DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION – DO NOT CITE

Equity and Access to Tertiary Education: Case Study—

China

Wanhua Ma

June, 2010

1
Acknowledgements

Since there are no nationally available statistics, the author culled data from a variety of
sources, including case studies, understanding that there are limitations to conclusions made
using such data. My PhD students have offered their helps in collecting the data and
translating the tables and diagrams into English, and I would like to express my sincere thanks
to them.

2
Table of contents:

Abstract……………………………………………………………………...….3

Part I: The scale of Chinese tertiary education …………………………...…5

System of Chinese tertiary education
Regional tertiary education development
The developmental disparity

Part II: Opportunity to tertiary education……………………………….…13

Social stratification and tertiary education
Social stratification and education stratification
The urban/rural residence and discipline stratification

Part III: Gender and tertiary education ………………………………..….. 29

Behind simple gender parity
Gendered disciplinary stratification
Institutional stratification and gender
Residence, Gender and Education stratification

Part IV: Ethnic minorities and tertiary education…………………………44

Current research on ethnic minority enrollment
Ethnic minority tertiary education policy

Part V: Major barriers to tertiary education………………………………50

The non-monetary barriers
The tracking system and senior secondary education
“Institutionalized mechanism” in equal access
Tertiary education policy related problem
Rural girls and the compulsory education law
The monetary barriers to tertiary education
Student loans and assistance programs

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….64
New policies for equity in tertiary education
Suggestions for further research

3
Part I: The scale of Chinese tertiary education

System of Chinese tertiary education

At the time when China adopted its open door policy in 1978, there were only
around 400 higher learning institutions in the country, with a gross enrollment
rate of only 1.56％.1 After only 30 years of development, Chinese tertiary
education has become quite different. The “paradigm shift” away from an
exclusive system to elite and toward mass access is significant not just for China
but for the entire global tertiary education sector.

Today, the Chinese tertiary education environment consists of regular (public)

higher education, adult higher education, Minban (private-like) higher education,
independent (private-like) colleges and universities, and self-study programs
provided by distance education universities.

The „regular higher education system‟ refers to the 1079 four year
institutions and 1184 three year vocational or technical institutions under the
oversight of the Ministry of Education (MOE) or local and provincial
governments. The storied “211 project” and “985 program” universities fall
within the 1079 regular four-year institutions. The students in these specific
institutions have the opportunities to get bachelor degrees and subsequently have
access to master‟s and Ph.D. degree programs. For post-graduate education, the
academies of science and of social science are also included in this sector since
both have graduate schools.

Students studying at the three-year technical institutions do not earn a

bachelor degree, but, instead, are awarded certificates upon completion. If they
want to study further to earn a bachelor degree and, potentially, to have
opportunities to access post-graduate education, they need to then attend a self-
study program to make up the missing credits and apply for a bachelor degree.

Adult higher learning institutions include workers colleges, peasant colleges,

and institutes for administration and management. Adult higher education
originally existed for the training of national cadres, but has become its own
segment of public four -ear colleges, enrolling regular students. Currently there
are 400 institutions in this classification. All told, there are collectively 2663
public institutions, hosting a student population of 20.21 million.

http://www.cass.net.cn/file/2006080879202.html）
1

4
 In addition, there is now a large Minban (private) system in the country.
Currently, 218 Minban higher learning institutions have been officially
recognized by the MOE. In addition, there are also 322 „independent‟ colleges,
which are commercial off-shoots of regular (public) institutions. In many
instances, at the turn of the 21st century, universities facing financial challenges
started branch campuses, using the same teaching resources. At these branch
campuses, after four years, when students did graduate but were not awarded a
degree, because the number of degrees a university can offer is under the control
of MOE and were already allocated to students at the main campus. Later on this
kind of branch campuses were ordered to separate from the mother institutions,
creating a kind of “Minban” college. Though they are established with public
funds, they are now private in nature. The independent colleges can also provide
4 year education. As of 2008, 4.04 million students study in independent colleges.

Together with the 218 acknowledged Minban universities, there are also
866 non-acknowledged Minban institutions with 0.92 million registered students.
If students study through the national self-study program are included as part of
the tertiary education, in 2008, China was a home of 3529 institutions in tertiary
education, catering a student population of 29,000,0002.

With a student body of 29 million, Chinese tertiary education becomes the

largest system in the world But until the mid/late 1990s, tertiary education in
China was restricted only to a few. In 1991, the gross enrollment rate was only
3.4%, in 1994, it was only 6%, and in 1996, it was 8.3%. Due to the great
demand for access to tertiary education, in 1999, an administrative order was
released to increase national enrollment by 30%. And in that year, the gross
enrollment was only 10%3

With the official enrollment increase policy, the national gross enrolment of
tertiary education grew to 15% in 2002. Within six years, it reached to 23.3%
(2008). The following chart shows the pattern of Chinese tertiary education
enrollment change over the last 30 years, and, more specifically, in the past 10
years.

2
http://www.edu.cn/jiao_yu_fa_zhan_498/20090720/t20090720_392038.shtml
3
http://www.edu.cn/gai_kuang_495/20100121/t20100121_441887.shtml

5
 1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1978

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003
number of enrolment in regular public higher education

Sources: from unpublished lecture by Wenli Li, 2006.

By this enrollment increase, the number of people with tertiary education

experiences in pre 100 thousand people has grown from 931 in 1999 to 2042 in
2008. The follow table shows the number of people with different levels of
education in per 100 thousand people in the recent 10 years. This change reflects
the speed for human resource development in China.
Average student number in pre 100 thousand people at different levels of education4
Year Higher Senior Junior Elementary Preschool
education (secondary Secondary education
education education
1999 931 2021 5161 9937 1595
2002 1146 2283 5209 9100 1560
2004 1420 2824 5058 8725 1617
2006 1816 3321 4557 8192 1731
2008 2042 3440 4227 7819 1873

The table also shows the developmental tendency, the number of students in
elementary education and the number of junior secondary education come down.
This might have something to do with the national birth control policy. Now in
the country, birth rate is under 1.6. Meanwhile the number of students in senior
secondary education goes up, and so does with tertiary education. This should
contribute to the tertiary education enrollment policy, when more children see the

4
Department of education 2009 <a concise statistical analysis of 2008 national education development > page 7,
and Ma, Wanhua, a PPT report on introduction of Chinese higher education in 2000.

