As the software industry becomes a pillar industry in national economy, the discipline of Software Engineering becomes one of the fast developing disciplines in Information Technology. The development in this field has a wind-range, multidimensional, multilayer and interdisciplinary architecture. The knowledge in this field includes software requirement, software design, software test, software maintenance, software configuration management, software project management, software quality, software security and software ethics and laws. It is also connected with various disciplines such as system engineering, domain engineering, digital technology, system management and support, network and information security, embedded system and marketing.

1. Objectives

The cultivation objectives focus on fundamental software theory. Complying with development of software technology and demand of software industry and following international software development mode, master degree graduates of the discipline are research-oriented talents with solid knowledge of software engineering theory, software development technology and software development process.

Masters of the discipline are expected to be familiar with advanced programming technologies, mainstream operating system and software development platforms. On graduation, they should be qualified for system analysis, design and programming by following international software development mode and standards. They should also have basic knowledge of project management and be capable of using modern software technology and tools. They should also be competent in scientific researches related to the fields of software engineering, system and software design, development and management.

Masters of the discipline are also expected to have a basic knowledge of Chinese history and culture, and be capable of reading Chinese scientific literatures in simple Chinese and communicating with basic skills in Chinese language.

2. Orientations

1) Network security and network engineering

2) Software theory

3) Embedded software technology and application

4) Digital information processing

5) Cloud computing and big data

6) Intelligent computing

3. Duration

The duration set for master candidates is 2 years full-time. An extension can be applied for by those who cannot finish their courses in time owing to objective causes, yet altogether 4 years is the last due.

4. Progression and Requirements

The minimum sum total credits for international students of master candidates are 26. Master candidates should complete the course work of no less than a total of 24 credits (out of which at least 15 credits should be acquired from degree courses), compulsory sections of no less than 2 credits, complete the thesis (or a research report) independently, and pass the degree thesis defense.

The supervisor responsibility mechanism is adopted in the education for international master candidates. The supervisor is responsible for the student’s making of personal study plan, the choice of courses, and the completion of the degree thesis. The personal study plan cannot be changed without permission of the supervisor.

During the course work, according to specifications by the discipline, the student is to pass examinations held for the degree courses and examinations or assessments held for the other optional courses. Of all the degree courses, common core courses are compulsory. Master candidates are allowed to choose 1~2 inter-disciplinary core courses as their degree courses under supervisors’ guidance. Degree courses can be taken to substitute non-degree courses, but not vice versa. International students of Chinese language abilities can apply to take courses given in Chinese to local full-time graduate students and acquire corresponding credits if pass.

Those who fail to meet the requirements as described above can fill up the gap by repetition or make-up in the limit of one year. Those who fail to meet the credit requirements even till the end of the due time are to be terminated.