[photopress:college_students_in_Nanjing.jpg,full,alignright]Yuan Guiren, Deputy Minister of Education, has said China’s universities and colleges plan to enroll 5.7 million students in 2007, up 5% from last year. The number of postgraduates will ease up 6% to 424,000.
The ministry will limit the growth of university enrollments and most of the increased quota will go to the relatively under-developed western regions of China. The ministry will focus on improving the quality and conditions of higher education rather than increasing the number of students.
China’s college enrollment rate stood at around 3% in the mid 1980s, lower than many developing countries, but rose to 5% in the early 1990s. In 1999, when the government decided to expand higher education, universities enrolled 1.6 million students, up 48% on the previous year. In 2005, 5 million students were enrolled, 4.7 times more than in 1998. The number of students in higher education institutions reached 23 million in 2005, the highest in the world.
Many experts, students and parents believe the expansion of university enrollments that began in 1999 had led to a decline in teaching quality and study conditions in universities.
Source: Xinhua
You must log in to post a comment.