Full Text
MEXT
MEXT
Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > FY2003 White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology >Part1 Chapter4 Section6.1

PREVIOUS   NEXT
Part 1   Higher Education to Support a Knowledge-Based Society Full of Creative Vitality - New Developments in Higher Education Reform
Chapter 4   Higher Education Reform in Other Countries
Section 6   China
1   Popularization of Higher Education


Higher education is not as widespread in China as in Europe or the US, and in 1998, China's higher education enrollment rate (the percentage of 18 through 22-year-olds enrolled at an institution of higher education) was less than 10 percent. In 1999, however, expansionist policies were developed from the perspective of cultivating human resources, and China plans for significantly more people to enter institutions of higher education each year. As a result, the enrollment rate rose to 15 percent in 2002, and the government has declared that China has entered a stage of "popularization." China aims to have an enrollment rate of 20 percent or more in 2010.

One characteristic of China's higher education is that in addition to full-time institutions of higher education, which receive students after they graduate from upper secondary schools, institutions of higher education for adults are spreading (institutions of adult higher education are included in the enrollment rates mentioned above). These institutions were established as a compensatory measure for people who were not able to advance to upper secondary school or university. There is a wide variety of institutions including a radio broadcasting and television university opened in 1979, as well as evening and correspondence universities and personnel and workers universities set up at workplaces. As of 2002, 5.6 million adults, or half the total number of students at full-time institutions for higher education, are studying at these institutions. Many of these institutions provide short-term courses.

Recently, in addition to these institutions, trial Internet colleges have been spreading. Four universities including Tsinghua University and Peking University began Internet colleges in 1999 with the authorization of the government. Since then 67 government-authorized Internet universities have been set up as of February 2002, and these universities are said to have 1 million registered students. In addition to undergraduate, junior college and graduate level courses, these colleges offer continuing education courses for adults as well as simplified courses for students at relevant universities.


PREVIOUS   NEXT
(C)COPYRIGHT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Back To Top   MEXT HOME