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According to the Ministry Of Education Of The People's Republic Of China , the government authority on all matters pertaining to education and language, higher education in China has played a significant part in economic growth, scientific progress and social development in the country “by bringing up large scale of advanced talents and experts for the construction of socialist modernization.” Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Higher Education in China. Beijing, PRC. New trends in Chinese higher education are attracting the attention of educators around the world. Since China began to develop a Western-oriented university model at the end of nineteenth century, Chinese higher education has continued to evolve. Since the late 1980s, however, tremendous economic development in China has stimulated reforms in higher education that have resulted in remarkable changes. HISTORY The Chinese education system is based on Confucian ideals. The teaching of Confucius has shaped the overall Chinese mindset for the past 2500 years. But, other outside forces have played a large role in the nation's educational development. The First Opium War of 1840, for example, opened China to the rest of the world. As a result, Chinese intellectuals discovered the numerous western advances in science and technology. This new information greatly impacted the higher education system and curriculum. Soviet influence in the early 1950s brought all higher education under government leadership. Research was separated from teaching. The government also introduced a central plan for a nationally unified instruction system, i.e texts, syllabi, etc. The impact of this shift can still be seen today. Chinese higher education continues its struggle with excessive departmentalization, segmentation, and overspecialization in particular. From 1967 to 1976, China’s Cultural Revolution took another toll on higher education, which was devastated more than any other sector of the country. The enrollment of postsecondary students can be used as example to illustrate the impacts. The number dropped from 674,400 to 47,800. This has had a major impact on education in the 21st century. The decline in educational quality was profound. From the 1980s on, Chinese higher education has undergone a series of reforms that have slowly brought improvement. The government found that schools lacked the flexibility and autonomy to provide education according to the needs of the society. Structural reform of higher education consists of five parts:
Management reform is the most difficult. Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Higher Education in China. Beijing, PRC. The reforms aim to provide higher education institutions more autonomy and the ability to better meet the needs of students. Instead of micromanagement, the state aims to provide general planning. The Provisional Regulations Concerning The Management Of Institutions Of Higher Learning , promulgated by the State Council in 1986, led to a number of changes in administration and adjusted educational opportunity, direction and content. Reform allowed universities universities and colleges to:
Reforms picked up the pace in 2000, with the state aiming to complete the reform of 200 universities operating under China's ministries and start 15 university-based scientific technology parks. China to Accelerate Higher Education Reform. People's Daily Online. 27 January 2000. CHINESE HIGHER EDUCATION TODAY In 2002, there were slightly over 2000 higher education institutions in PRC. Close to 1400 were regular higher education institutions ( HEIs ). A little more than 600 were higher education institutions for adults. Combined enrollment in 2002 was 11,256,800. Of this close to 40 percent were new recruits. Total graduate student enrolment was 501,000. Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Higher Education in China. Beijing, PRC. In 2005, there were about 4,000 Chinese institutions. Student enrollment increased to 15 million, with rapid growth that is expected to peak in 2008. However, the higher education system does not meet the needs of 85 percent of the college-aged population. Porter, Susan. Higher Education in China: The Next Super Power is Coming of Age. American Council on Education. 2005. Since 1998, 10 universities have been targeted by the Chinese government to become “world-class” - including Peking and Tsinghua Universities. To achieve that goal, the government promised to increase the educational allocation in the national budget by 1 percent a year for each of the five years following 1998. When Chinese president Jiang Zemin attended the hundredth anniversary ceremony at Beijing University in 1998 and the ninetieth anniversary ceremony at Tsinghua University in 2001, he emphasized this ambitious goal of advancing several of China's higher education institutions into the top tier of universities worldwide in the next several decades. In the meantime, China has received educational aid from UNESCO and many other international organizations and sources, including the World Bank, which recently loaned China $14.7 billion for educational development. Duan, Xin-Ran. Chinese Higher Education Enters a New Era. Academe. Nov/Dec 2003. Only 30 percent of faculty hold postgraduate degrees. This is a consequence of the lack of an academic degree system in China until the 1980s. Recently, internationally-trained scholars have entered the faculty with the goals of both improving quality and strengthening ties to other institutions around the world. The state recognizes the need for more home-grown professors. Porter, Susan. Higher Education in China: The Next Super Power is Coming of Age. American Council on Education. 