6
opportunity to access tertiary education, they are more likely to finish junior
secondary education, to continue for senior secondary school and get a high
school diploma. No doubt, today, in China, there are more choices and
opportunities for the age cohort to access tertiary education.

Following the dramatic enrollment increase, problems in tertiary education

become obvious. It has been noticed that China has made a great achievement in
economic reform, but there is clearly a disparity in regional economic
development, the economic developmental disparity reflecting in tertiary
education is the disparity in gross enrollment.

Regional enrollment disparities

In mainland China, there are 4 municipalities, 22 provinces and 5

autonomous regions. Higher education development differs greatly between each
other. As a result, the increase enrollment policy (1999) affected each of the
regions or provinces in different ways. As mentioned above, the national average
gross enrollment rate in tertiary education is 23.3%. The provinces,
municipalities, and autonomous regions show greater differentiation regarding
gross enrollments, investments in tertiary education and institutional diversity.
Areas historically known as tertiary education centers have higher tertiary
investments and experience higher gross enrollment levels, while the poor
provinces with lower investment to education have low gross enrollment rates. In
some provinces, the gross enrollment rates are well below the national average of
23.3%. The following tables show the difference of enrollment growth between
provinces from 1999-2007.
The differences of enrollment growth by provinces from 1999-20075

5
Wang, Youhang (2009) unpublished report on the dynamics of higher education expansion and government
policy choices

7
 1600000

Beijing
1400000
Tianjin

1200000 Hebei

Liaoning
1000000
Shanghai

Jiangsu
800000
Zhejiang
600000 Fujian

Shandong
400000
Guangdong

200000 Guangxi

Hainan
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Shanxi

Inner
Mongolia
Jilin

1400000
Heilongjia
ng
1200000 Anhui

Jiangxi

1000000 Henan

Hubei
800000
Hunan

Chongqing
600000
Sichuan

Guizhou
400000
Yunnan

200000 Tibet

Shaanxi

0 Gansu
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Qinghai

Ningxia

Xinjiang
The table shows that each province has increased its gross enrollment, but
the proportion of the increase is so different. Many reasons contribute to the
developmental disparity. When taking equity and access into consideration, those
provinces with high enrollments provide more opportunities, while low

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enrollments mean fewer opportunities. The table provides a holistic picture of the
data that lies behind the averaged national gross enrollment rate.

Thus, in taking provincial enrollment rates into consideration, the disparities

become more obvious. Statistics show that when the national gross enrollment
rate rose to 15 % at the end of 2002, the gross enrollment in Beijing had already
reached to 49%6 and in 2003, Shanghai had achieved a rate of 53%. Contrary to
this explosion of enrollments, in 2005, the gross enrollment rate in Gansu was
only 15% and reached only 20% by 2008. Henan province, in central China,
with an enormous population of almost 100 million people, has achieved a gross
enrollment rate of only 19.7% in 2009; and Yunnan province, which is located in
the south west of the country, achieved a gross enrollment of only 16.17% by
20077. In other remote provinces, the gross enrollment was even lower, such as
in Guzhou, with a GER of 11.5％in 2007.8 All of these indicate that there remain
great regional/provincial disparities in tertiary education development in China.
The following table further illustrates the provincial enrollment disparities.

Comparison of gross enrollment rates by 27 provinces in 2006.9

The table shows the varied enrollment rates in 27 provinces in 2006. The
four major municipalities—Beijing, Shanghai, Tienjin and Chongqing—are not

6
http://www.annian.net/show.aspx?id=11876&cid=25
7
http://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/gkxx/ss/200901/20090120/16757947.html
8
http://www.gzu521.com/campus/article/examination/200804/167805.htm
9
Association of Chinese higher education, Academic Activity Report，2009:6:6.

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included in the table, but their gross enrollments are over 50% in each except
Chongqing, which is at the national average level.

Difference in investment is considered to be one of the major factors behind

difference in enrollment increases. From 2002 to 2007, the Guizhou province‟s
investment in higher education was only 0.521 billion Yuan, which was 4.91% of
its total investment in education10. In Shanghai, on the other hand, the municipal
government invested 114.015 billion Yuan in higher education (1995-2006,), and,
in 2006 alone, the total investment in higher education was over 18,932 billion
Yuan,11 300% more than that of Guizhou in 6 years. The insufficiency of such
investment levels has become the barrier to effective and sustainable
development of the higher education in those provinces and autonomous regions.

Another major factor is the uneven distribution of tertiary institutions. In

Beijing, there are 87 tertiary institutions, and more than half of them are well-
known research universities; while Inner Mongolia has only 33 tertiary
institutions, many of which are newly established vocational or technological
training institutions. Anhui province experienced a similar situation, it has 95
higher learning institutions, 30 of which are allowed to offer undergraduate
degrees, 14 master degrees, and only 7 institutions have PhD. Programs. The rest
are newly established vocational or technical institutions. As a horizontal equity
consideration, the lack of access to high quality research universities is an issue
across many of the provinces.

Shen (2005) examined the scale of the tertiary education in each province
and autonomous regions and determined that Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjun offer
the most education opportunities, whereas Hainan, Suchuan, Gansu, Inner
Mongolia, Ningxia, Anhui, and Qinghai offer the least. The following table
shows the details of his division of Chinese tertiary education.

Scale distribution of Chinese higher education in 200112

Scale Provinces
Extremely big scale Beijing, Shanghai, Tienjin
Comparative big scale Jiangsu, Hubei, Liaoning, Sanxi, Zhejiang, Helongjiang, Jilin
Moderate scale Guangdong, Shangdong, Hebei, Hunan, Xingjiang,
Chongqing, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Fujian

10
Ibíd.
11
http://press.ecust.edu.cn/index.php?controller=Books&action=Detail&bid=789
12
http://www.lnsgdb.com.cn/news/view.asp?id=17964

10
 Smaller scale Henan, Suchuan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia,
Anhui, Qinghai, Hainan, Guizhou, Guanxi, Yunnan and Tibet.
Source: To be filled

In his research, Yuan (2006) used education development indicator (EDI) to

examine disparities in tertiary education development across the provinces and
reached a similar conclusion, but Yuan used the geographical concept, “region,”
to show the disparity. The following table shows his categories according the size
of the EDI.

