Soon after its founding, USTC began to recruit graduate students. In 1978 with ratification from the State Council, USTC set up the first graduate school in China. In 1981, USTC became one of the first to be endorsed with the rights of conferring doctorate and master degrees by the State Council. In 1983, the first conferring ceremony of a doctorate degree was held at the People�s Great Hall. Among the 18 doctors, seven were cultivated by USTC. A solid leading position in graduate cultivation came into being from that day on. In 1995, USTC was among the top ten in the comprehensive evaluation on graduate schools sponsored by the Office of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and Office for Graduates� Affairs of the Ministry of Education. In 1998, USTC was named a key base for the cultivation of doctorate students by the CAS. In 1999, the graduate school of USTC was conferred the title of "National Excellent Unit in Supervision and Management of Academic Degree and Graduate Students" by the Office of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. In the Ninth Five Year Plan period, USTC was one of the first to enter the national 211 Project for preferential support from the government. In 1999, the government included USTC in one of the nine universities for focused construction into a high-level university of world renown. The cultivation of graduate candidates in USTC has stepped into a whole new era. From 1978 (the revival of recruiting graduate candidates) to January 2002, USTC has conferred doctorate degrees on 1023 students and master degrees to 4992 candidates. Starting from 1999, the scale of graduate students increased at a yearly rate of 30%. Currently, the school has 4238 graduate candidates, including 1012 doctoral and 3226 master degree students.

Besides its salient characteristics in science and engineering, USTC also covers such fields as management, philosophy, law and humanities, with a collection of new intersecting disciplines. Now the school has nine schools, 13 subjects conferring doctorate degrees, 76 doctoral disciplines and 95 master degree disciplines. It also offers programs for an MBA, MPA and Master of Engineering, and has 13 post-doctoral fellow mobile stations, 29 disciplines for post-doctoral fellow mobile stations, 19 national key disciplines, and 6 disciplines with focused support from the National 211 Project. The school also has 19 key disciplines at the provincial level, one national laboratory, 2 national key laboratories, 7 open laboratories of CAS, and 4 National Personnel Cultivation Bases in Sciences and Life Science. All these serve as solid foundations for the cultivation of graduate students.

Many excellent professors serve as supervisors in USTC, including 16 academicians of the CAS and CAE, 3 young and middle-aged scholars with National Outstanding Accomplishments, 7 professors of the "Cheung Kong Scholarship Programme" of the Ministry of Education, and 65 scholars of the Hundred Talent Project of the CAS. The school has 312 doctorate supervisors, 40% of which are under 45 years old, and 821 master degree supervisors. Being ambitious, energetic and innovative, many of them have become leaders and foundational in scientific research with renown both at home and abroad. They are affecting their graduate students with their active minds and serious attitudes toward scientific research.

It has been a persistent principle for graduate education at USTC to "stick to China, face the world, and carry out active and broad academic exchange and cooperation". Since 1978, USTC has set up cooperative relationship with about 100 institutes of the CAS, over 40 famous universities and institutes in about 20 countries and regions. All the year round, about 200 foreign experts come to USTC for lecturing or cooperation and exchange. Many world famous scientists are engaged as honorary professors, honorary doctors or visiting professors to USTC, including Prof. C. N. Yang, Prof. T. D. Lee, Prof. S. C. C. Ting, Prof. Y. T. Lee, Prof. Shing-tung Yau, Prof. C. W. Chu, Prof. J. M. Lehn, and Prof. A. Zeilinger. Backed up with these strong advantages in it's disciplines, high-quality supervisors and broad academic exchanges, the cultivation of graduates in USTC has formed its own unique characteristic.

USTC also sticks to the combination of frontier science and high technology, and the cultivation of high-quality personnel in new and intersecting disciplines. Thousands of doctoral and master degree graduates from USTC have a solid foundation in basic knowledge, excellent English, computer applications, a strong ability for scientific research, a broad horizon of adaptability, outstanding comprehensive qualities and sufficient stamina. Many of them have become the new generation of leaders in scientific research; some of them are now stars in the field of entrepreneurship, and some of them are academicians of the CAS and the Third World Academy. They are exhibiting their abilities in teaching, research, the economy and social development and gaining honor both for the Chinese people and USTC. The statistics show that for years USTC has taken a leading role in the number of papers and the citations in the Science Citation Index (SCI) among other top universities on the Chinese mainland. 40% of the papers are first-authored by USTC graduates. Since 1999, USTC altogether has had 8 papers conferred with the National 100 Hundred Excellent Doctorate Papers Award.

USTC takes an active role in the cultivation of innovative personnel oriented by the international frontier of science and technology. Sticking to the national goals and the principle of innovation, the school warmly encourages the graduates to probe into the challenging disciplines or high-tech tasks. The statistics show that almost all the graduates participate in the supervisor�s research groups. Most of the students� theses are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, the National 863 Project, the National Climbing Project, the National 973 Project and other projects. Many of the graduate candidates have had their papers published in academic journals including SCI and EI. Outstandingly, three doctorate students have had their papers published in Nature and Science. In the year 2000, the Hong Kong Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundation set up the "Qiu Shi Scholarship" in USTC and such famous scientists as Prof. C. N. Yang and Prof. ZHOU Guangzhao came to USTC to confer the awards to the laurelled.

At the commencement of this new century, graduate cultivation comes into a whole new stage of development. USTC has set the guideline of "headed by discipline construction, focused on the cultivation of high-quality talent and guided by the construction of first-class base for high-level personnel cultivation". Therefore, USTC is taking and will take the following measures. First, it targets cultivating first-class graduates for the world. The school will keep a close eye on the development of other famous universities world renown for the teaching of graduates. USTC will make new outlines and programs for the cultivation of graduates by learning from their experiences. The school will also provide new courses reflecting the frontiers of high technology and the disciplines so as to keep up with the latest development of graduate cultivation in the world. Second, USTC will apply flexible measures for talent selection and cultivation. It will provide a series of programs for continuous studies from Bachelor�s degree to Master�s degree to Doctor�s degree, and from Bachelor�s degree to Doctor�s degree, and from Master�s degree to Doctor�s degree. The school will also jointly cultivate graduates with famous universities in Europe, America, Japan, Hong Kong and other countries or regions, and the institutes affiliated with the CAS. The "Graduates Cultivation Program in Intersecting Disciplines" will be actively carried out. Also, in order to exhibit their abilities in new subjects, strengthen their research in meeting the great demands and trends in national construction and high-technology, USTC will fully cooperate with famous enterprises (e.g. the Legend Group, the Huawei Technologies) in graduate education. Third, USTC will strive to better the studying and living conditions for the graduates. It takes a leading role in encouraging graduate students to work as assistant teachers or assistant graduates. By doing so, the graduates may on the one hand have their abilities and sense of responsibility enhanced. One the other hand, they may have their living conditions improved with the subsidy. The university also set up the Public Experiments Center, which is very advanced and mainly for the cultivation of graduates. It provides good facilities for graduates to participate in domestic and international academic conferences and keep up with the latest development of science and technology throughout the world.

In accordance with the national "Education Innovation Project in the 21st Century", the Ministry of Education elaborately chose nine universities throughout China in 1999. These nine universities will be built with becoming world renowned in mind with special financial support from the related ministries, provinces and municipals. USTC is one of the nine universities. Recently, the construction projects in the Tenth Five Year Plan and 211 Project have been carried out. All these will undoubtedly input new impetus for the reform and development of graduate cultivation at USTC. We warmly welcome students both at home and abroad. USTC will provide excellent conditions and facilities for education and will help students succeed.