Responses of Chinese Higher Education to the Challenged of Information Society Wenge Guo Graduate School of Education Beijing University, China

Main Topic Information Society and Challenges for Higher Education Responses of Chinese Higher Education –Policy Responses –National Infrastructure Building –Use of ICT at Institutional Level –Network Academy Issues and Implication

I. Information Society and Challenges for Higher Education

ICT accelerates the process of the globalization, affect the labor division, determine the competitiveness of economies and corporations, and generate new growth patterns of social life. “networks constitute the new social morphology of our society, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture” (Castells, 2000) The feature of Information society

Challenges for Higher Education Information explode New education delivery vehicle Anywhere/anyone/anytime communication and collaboration Globalization

II. Responses of Chinese Higher Education

Policy responses 1993, Outline for Education Reform and Development in China, as meta-policy –addressed the needs for Chinese education to reform in face of the challenges of information society –stressed the importance of use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education

Informationalization of education was explicitly stressed as basic national education policy, with an intention to leap some gap, extend access to post- secondary education, and provide equity opportunities for diversity population. ICT was believed the main instrument for this vision.

1999, Action Plan for Vitalizing Education for the 21st Century, launched six projects: –qualification-oriented education –enhancement of teacher quality –developing high level and creative talents –Modern distance learning –“211” project – World class university project Program is the financial instrument in China.

“211” Project MOE of China shifted finance to selective 100 universities and 100 discipline to improve their infrastructure and research and teaching environment During , central and local government has spent 18 billion yuan RMB to improve the ICT infrastructure, especially support two system: –CERNET: China Education and Research Network –CALIS: Chine Academic Library Information System

Network Academy During the periods of , the government had invested over 500 million yuan RMB on this project, to: –update and improve China Education Research Network (CERNET), Chinese Education TV and campus networks in the west China; –set out a research project on the key technology of modern distance education Up to 2004, 67+1 higher education institutions has engaged in distance education and enrolled 2.3 million online students (1 is Chinese Open University)

Finance for ICT in Higher Education “211” Program Modern Distance Learning CALISCERNET CETVResearch Campus ICT Infrastructure Net-course Distance Learning System Support

National Infrastructure Building CERNET: China Education and Research Network CALIS: China Academic Library & Information System

CERNET Project China Education and Research Network was started in 1994 Funded by the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Education Managed by the Ministry of Education

Major Tasks Establish a nationwide backbone which connects eight regional networks and connect them to the global Internet Set up a national network center Set up ten regional network nodes Establish network management systems Provide Internet applications and develop China information resources and applications.

CERNET Backbone Topology (by end of Jun. 2004) 622MPOS 155MPOS 4M satellite 622MPOS 155MPOS 4M satellite 2.5G~10G 155M~2.5G 512K~7M Satellite+DDN 乌鲁木齐 西宁 兰州 银川 呼和浩特 太原 石家庄 郑州 青岛 大连 长春 哈尔滨 济南 拉萨 昆明 重庆 贵阳 南宁 桂林 海口 深圳 台北 福州 厦门 长沙南昌 合肥 天津 北京 沈阳 西安 成都 武汉 南京 上海 广州 杭州 Satellite DDN To USA To UK To Japan

CERNET Statistics by the end of June,2004 Users 18,000,000+ Provinces 31 Cities 200+ Universities and Colleges1300+

CALIS China Academic Library & Information System was started in By the end of Nov.2004, the member of libraries had exceeded 500.

Major Tasks A shared resources network based on the CERNET will be developed using leading edge technology The document resources and information services will be brought to a higher level for the teaching and research activities in higher education institutions in China. A set of databases both by purchase and self- development will be developed.

Structure of CALIS National Center of CALIS Liberal StudiesEngineering Regional Center 7 Regional Center Military MedicineAgriculture

Catalog Digital Dissertation (Chinese) Digital Dissertation (English) Digital Journals (Chinese & English) Digital Conference Papers Cooperation with ERIC, UMI, EBSCO, SAGA etc.

Use of ICT at institutional level Infrastructure Management of Information system ICT in teaching Budget and maintenance

Infrastructure Items Data (end of Jun,2004) Campus Network Connection Among: Wireless LAN 96.5%, Homepage 13% Connect to Internet: Office Classroom Dormitories % 49.4% Classroom with fix projector31.2%

Management of Information system Feature ModelPercent OA system Student Information System Research Information System Education Management System Online Library System HR Information Management Learning Management System 70% >70 >52.3% >70% >68.2% 40%

Interestingly, 58.2% higher education institutions said, they prefer developing MIS themselves or cooperating with other institutions 32.6% purchase the off-shelf software system developed by other institutions Only 9.3% institutions will purchase system from commercial company

ICT in teaching Since 2000, the Ministry of Education has launched teacher-training project 38.1% institutions provide training course regularly, 54.7% provide training course on demand 65.2% institutions have established Educational Technology Centers

Instruments in TeachingPercent Power Point96.8%; Courseware69%; 65.5% Online Resources55.1% Learning Management System30.5% Discussion in BBS19.7%

Budget and maintenance ExpenditurePercent Hardware37.5% Software18% Network service and technical maintenance 13.3% staff salary11% campus network custom support8.9%

III. Issues and Implications

Issues Lack of qualified learning Resources Invest to maintain and upgrade ICT Infrastructure Teaching in ICT environment: Challenge for faculties Arguments about the distance learning intellectual property issues

Policy Process Model Up-down model Vision-Driven Policy Development Process High Efficiency Low Effect MOE State Council Local GovernmentTop Universities Universities and Colleges MOST Lobby Policy and Finance

Implication Simple change easy take place Complex change is more difficult Participatory policy process Application-driven investment

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