Size of higher education according to the EDI in 200613

EDI Highly Developed Comparative high Moderate developed Development
Category (100>EDI>85 developed Stagnated
(85>EDI>70)
Jinjunhu Beijing, Shanghai Tianjin
East region Zhejiang, Lioaning, Shandong, fujian, Hebei,
Jiangsu, Guandong Hunan
Middle region Jilin Heilongjiang, Hubei,
Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangxi,
Henan, Anhui
West region Chongqing, Shannxi, Guanxi, Gansu,
Suchuan, Xinjiang, Inner Qinghai,Yunnan,
Mongolia, and Ningxia Guizhou, Tibet.

Regional differences in tertiary education development seem to correlate with the

country‟s economic development patterns. The two tables above help to illustrate
education development disparities. In later sections of this paper, the analysis of
the development of ethnic minority education exposes the relationship of
education quality with the economic situation in those provinces such as Guanxi,
Gansu, and Xinjiang. Because of such developmental disparities, the Chinese
government decided a few years ago to invest more money in basic education as
well as tertiary education development, and this will be discussed in detail later in
this report.

13
Min, Weifang & Wang, Rong (ed.) China Education and Human Resource Development Report, 2005-2006,
p170

11
Part II Opportunities to access tertiary education

Social stratification in tertiary education

Research on income gaps and the unequal distribution of wealth finds that the
annual per capita disposable income of urban residents in China in 2009 was
17,175 Yuan, while the net per capita income of rural residents was 5,153 Yuan,
(National Bureaus of Statistics, 2009). In cities in the west regions , it was 8,783
YUAN, and in the western countryside, it was only 2,379 Yuan in 2005.14
Research has shown that the income gap and regional development disparity has
resulted in new social stratifications that produce inequity in access to tertiary
education.

There is no single way to describe the new forms of Chinese social

stratification. Some use political and economic approaches, some use the
procession of wealth, power, knowledge and skills, and others even use parents‟
profession and education backgrounds. For analyzing education equity, social
stratification provides a basic tool to understand who can mobilize what kinds of
resources to access tertiary education and what happens to those who do not have
such resources to mobilize.

Traditionally, there used to be four mechanisms of social stratification in

China: political stratification, stratification by residence, social status
stratification, and social stratification by class. In 1950, the Chinese government
defined 13 classes of the rural population, including landlord, capitalist, open-
minded gentleman, rich farmers, mid-rich farmers, intellectuals, freelances,
religious professions, handcrafts, business man, peasants, workers and farmers15.
Though nobody directly uses this stratification for education analysis, its impact
remains in any understanding of social stratification in China.

In the late 1950s, considering the shortage of material supplies in the cities,
the Chinese government published several administrative orders requiring
residential registration. Such as in 1955, the State Council issued two documents:
“A guide for establishing registered residence” and “ The ways to distribute food
in cities and towns.” The two documents later became law for registered
residence in the cities. It was required that peasants should be registered as rural
residents, and people in the cities and towns should be registered as urban

14
Yuan, Linva (2005), “ The Coefficient Analysis on Income Gap and Inequality in China” in the Journal of Yunnan
University of Finance and Economics 2008，24(1)30-37.
15
Guo, Zhenshu (2008), analytical methodology in stratifying social classes in China
http://www.cntheory.com/news/Lljs/2008/619/086191424166C81KBB48F3GFI82F300.html

12
residents. Since then this residence registration has become fixed, that people
with rural residence in the countryside could not be easily transferred to cities
unless they were selected as cadres to a certain level or were educated in tertiary
education. The policy has continued until now. Currently, mobile workers with
rural residency but who live in cities for an extended period of time are still
considered as farmers with rural residence.

Due to the lack of alternatives for social mobility for rural children in the
countryside, tertiary education has been a very important vehicle for young
people with rural residency to get urban residency. Now this kind of social
structure is called “rural /urban dualist structure.” The residence issue in tertiary
education means that urban residents have more educational resources while the
rural residents have less education resources.

Since 1979, there have been many changes in social stratification, as

economic restructuring has impacted the entire country. Even among workers,
there are different subcategories: state enterprise workers, urban non state
enterprise workers and mobile farmer workers and etc. The following chart is
Li‟s (2009)16 model on Chinese social stratification.

Li, Yi (2009) , The structure and evolution f Chinese social stratification

16

http://www.sachina.edu.cn/Htmldata/longbook/liyi_structure_china/466.html

13
 In Li‟s social stratification, there are six categories: the light blue bar
represents farmers; the purple bar represents workers in the state-owned
enterprises; the yellow bar represents; Chinese bourgeoisies; the grey bar
represents collective enterprise workers; the dark red bar represents state
enterprise workers; and the blue bar indicates state cadres and CEOs of national
enterprises (civil servants). The table shows that after 30 year of economic
reform, the structure of the labor force in China has not changed much—the
majority of the population is still farmers and workers. Notably here, however,
there appeared a new category, the bourgeoisies, people who become rich
quickly and who seem to get more education resources.

In the 1984, the commune, which used to organize peasants to work

collectively, was dissolved by the government, which then leased the national
land to farmers. With the leased land, traditional peasants become farmers, and
those who did not get much land to farm were thus released from the restriction

14
of the commune to become mobile. Until 1993, 0.14 billion farmers became
mobile in cities. By 2008, the number increased to 0.23billion. 17

In his research, Lu (2002)18considered that the social stratification for China

now is very complicated, because, it is hard to define “class” by income. For
example, public officials are not well paid in China if one looks at the basic
salaries, but the non-monetary benefits might be much more significant than their
basic salaries, and they can mobilize organizational and cultural resources to
access tertiary education. Lu used 9 categories to describe Chinese social
stratification by the political or social position/status one holds. They are national
leaders, executives of state enterprises, owners of private enterprises,
professionals, office administrators, private business owners, workers, farmers,
city unemployed. Each category of this stratification can mobilize quite different
educational resources to access tertiary education. While wealthy business
owners or members of the bourgeoisie can use money to enroll their children in
first class senior secondary schools, office administrators can use established
social networks, or can even mobilize policy resources, while poor farmers often
have difficulty in having their children finish low-quality compulsory education.

