Practical competence is central to the training of professional master’s degree candidates. Based on semi-structured interviews with 17 supervisors from six universities across three regions in China and grounded in the local experience of professional master’s education, this study proposes and elaborates the conceptual connotation of practical competence and identifies four defining characteristics: reality-oriented, professional, comprehensive, and developmental. The study further points out the local characteristics of practical competence in China’s professional master’s education, namely adhering to value rationality, integrating innovation capacity with practical competence, and advancing from problem solving to knowledge innovation. Based on the interview findings, suggestions for enhancing practical competence are proposed from four dimensions: promoting the undergraduate-postgraduate integration, improving the training system, deepening industry-education integration, and refining classified evaluation. The study enriches the theory and practice of professional master’s education in the local context.

Tao Feng, Runrun He. Exploring the Conceptual Connotation and Characteristics of the Practical Competence of Professional Master's Degree Candidates - Based on In-depth Interviews with 17 Supervisors. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 2: 56-66. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2026.080208.

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