The Higher Educational Transformation of China and Its Global Implications
Abstract
This paper documents the major transformation of higher education that has been underway in China since 1999 and evaluates its potential global impacts. Reflecting China's commitment to continued high growth through quality upgrading and the production of ideas and intellectual property as set out in both the 10th (2001-2005) and 11th (2006-2010) five-year plans, this transformation focuses on major new resource commitments to tertiary education and also embodies significant changes in organizational form. This focus on tertiary education differentiates the Chinese case from other countries who earlier at similar stages of development instead stressed primary and secondary education. The number of undergraduate and graduate students in China has been grown at approximately 30% per year since 1999, and the number of graduates at all levels of higher education in China has approximately quadrupled in the last 6 years. The size of entering classes of new students and total student enrollments have risen even faster, and have approximately quintupled. Prior to 1999 increases in these areas were much smaller. Much of the increased spending is focused on elite universities, and new academic contracts differ sharply from earlier ones with no tenure and annual publication quotas often used. All of these changes have already had large impacts on China's higher educational system and are beginning to be felt by the wider global educational structure. We suggest that even more major impacts will follow in the years to come and there are implications for global trade both directly in ideas, and in idea derived products. These changes, for now, seem relatively poorly documented in literature.Download Info
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13849.Length:
Date of creation: Mar 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13849
Note: ED
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Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Yao Amber Li & John Whalley & Shunming Zhang & Xiliang Zhao, 2011. "The Higher Educational Transformation of China and Its Global Implications," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 516-545, 04.
- I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
- I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education and Research Institutions
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-03-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-CNA-2008-03-25 (China)
- NEP-DEV-2008-03-25 (Development)
- NEP-EDU-2008-03-25 (Education)
- NEP-HRM-2008-03-25 (Human Capital & Human Resource Management)
- NEP-TRA-2008-03-25 (Transition Economics)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Bai, Chong-en & Chi, Wei, 2011. "Determinants of undergraduate GPAs in China: college entrance examination scores, high school achievement, and admission route," MPRA Paper 31240, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- John Whalley & Xiliang Zhao, 2010. "The Contribution of Human Capital to China’s Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 16592, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Li, Shi & Xing, Chunbing, 2010. "China's Higher Education Expansion and its Labor Market Consequences," IZA Discussion Papers 4974, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Yitao Jiang & Xiaojun Shi & Shunming Zhang & Jingjing Ji, 2011. "The threshold effect of high-level human capital investment on China's urban-rural income gap," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 3(3), pages 297-320, September.
- Hălăngescu, Constantin I., 2012.
"Mundus academicus: arhitectura și adaptarea la fluxurile globalizării (I)
[Mundus academicus: architecture and adaptation to globalization flows (I)]," MPRA Paper 36839, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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