Cultural stratification is another indicator that can be used for analysis of

equity in tertiary education and can be measured by parent education levels. In
China, 25.1% of the total population is illiterate, 36.44% has elementary
education, 27.44% has secondary education, 9.38% has senior secondary
education, and only 1.7% has tertiary education.19 Research shows that parent
education levels are correlated with their children tertiary education in many
aspects. (Source: to be filled)

Social stratification and education stratification

In the first 30 years of PRC, society was constructed by social political
stratification, with peasants and workers grouped together to represent the
leading class of the society. Public service staff and people in military service
were considered leaders of the leading social group, whereas intellectuals and
people who were educated were made to be re-educated by the leading class of
the society. These social political categories were used in research until the
1990s. In his research, Yang (2006) 20 used three categories: peasant/worker,
17
http://cn.chinagate.cn/hotissues/2009-03/25/content_17499940_2.htm
18
Lu,xueyi （2002） (ed.), Report on the study of Chinese social stratification, Beijing, Social Sciences and Document Press.
19
Zeng, Huanping (2009), “The effect of current social stratification on education equity”,
http://www.12edu.cn/lunwen/whlw/200902/242453.shtml
20
Yang,dongping (2006) Access to Higher Education：Widening Social Class Disparities in < Tsinghua Journal of Education >
2006:1:20.

15
Cadre/serviceman, and intellectuals to explain the proportion of new entrants at
Peking University according to each group between 1977-1991.
Access pattern between 1977-1991 at Peking University( %)
Years Peasant/worker Cadre/serviceman Intellectuals
1977 27.5 38.7
1979 34.4 39.2 11.6
1981 33 36.4 12
1983 40.5 34.1 11
1985 41.9 32.3 12.4
1987 42.7 37.3 14.4
1990 40.4 45.7 13.3
1991 37.1 48.7 13.6

The table reflects the changing patterns of access to tertiary education in the
last quarter of the 20th Century. Students with peasant/worker family background
increased in the late 1980s, then decreased progressively from 1985 to 1991. The
proportion of students of intellectual backgrounds does not show much change,
but the proportion from Cadre/serviceman families went up radically from 37.3%
to 48.7% in just a five year period, from 1987-1991.

This change corresponds to the beginning of the twin track system. In 1985, a
policy allowing universities to enroll fee paying students with a lower national
examination scores was implemented. Those students who got into the
universities with this policy were called “outside of the system” students, and in
that first year the proportion of cadre/serviceman was only 32.3%. After that year,
however, the proportion of peasants/workers went down and cadre/serviceman‟s
proportion picked up aggressively. Ultimately, the twin track system ended in
1997, when all of the universities started to collect tuition and fees.

In the late 1990s, new kinds of social stratification were used to describe
patterns of access to tertiary education. Some researcher‟s uses location and some
use parent profession (there is reclassification of the professions). During this
period, more attention was given to the rural poor. Yang (2006) noticed that in
the three top universities of the country, the proportion of rural students
fluctuated and, largely, decreased during this period. The following table show
rural students proportion in Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing
Normal University between 1990-2002.

16
 Rural students proportion of new entrants in three universities between 1990-2002.21
Years Tsinghua university Peking University Beijing Normal
University
New Rural New Rural New Rural
entrants students % entrants students % entrants students %
1990 1994 21.7 1260 28
1992 2080 18.3 1810 22.3 1358 40
1994 2403 15.9 20.1 1330 35
1996 2298 18.8 2164 19.6 1470
1998 2462 20.7 2240 19.0 1472 30.9
2000 2929 17.6 2425 16.3 1686 28.3
2002 2105 22.3

It is interesting to notice from the table that in the three universities, all have
an increase in enrollments between 1990-2002, but the proportion of rural
students went down continuously. Though Beijing Normal University is heavily
subsidized by the national government, the student population does not reflect a
full complement of the national population, particularly with regard to students
from the countryside. Instead, the beneficiaries of the enrollment increase in 1999
have, not surprisingly, been the urban and well-connected students who already
dominated the enrollments in university.

This research reflects how the nation‟s best education resources are distributed.
In their earlier research, John Hawkins et al. 22used the same sets of data and
made a comparison on family income and access to tertiary education. They
selected two universities as examples to explain the situation—o ne national
university and a provincial university. They concluded that more low-income
students were enrolled in the provincial university.
A comparison on two universities of student‟s family income level. (5%)
Income 20% 20% 20% 20% 20%
lowest Middle low Middle Middle high Highest
A national 10 10.7 20.6 30.9 27.8
university
A provincial 21.8 26.5 23.8 16.7 5.2
university
Hawkins et al (2008).

21
Yang,Dongping (2006) Access to Higher Education：Widening Social Class Disparities in Tshinghua Journal of Education,
2006:1:21.
22
Hawkins, Jacob and Li (2008):“Higher Education in China: Access, Equity and Equality in Higher Education in
China” in Donald B. Holsinger & W. James Jacob (eds.) In Inequality in Education. Springer, p. 215-239.

17
 As the table shows, more than 58% of students in the national university
come from high income families, while the student population of the provincial
university was 72.1% students from low to middle income families. This
indicates that there are barriers to entry for the lowest income students to the
most prestigious and highest quality tertiary education.

In research on how national tertiary education resources are allocated, Min

et al (2009) conducted a national survey, which covered 18 universities and
colleges from Beijing, Guangdong, Hunan, Shandong, Tianjun, Zhejiang and
Chongqing. Based on the survey data, with 15,536 questionnaires returned,
researchers find the net payment for students from provincial universities is
actually higher. The following table shows the details of the finding.

Net payment and public resource allocation in three kinds of universities, unite Yuan..23
Different Average Living scholarship loan Work Net Net cost Net cost
Universities tuition cost study payment in average in gross
family family
income% income%
“985” 4,886 864 1,550 673 397 2,872 33.0 10.1
“211” 5,067 887 1.096 546 421 3,721 51.9 15.3
Regular 6,107 963 946 427 253 6200 101.7 29.9
universities
Average 5,340 905 1,145 537 370 4138 56.5 16.9

In China, the “211 project” and “985 program” universities not only enjoy
elite educational status but are also heavily regulated by the MOE, have low
tuition and living costs, provide more money for scholarships and loans, and pay
students through work study programs. In provincial and local universities, on
the other hand, tuition is high, living costs are high, and there is less money for
scholarships. Even the availability of loans is low, and students paid less in work-
study programs.

Because of these dramatic differences, students with poor family

backgrounds who are able to access “211 project” and “985 program” institutions
are more likely to get financial support than in universities that are not part of
those initiatives. So, theoretically, students from low income families would have
strong incentives to attend top universities in order to reduce cost. In practice,
however, their opportunities to access 211 and 985 universities are very limited
by practices and circumstances mentioned earlier. As with tertiary education

23
Min, Weifang (2009) Educational Input, Resource Allocation and Returns to Human Capital: Studies on the
Issues of Chinese Education and Human Resources<Jiaoyutouru, Ziyuanpeizhiyurenlizibenshouyi-
zhongguojiaoyuyurenliziyuanwentiyanjiu> Beijing: Economic Science Press.p.253.

