The new Academic Degrees Law has made systematic provisions on the degree system, and has made innovations in a series of aspects, such as the typology of degrees, the quality assurance of degrees, the compatibility of degrees with personnel training, and the adaptation of degrees to national economic and social development.
As early as 1980, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress formulated the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees, which was slightly amended in 2004. On April 26, 2024, the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress passed the Academic Degrees Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Academic Degrees Law") against the background of the relatively mature degree system in mainland China, upgrading and strengthening the original Academic Degrees Regulations. In terms of the composition of the norms, there are only 20 articles in the Regulations on Academic Degrees, while the Law on Academic Degrees has chapters on the governance of academic degrees, with a total of 45 articles in eight chapters, from general provisions to supplementary provisions. This makes the Academic Degrees Law more standardized, systematic, comprehensive and precise than the Academic Degrees Regulations. The regulation and governance of academic degrees in the Academic Degrees Law reflect the characteristics of the construction of a country under the rule of law, a government under the rule of law and a society under the rule of law in the new era. It is also very particular about legislative technology, and the author tries to interpret the legislative technology of the Academic Degrees Law from the following aspects:
1. Substantive rules and procedural rules are integrated
The Academic Degrees Act falls under the category of education law, which is one of the components of departmental administrative law in mainland China. The normative composition of the administrative law of the mainland department upholds the unity of substantive rules and procedural rules. For example, the Public Security Punishment Law, which is a departmental administrative law, incorporates both substantive and procedural rules in public security management and governance; The Land Administration Law, as a departmental administrative law for land administration, also maintains the unity of substantive and procedural rules. The Degrees Act also integrates substantive and procedural rules in terms of normative composition. The substantive norms and procedural norms in the governance of the degree are stipulated in each chapter at the same time. The awarding of a degree first involves the substantive rights of the applicant, and the relevant rules must also reflect the substantive content. For example, Article 19 of the Academic Degrees Law stipulates that: "A bachelor's degree shall be awarded to the applicant who has received undergraduate education, passed the prescribed course assessment or completed the corresponding credits, and passed the examination of graduation steps such as graduation thesis or graduation project, and has shown that the degree applicant has reached the following levels: (1) a good grasp of basic theories, specialized knowledge and basic skills in the discipline or professional field; (2) Have the initial ability to engage in academic research or undertake professional practice work. Article 20 of the Academic Degrees Law also stipulates: "A master's degree shall be awarded to the applicant who has received a master's degree education, has completed the prescribed course assessment or completed the corresponding credits, completed academic research training or professional practical training, and has passed the dissertation defense or the prescribed practical achievement defense, indicating that the degree applicant has reached the following levels: (1) mastering solid basic theories and systematic expertise in the discipline or professional field; (2) Applicants for academic degrees shall have the ability to engage in academic research, and applicants for professional degrees shall have the ability to undertake professional practice work. "These provisions on the conditions required for the acquisition of a degree are the obvious content of the administrative substantive law. At the same time, degrees must be awarded on the basis of due process of law. In a certain sense, this is the essence of the Degree Law. In the composition of norms, there are also relatively many relevant procedural rules. For example, Article 26 stipulates that "degree-awarding institutions shall organize master's and doctoral degree defense committees according to disciplines and specialties. The composition of the master's degree defense committee shall not be less than three. The doctoral degree defense committee shall be composed of no less than five members, of which no less than two experts outside the degree-awarding institution shall be members. The dissertation or practical results shall be sent to the members of the defense committee for review before the defense, and the members of the defense committee shall perform their duties independently and responsibly. The defense committee shall organize the defense in accordance with the prescribed procedures, and make a resolution on whether the degree applicant will pass the defense and announce it on the spot. The reply shall be voted on by ballot and shall be passed by more than two-thirds of all members. Except where the content involves state secrets, the defense shall be held publicly. "This article guarantees the substantive rights of degree applicants with strict procedural rules. The integration of procedural and substantive rules makes the implementation and operation of the Degrees Act extremely convenient and effective.
