Wuhan University (武汉大学, Wǔhàn Dàxué) runs a centralised process for the degree thesis, the 学位论文 (xuéwèi lùnwén). The graduate school publishes the rules for both the 硕士 (shuòshì, master's) and 博士 (bóshì, doctoral) levels, and the schools and departments fill in the detail. Knowing which layer owns which rule is most of the battle here.
The law changed in 2025
The 学位法 (xuéwèi fǎ, Academic Degrees Law) came into force on 1 January 2025 and repealed the 1980 Regulations on Academic Degrees. Most guidance you will find online, including some still linked from university sites, predates it.
Three parts of it apply directly to you:
| Article | What it says |
|---|---|
| 25 | Your thesis must be sent to expert reviewers before the defence is organised |
| 26 | Master's defence committee: at least 3 members. Doctoral: at least 5, of whom at least 2 from outside the university |
| 27 | If the defence is not passed, with the committee's agreement you may revise within a set period and apply again |
| 30 | Doctoral theses must be deposited with the National Library and the relevant specialist library |
| 37 | A degree may be withheld or revoked for ghostwriting (代写), plagiarism (剽窃) or falsification (伪造) |
| 39 | Before such a decision, you must be told the facts, reasons and basis, and be heard |
| 40 | You may apply for 学术复核 (academic review) of an evaluation you disagree with; the university must re-organise experts and decide within 30 days |
Article 44 confirms that overseas applicants are assessed under the same conditions and procedures. Being an international student does not put you outside this framework.
Article 40 matters more than it looks. If you believe a blind review report is wrong on the facts, you have a statutory route to contest it, and a 30-day clock on the university. That decision is final, so put your best case in the first time.
The timetable is the thing to plan around
Wuhan runs two degree cycles a year, and the doctoral regulations fix the dates rather than leaving them to your supervisor.
| Stage | First half of the year | Second half |
|---|---|---|
| Doctoral thesis sent for online review | by end of April | by end of October |
| Doctoral review period | 40 days before the defence | 40 days before the defence |
| Master's review | 30 days before the defence | 30 days before the defence |
| Defence completed | by end of May | by end of November |
Work backwards from that. A doctoral thesis that is not finished and approved by your supervisor in early April does not get reviewed in that cycle, and you wait six months.
盲审: who actually reads your thesis
Doctoral theses go through 双盲评审 (shuāngmáng píngshěn, double-blind review). Wuhan does not run this in-house. Theses go onto the Ministry of Education Degree Centre's online review platform, and three reviewers are appointed, drawn from experts outside the province. You do not know who they are and they do not know who you are. Strip identifying material from the anonymised copy, including acknowledgements and self-citations phrased as "our previous work".
Master's theses take a different route. Two reviewers are appointed by your school, at least one from outside Wuhan University, and they grade the thesis 优秀 (excellent), 良好 (good), 合格 (pass) or 不合格 (fail). If one reviewer returns 不合格, the school may appoint a further reviewer for a re-review.
查重: the number your school sets, not the university
查重 (chá chóng) is the mandatory similarity check, run through an academic misconduct detection system. Every research degree thesis at Wuhan goes through it before the defence.
Wuhan University does not publish a single university-wide threshold. The schools do, and they differ, which is exactly why you should not borrow a figure from a friend in another faculty:
| School | Published limit | Rechecks | If you exceed it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economics and Management | 30% in the literature review, 10% elsewhere | One recheck allowed | Normally deferred to the next semester or later; exceptions decided by the school's degree sub-committee |
| Remote Sensing and Information Engineering (doctoral) | 15% overall | One check only, in May or October | Defence postponed by six months |
Get your own school's current figure, in writing, before you start writing up. A threshold that splits the literature review from the rest of the thesis, as Economics and Management does, changes how you draft; a flat 15% with a single attempt, as in Remote Sensing, leaves no room to test and revise.
Formatting: follow the printing specification
The doctoral printing specification is precise, and the same house style informs master's theses.
- Paper: A4 (210 x 297mm), printed double-sided
- Margins: at least 25mm on all four sides
- Body text: 宋体 at 小四号, line spacing set to a minimum of 20 points
- Page numbers: the Chinese abstract is numbered separately in Roman numerals, the English abstract continues that sequence, and Arabic numbering restarts at 1 on the first page of the introduction. All page numbers sit centred in the footer.
- Running heads: even pages carry "武汉大学博士学位论文", odd pages carry your title
- Keywords: three to five, in Chinese and English, below the abstract
The binding order runs to thirteen items, and two of them catch people out. You need a 原创性声明 (declaration of originality) and a 学位论文使用授权协议书 (authorisation agreement for use of the thesis), which is the document that governs deposit in the library and national databases. Doctoral candidates also submit a separate statement of 自认为的论文创新点, your own account of what is new in the work. Draft that properly; it is the first thing an examiner reads for a sense of contribution.
