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On September 1, Luo Lan became a freshman at Tianjin-based Nankai University. Unlike most other schoolmates，she did not gain entry merely on the strength of her results in the entrance examination. Luo Lan got a spot thanks to her musical talent. Excelling at playing the harp, the young woman won early admission to Nankai University prior to the national college entrance examination, which promised her access to the school once she reached the minimum mark for class-one universities in the examination. The condition was that if she made the cut, she had to join the university's symphony orchestra.
This form of admission is known as independent enrollment in China, and while initially it was a means to get people into arts and sports programs, its scope has expanded to other fields. The percentage of independently enrolled students has increased from no more than five percent eight years ago to as high as 30 percent in some of Chinese universities.
"In my time there was only one way to go to college, that was taking part in an entrance examination," said Luo Lan's mother, Ms. Zhang, who was admitted to Hebei University in 1982.
The new mode of enrollment is in fact only one of the many reforms China's higher education system is undergoing.
The Process of Marketization
For Luo Lan, the annual tuition fee is RMB 5,000, accommodation is RMB 1,200, and monthly living expenses come to at least RMB 1,000."It is said universities of lower ranking charge more," said Ms Zhang.In the early 1980s, higher education was free of charge. Her mother gave her RMB 30 per month for her living expenses. From these monthly allotments she had saved RMB 120 by the end of her four years in university, with which she took a train to Beijing to see an optometrist and have a pair of glasses made.
In the decades following 1949 when the PRC was founded, until 1988, China's higher education was free. This changed the destiny of many children from poor families.By 1989, the reality for people seeking a higher education had changed:the formerly nominal tuition fee was hiked to RMB 200, one-seventh of the annual per capita income of urban residents (RMB 1,376). But this was just the beginning. By 2000 the annual tuition fee for universities had risen to RMB 5,000, close to the annual per capita income of urban residents that year (RMB 6,980).
One direct result of high tuition fees is the extent of family expenditures on higher education. A college student's annual tuition fee, food and lodging now approaches RMB 15,000,which is out of reach for most rural families. Even though the government has promulgated an assortment of policies on scholarships and grants, poor communication means many students in the country's backwaters are not clear on the provisions made for them, so they give up before applying.
Seismic change has also occurred in employment prospects for college graduates. Before 1994, regular college students were assigned a job on graduation. Employment was not a worry. Ms Zhang majored in the Chinese language, and she wanted to become a teacher. She had her wish fulfilled, going to work for a military college. Her schoolmates also got decent jobs as journalists in state media such as Xinhua, or as officials in provincial public relations departments.
Job handouts for college graduates like these expired as of 1994, forcing young men and women to cold call employers or use family connections if they had any. But there was still less pressure involved in finding work for people with college degrees as they were a treasured minority in those days. Gross enrollment in higher education was merely 5.7 percent that year, and college graduates numbered 800,000.
In 1999, the government expanded college quotas, and enrollment increased by 48 percent, or 1.08 million in 1998 to 1.59 million in 1999. Finding work soon became more difficult. In 2008, the Ministry of Education admitted for the first time that the expansion of college enrollment had gone too far.Although the pace of expansion slowed down a little after that, the year 2011 found China with a total college enrollment of 6.75 million, eight times that of 1994.
Back to Academia
Shenzhen-based South University of Science and Technology of China(SUSTC) greeted its first batch of students in March 2011. The decision to autonomously recruit its own students was made when SUSTC, a university undertaking a mission of "de-bureaucracy"and "letting professors run the school,"failed to obtain recruitment authorization by the Ministry of Education despite three years of preparation. This meant that in the future this intake of 45 students may be unable to get the national education authority to recognize their academic qualifications, and hold only an SUSTC-granted diploma.
The iconic stance of "de-bureaucracy" taken by SUSTC was intended to steer school management away from the state administrative hierarchy, which primarily covers government de-partments but also state-owned establishments. Zhu Qingshi,president of the university, conceives the SUSTC as an innovative research-oriented institution like the California Institute of Technology. "SUSTC established a council responsible for ruling on major issues the university faces. All decisions are made by voting after intensive discussions," he said. He thought this was a good way to avoid administrative interference, and he acted just as any CEO would.
