Summary

The central committee of the Communist Party of China has announced the draft priorities of the national plan for the upcoming five-year period. China's five-year plans are the main strategies underlying national policy and understanding them can give a good understanding of government priorities in a particular area.

According to the announcement, priorities in the education field for the 14th Five Year Plan period include:

• Promotion of equity, including a focus on balanced development of compulsory education
• Encouragement of the "diversified development" of senior high schools (i.e. investment in vocational as well as academic upper secondary education)
• Deepened school-industry cooperation in vocational education
• Improvements in the quality of higher education, with a focus on the "World Class Universities & Disciplines" initiative and the fields of science, engineering, agriculture and medicine
• A promise to "support and standardise" the development of private education
• Promotion of online education and life-long learning
• Continued increases in investment in research and development, including both basic and applied research, with the fields of artificial intelligence, quantum information, integrated circuits, health sciences, neuroscience, agricultural breeding, aerospace and deep sea / deep underground sciences named as particular focus areas
• Improvement of evaluation and incentive systems in scientific research

Science and education are also listed as areas where international cooperation should be enhanced, alongside public health, the digital economy and green development.

Outside of education, the announcement follows previous national plans in naming a number of strategic emerging industries for particular support. The list of sectors in the current plan is: next-generation IT, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end manufacturing equipment, new energy vehicles, environmental protection, aerospace, and marine equipment. The internet, big data and artificial intelligence are also listed as priorities for integrating across a variety of existing industry sectors. The "platform economy" and "sharing economy" will be encouraged, as will "modern service industries" including logistics, outsourced R&D, legal services, healthcare, childcare, cultural industries and other areas.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst, International Education Services

The recent announcement still only gives a high-level outline rather than specific policies, so it is not yet possible to say how these priorities will affect China's education system in practical terms. However, in general the priorities are in line with other recent policies, particularly the focus on vocational education,  online and life-long learning. Whether this would lead to a recognition of online foreign degrees is yet to be seen.

The list of priority industries is broadly in line with the list set out in the previous five-year plan, with the exception of big data which played a less important role in the previous plan itself but developed into a government priority during the period covered by that plan.

Source

Xinhua – Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-term Goals for 2035 (in Chinese): http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-11/03/c_1126693293.htm