At the 32nd meeting of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council on Jan 8 in Beijing, Vice-Premier Liu Yandong urged comprehensively improving academic degree and postgraduate education.

Hailing the achievements of academic degree and postgraduate education during the past five years, the vice-premier called for a scientific plan to develop postgraduate education for the next five years.

She suggested optimizing academic degree authorization and adjusting the layout of disciplines and majors. She would also like to see expanding reforms of postgraduate training modes, and perfecting an internal system of quality assessment, supervision and guarantee.

The vice-premier urged improving the penalty mechanism of academic misconducts and cracking down on academic cheating.