2. Degree and discipline integration
The relationship between the degree and the discipline is both a theoretical and a practical one. At the theoretical level, any degree must exist under the corresponding discipline, and the maturity of the discipline is often inseparable from the awarding of degrees. At the practical level, disciplines should continue to develop and improve, so that talent training can promote national economic and social development, and the indicators for measuring talent include academic qualifications and degrees as formal requirements, in addition to their knowledge structure. Because of this, the Degree Act deals with the relationship between disciplines and degrees very rationally. For example, Article 5 stipulates that "institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutions that have obtained the qualifications for awarding degrees in corresponding disciplines and specialties after examination and approval shall be degree-awarding units, and the disciplines and majors in which they confer degrees shall be degree-awarding points." Degree-awarding institutions may award corresponding degrees in accordance with the provisions of this Law. As Article 17, Paragraph 1 stipulates: "Based on the demand for all kinds of talents in economic and social development, the State shall optimize the structure of disciplines and the layout of degree-awarding points, and strengthen the construction of basic disciplines, emerging disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines." These two articles basically clearly express the relationship between disciplines and degrees, especially Article 17, which emphasizes the need to strengthen the construction of basic disciplines, emerging disciplines and interdisciplinary disciplines. This position is very high, and it points out the direction for the establishment of degree points and the acquisition of degree qualifications in the future.
The integration of disciplines and degrees is a hot issue in degree governance, and it is also an issue that the academic community has paid little attention to. As for how to deal with the relationship between degrees and disciplines in the governance of academic degrees, the new Academic Degrees Law has a more detailed deployment. In the overall situation of national economic and social development, the development of disciplines and the improvement of degree points should complement each other. At the same time, it also has a deep meaning, that is, the layout of degree points and the acquisition of degrees is a long-term and dynamic process.
3. Interaction between talent training and academic research
The General Provisions of the Academic Degrees Law clearly state that one of the purposes of the establishment of the academic degree system is to improve the quality of personnel training. In the final analysis, the issue of degree is related to the cultivation of all kinds of talents, and the essence of the degree is to confirm the results of talent training, and the applicant may become a talent in a certain aspect after obtaining the corresponding degree, which is the criterion for considering the educational achievements of the mainland. In other words, the rate of obtaining a high-level degree is one of the criteria for measuring educational success, and there is a legitimate logical relationship between the two. Of course, if there is an indiscriminate and indiscriminate awarding of degrees, it is a different matter, which is one thing; On the other hand, the awarding of degrees is also closely linked to academic research. The provisions of the Academic Degrees Law on the conditions for the conferment of doctoral degrees are closely related to the fundamental point of academic research. For example, it is required to obtain a doctorate degree at a certain academic level, such as a solid theoretical foundation and systematic expertise. "Applicants for doctoral degrees should have the ability to work independently on research"; For example, "doctoral degree applicants should have made innovative achievements in the field of academic research, etc." These regulations make the doctorate degree and academic research naturally linked, academic research is a necessary condition to obtain a doctorate or even a master's degree, conversely, if the applicant does not have the corresponding academic research ability, can not carry out the corresponding academic research, it is impossible to obtain the corresponding degree.
