Blue Sky - A university for the socially marginalized

Abstract

Blue Sky (Lantian) University was founded in 1994 to provide vocational technical education. In 1999, it was approved by the Ministry of Education as a Higher Vocational Education College, and in 2005, it was granted the authority to offer undergraduate degree programs.1 By 2008, Blue Sky had 57 majors at the undergraduate and postsecondary level, enrolling 21,592 students. It also had about 30,000 students enrolled in the preparatory program for the government-sponsored Self-taught Higher Education Examinations. Hence the total number of students was over 50,000. Blue Sky’s chief focus is on engineering, but it also has programs in education, languages, medicine, law, arts, business management and administration. Faculty and staff totaled 3,000 in 2008.