collageCould you possibly consider studying in a Chinese university in the near future? If so, how much do you already know about Chinese universities? This is exactly why reading the article below is essential, as it provides you with information about Chinese universities, such as higher education in china.
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China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (also called New China) on 1 October 2019. Despite twists and turns, China has established one of the largest higher education systems in the world. For example, Chinese universities and colleges have accommodated the largest numbers of undergraduate students worldwide, with more than 30 million students on campuses.
China’s gross enrolment ratio for higher education reached 48% of the 18-year-old population in 2018. This indicates that its higher education system will soon offer near-universal access to higher education according to United States sociologist Martin Trow’s definition.
Also, it produced and trained more than 60,000 doctoral graduates in 2018. This number is even larger than that for US universities.
Further, the status of several Chinese universities has kept moving upwards in the major global university ranking tables since the early part of the 21st century. For example, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020, Tsinghua and Peking universities and the University of Science and Technology of China are listed among the top 100, with four other Chinese universities in the top 200.
However, little is known of what the most striking characteristics of China’s higher education are or what higher education systems China has formed over the last 70 years.
Compared to the United States, United Kingdom, European countries and Japan or South Korea, the distinctive features of present Chinese higher education can be practically summarised as follows.
Distinctive features
First, all higher education institutions are rigidly controlled and regulated by the central government and especially by the Communist Party. This is not only evident in the relationships between the central government, local authorities and higher education institutions but is also true in governance arrangements and management within all higher education institutions.
All presidents and party secretaries in national universities are directly selected and appointed by the Ministry of Education and other ministries at a central level. The institutional leaders of the local public higher education institutions are determined by local authorities. Even in private universities the party organisations are present and party secretaries are appointed or dispatched by the local government.
At an institutional level, dual governance patterns are adopted. According to the Higher Education Law, all higher education institutions, including private ones, have to establish grassroots-based committees of the Chinese Communist Party.
The party committees are expected to exercise unified leadership over university work and support the presidents and carry out their leadership from the political and ideological perspective, while the presidents exert their influence on more academic and administrative matters. Perhaps this is the most important characteristic of the current Chinese higher education system in relation to governance and administration.
Second, the influence of political and ideological factors on teaching, research and engagement cannot be overstated. China has developed national-level compulsory programmes for all undergraduate students.
Normally all undergraduate students are required to earn about 12 academic credits from these programmes before graduation. These programmes are mainly concerned with Marxist theories, the foundation of ideologies, morals and personal cultivation and outlines of modern Chinese history.
Recently it seems that political and ideological constraints on higher education institutions have tightened, especially with regard to the teaching, learning and research activities of the humanities and social sciences.
For example, Chen Baosheng, minister of education, emphasised that education is on the “frontline of ideological work”. Another clear example is that in its newly launched ‘Double World-Class Project’ in 2017, China placed a very strong emphasis on Chinese characteristics and the Chinese national context as well as the importance of Chinese values and ideologies.
Third, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, the State Council and Ministry of Education exercise control and regulation over curriculum development and teaching and research activities through various ordinances and documents, especially through the “Categories of Undergraduate Specialities in Regular Higher Education Institutions” and “Categories of Awarding Doctoral and Master Degrees and Disciplines and Specialities of Training Postgraduate Students”.
There are 12 categories in the former, including philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, science, engineering, agriculture, medical science, management and art. And at the postgraduate level, there are 14 categories with military science and professional studies being the additional ones. All these fields of study were further divided into different sub-fields of study and specialties or specialisations respectively.
All higher education institutions are not only asked to develop and provide specialties according to the types and contents of specialties or specifications listed in the categories, but they are also required to award only 12 and 14 types of academic degrees at the undergraduate and postgraduate studies level respectively, according to the two national categories.
Fourth, a hierarchical higher education system has taken shape in China. Roughly speaking, at the top of the system are about 10% of the country’s research-intensive universities which are mostly founded, financed and administered by the Ministry of Education and other ministries at a central level.
Approximately 40% of both local public higher education institutions and four-year private independent institutions are located in the middle level of the system.
On the bottom lie the remaining higher vocational colleges and private universities.
Further, in contrast to many other countries, although the numbers of both private independent colleges and private universities and their students account for nearly one-third of the country’s higher education institutions and students respectively, none of them is research-focused or qualified to confer doctoral degrees.
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