Practice-based degree assessments gain traction

In a departure from the traditional thesis-only route, 36 students from East China Normal University have successfully defended their master's degrees using original novels, joining a growing nationwide shift toward practice-based degree assessment.

The graduates, all from the university's professional master's program in creative writing, were approved for their degrees based on a portfolio that included a full-length literary work, according to Red Star News.

The move follows the implementation of the Academic Degrees Law on Jan 1, 2025, which for the first time legally recognizes "practical achievements" as an alternative pathway to degree conferral alongside the traditional dissertation.

Guo Yige, a recent graduate of the university's program, said her submitted novel underwent more than a dozen revisions before being finalized at about 40,000 words.

Her creative process included field research and internships at artificial intelligence companies, a requirement embedded in the practical degree curriculum.

"If I can support myself through writing in the future, I will also strive to become a professional writer," Guo told the media outlet.

On June 5, China Agricultural University announced that five master of agriculture students had become the first in the country's agricultural and forestry sector to defend their degrees using practical product designs.

Their defense presentations featured concrete deliverables, including a wheat fertilizer designed to boost crop yields, a customized green, high-yield fertilizer for summer maize, as well as an optimized management model for fresh corn production in the Erhai Lake basin.

Meanwhile, Nanjing University recently awarded a doctorate to Wang Haoran, the institution's first doctoral candidate to graduate on the basis of a practical achievement.

Wang, whose work focused on distributed fiber-optic sensing technology for critical water infrastructure, saw his research results successfully deployed in the Southto-North Water Diversion Project and exported overseas.

However, Zhang Xuping, a professor at Nanjing University and Wang's supervisor, told People's Daily that the assumption that obtaining a degree without a dissertation is easier is incorrect.

She said practical-achievement defenses require user application reports, third-party testing and expert verification of results.

The reform is gaining traction nationwide, with multiple universities reporting successful practice-based defenses.

Although concerns have been raised regarding evaluation standards, experts have voiced strong support for practice-based degree assessments, describing the reform as "long overdue" and a "breakthrough in talent evaluation".

According to the Ministry of Education's Department of Degree Management and Postgraduate Education, 67 students applied for degrees based on practical achievements in 2025. Hao Tongliang, deputy director of the department, described the modest figure as a "groundbreaking move."

According to a recent report by Zhejiang Daily, Zhejiang province rolled out a plan early this year encouraging professional-degree postgraduate students to apply for degrees based on practical achievements. The province also introduced a requirement that each university have at least one such student.

Wu Zhenhui, an official with the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province, said 30 to 40 practical-achievement-based master's degree applications are expected to be approved in the province this year.

Wang Luning, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology Beijing, said the practice-based graduation model requires students to solve real-world problems within authentic engineering projects and demonstrate their capabilities and results through verifiable deliverables.

The model represents not only an innovation in graduation formats but also a significant recalibration of education's training standards, he said.

Wang called for a unified understanding of the reform, emphasizing that practical achievements should be substantive and graduation standards should remain rigorous.

He also urged stronger quality control and accountability throughout the process, deeper university-industry collaboration through joint research and evaluation, and comprehensive support in policies, resources, platforms and services so that faculty members and students can focus on delivering tangible results.