18
across the globe, the better the family background, the more education resources
students can access.

Similar things happened to other well-known universities in the country. In

her research on Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST),
Xiao(2007) utilized „father‟s profession‟ as an education stratification indicator.
She found, that, from 2001 to 2005, the proportion of enrolled students with
parents as peasants was relatively low, and the proportion of students with a
family background as workers actually decreased from 31.3% in 2001 to 22.1%
in 2005. While proportion of students with a family background as public
officials and executives in different types of enterprises go up quickly.

WUST is one of the 7 public provincial key universities in Hubei, an

agriculture and heavy industry province. Given the local economy of Hubei, one
would expect to see more students with family background as workers and
farmers, but the following table showing Xiao‟s research shows that this is not
the case. She found, instead, that the proportion of students with family
background as officials and executives increased faster while the proportion of
students with less illustrious family backgrounds decreased about 10%.
2001-2005, new entrant family background in Wuhan University of Science and Technology 24
2001 2003 2005
workers 31.3% 25.3% 22．1％
farmers 13．2％ 16．2％ 15．3％
Professionals 16．6％ 17．5％ 17．6％
Doctors, professors and scientist, 11．％ 13．3％ 14．2％
Public officials 9.8% 10．7％ 12．6％
Executives in enterprises 7．7％ 8．8％ 11．2％
Self employments 3．3％ 1.8% 1.9%
others 3．5％ 2．4％ 2．％

Xiao also used the 1/% Census in 1995 to analyze the social construction
of different occupations in relation to equity of access to tertiary education and
found that public officials and executives of state enterprises were 2.02% of the
employed national population in the country, but their children were 15% of the
tertiary student population.. When including administrators, the total proportion
of elite students would reach 23%. Of professionals such as doctors, lawyers,
designers and scientists, who make up 5.43% of the total population, their
children in tertiary education took 13%, but the proportion of students of
farmers( 69.4% of the total population in 1995) was only 29.4%. Her analysis

24
Xiao Jie (2007) A research on access and tuition in public universities, master thesis, p.27.

19
tells the readers that in China, the wealth and social status are two important
aspects for better education.

Yue (2009) used the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) as the
indicator of enrollment opportunity. He considered father‟s occupation as a
proxy variable. Yue defines types of father‟s occupations as: Type I
Occupation—Government official, organizational staff, manager and specialist,
all of which enjoy highest social prestige; Type II Occupation—Individual
businessman, sales, private entrepreneur and laborer, all of which enjoy medium
social prestige; and Type III Occupation— Rural migrant worker and farmer,
both of which enjoy lowest social prestige.

20
 RCA Index based on fathers’ occupation25
2003 2005 2007 2009
Key Ord. Key Ord. Key Ord. Key Ord.
Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ.
Government
1.17 0.85 1.14 0.91 1.53 0.90 1.22 0.89
official
Organizational
1.06 0.95 1.09 0.94 1.41 0.93 1.24 0.87
staff
Manager 1.31 0.72 1.23 0.85 1.61 0.89 1.10 0.95
Specialist 1.14 0.87 1.09 0.94 0.97 1.00 1.31 0.84
Individual
1.13 0.89 1.05 0.97 0.88 1.02 0.78 1.11
businessman
Sales 1.25 0.77 0.96 1.02 0.50 1.09 0.90 1.05
Private
1.04 0.96 1.10 0.93 0.44 1.10 0.87 1.07
entrepreneur
Workers 1.08 0.93 1.06 0.96 0.90 1.02 0.93 1.04
Rural migrant
NA NA NA NA 0.50 1.09 0.88 1.06
worker
Farmer 0.77 1.20 0.84 1.10 0.86 1.03 0.87 1.07

According to Yue, in years 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, students with Type I
occupational background had a greater chance to enter key universities, as almost
all RCA indexes are greater than one (only a minor exception). Second, for these
same years, students with Type III occupational background had lower chances to
enter key universities, as all RCA indexes are less than one. Third, as time goes,
the potential for students with Type II occupational background to enrolled in key
universities decreases, as almost all RCA indexes turn from greater than zero in
2003 and 2005, to less than zero in 2007 and 2009(only a minor exception). In
2003 and 2005 only students with Type III occupational backgrounds were
disadvantaged, but in 2007 and 2009 even students with Type II occupational
background became disadvantaged. So Yue concluded that with the expansion of
tertiary education, the allocation of educational resources of superior quality
became increasingly unequal.

As noted above, more farmer and worker children study in regular local and
provincial universities. The other sources of tertiary education for farmer and
worker children are the Minban institutions. In 2005, a research was conducted in
5 Minban universities and colleges in Shanxi province to see educational
opportunities in those universities. From the 3,612 returned questionnaires,
researchers found that the proportions of students with self-employed and
farmers/fisherman background were much higher than students with business
executive, governmental official and professional family background. Adding up

25
Yue Changun(2009), Expansion and Equality in Chinese Higher Education, unpublished conference paper, p.3-
4.

21
the farmer/fisherman and self-employed together, the total proportion was about
61.3%. The following table shows the details.
Student‟s family occupational backgrounds in the Minban universities in Shanxi 26
Types of career Father Mother
Number Proportion Number Proportion
(person) （%） (person) （%）
laid-off workers 208 5.9 350 10.1
farmers or fisherman 793 22.6 1169 33.7
workers 531 15.1 467 13.5
professionals 117 3.3 74 2.1
common employees 316 9 393 11.3
Government officials 246 7 113 3.3
technicians 303 8.6 97 2.8
executives 140 4 65 1.9
self-employed
entrepreneurs 830 23.6 684 19.7
others 26 0.7 57 1.6
total 3510 99.8 3469 100
the missing data 114 115

In China, Minban colleges, like private universities in other countries, are very
much dependent on tuitions and fees, and their tuition and fees are much higher
than regular public universities. In some of the most expensive universities, the
tuition is three times higher than that of regular universities. The following table
provides some idea about tuition scales in the most expensive Minban
universities.
The tuition scale in a sampling of Minban Institutions27
Science Humanities
Institution name Provinces
average average
Jiangxi Lantian Jianxi 10,000 8,000
City University Beijing 11,750 11,750
College of Foreign Affairs in Xian Shanxi 10,000 8,500
Fuan University Fujian 14,500 14,500
Wuhan Bio-Technology University Hubei 11,500 11,500
Shanghai Jianquao University Shanghai 13,000 13,000
Heilongjiang Dongfang university Heilongjiang 9,750 9,500

