 China’s Higher Education & Relevance to Canada  Sen Lin (PhD)  Department of AEPS 

An Overview of China’s Higher Education  Institutions of higher education: 2,500 in total  1,200 universities granting four-year bachelor degrees; many can grant masters and PhDs.  1,300 technological institutes and vocational colleges granting two-year diplomas  Total number of students in higher education:  About 30 million in total (2014 estimate)  In 2014, 34.3% of years old are students in higher education  In 1978, 1.55% of years old were students in higher education  Major Fields of study offered by China’s Degree Programs:  Science, Engineering, Business, Social Science, Humanities, Medicine, Law, Education  Types of funding for higher education:  An overwhelming majority of institutions funded by the government (national and provincial)  Institutions with domestic private funds  Institutions funded by Sino-foreign joint-ventures (estimate 2013: about 1,000)

National Entrance Exams  Held yearly in June, primary means of screening applicants  Admissions to full-time programs are conditioned on passing the national entrance exam  Provincial governments responsible for organizing; exam questions either provincially made based on national guidelines or from a national exam bank  In June 2014, 9.39 millions took the entrance exam; planned maximum quota of admissions: 6.98 million—about 74% rate of success.  In recent years, some provinces did not fill their maximum quotas  The annual number of students taking the entrance exams has been in decline since 2008 due to changing demographics  The annual number is expected to be steady at the 2014 level for the next a few years, and a slight uptick after 2020  Two more factors of constraint: current government policy of encouraging development of vocational schools at the secondary level; the job market for graduates of higher education—may not meet the expectations

Students: before, during, and After

Parents Are There Too

Policing the Exams

Canada-China Exchanges  Chinese students in Canada  Total: 80,627 (2012, CBIE), 30% of the total foreign students in Canada-ranking #1 followed by those from India, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the US.  Total: about 100,000 (2013, Chinese Consulate in Toronto).  Canadian students in China  3,800 (2013, Chinese Consulate in Toronto)  Increasing number of visits by Chinese academics to Canadian institutions and by Canadian academics to Chinese institutions  Chinese academics highly value their experience in Canada and their exchanges with Canadian colleagues—these exchanges including teaching and research.

A Brief History of Foreign Exposure of Chinese Higher Education (PRC)  The Soviet connection: at peak in the 1950s; stopped in mid-1960s (Sino- Soviet split; Cultural Revolution)  Blazing China’s own trail (Isolation during the Cultural Revolution; All universities closed, )  Opening to the West: 1970s onward.