1. General Development of Higher Education

Before new China was founded, there were only 205 schools of higher learning throughout the country, including 65 privately-run colleges and 21 foreign missionary schools. There were 117,000 college students, 629 post-graduate students and 16,000 full-time teachers. In 1998, China had 1,022 schools of higher learning, with an enrollment of 3.41 million. There were 736 research and educational bodies providing post-graduate education for 199,000 students. The university staff of higher-learning institutions numbered over 1 million, including 400,000 full-time teachers.

The scale of Chinese higher learning has kept expanding since the late 1970s, when the country began to adopt the new system of reform and opening up, with total enrollment increasing by 9.9 percent annually. China established its academic degree system in 1980. Under it, 299 educational institutions were given the right to grant doctorates, and 2,292 institutions, with over 10,000 tutors, were set up to deal with Ph.D. students. Besides, there were 633 institutions given the right to grant master's degree and 8,248 bodies were set up for providing education for master's degrees. By the end of 1997, these higher learning institutions had fostered 35,000 students with doctorates and 390,000 with a master's.

2. Reforming the Higher Education Institution

Higher education in China for quite a long period developed under a planned economy, which featured institutions run by the state and under direct government management. In order to develop a modern education system of higher learning applicable to the socialist market economy now under construction, reforms allow colleges and universities to be run by themselves or by non-governmental bodies under government macro-management. Non-government organizations and individuals are encouraged to invest or run such schools.
With government control over higher education diminishing, universities and colleges are given more powers to determine their own management style. Some have cooperated with enterprises or found partners in other regions. By now, over 600 institutions of higher learning have undertaken reform by changing their way of management or merging and cooperating with others.

The old practice of government alone financing institutions of higher learning is being replaced by a new one, according to which the government budget remains the main part, while diversified sources provide the remainder. Various social organizations are encouraged to invest in education or provide funds for improving the infrastructure for higher learning.

On August 29, 1998, the Fourth Session of the Ninth Standing Committee of NPC ratified the Law on Higher Education of the PRC. The law, of 69 articles in eight chapters, relates to the goal and principles of higher education, its management system and establishment, organization and operation of higher learning institutions, teachers and students, financing and investment, and legal responsibilities. Enactment of the law laid a foundation for healthy development of China's higher education, and provided legal protection for reasonable management of the institutions concerned.

3. Adjusting the Structure of Higher Education

Generally speaking, the length of schooling for ordinary college students is four years, except for some specialties which need only two or three years and some difficult ones, such as medicine, requiring five years. There were only 215 specialties in Chinese colleges and universities in the early 1950s, increasing to 627 in the early 1960s. More courses have been added to the university curriculum since the 1980s as a result of social progress, including electronic technology, computers, energy, environment, materials, biological technology, medical technology, light industry and food. In recent years, the structure of higher education is being adjusted to be more reasonable. Over 500 specialties are provided by universities and colleges which fall into ten major academic types: philosophy, economics, law, education, literature, history, technology, engineering, medicine and agriculture.

4. Reforming the System of Enrollment, Paying Fees and Graduates Looking for Jobs

Chinese universities and colleges were free of charge in the past under the planned economy, and all the university graduates could depend on the government for employment. Now, college and university students are expected to pay some tuition fees (about one-fifth or one-fourth of their actual educational expenditure). At the same time, the system of scholarship has been established in almost every higher learning institution, for which students with good marks are eligible. There are also some funds provided for students who cannot afford or fully afford the fees. Universities and colleges have adopted the system to reduce tuition fees for students from poor families or provide regular living allowances for them. In relating to the employment of the university graduates, a channel connecting universities and employers has been established, through which employers and those looking for jobs meet and choose freely. The talent market is now maturing, adjusting the supply and demand of personnel, while providing necessary employment information for university graduates.

5. Replacing the old philosophy in education with new ones in order to foster talent for China's modernization drive. Renewing the curriculum and educational methods so as to upgrade teaching quality

In 1994, the Chinese government worked out and promulgated the Reform Program of Teaching and the Curriculum in Higher Education Towards the 21st Century. The participants numbered over tens of thousands in higher learning institutions including presidents, professors and teachers. Based on transforming education ideology and concepts, reforms were conducted in over 100 specialties for training talents, moving toward the goal of broadening the scope of special subjects and enhancing overall quality. At the same time, the appraisal of teaching was started in various higher learning institutions to gradually establish a teaching quality macro-control system with Chinese characteristics.