There are other provisions and requirements for the interaction between academic research and talent cultivation in the Academic Degrees Act. For example, Article 32 stipulates that "degree-awarding institutions shall appoint teachers, scientific researchers or professionals with good moral character, high academic standards or strong practical ability to serve as instructors for graduate students, and establish a mechanism for selection, assessment, supervision and dynamic adjustment." Graduate supervisors shall be role models, perform the duties of cultivating morality, care for students, guide students to carry out relevant academic research and professional practice, abide by academic ethics and academic norms, and improve academic or professional standards. Article 33 stipulates: "Doctorate-awarding institutions shall be based on cultivating high-level innovative talents, strengthen the construction of doctorate-awarding sites, increase the training, management and support for doctoral students, and improve the quality of doctoral degrees." Doctoral supervisors should conscientiously perform their responsibilities for the training of doctoral students, strictly control the key aspects of training, strengthen guidance throughout the process, and improve the quality of training. Doctoral students should work hard to study and practice, carefully prepare their dissertations or practical results, and ensure that they meet academic norms and innovation requirements. ”
Fourth, the dual elements of professional skills and political literacy
The fact that the Academic Degrees Act has not yet defined degrees in terms of law and doctrine may be a regret left by the Degrees Act. However, the Academic Degrees Law has institutionalized and systematically dealt with degree management and degree governance, which is composed of many elements and contents, including the governance system of degrees, the conditions for awarding degrees, the qualifications of subjects, the conditions for applicants to obtain degrees, and the quality assurance of degrees. Generally speaking, the degree contains some comprehensive elements, all of which are indispensable. Two of these elements are the main threads in the composition of the degree, one is the professional skills required to obtain the degree, that is, the degree applicant must have these professional skills to obtain the corresponding degree. For example, Article 21 stipulates that: "A doctoral degree shall be awarded to a person who has received doctoral education, passed the prescribed course assessment or completed the corresponding credits, completed academic research training or professional practice training, and passed the dissertation defense or the prescribed practical achievement defense, indicating that the degree applicant has reached the following levels: (1) mastering solid and comprehensive basic theories and systematic and in-depth professional knowledge in the discipline or professional field; (2) Applicants for academic degrees shall have the ability to independently engage in academic research, and applicants for professional degrees shall have the ability to independently undertake professional practice work; (3) Applicants for academic degrees shall make innovative achievements in the field of academic research, and applicants for professional degrees shall make innovative achievements in the field of professional practice. "Another element is the value of the degree, that is, the political literacy and the corresponding moral code that the degree applicant must have. The two are equally important in the Academic Degrees Law, and they are the dual elements that should be possessed to obtain a degree emphasized in the Academic Degrees Law. In terms of political literacy, Article 18 of the Academic Degrees Law stipulates that "degree applicants shall support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, support the socialist system, abide by the Constitution and laws, and abide by academic ethics and academic norms." Where an applicant for a degree is studying in a school of higher learning, a scientific research institution, or receiving education through other means prescribed by the state, and meets the corresponding academic requirements, academic or professional level, the degree-awarding unit shall award the corresponding degree in accordance with the conditions provided for in Articles 19 to 21 of this Law. Article 4 stipulates: "Chinese citizens who support the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system, who study in institutions of higher learning, scientific research institutions, or receive education through other means prescribed by the state, and meet the corresponding academic requirements, academic or professional standards, may apply for corresponding degrees in accordance with the provisions of this Law." ”
5. Dualization of bachelor's degree and professional degree
In recent years, the issue of the typology of degrees has attracted widespread attention from academic circles and practical departments. The typology of degrees is closely related to the social needs of talents, the mode of talent training, and the positioning of colleges and universities and scientific research institutions. As far as social needs are concerned, both academic and research talents and applied talents are needed, and these two types of talents can be distinguished from theory and practice.
In recent years, some places have divided colleges and universities into many types, such as academic research, applied research, applied technology, etc. All types of colleges and universities have their own advantages and specialties in talent training. This distinction poses a certain challenge to the mainland's traditional purely academic degrees. In 2023, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Development of the Classification of Graduate Education for Academic Degrees and Professional Degrees", which is an attempt to reform the classification of degrees. In this provision, the status and value of professional degrees in the current national economic and social development of the mainland are affirmed. In line with this development, the Academic Degrees Act divides degrees into academic degrees and professional degrees. Article 2 of the Law on Academic Degrees stipulates: "The State shall implement a system of academic degrees. Degrees are divided into bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees, including academic degrees, professional degrees, etc., and are awarded according to discipline categories and professional degree categories. This regulation is not only a reform of the degree system, but also a reform of the talent training system, as well as a reform of the talent training model of colleges and universities and scientific research institutions.
6. Unification of academic norms and academic freedom
Article 3 of the Academic Degrees Law stipulates: "The degree work adheres to the leadership of the Communist Party of China, fully implements the national education policy, practices the core values of socialism, implements the fundamental task of cultivating morality, follows the laws of education, adheres to fairness, justice and openness, adheres to the unity of academic freedom and academic norms, promotes innovation and development, and improves the quality of independent training of talents." "It is very clear that academic freedom and academic norms should be reconciled.
