1. 14th Five-Year Plan – education updates

On 31 March, the Chinese State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the 14th Five-Year Plan and speed up the development of a high-quality education system.

Key priorities in developing this include:

  • Building a high-quality, balanced public education service system
  • Developing a vocational and technical education system to contribute to creating a skill-oriented society
  • Building an open and diversified higher education system
  • Improving the education system to serve lifelong learning for all 

The Chinese government aims to do this through: 

  • Improving the professional structure of higher education disciplines and talent training
  • Deepening the integration of industry and education and co-operation between schools and enterprises
  • Increasing scientific and technological research innovation in universities
  • Increasing regional development, including implementing a plan for the revitalisation of rural education 
  • Promoting education opening-up, including deeper people-to-people exchanges between China and foreign countries, and engaging in global education governance

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2. Vocational education 

Amendment to Existing Vocational Education Law

An executive meeting of the State Council on 24 March made several recommendations on vocational education, including that vocational education must adapt to the requirements of the development of a socialist market economy, persist in reform and innovation, and highlight employment opportunities. 

The meeting produced an amendment to existing vocational education laws, which will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for consideration.

The draft law suggests the following:

  • Regulations for integration of education with industry
  • Regulations for co-operation between education institutions and business enterprises
  • Supporting non-governmental sectors to run vocational education institutions
  • Promotion of integration and mutual recognition of academic and vocational education qualifications

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Directory for Vocational Education Professionals

In other news related to vocational education, the Chinese Ministry of Education has issued a revised  catalogue of vocational education programmes, referred to as the ‘Directory for Vocational Education Professionals’. This aims to strengthen the national teaching system standards for vocational education. 

The Directory covers vocational education at the secondary, college and undergraduate level. It features 1,349 degree programmes, under 97 degree categories. 358 of these are at the secondary level, 744 at the college level, and 247 are at the undergraduate level. 

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3. Higher Education

‘Double first-class’ university evaluations

The Chinese Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance and National Development and Reform Commission recently issued guidance on an evaluation scheme for ‘double first-class’ institutions. The evaluation will focus on both overall university development, and evaluation of individual disciplines. Evaluation criteria includes talent training, scientific research, teaching styles, and international exchange and co-operation. 

With regard to international exchange and co-operation, the evaluation scheme will assess the effectiveness and impact of international activities, the ability of these activities to serve the country’s opening-up strategy, and universities’ capacity to co-ordinate domestic and international resources. 

Universities who perform well in the evaluation will receive increased support from the three government departments, while those who demonstrate weak implementation of the criteria or slow progress will receive less support. 

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Draft of a new Degree Law open for public comments

China’s Ministry of Education has created a draft of a new Degree Law which is now open for public comments.

The new Draft makes some clarifications and changes to wording, as well as requiring students to pass courses in ideological and political theory – a requirement which had previously only been specified in administrative regulations rather than directly in law. It also regulates the circumstances in which universities may award honorary doctorates. 

Compared to the previous Regulations on Academic Degrees, the new Draft also adds several remarks on degree quality assurance:

  • Degree granting institutions should strengthen their internal quality assurance mechanisms 
  • For postgraduate students, the degree granting institutions should allocate a supervisor with high-level academic skills or strong practical ability
  • The State Council education administrative department and provincial degree committee shall organize regular quality evaluation for the authorized degree-granting institutions, encourage third party professional institutions to provide evaluation and consultancy service on degree work 

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4. 2021 General Public Budget for Education Announced

On 25 March, the Chinese Ministry of Education published its general public budget for the year 2021. The total budget was about RMB 134 billion, a decrease of RMB 6.7 billion from the 2020 budget.

The budget reduction is due to requirements from the CPC Central Committee and State Council to economise the budget for non-urgent general expenditure, as well as a reduction of capital expenditure by the National Development and Reform Commission.  The total central government budget for 2021 will be 3,501 billion yuan, down 0.2 per cent, the second consecutive year of negative growth. Education is still the single largest budget item, accounting for 15.3 per cent of the total. 

Central government education spending only accounts for a minority of total government education spending. Local government budgets vary based on the situation of each city or province – for example, Beijing’s education budget for 2021 has increased by RMB 613 million to RMB 29.4 billion, a 2.1 per cent increase over 2020.

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