6. University-Based Scientific Research

China has 600,000 scientific research staff in its institutions of higher learning, of which, 85 percent are scientists and engineers. They have achieved significant results in basic research, applicable research and hi-tech research. Now, colleges and universities have become major bases of basic and hi-tech researches in China, which are home to 100 key state labs and 27 state engineering (technology) research centers. At present, 250 higher learning institutions have entered the China Education and Scientific Research Network which is linked with the Internet.

Since 1979, institutions of higher learning have won 289 state natural science awards, 907 state invention awards and 1,643 state science and technology progress awards, making up 50.4, 32.5 and 23.2 percent respectively of the country's total. The higher learning institutions undertook or participated in 502 hi-tech projects belonging to the famous state 863 Program, 54 percent of the total, and achieved major results in the fields of biology, information, automation, laser technology, aeronautics and astronautics, new materials and new energy technology.

The higher learning institutions have also paid attention to economic construction and applicable research, linking colleges and universities with social economic production. They have participated in the construction of hi-tech industrial parks, developed college- or university-run hi-tech enterprises to combine production with science and research, and found ways to transform their scientific research results into productivity. For example, the Founder Group, run by Peking University, revolutionized the Chinese printing industry with scientific technology and talents. Now the group has occupied 90 percent of the domestic and foreign market in Chinese newspaper employing desktop printing. So far, China's colleges and universities have run 2,564 enterprises, demonstrating their ability and creativity in embracing the coming new age of knowledge-based economy.

7. 211 Project

To meet the challenges of the world's new technology revolution, China is now sparing no effort in carrying out the 211 Project-- to concentrate its power on well building 100 key universities as well as some key subjects and specialties facing the 21st century. By so doing, a group of universities and colleges as well as some subjects and specialties may reach the world's advanced level in the next century. The project was designed by fully considering the actual conditions of China and is an important project compatible with the state 863 Program. It is aimed at cultivation of more high quality talents and thus enhancing China's ability in developing science and technology. By carrying out this project a number of colleges and universities as well as certain branches of learning may become a leading force playing an important role in the development of the national economy and social progress.

8. Opening to the Outside World, and Strengthening International Cooperation and Exchanges

Since China initiated the reform and opening up policy in 1978, foreign exchange and cooperation in higher education have become increasingly active and marked results have been obtained. In the past 20 years, China sent nearly 300,000 people to 103 countries and regions for further study, and accepted 250,000 foreign students from 160 countries and regions; it dispatched 1,800 teachers and experts to teach in foreign countries and invited 40,000 foreign experts and teachers to work in China. Now each year, an accumulated 10,000 Chinese scholars and experts are invited to attend international symposiums and vice versa. The Chinese government pursued a policy of "supporting students to go to study in foreign countries, encouraging them to return to the motherland, and allowing them to come and go freely," encouraging the Chinese students studying or working overseas to return after completing their studies and serve the motherland in various forms. In the past 20 years, 96,000 of those students returned. At the same time, the Chinese government also positively supported colleges and universities to participate in international exchanges and cooperation in relation to research, cultivation of talents, and finding solutions to major economic and social problems.

Starting from early of the 21st century, the High-Level, Creative Talents Project will be initiated in Chinese higher education. The project is designed to foster and attract a legion of high-level and creative talents to work for China's higher education sector by adopting such systems as appointing them academic leaders, inviting them to be professors, leading teachers, visiting scholars, and guest professors. At the same time, the Project of New and Hi-tech Industrialization in Higher Learning Institutions will also be started to promote the cooperation of colleges, universities and scientific research academies with enterprises. This kind of academy-enterprise cooperation will improve the overall level of knowledge and technology creation of the higher learning bodies, making them an active part of the industrialization process of new and high technology. The acceleration of 211 Project will prompt a group of major universities and colleges and some key branches of learning to enter the world advanced level and greatly improve their overall capability to make new advances. At the same time, efforts will be made to strengthen the research on philosophy and social science in colleges and universities, giving full play to their advantages of Chinese think tanks and talent tanks. Studies made in these higher learning bodies, which are related to the theoretical and practical issues vital to national economy and social progress, will be enhanced. By so doing, these higher learning institutions' ability will be improved to great extent in both doing academic research and influencing government's policy making process.