Zhejiang University runs degree evaluation through three tiers of committee: 学科级 (discipline), 学部级 (faculty) and the university 学位评定委员会. Which tier signs off depends on your degree level, and both master's and doctoral decisions start with your school.
The framework was rewritten for the new law. The 《浙江大学学位授予工作细则》 was issued on 30 December 2024 and took effect on 1 January 2025, the same day as China's 学位法 (Academic Degrees Law). It replaced the 2004 rules outright, so a ZJU document dated before that is background, not a rule.
The two-stage gate: review, then defence
Article 12 of the 2024 rules puts expert review before the defence. Your school sends the thesis out, and only a thesis that passes review enters the defence procedure. That mirrors Article 25 of the 学位法.
What is distinctive at ZJU is the layer on top. Under the 《博士硕士学位论文抽检及结果处理办法（试行）》, the university degree office pulls a further sample at the review stage, before the defence:
| Doctoral | Master's | |
|---|---|---|
| Sampling proportion | About 15% of that round's doctoral applicants | About 5% of that round's master's applicants |
| Reviewers per sampled thesis | 5 | 3 |
| Method | Double-blind, peer experts appointed by the degree office | Double-blind |
| "Problem thesis" trigger | 2 experts judging it below standard or grading it poor | Same |
| One negative report | 2 further reviewers; 2 or more negatives cumulatively makes it a problem thesis | Same |
The consequences are immediate rather than academic. A thesis found to be a 存在问题学位论文 (problem thesis) cannot apply for a defence and that degree application round terminates. You revise to the reviewers' comments, your school checks it, and the degree office re-runs the double-blind review. The sampling verdict is final and decisive for whether you can defend at all.
The document is blunt about supervisors too. A problem thesis found in national or provincial sampling suspends the supervisor's admissions at that level for 3 years and cuts their unit's quota by 3 places for two consecutive years. Found in ZJU's own sampling, it is 2 years and 2 places. Two problem theses from the same supervisor within five years cancels their admissions for 5 years.
How blind review verdicts actually work
ZJU sends theses through the review platform the university degree office designates, which for many schools is the Ministry of Education's 学位与研究生教育评估工作平台. The Computer Science and Software school's review rules, revised in December 2023, are the clearest published account of what the verdicts mean.
Reviewers assess four elements (literature review, topic selection, research results, and the writing itself) and give an overall grade of A (excellent), B (good), C (average) or D (poor). Separately they give a defence opinion:
- A. Agree to defend
- B. Agree after minor revisions, no resubmission needed
- C. Major revisions needed before defending, resubmit for review
- D. Does not meet the standard, do not agree to defend
The MOE platform sends each thesis to 3 reviewers for a master's and 5 for a doctorate. Review fails, and the degree application round terminates, if any overall grade is D, if any reviewer refuses to agree to a defence, or if two or more say major revisions are needed.
Between pass and fail there is a graded middle:
| Result | What happens |
|---|---|
| One "major revisions", all other grades B or above with at least one A | Revise, return to reviewers after at least 30 days |
| Two or more grades of C, but reviewers still agree to a defence | One extra reviewer, who must grade B or above, or the application terminates |
| One "major revisions" not meeting the first condition | Revise, return to the original reviewers after at least 60 days |
| Application terminated | Reapply only three months after the comments come back, with a resubmission form signed by your supervisor |
Those are one school's rules, not the university's. Get your own school's version. But the shape is common across ZJU, and the waiting periods are the part students consistently fail to plan for.
Format: the writing rules
The 《浙江大学研究生学位论文编写规则》 sets a three-part structure of front matter, body and end matter, with each part specified.
| Element | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Title | Normally no more than 25 Chinese characters; English title normally no more than 150 letters |
| Chinese abstract | Master's around 300-500 characters; doctoral 500-1,000 |
| Keywords | 4-8, on a new line at the end of the abstract |
| Body text | 仿宋 小四号 or 12pt, 1.5 line spacing; chapter headings 小三号仿宋加黑 |
| Headers | 小五号宋体; left reads 浙江大学博（硕）士学位论文, right the first-level heading |
| Page numbers | Roman numerals for front matter, Arabic continuous for body and end matter |
| Institution code | 10335 on the cover |
Two fields on the cover trip people up. 密级 (classification) is only for theses whose project comes from a national-defence source. If yours is not classified, leave it blank rather than writing "none". And 分类号 is the Chinese Library Classification number for your subject.
The rules also build the anonymised version into the template. Where review is 双向隐名 (two-way anonymous), the author's and supervisor's names are left off the cover, and the title page omits the reviewer names. School notices add that the review copy must not show your name, student number, supervisor, institute or the university anywhere, and that it carries no acknowledgements.
Your title page carries the signatures of you and your supervisor, the names, titles and institutions of up to five reviewers where review was not anonymous, the defence committee chair and members, and the defence date. Plan for that page to be completed late.
