Summary

In a speech at the 20th annual China International Education Conference, education minister Chen Baosheng discussed government policy towards international education. He emphasised recent policies that aim to accelerate the internationalisation of China's education sector and promised that the State Council and Ministry of Education will soon publish new policy to expand international education cooperation.

Existing policies discussed by the minister include the Hainan International Education Innovation Island policy, which aims to encourage transnational education in Hainan province; policies to expand cross-border cooperation in the Greater Bay Area (Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao); support for international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative; regional cluster policies which support high-quality education in the Yangtze River Delta (the area around Shanghai); education cooperation in Xiong'an New Area, an area under development near Beijing; policies to allow foreign investment in vocational education institutions in free trade zones; the promotion of cooperation between companies and higher vocational institutions both in China and abroad; and policies to promote the construction of Chinese international schools overseas.

In the transnational education field the minister stated that the government would "appropriately decentralise power" and provide guidance for different types of cooperation.

This follows a recent press conference in which Chen praised the achievements China has made in education since the country's founding 70 years ago. These include setting up the largest education system in the world, both sending and receiving the largest number of international students, placing the majority of government-funded laboratories within universities, and strong achievements in international assessments such as PISA. He emphasised the government's expenditure on education, which has exceeded 4 per cent of GDP each year since 2012 and reached RMB 4.6 trillion in 2018.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, British Council International Education Services

The minister's comments suggest that decentralisation will play an important role in updated regulations on transnational education, which have been expected for some time. At the moment most joint programmes and institutes need to be approved centrally by the Ministry of Education although a small number of pilot programmes do allow approval at the provincial level in some cases.

Sources

Article on Chen's speech at the China International Education Conference (in Chinese): http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/moe_1485/201910/t20191018_404307.html

Article on Chen's comments on education development over the last 70 years (in Chinese): http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/xw_zt/moe_357/jyzt_2019n/2019_zt24/fbh/fbhmtbd/201909/t20190926_401190.html