On June 5438+ 10, 2009, Comrade Liu Yandong, State Councilor and Chairman of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, stressed in his speech at the 26th meeting of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee that it is necessary to adjust the type structure of degree awarding, adjust the ratio of degree to professional degree, actively develop professional degrees in line with the characteristics of China's industrial structure, change the situation that full-time graduate students mainly study for degrees, and train front-line professionals for all walks of life. On March 2, 2009, the joint meeting of the National Steering Committee for Professional Degree Education was held in Beijing. At the meeting, Vice Minister Chen of the Ministry of Education clearly put forward the requirement of "vigorously strengthening the training of applied talents and gradually reducing the proportion of academic talents". Subsequently, the Ministry of Education issued the document "Several Opinions on Training Full-time Master Degree Postgraduates" (Teaching and Research [2009]1No.), and decided to expand the scope of full-time master degree from 2009. This is of great significance for adjusting and optimizing the structure of postgraduate education in China and better adapting to the urgent needs of national economic construction and social development for high-level applied professionals.

Equal treatment "Notice" requires that the establishment and improvement of the reward and funding system in line with the characteristics of professional degree graduate education should be accelerated. All graduate enrollment units should treat professional degree graduates and academic graduates equally in school management, students' rights and interests, employment services and other policies and measures.

Professional degree is a kind of degree relative to academic degree, and its purpose is to cultivate applied senior professionals with solid theoretical foundation and meeting the actual needs of specific industries or occupations. Professional degree and academic degree are at the same level, with different training specifications and obvious differences in training objectives. The degree is established according to disciplines, oriented by academic research, emphasizing theory and research, and cultivating university teachers and researchers in scientific research institutions; Professional degree is oriented to professional practice, attaches importance to practice and application, and trains senior talents with formal and high-level training in specialty and specialized technology. The outstanding feature of professional degree education is the close combination of academic and professional. People with professional degrees are mainly engaged in jobs with obvious professional backgrounds, such as engineers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, etc., rather than academic research. Professional degree and academic degree have their own clear orientation in training objectives, so they are different in teaching methods, teaching contents, standards and requirements for awarding degrees.