The acquisition of degrees is based on academic norms, and the Academic Degrees Law has extremely strict requirements for academic norms. For example, Article 33 stipulates that "doctoral degree-awarding institutions shall focus on cultivating high-level innovative talents, strengthen the construction of doctoral degree awarding sites, increase the training, management and support for doctoral students, and improve the quality of doctoral degree awarding." Doctoral supervisors should conscientiously perform their responsibilities for the training of doctoral students, strictly control the key aspects of training, strengthen guidance throughout the process, and improve the quality of training. Doctoral students should work hard to study and practice, carefully prepare their dissertations or practical results, and ensure that they meet academic norms and innovation requirements. The emphasis in this article is on academic norms. But at the same time, it requires that doctorate-awarding institutions should cultivate high-level innovative talents; It is required that innovation must be achieved while maintaining academic norms. Innovative talents, innovative ideas and innovative practices are inseparable from academic freedom, which is the basic condition for academic success. It is evident that the guiding ideology of the Academic Degrees Law is to encourage degree-awarding institutions to create an atmosphere of academic freedom and to encourage degree applicants to have the basic literacy of academic freedom. Of course, academic freedom and academic norms are organically integrated. Article 37 of the Academic Degrees Law also makes some relatively strict provisions on academic norms, such as Article 37, which stipulates that "if a degree applicant or degree recipient falls under any of the following circumstances in the course of studying for the degree, the degree-awarding institution shall not confer the degree or revoke the degree upon the resolution of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee: (1) the dissertation or practical results are found to have academic misconduct such as ghostwriting, plagiarism, and forgery; (2) Stealing or fraudulently using the identity of others, substituting for the admission qualifications obtained by others, or using other illegal means to obtain enrollment qualifications or graduation certificates; (3) Other serious violations of the law that should not be awarded a degree during the study period. "The unification of academic norms and academic freedom is a highlight of the legislative technique of the Academic Degrees Law.
7. Separation of leadership and management
The issue of degree awarding is one of the important issues in the education system, which involves the system and mechanism of education governance, and is also inseparable from the reform and improvement of the education governance system. The mainland has been exploring and experimenting with the reform of the education system, and has issued a series of policy documents on the reform of the education system. The awarding of degrees and their governance is a public act. Although the applicant obtains the corresponding private rights after obtaining the degree, this does not affect the public behavior and public law issues in the degree governance, and how to govern the degree well is a problem that must be faced when the Academic Degrees Law is formulated.
The author notes that the Academic Degrees Law has made a new configuration for leadership and management, especially the separation of leadership and management. For example, Article 6 stipulates: "The State Council shall establish a degree committee to lead the national degree work." The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council shall have one chairman, vice chairmen and several members. The chairman, vice chairmen and members of the committee shall be appointed and dismissed by the State Council for a term of five years. The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council has set up an expert group to be responsible for degree evaluation, quality supervision, research and consultation, etc. This article gives the leadership of the degree to the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. Article 7 stipulates: "The Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council shall set up an office in the education administrative department of the State Council to undertake the daily work of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. The administrative department for education under the State Council is responsible for the work related to the management of academic degrees nationwide. This article also confers the right to administer academic degrees to the education administrative department of the State Council. Article 8 is an extension of Article 7, which also implements the separation of leadership and management at the local level. The new degree governance system operates under the dual variation of leadership and management, which not only ensures that the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Academic Degrees Committees of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government play a role in decision-making on major issues in the management of academic degrees, but also enables the corresponding educational administrative departments to perform their management functions well.
