On August 31, the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）held an expanded meeting of deans of presidential units at Peking University. The meeting was attended by Zhao Qinping, the director of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, Wang Yajie, the deputy director, Guo Xinli, Zhao Yuxia, Tang Jiwei, the deputy director of the Key Office, Huang Baoyin, the deputy director of the Department of Arts, Science and Medicine, and Zhou Qifeng, Wu Song, Ding Xuemei and Xu Junzhong, the leaders of the four presidents of the Graduate School, Qin Huimin, the executive vice president of the Graduate School of Renmin University of China, the executive vice president of the Graduate School of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chen Zongji, Li Chunying, Executive Vice President of Graduate School of Beijing Medical University, Hao Jinmin, Executive Vice President of Graduate School of China Agricultural University, Wu Gongyi, Executive Vice President of Graduate School of Nankai University, and Lu Chen, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Degree and Graduate Education, were also invited to attend the meeting.

　　The meeting was chaired by Academician Zhou Qifeng, the Secretary General. In the morning, firstly, Wu Song, Ding Xuemei, Xu Junzhong and Zhou Qifeng introduced the visit of the four dean delegations to the west, then the deans analyzed and exchanged views on the current situation of talents and graduate education in the west, discussed the issues of cooperating with the strategy of the Central Committee of the Party for the development of the west and how to practically help the western region to cultivate high-level talents, and discussed the "Summary Report on the Visit to the West" drafted by the Secretariat and reported to the Ministry of Education. It also put forward revised opinions on the Summary Report of the Western Inspection drafted by the Secretariat and submitted to the Ministry of Education. Zhao Qinping, director of the Academic Degrees Office of the State Council, made an important speech, in which he affirmed the work of the delegation of deans to the west and gave important instructions for the next step. He hoped that the counterpart support to the west could be specific to the institutions, disciplines and majors; he hoped that the Journal of Degree and Graduate Education would do some publicity for the western visit of the Joint Conference; he hoped that the deans of the delegation that would go to the United States to attend the 40th annual meeting of CGS would bring their questions to the meeting; he hoped that the deans would do more thinking and summarizing about the management of graduate education and do some deeper research; he hoped that the Dean The Joint Committee will play a greater role in the future work.

　　In the afternoon, discussions were held around the internal affairs of the Joint Committee and a consensus was reached. The newly approved 22 graduate schools applied to join the Joint Council of Deans, and they participated in the annual meeting of the Joint Council as the representatives during the trial period; on the issue of whether the graduate schools of merged medical schools should retain their membership of the Joint Council, it was agreed that they should be retained in this session; the meeting agreed that the Joint Council and the Journal of Degree and Graduate Education should jointly organize a column, tentatively named The meeting agreed that the Joint Committee and the Journal of Degree and Graduate Education should jointly organize a column tentatively named "Forum of Graduate School Deans" (all deans are welcome to submit articles); the meeting studied and discussed some specific issues of the dean's delegation to the U.S. and agreed to publish a booklet of the introduction of the members of the Joint Committee in Chinese and English before the visit to facilitate the exchange. (Its specific requirements will be notified in the near future). The revised draft of the proposal on the establishment of the "Special Project for the Cultivation of Talents and Discipline Construction in the West" and the "Appeal for the Prompt Introduction of the Degree Law and the Amendment and Supplementation of Individual Articles of the Higher Education Law", which were submitted to the first annual meeting for discussion, were adopted (to be submitted together with the (together with the Summary Report of the Western Study Tour to the Ministry of Education, the State Council and the relevant committees of the National People's Congress). The meeting hoped that all members would actively contribute to the design of the logo of the Joint Committee, so that with the joint efforts of all of us, a simple, beautiful and representative logo of the Joint Committee could be presented to you as soon as possible.

　　The meeting, from the beginning to the end in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

Asecretariat of ACGS

September 1st, 2000