the country has made political and economic deviations and mistakes at a certain stage. Mistakes in education are caused by the mistakes of rulers and decision makers. Universities can "keep tension with society" in some aspects, have the function of surpassing and leading society, and carry forward the criticism and creativity of universities, but universities cannot change the country's major policies, political system and economic foundation. Only by actively adapting to and serving the social, political and economic development can universities have the right and vitality to exist. This is the external law of the university. In the process of running a university, it should follow the laws of education and teaching such as student training, discipline construction, scientific research and teacher development, rather than the laws of economy and market. This is the inherent law of universities. Therefore, the "two laws" of higher education put forward by Professor Pan Maoyuan, namely "external laws and internal laws", are completely in line with objective reality.