Institute for China Neighboring Economies （ICNE）
of USST
Institutional Norms for Academic Study by Postgraduates
According to < Comprehensive Measures for Operation & Management of ICNE>, the following norms for the academic research activities required for postgraduates in ICNE are formulated. It is aimed at summarizing the experiences of academic research for postgraduates during last years, better organizing the extracurricular scientific research activity by research fellows and students and cultivating high-quality talent with sound personality and strong sense of responsibility.
1．The regular academic seminar system for postgraduates in ICNE will be implemented once a week. The specific time, place and other requirements will be announced to students after the discussion by the researcher fellows at the beginning of each semester.
2．All researcher fellows and students who participate in scientific research in ICNE should play an active role in relevant academic seminars and daily instruction.
3．Postgraduate belonging to ICNE (the identity is decided by the research fellows as the tutor in ICNE) should participate in the seminar mentioned above from the second week of enrollment to the final dissertation defense. The one who ask for leave due to the special occasions needs the permissions of their tutors in advance, and reports to the director of ICNE.
4．The academic research activities of the postgraduates are presided over by the research fellows in ICNE by turns, with 4 weeks as a unit. After summarizing and coordinating the research fellows' relevant plans by director at the end of each month, the next 4 weeks academic plans will be announced to everyone. The research fellows who host seminars should announce the academic scope of the seminar or the topics of discussion to students at least three days in advance.
5．The research fellows and students participating in the seminars can speak in any order, but the hosting research fellow should play a regisseur role and set appropriate questions or speeches for each attending student. Except for the special circumstances such as the reading the essay and the introduction of the topic, the research fellows and students should speak concisely (each person does not exceed 8 minutes). However, the time for discussion due to academic disputes is not limited.
6．ICNE encourages academic debate. All participants in the debate should respect each other and keep the proper demeanor and appearance at any case. In addition, participants should not use offensive or derogatory words to each other for any reason.
7. After completing all speeches and discussions of the seminar, the hosting research fellows will conduct a 5-minute summary of the comments, so as to facilitate the academic activities.
8. The postgraduates in the first and second years should attend the weekly seminar at the same time. The ones in the third year should be separately arranged based on the progress of their graduation theses.
9. The main elements of various forms of academic seminars should be documented by students in turn, requiring time, place, attendance, discussion topics and other elements of seminars, assembling into a book and keeping the file at the end of each year.
10. The opening report, mid-term examination, pre-defense, final defense and other relevant academic conference procedures required for graduation theses should be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Postgraduate School.
11. The institutional norms will take effect immediately. However, in order to meet the needs of relevant scientific research work and the change of talent cultivation and other requirements, they can be amended after the collective discussions among research fellows in ICNE.
Institute for China Neighboring Economies (ICNE)
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology
(USST)
December 12, 2017
