On May 15^th, USTB started the postgraduate entrance exam interviews. Following the principles of safety and fairness, the interviews were organized and strictly supervised online and were successfully finished by May 27^th.

USTB attached great importance to successfully holding the exam, especially during the pandemic period. Bearing in mind the government's requirements for ensuring epidemic prevention and control measures and maintaining the quarantine system in effect at USTB, the relevant university departments cooperated to design a plan to carry out the second round of the exam online. In preparing for the exams, the Graduate School tested several online platforms including Tencent Meeting, Zoom, Southsoft, and China Mobile Cloud Exam before deciding to use Cloud Exam as the main platform and Tencent Meeting as a back-up.

In accordance with the relevant regulations of the Ministry of Education and Beijing Education Examinations Authority, USTB sought to improve the exam system as well as design it to be safe and fair. With the goal of recruiting students in order to meet real-world demand, evaluating candidates in all aspects, and giving priority to quality candidates, the university developed a series of rules and requirements to govern the process, which included the 2020 USTB Examination and Enrollment Program for the Second Round of Postgraduate Entrance Exam, 2020 USTB Emergency Plans for the Second Round of Postgraduate Entrance Exam, 2020 USTB Qualification Examination Policy for the Second Round of Postgraduate Entrance Exam, etc.

Every university department worked together to prepare for the examination and guard against the pandemic by creating a safe environment for candidates and interviewers. The Department of the Registrar arranged for the use of examination classrooms in the Teaching Building and Yi Fu Building. The Office of Information Technology was responsible for the wired and wireless networks of the examination classrooms and ensuring online security, as well as technical support. The Department of Campus Security was responsible for preventing general access to the examination classrooms during the exam and ensuring teachers and staff couldn’t enter the classrooms without presenting their work IDs. The Department of Facilities and Maintenance Management disinfected all the examination classrooms to ensure the safety of the participants. The Department of Public Affairs & Communications was responsible for maintaining online communication with the public and posting the latest news of the exam preparation work through the official blog.

To provide the best service to interviewees and ensure the success of the exam, USTB arranged systematic training for more than 300 staff and interviewers. The schools offered every interviewee a chance to participate in a mock examination in order to test their equipment and release some anxiety. Notices about the arrangement of both the mock examinations and official exams were posted on the official website, Cloud Exam system, and sent to mobile phones in advance, thus ensuring every candidate knew what time to participate.

Measures were undertaken to ensure the strict fairness of the exam. Candidates' identities were pre-checked by verifying their information in the exam registration database, school roll database, educational background, facial recognition, and identity card. Interviewers randomly asked for personal identifying information of candidates to prevent the use of surrogates. The full exam process was recorded along with a backup copy. The order, interviewers, and test questions were all randomly assigned to candidates and scores were given by interviewers independently. The exam process was under the supervision of the Office of Discipline Supervision & Investigation.

In the Second Round of the 2020 Postgraduate Entrance Examination, 60 online exam classrooms were set up in Yi Fu Building and Teaching Building, about 1000 interviewers and staff supported the process and about 3700 candidates participated in the online exam. According to the university's arrangement, the 2020 Ph.D. Candidate Entrance Exam will also be held online in the middle of June.