"A university's de-bureaucracy does not mean removing management or administrative functions. On the contrary, universities demand efficient administrative management," Zhu explained. "The essence of removing the state administrative hierarchy is to let academic power dominate. Administrative power dominating a university implies that the highest-ranking official makes his word count; however, if academic power is dominant, the one who masters the truth makes the decision.People all obey the truth regardless of their official ranks," he clarified.
In fact, experiments meant to relieve universities of bureaucracy were conducted years ago. As early as 1985, the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Educational System elucidated the intention. The Outline of the National Program for Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development, released in July 2010, once again clearly proposed that universities should overcome the tendency to amass administrative ranks, and "gradually abolish the existing administrative hierarchy and administrative management mode."
Twenty-six universities including Fudan University were enlisted in a pilot program to restructure internal management centering on the formulation of a university charter. In the pilot program internal governance of the university was reorganized and the role of the executive officer reevaluated. In 2010,Yang Yuliang, president of Fudan, publicly declared of the new governing principles of the university that it was characterized by "academic research as the soul, education at the core, legally regulated governance, and democratic decision making." Fudan's administrative heads accordingly with drew from its three major academic organizations - the academic committee, academic degree committee and teaching assessment committee.Later, reforms were expanded to the school and department strata - most deans and department chairs were removed from leadership posts in the above three academic units.
Greater autonomy in recruitment also helps entrench the academic authority of universities. As early as 2003 the Ministry of Education initiated an experiment allowing some universities to independently select applicants for no more than five percent of their annual undergraduate enrollment quota. Today more than 80 schools have joined the program, and many have exceeded the five percent quota.
This year, Tsinghua, one of the best universities in China, took a step further:for its enrollment reform it introduced Plan A and Plan B, relaxing admission standards for talents of a specific nature and students who had demonstrated excellence in underdeveloped areas.
"Among our alumni are Qian Zhongshu and Wu Han (both famous writers), whose math scores in the entrance exams were respectively 15 and 0.We always welcome students with special talents and potential," said Xue Ping, head of Shanghai recruitment team of Tsinghua. "We intend to give the exceptional whether in academic achievement or in character access to highly regarded universities," Xue added.
Many other members of China's Ivy League have embraced similar independent enrollment, such as Peking University and Nanjing University. Fudan University even disclosed plan to expand this practice to its entire enrollment in Shanghai, the city where it is located, next year. Whether for autonomous enrollment, educational autonomy or just stream lining administration out of university governance, their ultimate purpose is the same, to make higher learning institutions return to the traditional concerns of academia. Administrative power will not interfere with academic matters, and professors will focus on their research and teaching. Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University of China,has reflected extensively on China's current situation in higher education. His conclusion is while the autonomy granted to universities by the government in the 30 plus years since the reform and opening up is obviously greater than before, "The power of universities is impaired. For example, due to the implementation of project management in finance, all special projects must be submitted to the government for approval.Moreover, money for a specific project can't be used for other projects or items. Therefore, the school's ability to handle its affairs flexibly is limited," Ji explained. He thinks the whole process is over elaborate and troublesome because of the complicated and protracted reporting, evaluation and competition to which a project is subjected.
Ji proposed government responsibilities in education should be limited to formulating education policies, basic systems and standards, but allowed to continue, as before, implementing macro adjustments to education. As for detailed and specific management affairs like the establishment of disciplines and enrollment mechanisms, schools should gradually take these over. Education authorities should only retain the necessary and supreme supervision and veto power.
"The government must make way for higher learning institutions to assume educational autonomy, which entails returning authority over academic requirements to schools," Ji said."I suggest abandoning the concepts of 'ministry affiliated' and 'province controlled' universities, replacing them with 'state' and 'provincial' universities, so as to ensure their independent legal status. Meanwhile, China should explore ways to establish higher education organizations of multiple types and at multiple levels, such as university associations, as soon as possible,"he added.
