The Graduate School of Jilin University (JLU) was established in June 1984 as one of the first twenty-two graduate schools among Chinese national leading universities, which was approved for trial operation by China’s State Council. In 1996, it was authorized by the former State Education Commission in China. 

     JLU Graduate education can be traced back to as early as 1949 when the University began to offer graduate certificate programs. In 1952, the University started to enroll students in three-year graduate programs. In 1978, it began to offer graduate degree programs. In 1985, with the approval of the State Council, Jilin University became one of the first institutions to have post doctoral programs. Up to now, 7,524 graduate students have graduated from Jilin University with doctoral degrees and 46,444 with master degrees

      In June 2000, Jilin University was merged with other five universities and colleges including the former Jilin University of Science and Technology, the former Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences, the former Changchun University of Science and Technology, and the former Changchun Institute of Post and Telecommunications, which used to be administrated by different ministries of the Chinese government such as the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Land Resources, and the Ministry of Information Industry in China. In 2004, the former Munitions University of the PLA also joined Jilin University. With the merging, graduate education has been expanded as well.

     As one of the national leading and research universities with the most complete academic disciplines and largest student population, Jilin University has 12 major disciplines, including philosophy, economics, law, literature, education, history, science, engineering, medicine, agriculture, management and military science. It confers doctoral programs in 28 first-level disciplines[1], 195 sub-discipline, 285 sub-discipline master’s programs, and 11 professional degree programs. There are 4 national key first-level disciplines (covering 17 sub-fields), 15 national key sub-disciplines, 4 national key (cultivating) disciplines, and 30 post doctoral programs. Currently, JLU Graduate School is enrolled over 19,000 full-time students in doctoral and master’s programs and 5,000 part-time graduate students in professional degree programs.

     Jilin University has strong faculty. There are 6,369 faculty members, including 1,484 (full?) professors, 1032 PhD supervisors, and 2,922 master’s supervisors. There are 18 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (9 are jointly appointed), 2 members of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, 18 members of the discipline evaluation groups of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, 5 chief experts of the Central Marxism Theoretical Research and Construction Project, 2 Chief Scientists of the National “973” Project, 14 Young and Middle-Aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions, 25 winners of the National Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and 18 professors in Scholars Program and Program for Scholars and Innovative Research Team.