There are other technical provisions on the degree governance system. For example, in a degree-awarding unit, the functions of administrative and academic institutions are also differentiated; In the degree-awarding procedure, the respective responsibilities of the degree-awarding unit, the degree evaluation committee and the defense committee are clearly stipulated, and the corresponding ownership is also finely divided. For example, Article 28 stipulates that "the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee shall, in accordance with the resolution of the Defense Committee, make a decision on whether to confer a master's degree or a doctoral degree on the basis of the examination of the degree application." Paragraph 1 of Article 30 stipulates: "Degree-awarding institutions shall keep the application materials of degree applicants, dissertations, practical achievements and other archival materials; The doctoral dissertation shall be deposited with the National Library and relevant professional libraries at the same time. Dissertations involving secrets, practical achievements, and the process of conferring degrees shall be in accordance with confidentiality laws, administrative regulations, and relevant state provisions on confidentiality, and the management of confidentiality shall be strengthened. ”
8. The technical link and the administrative link are connected
Degree governance, especially the awarding of degrees, has strong technical and scientific attributes. The Academic Degrees Law embodies such a technical and scientific nature in the relevant conditions and procedures for the awarding of degrees. For example, the path of application, the way of defense, the operation of internal and external audit, etc., are all technical things, and the corresponding program design must be accurate and scientific, and the "Academic Degrees Law" has made sufficient articles in this regard, Article 26 stipulates: "Degree-awarding institutions shall organize master's and doctoral degree defense committees according to disciplines and majors." The composition of the master's degree defense committee shall not be less than three. The doctoral degree defense committee shall be composed of no less than five members, of which no less than two experts outside the degree-awarding institution shall be members. The dissertation or practical results shall be sent to the members of the defense committee for review before the defense, and the members of the defense committee shall perform their duties independently and responsibly. The defense committee shall organize the defense in accordance with the prescribed procedures, and make a resolution on whether the degree applicant will pass the defense and announce it on the spot. The reply shall be voted on by ballot and shall be passed by more than two-thirds of all members. Except where the content involves state secrets, the defense shall be held publicly. "The composition of the defense committee, the method of voting, and the mechanism for whether to pass it are all quite rigorous.
Therefore, the author believes that the "Degree Law" has made a new breakthrough in the technical link. As mentioned above, the governance and awarding of degrees is a kind of public act, and the relevant public institutions must intervene in the process of awarding degrees, and in addition to the above-mentioned technical links, the awarding of degrees also includes administrative links, that is, the links in which the public authorities intervene and can produce public law effects. For example, article 31 of the Academic Degrees Law stipulates that "degree-awarding institutions shall establish a quality assurance system for their own degrees, strengthen the quality management of the whole process of enrollment, training, and degree awarding, disclose relevant information in a timely manner, and accept social supervision to ensure the quality of degrees awarded." Article 32 stipulates: "Degree-awarding institutions shall appoint teachers, scientific researchers or professionals with good moral character, high academic level or strong practical ability to serve as instructors for graduate students, and establish a mechanism for selection, assessment, supervision and dynamic adjustment." Graduate supervisors shall be role models, perform the duties of cultivating morality, care for students, guide students to carry out relevant academic research and professional practice, abide by academic ethics and academic norms, and improve academic or professional standards. These two provisions belong to the category of degree quality assurance from the perspective of normative composition, and they require the relevant public authorities to participate in and even intervene in the awarding of degrees. For example, ensuring the openness of information on the awarding of degrees; Ensuring that the awarding of degrees is subject to social scrutiny; Ensure that the degree-awarding institution takes other interventions. The technical link and the administrative link are connected with each other in the Academic Degrees Law, and many provisions of the Academic Degrees Law make the technical links and administrative links maintain a good logical relationship, so that the governance of degrees and the awarding of degrees remain standardized and of high quality.
9. Front-end specifications and follow-up follow-up
Degree governance is government behavior and social behavior. The reason for this is that a degree is a public resource that has both an impact on individuals in society and a public good. Once an applicant obtains a degree, he or she has a certain qualification, a certain status, and even a certain social status. In other words, once an applicant obtains a degree, his or her impact on society is long-term and even wide-ranging. The Law on Academic Degrees gave full consideration to this issue when it was formulated, and the management of academic degrees has a clear procedural nature.