26
Min, Weifang & Wang, Rong ( 2006)(eds.) China Education and Human Resource Development 2005-2006,
Peking University Press, p.29.
27
http://edu.sina.com.cn/gaokao/2008-05-28/2136141882.shtml

22
 Foreign Languages University of Overseas Jilin 12,500 12,500
in Jilin
Qingdao Haibin College Shangdong 8,800 8,800
Ningxia College of Science and Technology Ningxia 5,800 5,600
Anhui Xinhua College Anhui 7,500 7,500

As noted earlier, more workers, farmers, and self-employed people send their
children to Minban universities and colleges. If that is the case, again workers
and farmers with lower family income may end up paying disproportionately
more for their children‟s education than wealthier families.28

The urban/rural students and discipline stratification

In the recent 30 years, China has experienced a process of “urbanization,”

but this process does not seem to have had much of an effect on the rural
population‟s access to tertiary education, because of the residence regulation.
The following table shows the proportion change of rural population from 1964
to 2000.
Trend of Rural population in China (1964-2000)29
Total population Rural population As % of
In 10,000 In 10,000 Total
1964 72,307 59,591 81.6
1982 103,188 82,529 79.4
1990 116,002 86,351 73.7
2000 129,533 83,939 63.9
.
The table shows that currently, 63.9% of the population has rural residence,
but in tertiary education only 31.6 %of students come from rural areas, while
68.4 % of students come from urban areas in the sampling institutions of Li‟s
study discussed previously. This means that rural children are very much in an
underrepresented in tertiary education, most starkly in the elite institutions.

Researchers have found that the proportion of students from rural family
background enrolled in tertiary education is not only low in the higher quality

28
Note: as there is no more such cases to compare, here it is hard for the author to make the definite conclusion,
what the author can say for sure is that more disadvantage children are pushed down to the low quality higher
learning institutions.
29
Wang Li& Helen Genandoy (2004) Proceedings of the International Conference on Transforming the Digital
Divide into Digital Opportunities for Rural Populations into Conjunction with INRUED 10 th Anniversary ,
Baoding, China 17-19, Oct. 2004. p.160.

23
universities, but they also tend to study “cold” subjects. Here “cold” means of
low social status, less economic return, or even difficult in parlay into
employment after graduation. The following table shows a developmental pattern
of rural student distribution in different areas of study at Peking University.

Patterns of rural new entrants‟ choice of major at Peking University from 1978 to 2005

The diagram shows change and the distribution of areas of study for rural
new entrants in Peking University between 1978-2005. Beginning from 1990s,
the rural student proportion went down gradually, while those who had the
opportunity to enroll into Peking University, tended to major in humanities and
basic social sciences, such as archeology, political sciences, philosophy, history
and literatures. In sciences, more rural students studied applied field such as
technical physics, applied chemistry and geography. In recent years, it has been
hard to find employment in technical physics and geography.

Whereas urban students show a different pattern of selection of their

academic majors, they tend to major in subjects who are likely to have a good
income, high social status, and better employment opportunities. The following
diagram provides an explanation in comparison with the previous one.

24
 Urban new entrants by academic major at Peking University from 1978 to 2005

From the diagram one can observe that urban new entrants choose
humanities and social sciences as their majors, but in most cases they majored in
the subject areas as languages, advertisement, economics, management and law.
In hard sciences, they majored in biology, electronics and chemistry ——those
subject areas that have higher academic status than basic sciences as math,
physics or technical engineering and geography.

In discussing the reasons for rural student‟s choice of majors, Liu (2009)
considered that rural students have limited opportunities to make their own
decisions because of the national enrollment quotas. For example, in 2004, the
universities only allocated language enrollment quotas to Tianjin, Jilin, and
Beijing, but not to Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan provinces, though those
provinces have a higher rural participation rate for national examination.

According to the author‟s understanding, due to limited understanding of

current social economic structure and lack of academic support and advice, many
rural applicants may not have clear ideas about their own interests and potentials.
In making the choice of where and what to study, rural students are very much
frustrated and disadvantaged by their lack of information or networks to help
them make the most advantageous choices.

Rural students have another pressure that urban applicants do not have,
which is that a college education in many cases is their sole opportunity to get an
urban residence. In Chinese “getting out of the rural gate” has become the dream
of many rural children. “Get out of the rural gate” does not mean to get out of the

25
village physically but to change their rural residence into urban one. To be
educated in top universities and to get a position in government sector in cities
would grantee the change of residence.

In fact, there is a miss match with rural student aspirations for tertiary
education, because those who major in cold subjects may not be able to get well
paid position after graduation, and in many cases, and they often end up un-
employed. The current discussion on “Ant Groups” (youths living in a crowded,
cheap dorms, with no stable jobs) in Beijing also describes the very condition of
those graduates from rural villages. When rural students discover the problem
with their subjects of study, some start to make up for their initial mistakes by
continuing their education into master and Ph.D. degree programs. A report on
the development of academic degrees and graduate education in China reveals
that a significant percentage of master and Ph.D. students have rural family
background.

The following table shows the proportion of students in master and PhD
degree programs with father‟s occupation.
Master and PH.D students with father‟s occupational status. 30
Father's occupational status

government departments
high level manager and executives
professional and technical personnel
staff member
private business
worker
farmer
others

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Master Doctor

The table shows more master and PhD students with father occupations as
farmers and workers. 31

30
Task Group on degrees and graduate education development in China: Report on the development of Academic
Degrees and Graduate Education in China, Higher Education Press 2006, p55.
31
The date was collected in 2005, when master and PhD programs were totally provided by the
Chinese government. In 2006, a policy was issued to collect tuitions from master and Ph.D.
students. Now，situation might have changed, there is a need to conduct another survey.
26
 Research conducted by Zhang and Zhou (2006) shows a similar situation. In
Renmin University in 1995, undergraduate students with a farmer family
background made up 30% of the student population, while at master‟s level, they
were 49.4%, and in PhD degree programs they are 60% of the total student
enrollments. 32 When those PhDs or masters were interviewed for a reason, a
story was frequently told that it was difficult to find a decent job as they expected
after their first degrees, and with a lack of social connection to find a decent job,
they believed pursuing further degrees would help them to locate a position.
After they get Ph.D. degrees, they will at least find a teaching position in
universities, a job without decent pay, perhaps, but with high social status.

