Summary:

China’s Ministry of Education has started the revision process of the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools" and its Implementation Measures. These are the main regulations governing transnational education (TNE) in China and were last updated in 2003.

The revision is being led by the Division of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools and Supervision, under the Ministry of Education’s Department of International Cooperation and Exchange. According to an update posted on social media by this division in early May, the first draft of the amended regulations and implementation measures has now been completed, and will be sent to practitioners for their feedback. Changes from the previous version of the law cover the process for project approval and filing, standards for the resources which must be introduced by each partner, qualifications required by programme/institution management, the process for making changes to approved programmes/institutions, supervision and management regulations, and other areas. Based on the results of feedback, the MoE intends to produce a second draft of the updated regulations in late June 2017.

Changes between the previous law and this draft revision include 21 revised articles, three deleted articles and five new articles. The drafting process started in January and has so far included visits to universities and provincial education departments by 64 experts from 28 institutions, along with 8 expert workshops.

Analysis by Kevin Prest and Xiaoxiao Liu

This law covers joint programmes and institutes in China which involve in-country teaching from both the overseas and Chinese partner. Drawing up these reforms was listed as one of the key tasks in the Ministry of Education’s 2017 work plan.

The revised draft hasn’t been released to the public. However, based on previous statements, one major goal is to clarify the process for forming new transnational education partnerships and for withdrawing from existing partnerships.

Other changes and updates are likely to be in line with current MoE policy. This has recently focused on improving the quality of TNE and ensuring that joint programmes help to meet domestic development priorities, while being more restrictive of programmes that they see as adding less value. The British Council does not expect any major liberalisation in TNE policy.

Sources:

1. http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUwOTAzMDY2NA==&mid=2247483714&idx=1&sn=581174800ab4acb3647146338d80331f – Update on current progress on drafting the new regulations, from the Division of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools and Supervision (in Chinese)