First phase (1978–1985): the recovery and reconstruction of higher education

In 1977, the Unified National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) was formally resumed, in which more than 5.7 million people participated, and a total number of 273,000 students were enrolled. In September 1979, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee approved the report on the re-issuance of the 1963 ‘Decision on Strengthening the Higher Education System of Unified Leadership and Decentralized Management.’ This Decision established a system that prioritized the unified leadership of the central government in the planning and administration of higher education, and mandated separate administration of HEIs at two levels: the central and the local. Although the management system of higher education was still highly centralized at this period, this system made it possible for the local government to actively participate in the running and management of higher education, and laid a good foundation for the further expansion of the administrative rights of the local government.

In 1980, China began to reform the conventional financial system, and funds for higher education began to be provided respectively by the central and local governments according to the affiliation of HEIs. Most graduates were distributed by the central commissions, ministries or the provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities according to the affiliation of HEIs, too, except for a small percentage distributed by the central government. With the reform and opening up, China’s relations with other countries were improved. In the favorable domestic and international environment, international exchanges and cooperation in higher education entered a new stage of overall recovery and development. A working conference on higher education was held in 1983 to grant more autonomy to HEIs, so that on the basis of the completion of the national plan, HEIs would have some autonomy in enrollment, teaching, expenditure, teacher recruitment, international exchanges and so on.

To make up for the shortage of talent caused by the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and meet the needs of social development, the government was very supportive of the existing universities and colleges to restore enrollment and the establishment of new HEIs. So competent local authorities of HEIs and different ministries began enthusiastically to expand the HEIs, and the development of higher education was rapid. From 1978 to 1985, the number of HEIs increased from 598 to 1,016, i.e. by 69.9 percent within 7 years. The number of students and teaching staff increased correspondingly: students from 856,322 to 1,703,115,⁵ which was 98.9 percent, and full-time teachers from about 206,000 to about 344,000. Yet, the gross enrollment rate just increased from 1.56 percent in 1978 to 3.68 percent in 1989, which meant that the opportunities for young people to receive higher education were still slim.

Second phase (1985–1998): the stable development of higher education

In the 1980s, with the deepening of the reforms of Chinese social and economic systems and the expansion of higher education, the defects of the highly centralized higher education system became increasingly prominent. In 1985, the ‘Decision on the Reform of the Education System’ was formally issued by the CPC Central Committee. In this document, several key policies of great significance regarding Chinese higher education reform were made, in which reform of the admission and enrollment system, reform of the college graduates’ employment system, and greater institutional autonomy were included. This was a historic educational policy and an opening of the reform of Chinese education in the new era. With the establishment of China’s market economy in the 1990s, marketization of higher education speeded up and the funding sources diversified. Since HEIs started self-financing in the mid-1980s, a new funding system was gradually established with national public funds as the main source, and tuition fees, income from school-run industry, social donations and fund raising as supplements. With the further improvement of the international environment, international exchange and cooperation of Chinese education entered a new stage of normative development.

In 1993, ‘Outlines of Educational Reform and Development’ (the 1993 ‘Outline’), another influential document on Chinese education, was issued by the central government. This document stressed that the reform of the education system should be deepened and the decision-making and over-all planning power of local government should be expanded, so as to establish a new education system going with the reforms of the socialist market economic system, the political system and the system for science and technology.

In 1998, China’s first Higher Education Law was passed, which determined the directions for the reform and development of Chinese higher education in the 21st century. In order to give a boost to higher education, the central government decided to assign priority to a number of HEIs, aiming at building them into world-class universities, which were known as the ‘211 Project’ and the ‘985 Project,’ authorized respectively in 1995 and 1998.

During this period, the power of local governments in the administration of HEIs increased and a ‘Provincial-based Two-tier Management System’ was established. The major content of the reform of the higher education management system in this period was ‘joint development, adjustment, cooperation and mergers,’ focusing on the restructuring and reallocation of higher education resources. The number of Chinese HEIs increased from 1,016 in 1985 to 1,075 in 1988. In 1990 the mergers of HEIs began with 384 HEIs merging into 146 during 1990–1997 and the total number of HEIs reduced to 1,022 in 1998.⁶ Student enrollment per institution enlarged from 1,676 in 1985 to 3,335 in 1998. From 1985 to 1998, the number of students and teachers in HEIs increased steadily, with 3,408,764 students and 407,253 full-time teachers in 1998. The gross enrollment rate of higher education jumped from about 3.5 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s to 4.68 percent in 1993, and gradually increased to 9.76 percent in 1998.⁷

Third phase (1999–present): leaps and bounds of higher education

The ‘Action Plan for Vitalizing Education for the 21st Century’ was framed by the MOE in December 1998, according to which the enrollment rate of higher education was expected to reach 15 percent by 2010. The State Council approved this Action Plan in January 1999, setting massification of higher education as a tangible goal, which triggered the unprecedented expansion of higher education and quickly moved Chinese higher education from the elite phase to the mass phase in just a few years.