Length and the Chinese abstract
| Level and field | Minimum length |
|---|---|
| Doctoral, science, engineering, medicine | 40,000 to 100,000 characters |
| Doctoral, humanities and social sciences | 100,000 to 150,000 characters |
| Master's, general | body of at least 30,000 characters |
| Master's, foreign languages and medicine | at least 20,000 characters |
If you are an international student, the language rule is the one to check first. Writing the thesis in a foreign language requires prior approval from your school's degree sub-committee and the graduate school's degree office. It is an application made before you write, not a note added at submission. Approval carries a condition: the thesis must include a detailed Chinese abstract, at least 5,000 characters for a doctoral thesis. Master's abstracts run to roughly 800 Chinese characters, and the Chinese and English versions must say the same thing.
That 5,000-character Chinese abstract is a real piece of academic writing. Budget time for it, and have a Chinese-speaking colleague or your supervisor read it before submission. If you want structured help with the English chapters themselves, our thesis writing support works chapter by chapter.
答辩: the defence
Committee composition is set centrally.
| Master's | Doctoral | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 5 members | 5 or 7 members |
| External members | Included | At least 2 from outside the university |
| Chair | A professor | An external professor who is also a doctoral supervisor |
| Your supervisor | May attend, cannot be a member | May attend, cannot be a member |
The graduate school's rules on defence conduct add two things worth knowing. Doctoral committee lists and defence schedules are published online a week in advance and filed with the graduate school. And questioning is 即问即答, answered on the spot, with no separate preparation time. Prepare to talk through your methods and your data without notes.
Passing is not the end. You are required to take the committee's comments on board and revise the thesis before the degree is awarded.
If you fail, the master's rules allow you to revise within six months or a year and apply for a new defence, consistent with Article 27 of the Academic Degrees Law.
After graduation: 学位论文抽检
This is the part with no Western equivalent, and it is worth understanding before you cut corners.
Under the national 博士硕士学位论文抽检办法, theses are sampled once a year from the previous academic year's awards: roughly 10% of doctoral theses, drawn directly from the National Library, and roughly 5% of master's theses, sampled by the provincial degree committee. Each sampled thesis goes to three peer reviewers. Two or more 不合格 verdicts make it a 存在问题学位论文 (problem thesis). A single 不合格 triggers re-review by two more experts, and one further 不合格 is enough for the same label.
The published consequences of that process fall on the institution: quality interviews for units with problem theses two years running, and possible withdrawal of the authority to award degrees at that point. Individual degree revocation is a separate matter, governed by Article 37 of the Academic Degrees Law and by the 学位论文作假行为处理办法, which covers buying or selling a thesis, ghostwriting, plagiarism and data falsification. Its penalties are severe: revocation of a degree already awarded, expulsion for enrolled students, and a bar on applying for any degree at any degree-awarding institution in China for at least three years. Supervisors who failed to supervise properly face sanctions too.
Your thesis stays accountable after you have the certificate. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a good reason to keep your data, your ethics approvals and your notes.
Deposit and public access
The 学位论文使用授权协议书 in your binding order is what authorises deposit. Doctoral theses go to the National Library under Article 30 of the Academic Degrees Law, alongside the university library, and Chinese degree theses are routinely indexed in CNKI (中国知网) and Wanfang.
We could not find a published Wuhan University procedure for 延迟公开 (embargo or delayed release). Classified theses are handled under a separate national measure on 涉密学位论文, which the graduate school lists among its regulations. If you have a commercial or patent reason to delay publication, raise it with your school's degree office before you sign the authorisation agreement, not after.
Pre-submission checklist
- Confirmed my school's current 查重 threshold in writing, and whether a recheck is allowed
- Approval obtained in advance if writing in a foreign language
- Chinese abstract written to length: roughly 800 characters at master's, at least 5,000 at doctoral level
- Chinese and English abstracts say the same thing; 3 to 5 keywords in both
- Body length meets the minimum for my level and discipline
- A4, margins at least 25mm, body in 宋体 小四号, line spacing at least 20 points
- All thirteen binding items present, including 原创性声明 and the authorisation agreement
- Doctoral: statement of 创新点 drafted, not an afterthought
- Anonymised copy stripped of identifying references for 盲审
- Thesis with supervisor in time to be sent for review by end of April or end of October
- Ready to answer questions on the spot, with no preparation time
Where to ask
Your 培养单位 (school or department) office owns the 查重 threshold, the reviewer appointments and the defence schedule. The graduate school's degree office (研究生院学位工作处) handles language approval, the degree sub-committee decisions and the formal award. Your supervisor owns scope and method.
If a school page and a general university page disagree, ask the school office which applies to your cohort and get the answer in writing. And if the writing is where you are stuck rather than the regulations, our research paper support covers the journal articles many Wuhan doctoral students need alongside the thesis.
