Chinese Higher Education:

“aimed at serving modernization, reform, and

economic development since the late 1970s.”

Kathleen Baird and Alana Ovsepian

General Information

• Basic Structure

• Availability of Higher Education

• Goals of Education

1) Acquire skills

2) Socialization

3) Info about the employee

Background Info

• Before Mao

• Mao’s legacy – General contributions– Great Leap Forward– Cultural Revolution

Current Components

• Regular Higher Education

-undergraduate/graduate

-industry specialized

college

-short cycle specialized,

w/out degree

-vocational universities

• Adult Higher Education

-training/upgrading

employees

-management training

colleges

-school teachers/

administration training

The Composition of the Higher Education System in China, 1993

Type of Institution Number of Institutions

Regular Higher Education Institutions:Comprehensive UniversitiesSpecialized CollegesShort-cycle Specialized CollegesShort-cycle Vocational UniversitiesSub Total

Adult Higher Education Institutions:Workers’ CollegesPeasant’s UniversitiesManagement Training CollegesEducational CollegesIndependent Correspondence CollegesTV UniversitiesSub- Total

6257135683

1065

7145

166249

445

1183

Grand Total: 2248

Type of Regular Higher Education Institutions in China, 1993

TypeNumber ofinstitutions

Number of students Number of teachers

comprehensive universities 62 303,945 47,923

engineering colleges 292 928,552 142,331

agricultural colleges 59 134,802 23,355

forestry colleges 11 21,024 4,085

medicine colleges 126 224,936 42,310

teacher training colleges 251 566,553 74,965

language colleges 14 17,760 4,689

economics and finance colleges 82 167,071 20,163

political science and law colleges 27 33,341 4,900

physical culture colleges 15 15,572 3,332

art colleges 31 15,271 5,535

ethnic minority colleges 11 26,782 4,606

short cycle colleges 83 79,909 9,614

Total 1,065 2,535,517 387,808

Since the 1970s

• Improving higher education becomes a

priority.

• Government creates policies for:

1) expansion

2) diversity

3) study abroad programs

4) increasing the number of private universities

Higher Education Financing in China (in billion yuan)

Year GNP TotalGovernmentRevenue

Totalnationalbudget

Totalexpenditureon education

Totalexpenditureon highereducation

Revenuegenerated byhighereducationinstitutions

1952 NA 18.37 17.60 1.16 0.27 NA1965 NA 47.33 46.63 3.59 0.74 NA1978 358.81 112.11 111.10 7.62 1.50 0.061979 399.81 110.33 127.39 8.81 2.32 0.091980 447.60 108.52 121.27 11.32 2.81 0.071981 477.30 108.95 111.50 12.25 3.21 NA1982 519.30 112.40 115.33 13.66 3.44 0.081983 580.90 124.90 129.25 15.29 4.30 0.101984 696.20 150.19 154.64 17.90 5.22 0.141985 855.76 186.64 184.48 22.44 6.08 0.551986 969.63 226.03 233.08 26.49 7.51 NA1987 1130.10 236.89 244.85 27.70 7.54 0.691988 1406.82 262.80 270.66 32.36 8.17 0.921989 1599.33 294.79 304.03 49.00 8.75 0.971990 1769.53 331.26 345.22 53.30 8.94 1.261991 2023.63 361.09 381.36 58.06 9.91 1.491992 2403.36 415.31 438.97 68.19 11.04 2.161993 3134.23 508.82 528.74 86.77 15.04 3.46

Continuing Reform

• Restructuring the system

• Trend toward decentralization

- five areas of reform

• Basic Objectives

1) expand enrollment

2) improve quality and efficiency

Recent Changes

• Increased participation

1) females

2) ethnic minorities

3) peasant/worker backgrounds

• Change in occupational prospects

- “two-way selection” process