Major: Law Major code: 0301
This document is drafted based on the related content of Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Academic Degrees, The Interim implementation measures of the degree regulations of the People's Republic of China, The Tentative Regulations on Degree Awarding for the International Students issued by the National Degree Committee, Guidance of Ningbo University on the Training Program of Full-time Graduate Students (NINGDAZHENG [2009] No.68) and The Study Management Regulation of Ningbo University for International Graduate Students (NINGDAZHENG[2017]No.23), combined with the actual situation of university and law school.
Chapter I Educational Objectives
1. The students are required to master the solid basic theory, the systematical professional knowledge and scientific research method, to have ability to innovate. They will be the research-oriented talents who can be independently engaged in the field of scientific research, teaching and other work.
2. The students are required to master Chinese language and read Chinese document literature Proficiently. They will be familiar with Chinese law, China's national conditions, Chinese culture and be the applied, compound and multinational talents who can be independently engaged in the field of practical work.
Chapter II Educational System and Length of Schooling
Master of Law for International Students (Full-time) implements flexible educational system, and the length of schooling is from 2.5 to 3 years. The longest schooling (including suspension and retention of student status) is five years. Exceptional students can prolong their length of schooling for the special occasion.
Chapter III Research Fields
1. Civil and Commercial Law
2. International Law
3. Environment and Resource Law
4. Constitution and Administrative Law
Chapter IV Cultivation System and Credit Requirement
1. Cultivation System
As an integrated system, the cultivation system of Master of Law Major for International Students can be divided into two parts: course learning and dissertation work.
(a) The curriculum of Master of Law Major for International Students can be divided into three parts: core courses, expanding courses and required parts. The core courses are degree courses, including public degree courses and specialized degree courses. The expanding courses are non-degree courses. The required parts include legal literature search, thesis writing, academic norms and academic exchange activities.
According to the training needs, students who are admitted to transfer to the Law School should select 2-3 undergraduate courses of Law Major as remedial courses under the guidance of tutors. The remedial courses will not be open separately. The students should pay the fees according to the relevant regulations of the school, and take the undergraduate courses. The assessment is the same as the undergraduates. The results of the remedial courses are recorded only, and they will not be included in the total credits in the elective period of the Master of Law.
To widen the academic horizon of the students, to promote the students take the initiative to care and know the development of the discipline and the related discipline frontier, we encourage the students to actively participate in various graduate academic forums, the discipline and the related discipline frontier lectures, academic report and other academic activities. The students should submit a written report, and meet the requirement, and then the mentor will sign the report.
The academic norm is the sum of various codes of conduct that should be observed in academic activities. These specifications run throughout the academic research implementation (for example topic selection, concrete research, records and data arrangement, completed and published research results, etc.) and academic research management link (for example the application and review of the research subject, academic achievements appraisal and awards, etc.), and the mentor is responsible for the guidance and assessment.
Master of Law for International Students carries out credit system. The class hours are including on-class period and off-class period, and 16 class hours for a credit. Off-class period is including independent learning, preparing reports, etc.
(b) The dissertation work of Master of Law is an important part to cultivate students to master scientific research methods and study science. And it ensures the quality of dissertation mainly through managing and monitoring the process of the thesis proposal, intermediate inspection, dissertation evaluation, thesis defense, etc.
2. Credit Requirement
Master of Law students should take 30 credits at least. Among them, there are 7 credits for public degree courses, 10 credits for specialized degree courses, 10 credits for expanding courses and 3 credits for required parts.
Chapter V Curriculum and Credit
1. Curriculum is as follows:
There are 6 core courses and 17 credits in total. Among them, there are 7 credits for 2 public degree courses and 10 credits for 4 specialized degree courses (basic course platform).
There are four directions in expanding courses and each direction will set 5-9 courses. The course of Legal History of China and Foreign Countries is set for 4 credits, and the others are set for 2 credits. Students are required to complete 10 credits in their own direction.
The required parts include legal literature search, thesis writing and academic norms, and academic exchange activities. There is 1 credit for each part.