Gradually Solving Problems in Reforms
Although the reform measures at Chinese universities have their supporters, critical views have been endorsed and the airing of negative opinions is incessant.
Xiong Bingqi, a famous education scholar, believes the current college autonomous enrollment mode is tripling the stress on college applicants. The students have to pass written tests offered by a specific university or an alliance of universities,then participate in interviews with the schools they aspire to,and sit for the conventional national college entrance exam before they can make it into their desired school. If a student applies to several universities through the autonomous en- rollment channel it means taking more exams, adding to the physical, psychological and financial burden on them and their parents. What's more, the autonomy of the college is actually very limited:its range of choice is confined to students whose scores meet the baseline mark in the national college entrance exam set by educational authorities for the class of colleges to which they apply.
Luo Lan's mother fully understands. This year, she has accompanied Luo Lan to take autonomous enrollment exams for five universities in and out of Beijing, their hometown, spending tens of thousands of yuan. To make sure she was putting her best foot forward, she rented a harp for 15 days at RMB 2,000 per day and hired a person to transport the instrument for RMB 400 per day in Beijing, and RMB 1,200 a day in Tianjin. Adding their transport and accommodation, the cost came to tens of thousands of yuan.
Such a sum is unimaginable for students from less affluent families. Yang Yuliang, president of Fudan University, hence thinks current autonomous enrollment systems are particularly unfair to rural applicants. "Few students in remote areas can get sufficient information on autonomous enrollment, and still fewer can afford to take the relevant exams in big cities,"he indicated. Even the lucky ones who scrape up the money and make the trip will find themselves at a remarkable disadvantage in the interview process, owing to their very modest exposure to the wider world and scant training on how to present themselves. Needless to say, an applicant's performance at interviews is a decisive factor in the prequalification for autonomous enrollment.
Whether a university can exercise autonomy in enrollment,and to what extent, still depends on the Ministry of Education.For instance, Xiong says, if Fudan can independently all applicants as it sees fit for its whole recruitment in Shanghai next year remains an open question, given the pending decision by the Ministry. Approval by the Ministry is required for such specifics as the quota of autonomous enrollment and the areas of application.
The reality is SUSTC's attempt to exercise autonomy has undergone several setbacks. First it was denied the recruitment right granted by the Ministry of Education, with the result that the 45 students it recruited were pressed to take the national college entrance exam anyway. The fact that the mayor of Shenzhen became director of the management couneil of SUSTC is viewed by many as a negation of its efforts to get rid of administration. "If it doesn't want the academic diploma granted by the Ministry of Education, the authorities should allow it to grant students its own diploma," said Zhu Yongxin,vice chairman of Chinese Education Society. "Otherwise market mechanisms are not playing a role in education," he added.
In Xiong's opinion, to realize true autonomy in student se-lection, the education authorities should change the function of the current national college entrance exam from filtration to evaluation. After the release of students' scores in the national exam, universities should independently set their own score requirements for students to apply. The students who meet the score thresholds of several universities can apply to all of them at the same time if they like. It is possible for a student to obtain several college admission notices and make a choice.
Where market mechanisms are gradually fulfilling their role in the fields of college tuition fees and employment -problems have arisen. President Ji of Renmin University said,although the proportion of rural students to the whole studentbody in higher learning institutions is still about 50 percent, inprestigious universities that ratio has been shrinking for fiveconsecutive years. And job competition is getting more intensefor fresh college graduates:hundreds of thousands end up un-employed every year.
In response, the government has introduced a series of poli-cies to ease student entry into college and make their exit intothe ranks of the employed easier too. China has establisheda system of grants to aid students in poverty. These cover areduction or exemption of tuition fees, grant-in-aid, studentloans, scholarships, and work opportunities to help with studyexpenses. All colleges are required to inform applicants of therelevant policies on assistance. In addition, the government hasintroduced stimulus policies like compensation for tuition feesand write-offs of student loans for graduates who agree to workin grassroots units in the least developed areas for three yearsor more or join the army. Those who start their own businessesalso enjoy some national support policies concerning registra-tion, bank loans, taxes and fees. The government also providestraining and guidance for college students considering openingtheir own businesses.