Li Lanqing, then Vice Premier, believed that the following four main factors led to the government’s making this decision. First, more high-quality personnel were needed for the sustainable and rapid development of the economy. Second, there was a widespread and enormous appetite for the youngsters to receive higher education. Third, employment of youngsters could be postponed and consumption in education could be increased by a higher enrollment rate, which was an important measure to expand domestic demand and promote the development of related industries under the global background of the Asian financial crisis. Fourth, a low enrollment rate and lack of opportunity to receive higher education made quality education almost impossible, since basic education had been focused on the tough college examination.⁸

Figure 1.1 shows the development of higher education in the past three decades. One most distinctive characteristic is the rapid expansion in recent years: the number of new students enrolled in regular HEIs jumped to 1,596,800 in 1999, an increase of 47.36 percent over the preceding year. From that year on, the yearly increase maintained no less than 25 percent, and in 2002, the total number of students in regular HEIs was 14,625,200 and the gross enrollment rate reached 15.3 percent. Chinese higher education entered into a universally recognized stage of mass education.⁹ In 2008, the gross enrollment rate reached 23.3 percent, and there were 29,070,000 college students in HEIs of various types, which was 5.9 times that of 1998. The total number of HEIs was 2,263 and the average student enrollment reached 8,679, which was more than doubled compared to the 3,335 in 1998. There were a total number of 1,237,500 full-time teachers and the student–teacher ratio was 17.23:1. Meanwhile, the professional competence of the teaching staff improved rapidly. In 1998, among the full-time teachers, only 9.01 percent were professors and 4.65 percent had doctorates, while in 2008 the percentages were 10.42 and 12.28 respectively.¹⁰

During this period the most important feature of the reform of higher education management system was to intensify and accelerate the pace of reform and to carry out a comprehensive reform. As far as the running of HEIs was concerned, the old system of the government taking on the whole thing was broken, and a new system was forming in which the government played the major role and businesses, organizations, individuals, and international cooperation were supplements. The funding system gradually changed from one depending solely on the government to a new one raising funds from various channels in addition to financial provision from the government. The reform of management system made great progress by joint construction-and-administration, cooperation, mergers and collaboration, and transferring to the local government and the overall planning of the central and local governments were strengthened. Reforms in college entrance examination and enrollment started and a more flexible enrollment system, with HEIs having greater autonomy, was initially established. The reform of the internal management system further deepened, and the Academic Committee, Academic Degree Evaluation Committee, Congress of Teaching Staff and other systems gradually became standardized. The employment conditions for the new graduates deteriorated with the rapid expansion of higher education,¹¹ and the central government started to control the growth of enrollments and focus its efforts on improving the quality in 2006. The system and practice of Chinese higher education matured with each passing day.

During this period, structure of higher education diversified and a multi-level, multi-type, multi-form, and multi-channel structure was gradually established. In form, a system was established with regular higher education as the base and Self-study Examination of Higher Education, online education and other forms as supplements. Decentralization and localization of HEIs became a trend, which provided opportunities for the development of higher education at many areas¹² and cities. According to incomplete statistics, HEIs recorded by the MOE increased by more than 110 at the area level during 1999–2001.¹³ In August 2010, among the 2035 regular HEIs, there were a total number of 917 in the 309 areas or autonomous prefectures, which was 45.06 percent of all the HEIs in China.¹⁴ Hierarchically, the percentage of specialized higher education increased substantially. Among the students in regular HEIs, the ratio of short-cycle undergraduates, undergraduates and postgraduates was 52:100:9 in 1998, and it became 84:100:12 in 2007. As for discipline structure, the proportion of basic theoretical subjects such as philosophy and history declined, while that of applied disciplines increased.¹⁵

Since 1978, higher education in China has been undertaking reforms, first steadily from 1978 to 1998 and then rapidly since 1999. The development of higher education was reflected not only in the increase of numbers but more importantly in the structural and systematic reform. The structure of higher education changed dramatically, with regular HEIs and adult HEIs complementing each other, central, local and private ownerships playing different roles, research universities, teaching universities and vocational and technical colleges providing different types of talents to meet the needs of the economy. The reform of the higher education system was comprehensive and all-round, involving ownership, funding, administration, enrollment and graduate employment. With the establishment of market economy, marketization of higher education emerged and developed at a high speed. The funding resources varied and the efficiency of HEI operation increased while the tendency for internationalization of higher education became more and more clear, playing an important part in Sino-foreign cultural exchanges.