Graduate Program

Recruiting promising Ph.D. candidates and excellent master candidates from elite universities in China every year, the program cultivates top talents with a solid academic background, a wide range of knowledge and vision, comprehensive and practical abilities, and a strong social responsibility.

Computational Mathematics Branch

Computational mathematics branch recruits about 10-13 Ph.D. candidates and 10 master candidates every year. The program offers students more than 30 professionally-related courses including Theories and Methods for Optimization, Parallel Computation II, Partial Differential Equations, Hyperbolic Partial Differential Equations, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Operation Research, Functional Analysis II, Stochastic Simulation Methods, Fluid Mechanics II, Finite Element Method II, Applied Partial Differential Equations, Convex Optimization, Topics in Stochastic Modeling and Simulations, Selected Multilevel Algorithms and Randomized Algorithms, Computational Systems Biology, Finite Difference Method II, Boundary Integral Method, Structure-Preserving Discretization and Multi-scale Solution Methods for Differential Forms and Equations, Mathematics of Data, Spectral Methods, etc. All doctoral students should take 3 required compulsory courses (at least one from Theories and Methods for Optimization, Parallel Computation II) and 8 elective professionally-related courses based on their individual background and research interest. They should also attend academic lectures at least 6 times every semester. Master students should take 3 compulsory courses and 6 elective professionally-related courses based on their individual background and research interest, and attend at least 4 times every semester. All graduate students must take part in teaching to get 2 credits. This can be fulfilled by serving as a teaching assistant (TA).

Information Science Branch

Information Science branch recruits about 8 Ph.D. candidates and 5 master candidates every year. Professionally-related courses for the program include Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Symbolic Computation, Formal Methods in Software Development, Artificial Neural Networks, Machine Learning, Principles of Programming Languages, Selected Topics on Software Theory and Methods, Topics in Modern Information Processing, Pattern Recognition, Image Processing, Mathematical Methods in Biomedical Imaging, Intelligent Computation, Mathematical Theory for information Optics and Its Applications, Information Security, Digital Signal Processing, Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science, Fundamentals of Information Science, Computer Graphics, Cryptography, Mathematical Logic, Information Theory, Programming Techniques and Methodology, etc. All students are required to take 3 compulsory courses (Design and Analysis of Algorithms and two other courses required by supervisors). Doctoral students should take 8 other elective courses based on their background and own research interest. Master students should take 6 other elective courses. Based on supervisors’ suggestions, students can take graduate-level courses from other departments in Peking University as elective courses. Attending the seminar hosted by the supervisor can be counted as an elective course only for one time.

Graduation Requirements

Students in the doctoral degree program should pass the qualifying examination before the end of the sixth semester. For students in the computational mathematics branch, one subject of the qualifying examination is Computational Methods. The other is chosen, at the discretion of their supervisor, from the subjects Analysis, Algebra, Differential Equations, Probability, Digital Signal Processing, Algorithm and Data Structure, Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science. For students in the information science Branch, one subject is Algorithm and Data Structure. The other subject is chosen from the Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science and Signal and Information Processing.

With a successful pass of these two exams, the student is eligible to work towards the Ph.D. degree and enters into the research stage. Master candidates can also apply for the doctoral program if they pass the qualifying exams during the period of Master program, and their course credits can be counted in the Ph.D. program.

A Ph.D. student is required to give a pre-defense of the dissertation work to the defense committee, 6 months before the final defense. A student who fails the pre-defense may apply for an extension of study. During their study, the doctoral candidates are required to publish at least one paper in an SCI-indexed journal (or 1 paper in an SSCI journal, or 2 papers in EI journals). The published research paper has to be a part of the dissertation. In consideration of the lengthy waiting period, a paper being accepted by the time of graduation is deemed as a publication. This requirement can be waived for students who have tried to challenge the difficult problems and have made substantial progress in research. In this case, the advisor should submit a petition to the academic degrees committee of SMS for approval. A Ph.D. dissertation is anonymously reviewed by 5 experts, including at least two experts outside Peking University in the same discipline, and is voted for the approval to give the defense. The defense is scheduled when all 5 reviews are positive. If 2 or more reviews are negative, the procedure is terminated. If only one negative review is received, the sixth review will be sent to an expert in the field. Depending on the outcome of the sixth review, defense will be held if the outcome is positive, and will be terminated otherwise. The defense committee usually consists of 5 professors, with at least 2 from outside PKU. The supervisor cannot serve on the defense committee. A two-thirds majority of the committee votes will determine whether the defense is successful or not. Graduate students in the Master program also have to defend their thesis in a similar procedure with a lighter standard. For example, the defense committee is consists of 3 faculty members. It normally takes 5 years for a bachelor to obtain a Ph.D. degree. For students who have already had a degree of MS, the expected duration is 3 to 4 years. The Master program normally takes 3 years.