Last November, China’s Ministry of Education issued new trial management regulations on “non-degree education programmes” offered by the country’s higher education institutions. The regulations apply to all education activities that do not award a formal higher education qualification such as a degree or diploma.

Programmes affected by the regulations include further education, in-service training, coaching to promote academic and professional skills, and courses offered based on students’ personal interest. The affected institutions include universities as well as higher vocational institutions, private adult HEIs and open universities. This sort of course plays a large role in China’s education sector, with more than 19 million students completing these programmes in 2020.

Key elements of these regulations include:

Management and responsibility

• Chinese HEIs should set up centralised departments to manage their non-degree programmes, and individual departments, staff or other bodies within the university should not offer these types of courses independently.
• This regulation also applies to subsidiaries that carry the full name or abbreviation of the HEI, including joint ventures with external partners. Non-degree programmes offered by these entities should fall under the management of the relevant department in the parent HEI.

Operation and recruitment

• Colleges and universities shall only operate non-degree education programmes under the premise of ensuring the completion of the degree education plan.
• Non-degree programmes offered by Chinese HEIs should not be described as "graduate study", "master's degrees” or “doctoral degrees". Non-degree programmes open for the public should not include certain phrases in their course titles such as "leading cadres” (“领导干部”), "presidents"(“总裁“), "elites"(“精英”), "leaders"(“领袖”) or similar terms. Branding for recruitment of leading cadres is not allowed.
• Recruitment for HEIs’ non-degree programmes should be organized by the HEIs themselves – entrusting external organizations to carry out the recruitment as agents is forbidden.
• HEIs are encouraged to innovate in terms of teaching approaches, for example by carrying out Internet-based online teaching and hybrid teaching. They should also strengthen the construction of teaching resources and staff and improve their programmes’ standards and evaluation mechanisms.

Partnerships and cooperation

• The HEI should take the leading role in the partnership, and may not outsource the programme as a whole or transfer or delegate the rights of management, organization, enrollment and teaching to external partners.
• When HEIs collaborate with external institutions to carry out curriculum design and teaching implementation, then colleges and universities should conduct strict review and evaluation about the partner’s background and qualification.
• Full time non-degree education lasting more than one month and entrusted training programmes for leading cadres are not allowed to be delegated to external agents, nor to be jointly organized with training institutions outside of HEIs. 

The regulations also reiterate various existing rules, including the importance of complying with all relevant policies when recruiting foreign teachers.

British Council Analysis

While the Chinese government continues to encourage non-degree education, these regulations show that cooperation with external partners – including overseas institutions – will be strictly monitored and regulated. It is important to note that the regulations apply specifically to programmes that do not award formal HE qualifications, and do not apply to (for example) joint degree programmes with UK universities.

Many local HEIs are also reviewing their non-degree programmes including international foundation programmes, some of which might be suspended or terminated in the near future.

Despite the regulations, there may still be opportunities for UK HEIs to work with their Chinese counterparts on areas where their subject strengths match with those of the Chinese institution and national or regional development goals. Potential collaboration may be in the teaching forces and resources sharing, and in innovative teaching formats such as hybrid programme delivery. 

Source:

http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A07/moe_743/202111/t20211119_581103.html