Tertiary Education at a Glance: China

Abstract

With over 30 million students and over 2,600 universities and colleges, China has become the world’s largest provider of tertiary education; yet its participation rate in tertiary education is still only 23%. Every year, millions of applicants suffer rejection from universities and colleges, in many instances because of limited places available. With a culture that emphasizes the importance of education, the pursuit of education of the highest quality and to the highest levels possible is actively promoted, and the potential for growth in the tertiary sector of the country remains enormous. Furthermore, China has displayed a resilient commitment not only to expanding the system, but also to investing in improving quality across the system and especially at its best institutions, in the pursuit of the status of world-class universities. There is no doubt that interest in Chinese tertiary education will only grow as the country becomes an increasingly important player on the world’s economic stage. Despite this dramatic transformation and the amount of attention China receives in the global media and international academic communities, Chinese tertiary education is rarely studied, let alone understood, by researchers outside the country. The lack of accessible and reliable information poses a major obstacle to international comparative studies and exchange of information on tertiary education in China. This report, which was undertaken as a key component in the piloting of the World Bank’s efforts on Benchmarking Education Systems for Results (BESR), provides new and important insights into the state of tertiary education in China, both in the present and, where available, over time. Such a dynamic investigation of Chinese tertiary education, inspired by the OECD’s annual “Education at a Glance” publication, is a significant and timely contribution to the literature and data on global tertiary education. The data presented in the project have been collected from several sources, inlcuding statistical publications such as the National Statistics on Education Yearbook and other statistical yearbooks, government authorities such as the Chinese Ministry of Education, and other sources. They allow an examination of both the health of the provincial and national systems as well as its outputs. This publication aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of tertiary education in China. As such, it should constitute a valuable resource for students, scholars, and policy makers interested in understanding tertiary education in the world’s most populous country. Moreover, the benchmarking of tertiary education in China against other nations, at all stages of economic development, will inform the dialogue on global tertiary educaton across all stakeholders.