This form of admission is known as independent enrollment in China, and while initially it was a means to get people into arts and sports programs, its scope has expanded to other fields. The percentage of independently enrolled students has increased from no more than five percent eight years ago to as high as 30 percent in some of Chinese universities.
"In my time there was only one way to go to college, that was taking part in an entrance examination," said Luo Lan's mother, Ms. Zhang, who was admitted to Hebei University in 1982.
The new mode of enrollment is in fact only one of the many reforms China's higher education system is undergoing.
The Process of Marketization
For Luo Lan, the annual tuition fee is RMB 5,000, accommodation is RMB 1,200, and monthly living expenses come to at least RMB 1,000."It is said universities of lower ranking charge more," said Ms Zhang.In the early 1980s, higher education was free of charge. Her mother gave her RMB 30 per month for her living expenses. From these monthly allotments she had saved RMB 120 by the end of her four years in university, with which she took a train to Beijing to see an optometrist and have a pair of glasses made.
In the decades following 1949 when the PRC was founded, until 1988, China's higher education was free. This changed the destiny of many children from poor families.By 1989, the reality for people seeking a higher education had changed:the formerly nominal tuition fee was hiked to RMB 200, one-seventh of the annual per capita income of urban residents (RMB 1,376). But this was just the beginning. By 2000 the annual tuition fee for universities had risen to RMB 5,000, close to the annual per capita income of urban residents that year (RMB 6,980).
One direct result of high tuition fees is the extent of family expenditures on higher education. A college student's annual tuition fee, food and lodging now approaches RMB 15,000,which is out of reach for most rural families. Even though the government has promulgated an assortment of policies on scholarships and grants, poor communication means many students in the country's backwaters are not clear on the provisions made for them, so they give up before applying.
Seismic change has also occurred in employment prospects for college graduates. Before 1994, regular college students were assigned a job on graduation. Employment was not a worry. Ms Zhang majored in the Chinese language, and she wanted to become a teacher. She had her wish fulfilled, going to work for a military college. Her schoolmates also got decent jobs as journalists in state media such as Xinhua, or as officials in provincial public relations departments.
Job handouts for college graduates like these expired as of 1994, forcing young men and women to cold call employers or use family connections if they had any. But there was still less pressure involved in finding work for people with college degrees as they were a treasured minority in those days. Gross enrollment in higher education was merely 5.7 percent that year, and college graduates numbered 800,000.
In 1999, the government expanded college quotas, and enrollment increased by 48 percent, or 1.08 million in 1998 to 1.59 million in 1999. Finding work soon became more difficult. In 2008, the Ministry of Education admitted for the first time that the expansion of college enrollment had gone too far.Although the pace of expansion slowed down a little after that, the year 2011 found China with a total college enrollment of 6.75 million, eight times that of 1994.
Back to Academia
Shenzhen-based South University of Science and Technology of China(SUSTC) greeted its first batch of students in March 2011. The decision to autonomously recruit its own students was made when SUSTC, a university undertaking a mission of "de-bureaucracy"and "letting professors run the school,"failed to obtain recruitment authorization by the Ministry of Education despite three years of preparation. This meant that in the future this intake of 45 students may be unable to get the national education authority to recognize their academic qualifications, and hold only an SUSTC-granted diploma.
The iconic stance of "de-bureaucracy" taken by SUSTC was intended to steer school management away from the state administrative hierarchy, which primarily covers government de-partments but also state-owned establishments. Zhu Qingshi,president of the university, conceives the SUSTC as an innovative research-oriented institution like the California Institute of Technology. "SUSTC established a council responsible for ruling on major issues the university faces. All decisions are made by voting after intensive discussions," he said. He thought this was a good way to avoid administrative interference, and he acted just as any CEO would.
