The Chinese Ministry of Education has posted an update regarding the revision process of the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools" and its "Implementation Measures" (as previously covered on SIEM News [https://education-services.britishcouncil.org/news/market-news/chinas-planning-revise-official-tne-regulations-and-its-implementation-measures]) on its official WeChat account.

The expert panel responsible for this revision work has visited several operating institutions and local authorities in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces in May to discuss finance, taxation, pricing and payment issues. Similar discussions were also organised in Chongqing and Guangdong in June.

The revision expert panel meeting was attended by representatives from 25 Chinese-Foreign Joint Institutes across China in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province in mid-June. Suggestions raised in the meeting included:

• Both Chinese and overseas university partners should have international collaboration experience in the subjects taught by the proposed joint programme or institute
• The terms “teaching faculty of foreign universities” and “core modules for the proposed discipline” that appear in current TNE regulations should be defined more precisely
• Legal barriers regarding issuing degrees certificates faced by universities in some countries should be taken into consideration

The MoE announced the completion of a draft of the amended regulations and implementation measures on its official WeChat account. The new regulations will keep a similar structure to the existing regulations, with four revised article and one new article. The implementation measures have 16 revisions, two deleted articles and 10 new articles.

These revised regulations will be circulated to invite feedback from local government departments, including provincial education, pricing and taxation bureaus, as well as education institutions and foreign embassies (including the British Council).

Analysis by Kevin Prest and Xiaoxiao Liu

Although the British Council has not yet seen the revised regulations, the suggestions highlighted by the MoE’s social media post suggest that there might be a tightening of standards relating to the teaching resources committed by a foreign education partner and the expertise of overseas partners in the subject areas being taught.

As discussed in the previous SIEM News post, another major goal of the revised regulations is likely to be a clarification of process for forming new transnational education partnerships and for withdrawing from existing partnerships. Other changes are likely to follow the current MoE policy priorities of improving the quality of TNE programmes and ensuring that they help to meet domestic development priorities.

Sources:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUwOTAzMDY2NA==&mid=2247483732&idx=1&sn=d4fc403b0e06bdf528ffa4a8c84b7062