'Autonomous' grads get overseas offers

One month after graduating, more than a dozen students of the first class of China's first autonomous university, have received postgraduate offers at some of the leading overseas universities.

On January 9, the South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC), the pioneer college of the country's higher education reform, held commencement exercises for its Class of 2015, and gave them SUSTC's own diplomas.

Adopting a flexible system, SUSTC issued its first two independent diplomas to Wang Jiale, 17, and He Minghao, 22, who graduated one year early in July 2014. Wang is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Oxford, and He is pursuing further studies at the University College London.

As of Thursday, 17 of 41 students of the initial class, including Wang and He, have been admitted to leading overseas universities, including Yale University, University of Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong, according to a list uploaded to SUSTC's online forum on baidu.com.

SUSTC has been under the spotlight since its establishment for its efforts to implement its own admission standards which do not rely solely on scores of the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, and become China's first professor-led and bureaucracy-free university.

The first group of students was admitted in 2011 without the approval of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which means that their SUSTC diplomas were technically not recognized for further study in domestic schools and may also influence their job prospects.

However, the MOE accredited the university in April 2012 as the first autonomous university in the country, thus lifting those restrictions.

"We consider it an accomplishment for the first phase that students with China's only independent diplomas are recognized by the world's leading universities. They are pioneering heroes who also benefit from our quality education that cultivates their personality and research ability. They are unique," Zhu Qingshi, the founding president of SUSTC who retired last year, told the Global Times Thursday.

Although they might be the only students with independent diplomas in the near future, Zhu stressed that the practice is key to China's higher education reform by closely linking university reputation to its academic standards.

"Our experiment was difficult but significant in demonstrating that our students are doing well, and to push forward future attempts. It will take time, but it's crucial," said Zhu.

As an experiment, SUSTC's progress reflects the country's higher education reform status. Its first batch of graduates should not be forgotten and its achievement also requires objective and reasonable evaluation, Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21 Century Education Research Institute, said.