University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) (Chinese: 中国科学院大学) is a public university for graduate education, under the direct leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The predecessors of UCAS are the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GUCAS) and the Graduate School of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), which was founded in 1978 as the first graduate school in China by approval of the State Council.