9005.2	Assessment
Research Question (Clear, unambiguous)	"This research proposes to detect the role of education in social mobility under the Chinese social context" looking for changes across the experience of three cohorts born in the decades from the 1950s through the 1980s.  This appears to be a solid research question.
Relevant Literature	The outline does not directly address the relevant literature.  Of course, it includes all the fundamental work on social mobility, on education as a mechanism of mobility, and the more specialized literature on inequality in China and perhaps that on inequality in the countries formerly in the Soviet Bloc.
Causal Interpretations (clear, all parts defined, mechanisms, controls, plausible)	The discussion of causality is a bit loose here, but that may be unavoidable.  During the time span of concern, multiple large scale changes occurred simultaneously in China.  The accelerating growth of higher education, the accelerating growth of the economy, transformation of the economic structure with markets, urbanization, the one-child policy, and so forth.  Picking apart these influences will be tough, but also could be exciting.
Data (variables, sample, comparison)	Well, the China GSS sounds appropriate, but are the data actually available?  You will need a fairly large sample to pursue the research as planned.  You probably also would want some institutional and census data for background.  For example, you might want to compare the rate of growth in higher education with the rate of growth in the jobs creating demand for educated people.
Research Value	Efforts to extend the analysis of social mobility processes to China are inherently valuable and one that could look at the process in terms of historical changes would be outstanding.
Overall	The ideas behind the proposed project seem excellent.  Two possible obstacles stand out.  First, are data that would support this project available.  Second, the size of this project is likely to be too great for an MA thesis.