Jiaotong University started its master program in 1931 and enrolled up to over 200 postgraduates in 1956 when the university was relocated. The Graduate School of Xi'an Jiaotong University was China's first group of 22 universities that established pilot graduate schools in 1984 and also the only graduate school in Northwest China then. Currently, the university is entitled to confer degrees in fields of study that cover 10 branches of disciplines: science, engineering, medicine, economics, management, humanities, law, philosophy, education, and art. There are 31 first-order disciplines and specialties authorized to confer doctor's degree, 45 first-order disciplines and specialties authorized to master's degree, and 22 specialties authorized to confer professional degrees (2 doctor's degrees and 20 master's degrees). In the Fourth Round Disciplinary Evaluation of China's Higher Education Institutions, 14 first-order disciplines of the university ranked A.
Xi'an Jiaotong University has been enjoying a great prestige for producing accomplished masters and outstanding talents. It has implemented the strategy of strengthening the university through talents nurturing, accelerated training and introduction of teaching and researching backbones. The school opened up summer schools, created "the Chuangyuan Forum", and implemented plans of overseas study, collaborated programs and attending high-level international conferences for doctoral degree candidates, aiming to realizing the sustainable and speedy development of university’s innovation-oriented graduate education and lifting the training of high-quality talents to a higher level.
At present there are over 24,000 graduate students (including over 7,700 doctoral candidates) receiving degree education and over 4,800 in-service master's degree candidates receiving non-degree education. In recent years, the university has been making an annual admission of approximately 4,500 degree-oriented graduates, including about 850 doctoral candidates and about 3,600 master's degree candidates. The university's graduate education has been enjoying a constant growth and steady improvement in quality.
By the end of December 2017, Xi'an Jiaotong University had conferred over 10,000 doctor's degrees and over 63,600 master's degrees in total. It won 8 national teaching achievement awards in graduate education, 27 doctoral dissertations were recipients of "the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations Award" and 46 doctoral dissertations were nominated for the award. Four students were "the National Master's Degree Holders in Engineering for Outstanding Contributions". Graduates of Xi’an Jiaotong University are playing an important role in the country's construction.
