【Purpose/significance】With the continuous development of the era of big data, postgraduate education is facing unprec⁃

edented challenges. It is of great significance to seize the opportunity of the development of big data, improve the thinking ability of postgraduates in big data, and cultivate high-quality talents for colleges and universities to realize the development of new liberal arts.【Method/process】This article summarizes and analyzes the connotation of big data thinking ability and its important role in the con⁃struction of new liberal arts, this paper constructs the curriculum design of cultivating big data thinking ability for new liberal arts graduate students from two aspects of theoretical courses and practical courses, and proposes the cultivation mode of new liberal arts graduate students based on big data thinking ability.【Result/conclusion】The cultivation mode of new liberal arts graduate students based on big data thinking ability should be oriented towards innovation and entrepreneurship, focus on curriculum reform, and pro⁃mote multi-channel cooperation among universities, government and enterprises to jointly cultivate a new mode of embedded graduate students' big data thinking ability cultivation.【Innovation/limitation】This article has only designed a plan on how to cultivate graduate students' big data thinking ability, without empirical and evaluation of the implementation effect of the plan.