The issue of inequities in academic majors is not only happening at Peking

University and Renmin University, but also in all the “211 project” and “985
program” universities. In his research on the new entrants in the University of
Technology and sciences at Beijing in 2003, Yang also noticed that more
students with professional family backgrounds major in “hot” subjects, while
more students from farmers and laid-offs family background major in “cold”
subjects.

Proportion of students family background and major distribution in Science and Technology University in
Beijin in 2003. 33
Student family background Information Mechanical Design and
technology (hot) engineering (cold ) arts
Executives and professionals 57．3 35．3 58．3
Management staff, self- 17．2 21．6 12．2
employed, and others
Worker, farmer and laid-offs 25．4 44．1 29．5

Total 100 100 100

The difference is stark as presented in Yang‟s table. In Shanghai‟s Finance

University, the situation is even worse for rural students. As indicated in its
name , Finance University is clearly a university with a focus on financing,
banking, investment, and international trade. In that university, the proportion of
rural students in degree program is very low.
The survey result of Shanghai Finance University in 2001 (％)34
urban rural

32
Zhang, Dexiang & Zhou Yunzhi (2002) <sociology of higher education> Beijing: Higher Education Press, p71.
33
Yang, Dongping
34
Zhao, Haili (2003): Public policy for higher education. Shanghai: Shanghai Finance University Press: p.182．

27
 total 76.2 23.8
Short cycles 64.4 35.6
Four year undergraduate 78.1 21.9
Master 73.8 16.2

There are several explanations for this enrollment disparity: the enrollment
quotas for local provinces are not only low, but also major prescribed by external
actors. If one wants to come from the rural regions to Beijing or Shanghai for
tertiary education, there might not be many choices for what he/she could major
in or which universities he/she can choose.

Part III: Gender in tertiary education

Behind the simple gender parity

With the national enrollment increase, women got more opportunities to
access higher education, and the proportion of female students in tertiary education
comes closer with the proportion of male students. Statistics in 2008 show that, the
proportion of women in colleges and universities reached almost 50 percent. But
behind the simple proportion parity, there are many disparities. This section will
provide an analysis on the pattern of gender disparity by examining female student
distribution in the system of Chinese tertiary education. The analysis will focus on
discipline disparity, the role of residence in access to tertiary education, the
relationship between culture stratification and education stratification for female
students.

Historically, female student participation rate has been very low. In 1947,
before the establishment of PRC, female student proportion was only 17.8%.
Since the early 1950s, female proportion in tertiary has been increasing gradually,
guided by Chairman Mao‟s slogan that “in a different era, man and women
should be the same.” Even so the proportion of female students had never
reached 40%, until the beginning of the new century. No doubt, the enrollment
increase at the end of the 20th century definitely provided more opportunities for
females to get into tertiary education; in 1999, the proportion of female students
had risen to39.7%. A decade later in 2008, the proportion of female students had

28
risen to almost 50 percent.. The following table shows the change of female
student proportions in the past 60 years.

Proportion of female students in higher education between 1947 一 200835

YR 1947 1960 1965 1975 1980 1985 1995 1999 2004 2006 2008
% 17.8 24.5 26.9 32.6 23.4 30.0 38.5 39.7 45.65 48.6 49.86

From the table, one can see that the proportion of female students to male
students in tertiary education almost reaches the gender parity. Due to this change,
some researchers started to circulate the theory that current teaching models in
compulsory and senior secondary education are in favor of females, thus enabling
girls to outperform boys academically. The thesis of “feminized” education
( Leathwood & Read, 2009)36can also be observed in the Chinese educational
research.

Actually, in comparison, with the age cohort, female students still get fewer
opportunities than male students. In her research, Song (2007) made a
comparative study of male and female students in tertiary education within the
same age cohort and came to the conclusion that the percentage of access
opportunity for males is higher than for that for females. The following table
shows the difference between access opportunities for male and female students..
Access differences between male and female to higher education from 1995-200337
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003
Students in male 1877143 1989715 2465320 4167654 6115138
regular HED. female 1029286 1184647 1620554 3023004 4920504
Cohort between Male 36397200 33229330 31992827 34132917 34409368
18-21 female 36037800 32324803 30638319 32910695 32069246
Access Male 5.16% 5.99% 7.71% 12.21% 17.77%
opportunities Female 2.8% 3.66% 5.29% 9.19% 15.5%

According to her analysis, women still have less tertiary education access
opportunities than men. From the table, the access opportunity for males is 17.77%
and for females is 15.5%, with a more than 2 percent gap between the sexes.

Gendered Discipline Stratification

35
Sources: http://www.edu.cn/school_496/20100121/t20100121_441899.shtml and Ma, Wanhua (2005) History , current
condition, and problems for Chinese women‟s higher education in “Exploring Education Development,:3:1-5.
36
Leathwood & Read ( 2009), Gender and the Changing Face of Higher Education: a Feminized Future? Society for
Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
37
Song Tao (2007), Study on gender difference in access opportunities in higher education in China, Shanxi University,
unpublished master thesis, p.11.

29
 Gender distribution by discipline is another aspect for equity in tertiary
education for women. Many researchers have shown that more women are in
humanities and social sciences than in science and engineering. Since there is no
national data for gender distribution across disciplines, cases from individual
researchers are used for explanation.