"A university's de-bureaucracy does not mean removing management or administrative functions. On the contrary, universities demand efficient administrative management," Zhu explained. "The essence of removing the state administrative hierarchy is to let academic power dominate. Administrative power dominating a university implies that the highest-ranking official makes his word count; however, if academic power is dominant, the one who masters the truth makes the decision.People all obey the truth regardless of their official ranks," he clarified.
In fact, experiments meant to relieve universities of bureaucracy were conducted years ago. As early as 1985, the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Educational System elucidated the intention. The Outline of the National Program for Medium- and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development, released in July 2010, once again clearly proposed that universities should overcome the tendency to amass administrative ranks, and "gradually abolish the existing administrative hierarchy and administrative management mode."
Twenty-six universities including Fudan University were enlisted in a pilot program to restructure internal management centering on the formulation of a university charter. In the pilot program internal governance of the university was reorganized and the role of the executive officer reevaluated. In 2010,Yang Yuliang, president of Fudan, publicly declared of the new governing principles of the university that it was characterized by "academic research as the soul, education at the core, legally regulated governance, and democratic decision making." Fudan's administrative heads accordingly with drew from its three major academic organizations - the academic committee, academic degree committee and teaching assessment committee.Later, reforms were expanded to the school and department strata - most deans and department chairs were removed from leadership posts in the above three academic units.
Greater autonomy in recruitment also helps entrench the academic authority of universities. As early as 2003 the Ministry of Education initiated an experiment allowing some universities to independently select applicants for no more than five percent of their annual undergraduate enrollment quota. Today more than 80 schools have joined the program, and many have exceeded the five percent quota.
This year, Tsinghua, one of the best universities in China, took a step further:for its enrollment reform it introduced Plan A and Plan B, relaxing admission standards for talents of a specific nature and students who had demonstrated excellence in underdeveloped areas.
"Among our alumni are Qian Zhongshu and Wu Han (both famous writers), whose math scores in the entrance exams were respectively 15 and 0.We always welcome students with special talents and potential," said Xue Ping, head of Shanghai recruitment team of Tsinghua. "We intend to give the exceptional whether in academic achievement or in character access to highly regarded universities," Xue added.
Many other members of China's Ivy League have embraced similar independent enrollment, such as Peking University and Nanjing University. Fudan University even disclosed plan to expand this practice to its entire enrollment in Shanghai, the city where it is located, next year. Whether for autonomous enrollment, educational autonomy or just stream lining administration out of university governance, their ultimate purpose is the same, to make higher learning institutions return to the traditional concerns of academia. Administrative power will not interfere with academic matters, and professors will focus on their research and teaching. Ji Baocheng, president of Renmin University of China,has reflected extensively on China's current situation in higher education. His conclusion is while the autonomy granted to universities by the government in the 30 plus years since the reform and opening up is obviously greater than before, "The power of universities is impaired. For example, due to the implementation of project management in finance, all special projects must be submitted to the government for approval.Moreover, money for a specific project can't be used for other projects or items. Therefore, the school's ability to handle its affairs flexibly is limited," Ji explained. He thinks the whole process is over elaborate and troublesome because of the complicated and protracted reporting, evaluation and competition to which a project is subjected.
Ji proposed government responsibilities in education should be limited to formulating education policies, basic systems and standards, but allowed to continue, as before, implementing macro adjustments to education. As for detailed and specific management affairs like the establishment of disciplines and enrollment mechanisms, schools should gradually take these over. Education authorities should only retain the necessary and supreme supervision and veto power.
"The government must make way for higher learning institutions to assume educational autonomy, which entails returning authority over academic requirements to schools," Ji said."I suggest abandoning the concepts of 'ministry affiliated' and 'province controlled' universities, replacing them with 'state' and 'provincial' universities, so as to ensure their independent legal status. Meanwhile, China should explore ways to establish higher education organizations of multiple types and at multiple levels, such as university associations, as soon as possible,"he added.
Gradually Solving Problems in Reforms
Although the reform measures at Chinese universities have their supporters, critical views have been endorsed and the airing of negative opinions is incessant.