2005. In Spring 2007 China will conduct a national evaluation of its universities. The results of this evaluation will be used to support the next major planned policy initiative. The last substantial national evaluation of universities was in 1994. This evaluation resulted in the 'massification' of higher ecucation as well as a renewed emphasis on elite institutions. Education In The People's Republic Of China . Wikipedia. DEGREE AND PROGRAM OFFERINGS CAMPUS LIFE PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE FUNDING AND TUITION CHALLENGES FOR FUTURE China exhibits a great need for better regulation as well as more academic qualifications, teaching experience, and understanding of social changes and technology. To achieve success, the state realizes that the impacts of the Cultural Revolution on education must be reversed. To this end, top universities now function as centers of excellence that serve as a model for all other institutes. A helpful model involved "twinning" of poorer institutes with model institutes to provide equipment, curricula, and faculty development. There is also an issue of funding and equity. Although academic praise reforms for moving the higher education sector from a unified, centralized and closed system to one that allows openness and diversification, they understand that decentralization and semi-privatization has led to further inequity in educational opportunity. Also, there is a concern about the mindset of students produced by Chinese institutions. Many corporations feel the quality of rote memorization instilled in Chinese students serves as a detriment to creative thinking and the lack of real-world experience during the formative years negatively impacts students' ability to adapt to the global business environment easily. These issues will need to be addressed in the coming years if China aims to continue its drive for excellence. Wach Out, India: China is way behind India in the business of outsourced services, but it has now started to catch up. The Economist. 4 May 2006. IMPACT ON GLOBAL HIGHER EDUCATION China's demand for postsecondary education is immense and the country currently cannot keep pace with this compelling need. This means U.S., European and Australian universities can play a significant role by partnering with Chinese universities, aggressively recruiting Chinese students for study in their host countries, increasing the number of students they send to study in China, and adding to their presence on the mainland, either as official foreign campuses or extensions. Australia, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries are already making strides into this market. Partnering offers a mutual economic benefit, both if scholars choose to stay in the host country or return to the mainland. Most Chinese students who go abroad are among the best and brightest from their home country. Thus, if they choose to stay, they propel the economy of their host country when they take on jobs and establish themselves. If they leave, they take the many contacts and connections they have established, alongside a generally positive perception of their host nation and hosts, with them. This allows for continued economic gain, as scholars can convince their home nations and firms to propel business in a certain direction. Dynes, Robert. UC Foreign Graduate Students: Why A World-Class University Needs the World’s Best Minds. University of California Office of the President. 17 October 2005. CHINA'S INSTITUTIONS The first modern institution, Peiyang University, was founded October 2, 1895, in Tianjin. The university changed its name to Tianjin University in 1951 and became one of the leading universities in China. Jiaotong University, the next, was founded in Shanghai in 1896. In the 1950s, a large portion of this university was moved to Xi'an, an ancient capital city in northwest China, and became Xi'an Jiaotong University; the part of the university remaining in Shanghai was renamed Shanghai Jiaotong University. Tianjin University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1995, followed by Xi'an Jiaotong and Shanghai Jiaotong Universities in 1996. Other leading universities, such as Zhejiang University (1897), Beijing University (1898), and Nanjing University (1902) also recently celebrated their hundredth anniversaries, one after another. Duan, Xin-Ran. Chinese Higher Education Enters a New Era. Academe. Nov/Dec 2003. Leading universities in China: Anhui University Anhui University of Science and Technology Beijing Film Academy Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Forestry University Beijing Institute of Technology Beijing Jiaotong University Beijing Language and Culture University Beijing Normal University Beijing Sport University Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications Beijing University of Technology Capital University of Medical Sciences Central South University Chang'an University Chengdu University of Technology China Agricultural University China Medical University China University of Geosciences China University of Mining and Technology China University of Political Science and Law Chongqing University Communication University of China Dalian University of Technology Donghua University East China Normal University East China University of Science and Technology Fudan University Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Fujian Normal University Fuzhou University Guangdong University of Technology Guangxi University Harbin Institute of Technology Hebei Normal University Hebei University Hebei University of Technology Hefei University of Technology Heilongjiang University Henan University Hohai University Huazhong Agricultural University Huazhong Normal University Huazhong University of Science and Technology Hunan Normal University Hunan University Jiangsu University Jilin University Jinan University Kunming University of Science and Technology Lanzhou University Nanchang University Nanjing Forestry University Nanjing Normal University Nanjing University Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Nanjing University of Science & Technology Nanjing University of Technology Nankai University Northeast Normal University Northeastern University Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University Northwest University Northwestern Polytechnical University Ocean University of China Peking University Qingdao University Renmin University of China Shaanxi Normal University Shandong Agricultural University Shandong Normal University Shandong University Shandong University of Science and Technology Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Second Medical University Shanghai University Shanxi University Sichuan University Soochow University South China Agricultural University South China Normal University South China University of Technology Southeast University Southwest China Normal University Southwest Jiaotong University Sun Yat-sen University Taiyuan University of Technology The Central Academy of Drama The University of Science and Technology Beijing Tianjin University Tongji University Tsinghua University University of Electronic Science and Technology of China University of Petroleum University of Science and Technology of China Wuhan University Wuhan University of Technology Xiamen University Xi'an Jiaotong University Xiangtan University Xidian University Yangzhou University Yanshan University Yunnan University Zhejiang University Zhengzhou University Zhongnan University of Economics and Law A more complete listing is available at: List Of Universities In The People's Republic Of China =References= |
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