The teaching of professional courses for graduate students plays an important role in the cultivation of the ability of them. How to improve the quality of teaching, especially how to meet the rapid development of social employment needs, is a significant topic that needs to be explored and solved. With the rapid development of tunnel engineering, bridge engineering, port water conservancy engineering, geological engineering and other industries, the construction of projects tends to be more and more deep and large-scale, which poses a huge challenge to the needs of practitioners for knowledge of rock mechanics and new requirements for study process of the postgraduate education. Thereinto, the advanced rock mechanics course, as a professional basic course that closely integrates theory and practice, plays a pivotal role in the cultivation of graduate students" professional attainment. In this paper, the main characteristics and main existing problems of the advanced rock mechanics course teaching was analyzed; the actual needs of engineering practice, postgraduate training and national education reform were taken into consideration; and the guiding ideas and practical measures for the teaching reform of this course were put forward. At the same time, the teaching reform practice was carried out in the advanced rock mechanics course for postgraduates majoring in architecture and civil engineering of Tongji university, which achieved good results, and provided a meaningful and good reference for the teaching reform of postgraduate courses in the future.