Xiong Bingqi, a famous education scholar, believes the current college autonomous enrollment mode is tripling the stress on college applicants. The students have to pass written tests offered by a specific university or an alliance of universities,then participate in interviews with the schools they aspire to,and sit for the conventional national college entrance exam before they can make it into their desired school. If a student applies to several universities through the autonomous en- rollment channel it means taking more exams, adding to the physical, psychological and financial burden on them and their parents. What's more, the autonomy of the college is actually very limited:its range of choice is confined to students whose scores meet the baseline mark in the national college entrance exam set by educational authorities for the class of colleges to which they apply.
Luo Lan's mother fully understands. This year, she has accompanied Luo Lan to take autonomous enrollment exams for five universities in and out of Beijing, their hometown, spending tens of thousands of yuan. To make sure she was putting her best foot forward, she rented a harp for 15 days at RMB 2,000 per day and hired a person to transport the instrument for RMB 400 per day in Beijing, and RMB 1,200 a day in Tianjin. Adding their transport and accommodation, the cost came to tens of thousands of yuan.
Such a sum is unimaginable for students from less affluent families. Yang Yuliang, president of Fudan University, hence thinks current autonomous enrollment systems are particularly unfair to rural applicants. "Few students in remote areas can get sufficient information on autonomous enrollment, and still fewer can afford to take the relevant exams in big cities,"he indicated. Even the lucky ones who scrape up the money and make the trip will find themselves at a remarkable disadvantage in the interview process, owing to their very modest exposure to the wider world and scant training on how to present themselves. Needless to say, an applicant's performance at interviews is a decisive factor in the prequalification for autonomous enrollment.
Whether a university can exercise autonomy in enrollment,and to what extent, still depends on the Ministry of Education.For instance, Xiong says, if Fudan can independently all applicants as it sees fit for its whole recruitment in Shanghai next year remains an open question, given the pending decision by the Ministry. Approval by the Ministry is required for such specifics as the quota of autonomous enrollment and the areas of application.
The reality is SUSTC's attempt to exercise autonomy has undergone several setbacks. First it was denied the recruitment right granted by the Ministry of Education, with the result that the 45 students it recruited were pressed to take the national college entrance exam anyway. The fact that the mayor of Shenzhen became director of the management couneil of SUSTC is viewed by many as a negation of its efforts to get rid of administration. "If it doesn't want the academic diploma granted by the Ministry of Education, the authorities should allow it to grant students its own diploma," said Zhu Yongxin,vice chairman of Chinese Education Society. "Otherwise market mechanisms are not playing a role in education," he added.
In Xiong's opinion, to realize true autonomy in student se-lection, the education authorities should change the function of the current national college entrance exam from filtration to evaluation. After the release of students' scores in the national exam, universities should independently set their own score requirements for students to apply. The students who meet the score thresholds of several universities can apply to all of them at the same time if they like. It is possible for a student to obtain several college admission notices and make a choice.
Where market mechanisms are gradually fulfilling their role in the fields of college tuition fees and employment -problems have arisen. President Ji of Renmin University said,although the proportion of rural students to the whole studentbody in higher learning institutions is still about 50 percent, inprestigious universities that ratio has been shrinking for fiveconsecutive years. And job competition is getting more intensefor fresh college graduates:hundreds of thousands end up un-employed every year.
In response, the government has introduced a series of poli-cies to ease student entry into college and make their exit intothe ranks of the employed easier too. China has establisheda system of grants to aid students in poverty. These cover areduction or exemption of tuition fees, grant-in-aid, studentloans, scholarships, and work opportunities to help with studyexpenses. All colleges are required to inform applicants of therelevant policies on assistance. In addition, the government hasintroduced stimulus policies like compensation for tuition feesand write-offs of student loans for graduates who agree to workin grassroots units in the least developed areas for three yearsor more or join the army. Those who start their own businessesalso enjoy some national support policies concerning registra-tion, bank loans, taxes and fees. The government also providestraining and guidance for college students considering openingtheir own businesses.