Summary

In May 2018, Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology – an independent college of Zhejiang University – announced that it had received approval from the provincial education commission to become an independent public university. This is the first independent college to transform into a public university, although others have become private institutions in the past. 

China has over 200 of these independent colleges (独立学院), which were mainly formed due to policies in the 1990s which encouraged public HEIs to set up separate independent colleges to expand HE enrolment. Although they take the name of their parent university and this university helps to set the overall direction of the college, it usually has little to no involvement in the day-to-day running of the institution and there is often a large difference in prestige and student quality between the parent university and the college.

With a shift in focus to fully private HEIs the number of independent colleges has fallen in recent years, from 323 in 2010 to 266 as of the end of 2016. However, in all previous cases the colleges have been converted to non-profit private HEIs. Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology is the first example of an independent college being converted to a public university.

Along with the change in status, the institution’s student enrolment quota has been reduced. The number of bachelor’s degree students to be newly recruited in 2018 has been cut from 3,100 to around 2,500, while the total number of enrolled students will fall over time from the current 11,000 to 10,000.

Analysis by Kevin Prest

Several UK universities have recently contacted the British Council to ask about the status of independent colleges in China. Despite their similar names, a degree from an independent college is not usually considered equivalent to that of the parent university. In most cases the parent has little to no involvement in the day-to-day running of the college – there is usually no overlap in terms of students or teaching staff, although in some cases support is provided in areas such as curriculum design. In addition, independent colleges have much lower entry standards, typically recruiting students with Tier 3 Gaokao scores even if their parent universities require a Tier 1 score.

Independent colleges should not be confused with branch campuses of the parent Chinese university. Some Chinese universities operate more than one campus, and in some cases the branch campus may be in a different city or province from the home campus – an example is Harbin Institute of Technology’s campus in Weihai, Shandong. A branch campus will have similar academic standards to the home campus and will generally attract students with similar academic performance. 

The conversion of Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology to a separate public HEI is a new development and goes against a broader trend of increasing prominence of private education in China. It remains to be seen whether this will turn into a wider trend.

Sources

China Youth Daily: Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology to transform into provincial-level public university (in Chinese)

http://news.cyol.com/yuanchuang/2018-05/24/content_17223395.htm