China’s top defence university is piloting a scheme that allows PhD students to graduate with a product or design instead of a thesis in an effort to solve “bottleneck” engineering problems amid the tech race with the United States.
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Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) – dubbed one of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence” because of its contributions to defence research and technology – is exploring new approaches to fostering engineers. These include removing traditional academic papers as a mandatory degree requirement, according to a report by the China Science Daily last week.
In September, Wei Lianfeng, an engineer-turned-doctoral candidate, became the university’s first PhD student to successfully pass his oral defence and obtain his degree based solely on practical results.
His research focuses on developing vacuum laser welding processes and designing and manufacturing associated equipment. To evaluate the practicality of his work, HIT invited several industry experts to serve on the oral defence panel.
Being a scientist in China today is no longer just about publishing in prestigious journals or defending a 100-page thesis. It is about solving real-world problems and building things that work, especially when the future of national technological survival hangs in the balance.
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Since 2022, China has been quietly rolling out a nationwide pilot programme to reimagine engineering education from the ground up. Backed by the Ministry of Education and eight other key agencies, the initiative targets several strategically vital fields – from semiconductors to quantum computing – where theoretical knowledge alone will not break through US-led technological blockades.