Why is 点 in 光学硕士点?

Question

I walk past this sign on the way to the lab:

If I understand correctly, it says something like the optics Master's lab (?) was founded in 1984 by the supervisor Guoguang Mu.

I'm interested in the bottom sentence:

光学硕士点 (guāngxué shuòshì diǎn)

Which translates to:

• 光学 (guāngxué) = optics
• 硕士 (shuòshì) = Master's (as in "Master's degree" and "Master's student")
• 点 (diǎn) = dot

I'm confused as to why 点 is in this sentence. In context it seems to mean "lab", but I would expect other words to mean lab.

Question: Why is 点 in 光学硕士点?

Answer 1

点 means a unit here.

This 点 is the same as the one in 地点 or 景点.

In this case, it is a place that they can confer Master's degrees.

Usually, it is a department of a university, which is also an organization (组织) or a unit (单位).

A 硕士点 is authorized by the government that it can authorize a master's degree to the students.

碩士點係指經授權後能自行授予碩士學位的學科或專業 單位 （一般為 學系 ）。

Answer 2

点 here means "site". Like 网点。 They could have many sites or different kinds of sites, one of them is 光学硕士点.

Answer 3

点 can means a location or place, example: 售后点