2. The curriculum and credit allocation of Master of Law are detailed in the curriculum table in attachment.
Chapter VI Development of Training Plan
In accordance with the requirements of the professional training program, the students of Master of Law should formulate individual training plans jointly with the mentor in combination with their own characteristics, and it should be finished generally within one month of admission. Individual training plans should be planned for the research direction, course study (including remedial courses), literature reading and review, scientific research, practice training, etc. The development and alteration of individual training plans should be subject to the approval of the person who in charge of this discipline. It should be archived and managed by the college, and should be reported to the graduate school for the record.
Chapter VII Teaching and Assessment
1. The teaching should actively promote the teaching innovation based on the main body (teachers and students) and the bidirectional interaction. It should give full play to the students’ initiative and self-consciousness. The teaching takes a variety of forms such as face-to-face lectures, class discussions, special lectures, writing papers, academic reports, self-study and so on. It greater uses the heuristic, discussion-based and participatory teaching methods.
On literature reading, the master students are required to improve the ability of absorbing frontier disciplines knowledge through the literature, to exercise the theoretical and logical thinking ability and language expression ability through discussion, and then achieve the purpose of broadening the academic horizon, creating innovative thinking. The specific requirements should be implemented according to the relevant regulations of Ningbo University.
2. The course teaching should be completed within 1.5 years after the enrollment, and the course teaching can be concentrated in a certain period according to the actual needs.
3. The final course assessment can be done in two ways: examinations and tests. Among core courses, the examinations of public degree courses should be closed-book with no notes allowed, and the examinations of the specialized degree courses can be combined with the closed-book examinations and tests. The expanding courses can be assessed according to the way stipulated in the syllabus, and it aims to investigate the students' abilities and generally take the test.
4. The Examinations use the percentage grading system, and the tests use the five-grade system with excellent, good, medium, pass and fail. The required parts use the two-grade system with pass and fail. The score of the course is 60 divided into qualified. Students who fail in examinations of degree courses or tests of elective courses should take a make-up examination. Students who fail in the make-up examination should retake the courses.
5. The examination proposition must focuses on testing the ability of students' use of knowledge in finding, analyzing and solving problems. It should pay attention to arousing and guiding students’ inspiration and innovative ability. It should have certain coverage. The difficulty should be moderate, and the quantity of the question should be adequate.
Chapter VIII Academic Dissertation
1. The dissertation work is an important training link. The master's thesis should be completed independently under the guidance of the mentor. The topic selection of thesis should have the application value or theoretical significance, and we encourage the students to select the topic directly faced to economic and social development. After the title of the thesis is determined, the length for the dissertation work is generally not less than one year.
2. The system of reporting on master's degree thesis should be arranged at the end of the postgraduate courses and not later than the end of the third term. The students should apply first on the basis of Literature Search. The students should submit a thesis proposal about significance, literature review, research plan and objectives, research ideas, basic contents of the thesis and the theoretical difficulties under the guidance of tutor. And then the students should revise the thesis proposal according to the experts’ feedback collected. The students who fail in the expert-evaluating part should submit the thesis proposal again. The students who want change the topic of the thesis should submit the thesis proposal again.
3. After completing the first draft of the thesis, the students should be organized to take the paper detection, blind review and defense according to the related management rules for master's degree awarding at Ningbo University. When the dissertation defense is passed, the students should revise the thesis according to the review and defense opinions to form a formal master's thesis.
4. The dissertation of Master of Law can be written in both Chinese and English, and we encourage the students to write the thesis in Chinese. The students must observe academic norms and academic ethics.
Chapter IX Training Methods
The cultivation of Master of Law implements the training methods combined with the collective cultivation of the mentor and professional guidance group.
1. The program attach importance to the cultivation of professional dedication spirit, teamwork spirit, innovative ability and ability to solve practical problems and language expression.
2. The interim provisions of the quantitative index system of scientific research achievements awarded by Ningbo University has been temporarily suspended to the students of Master of Law.