The writing rules set out both a Chinese and an English abstract as standard. If you are an international student on an English-taught programme, ask your school in writing what language the body may be in and what the Chinese-language requirement is for you, before you draft. ZJU's published university-level rules do not settle this for every programme.
The 答辩
The 2024 rules set the binding floor:
| Master's | Doctoral | |
|---|---|---|
| Committee | At least 3 | At least 5, of whom at least 2 external |
| Advance copy | Thesis to members before the defence | Thesis to members before the defence |
| Vote | Ballot, two-thirds of all members | Ballot, two-thirds of all members |
| Publicity | Public unless state secrets are involved | Public unless state secrets are involved |
The result is formed as a resolution and announced on the spot. If the defence fails, you may revise and reapply with the committee's agreement. A doctoral committee that finds your work at master's standard may, with your consent, resolve to recommend a master's degree, provided you do not already hold one from ZJU in that discipline.
An older university-level procedure still circulated by ZJU schools fills in the operational detail: doctoral theses to reviewers 45 days before the defence and to committee members 30 days before; master's theses one month and 15 days respectively; defence notices posted two days ahead within the school for master's and three days ahead across the campus for doctoral candidates.
That document dates from 2009 and its substantive requirements, including its publication counts, have been overtaken. ZJU's current procedural rules sit in 《浙江大学研究生学位申请实施办法（试行）》, now 浙大发研〔2024〕53号. We could not retrieve that document's text, so treat any specific figure from the 2009 version as a planning estimate to confirm with your school, not as a rule.
Similarity checking
ZJU does not publish a university-wide 查重 (chá chóng) percentage. Schools do. The School of Information Science and Electronic Engineering publishes an 8% overall text overlap standard: below it, you and your supervisor revise, you re-upload the anonymised thesis and proceed; at or above 8%, you must revise carefully and complete the 《浙江大学硕士、博士学位论文修改审核表》 with your supervisor's signature before the application can go forward.
Two operational points from that page matter whatever your school's number is. You run the check yourself on the Graduate School website, and you get one attempt. And you upload the anonymised version, not the named one.
Deposit and delayed release
Before you leave, you give the library one printed copy and one electronic copy through its submission system, and you are personally responsible for their completeness and accuracy. Review takes around two working days.
Doctoral theses are also deposited with the National Library of China and relevant specialist libraries, under Article 18 of the 2024 rules and Article 30 of the 学位法. From there they reach CNKI (中国知网) and Wanfang.
If you need to delay that, select the delay period under the confidentiality setting in the submission system and file the 《浙江大学研究生学位论文暂缓送交收藏单位申请表》 from the Graduate School. The library does not publish a maximum, so confirm the length your school will approve before submission.
Separately, the copyright authorisation you sign lets ZJU keep and forward copies, permit consultation and borrowing, and include the thesis in databases. For a classified thesis, that authorisation only takes effect after declassification.
Afterwards
The national sampling scheme applies once you have graduated: around 10% of doctoral theses and 5% of master's theses each year, drawn from the previous academic year's awards, three reviewers each, with two "unqualified" verdicts making it a problem thesis.
Article 24 of the 2024 rules carries the 学位法 grounds for refusing or revoking a degree: ghostwriting, plagiarism or fabrication in the thesis; identity fraud or illegitimate admission; other serious unlawful conduct during study. Article 34 adds that where the university committee finds a degree was wrongly awarded, it may revoke it on reconsideration.
You are not without recourse. Article 27 gives you 学术复核 (academic re-review) if you dispute an academic evaluation from review, the defence or outcome assessment: the relevant committee must reconvene experts and decide within 30 days, and that decision is final. Article 28 gives a parallel 30-day review of a refusal to accept, award or a revocation.
Pre-submission checklist
- Working from the 2024 degree rules, in force since 1 January 2025
- My school's current review and application rules obtained in writing
- Title within 25 Chinese characters, English title within 150 letters
- Chinese and English abstracts at the right length, 4-8 keywords
- 密级 left blank because my thesis is not classified
- Anonymised version prepared: no name, student number, supervisor, institute, university, no acknowledgements
- Similarity check run once, at or under my school's threshold, revision form filed if needed
- Review submitted early enough to absorb a 30 or 60 day resubmission
- Defence notice posted for the required period
- Title page signatures, reviewer and committee details complete
- One print and one electronic copy to the library before leaving
- Delayed-deposit form filed if I need one, before submission
Where to get help
Your school's 研究生教育科 (graduate education office) runs the review platform, the deadlines and the thresholds. The Graduate School and the degree committee office own the award rules, the writing rules and the sampling. The library handles deposit and the delayed-release form.
If the writing itself is the obstacle, our thesis writing support works chapter by chapter, and the pricing page sets out what that costs.
One last note on timing, drawn from a school notice for the 2025 spring cohort: applications submitted after the school's cut-off were simply treated as June graduations instead. At ZJU, missing a review deadline does not delay you by a week. It delays you by a graduation round.