First of all, there is front-end management, for example, Article 24 of the Academic Degrees Law stipulates that "if an applicant applies for a bachelor's degree, the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee shall organize a review and make a decision on whether to award a bachelor's degree." Article 25 stipulates: "For those applying for a master's or doctoral degree, the degree-awarding institution shall send the degree applicant's dissertation or practical results to an expert for review before organizing the defense." After expert review, if it meets the requirements of the degree-awarding institution, it will enter the defense procedure. "When the applicant enters the first link, the relevant management actions are already in place, and the entire degree-awarding process is incorporated into the degree-granting governance system, and the rules governing the degree-awarding process exist in this process.
Secondly, the governance of degrees in the Academic Degrees Law also adheres to the governance method of follow-up. In recent years, the mainland has implemented a post-evaluation system in various aspects of administrative rule of law, such as post-evaluation of administrative decision-making, post-evaluation of administrative law enforcement, and so on. The Degrees Act implicitly or implicitly absorbs the essence of the post-evaluation system and keeps track of the degrees that applicants have already obtained, and the acquisition of a degree does not mean that it has gone into a safe deposit box. For example, Article 34 stipulates that "the education administrative department of the State Council and the provincial degree committees shall, within the scope of their respective duties, regularly organize experts to conduct quality assessments of approved degree-awarding institutions and degree-awarding sites." If the quality assessment confirms that the quality of the degree awarded cannot be guaranteed, it shall be ordered to rectify within a time limit; and where the circumstances are serious, the original examination and approval unit shall revoke the corresponding degree awarding qualifications. Where the quality of graduate training fails to meet the prescribed standards or there are serious problems in the quality management of the degree, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council shall revoke its qualification for independent review. Article 38 stipulates: "Where a degree or degree certificate is awarded in violation of the provisions of this Law, the administrative department of education shall declare the certificate invalid and deal with it in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Education Law of the People's Republic of China." "The provisions of the Academic Degrees Law on front-end norms and follow-up management make degree governance truly implementable.
10. Equal emphasis should be placed on the protection of applicants' rights and the resolution of degree disputes
With the improvement of the administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation system in mainland China, there are more and more administrative reconsideration cases and administrative litigation cases related to the degree awarding and the degree qualification obtained by applicants. On the one hand, they have become the basic scope of administrative remedies, and on the other hand, administrative reconsideration organs and people's courts are also able to make fair judgments. In a series of cases, the plaintiff's success rate is increasing. Although the Academic Degrees Law does not explicitly stipulate that disputes arising from the conferment of degrees may be subject to administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation, it does make specific provisions on disputes arising from the conferment of degrees and their resolution, and also comprehensively stipulates the applicant's right to relief in the acquisition of degrees. For example, Article 39 stipulates that: "If a degree-awarding institution intends to make a decision not to confer a degree or to revoke a degree, it shall inform the degree applicant or degree recipient of the content, facts, reasons and basis of the decision to be made, and hear his or her statements and defenses." Article 40 stipulates: "If the degree applicant has any objection to the academic evaluation conclusions made by relevant academic organizations or personnel in the process of expert evaluation, defense, achievement recognition, etc., he may apply to the degree-awarding institution for academic review." The degree-awarding institution shall, within 30 days from the date of accepting the application for academic review, reorganize experts to conduct a review and make a review decision, and the review decision shall be final. The measures for academic review shall be formulated by the degree-awarding institution. There are other provisions that are also provided for. From these provisions, it is not difficult to see that the Academic Degrees Law has set up two systems, one is the degree dispute resolution system, and the other is the rights protection system for degree applicants. The former is aimed at resolving disputes arising from the awarding of degrees, for example, by establishing a review system. This system, as well as other systems, can help to substantively resolve disputes arising from degrees. The focus of the latter is to protect the rights of degree applicants, and it is clearly stipulated that degree applicants have the right to make statements and defenses. As the scope of administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation in mainland China is becoming wider and wider, the applicant, as the administrative counterpart, also has the right to file administrative reconsideration and administrative litigation for disputes arising from the awarding of degrees.
Editor in charge: Wang Jian, Yu Jiani