In her research, Song(2007) studies the distribution of female students across

disciplines in Shanxi University (A comprehensive university in Taiyuan, North
West part of the country). She finds that there is clearly a gender disparity in
disciplines with more female students studying in humanities, arts, education and
tourism, and more male students in sciences and engineering.
Discipline distribution of male and female students in Shanxi University. Unit: person38

38
Song, Tao (2007) A study on gender difference in access to higher education in China, master thesis, p 18.

30
 Subject/ Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 total %
Chinese and M 40 26 38 35 36 59 25 259 3.26
literature F 76 45 73 112 103 132 45 568 7.15
English M 15 12 24 33 19 3 10 116 1.46
F 85 69 112 142 65 57 75 605 7.62
Performing Art, M 18 21 22 25 20 16 18 140 1.76
and Music F 71 53 60 53 42 38 34 351 4.42
Physics M 54 42 61 55 66 39 34 351 4.42
F 24 21 15 18 36 8 7 129 1.62
Applied M 25 25 23 --- --- --- --- 73 0.92
Chemistry F 9 17 15 --- --- --- --- 41 0.52
E.Informati&Te M 54 41 40 36 35 50 51 206 2.59
ch. F 16 16 19 13 9 9 9 91 1.15
Computer M 120 97 144 111 80 68 92 712 8.96
Science F 43 42 90 72 42 17 33 339 4.27
E.infom&Engin M 42 30 33 35 40 --- --- 180 2.27
eering F 10 15 16 9 8 --- --- 58 0.73
Pre-school M --- --- 4 --- 8 --- --- 12 0.15
Education F --- --- 14 --- 20 --- --- 34 0.43
Physical M 73 65 77 68 42 33 88 446 5.61
Education F 34 31 19 22 23 14 23 168 2.11
Philosophy M 16 29 15 12 18 25 19 133 1.67
F 19 16 17 15 19 14 31 131 1.65
History M 20 26 27 24 27 25 26 175 2.20
F 26 19 25 15 18 21 28 152 1.91
Law M 110 99 70 87 51 43 63 523 6.58
F 153 124 73 97 59 73 69 648 8.16
Economics M 27 23 39 23 24 28 30 194 2.44
F 18 23 21 21 25 26 31 165 2.08
Information M 44 33 32 49 46 37 32 283 3.56
Management F 18 17 29 21 11 16 29 141 1.77
Tourism M 17 15 30 43 35 27 19 186 2.34
F 37 29 43 81 63 40 41 334 4.20

Two important things need to be pointed out from the table. First, in social
sciences, such as economics, the proportion of male and female students is
relatively balanced from 1999-2005; in law, female students consistently
outnumbered male students with from 1999-2005,(though without the knowledge
of what female law students study and what they do after graduation);these two
fields are traditionally male dominated areas. Also in the table, male students still
dominate the fields of sciences, while female students enroll at a higher rate in
literature, English, children‟s education and tourism.

The gender divide is more obvious in Haribin University of Science and

Technology. In 1998 female students were a major proportion of students
31
enrolled in foreign languages (66%) and sociology (48.3%), but only a minor
proportion enrolled in computer science and technology (22.9%), engineering
(11%) and mathematics (8.9%).39

A similar situation could also be observed in Peking University where,

female student enrollment in languages is more than 72％；and male student
enrollment in physics and engineering is almost 85％ in 2000. In 2008, the
situation remains the same. The following table shows the gender composition of
Peking University new entrants in 2008.

Gender disciplinary distribution of new entrants in Peking University in 2008 40

39
Ma, Wanhua (2005) Women‟s higher education development in China, history, current situation and problems ,
in Exploring Education Development, 3:1-5.
40
Resources: from the university provost office.

32
 colleges Gender Student % Disciplines Gender Student %
number number
math M 117 8.69 Information M 24 1.57
management
F 24 1.78 F 16 1.04
physics M 160 11.89 sociology M 16 1.04
F 31 2.30 F 39 2.55
chemistry M 128 9.51 Government M 26 1.70
administration

F 37 2.75 F 35 2.28
Life M 66 4.90 Foreign M 65 4.24
science F 53 3.94 languages F 128 8.36
Earth and M 58 4.31 Marxism M 26 1.70
space theory
science F 29 2.15 F 66 4.31
psychology M 12 0.89 Arts M 4 0.26
F 25 1.86 F 23 1.50
Software, M 12 0.89 Yuanpei M 113 7.38
Micro college
Electronics F 1 0.07 F 104 6.79
M 17 1.26 Information M 267 17.43
communica and
tion F 57 4.23 technology F 57 3.72
Chinese M 26 1.93 Engineering M 71 4.63
F 84 6.24 F 13 0.85
History M 17 1.26 City and M 41 2.68
environment
F 25 1.86 F 51 3.33
Archeology M 7 0.52 Environment M 10 0.65
F 22 1.63 science F 10 0.65
Philosophy M 20 1.49 School of M 67 4.37
management
F 23 1.71 F 94 6.14
Internationa M 29 2.15 Law M 68 4.44
l relations F 78 5.79 F 98 6.40
Economics M 75 5.57
F 113 8.40

This pattern of gender distributions in 2008 is consistent with the gender

distribution in 2000 at Peking University.

When some female students were interviewed in the college of foreign

languages at Peking University, the interviewer was told that in order to have a
few male students in language studies, universities lower test scores to attract
male students. The question then is if such a strategy would be adopted in
sciences and engineering to attract female students?

No doubt, the gender disparity affects female student participation in science

and technology at the tertiary level. At master‟s and Ph.D. degree programs,
33
gender disparity becomes more obvious, particularly in research institutes. For
example, there are far fewer female students in the Academy of Sciences. The
following table shows significant gender disparity in research institutes.
% of female entrants in master‟s and PhD programs in research institutes in the academies
of Science and Social Science in 2006
Ph.D. degree Master degree Postgraduate
programs programs courses
Total number of 5877 10481 48370
entrants
Female students 1803 3716 16462
Sources: Education statistics yearbook 2006.

The data includes both graduate students from the Research Institutes of
both the Academy of Science and the Academy of Social Science. But the
number of students enrolled in the research institutes of the Academy of Social
Science takes is limited in comparison with enrollment in the research institutes
of the Academy of Science. Even if female students get the opportunity to study
in research institutes in the Academies of Science, many of them are likely to
end up taking non-degree postgraduate courses. As the table shows, in
postgraduate courses, the proportion of female students is much higher than in
the master‟s and PhD degree programs. Students in post graduate courses are
more likely to work as research assistants in labs rather than as faculty or
scientists tutoring Ph.D. students.

Gender and Education Stratification

As previously mentioned, Chinese tertiary education is hierarchically
organized with “985 program” and “211 project” universities in the first tier of
the hierarchy, the provincial and municipal universities in the second tier, the
acknowledged Minban and independent universities and some three four public
funded colleges at the third tier, and the public short cycle and Minban
technical schools at the fourth tier.

The dramatic expansion in enrollments in 1999 has, in turn, resulted in

increased competition among students to attend more selective colleges and
enroll in particular fields of study as discussed previously. Another trend to be
noted that many more female students are in non degree programs than in degree
programs, and the higher the education level, the lower the proportion of female
students. The following table shows female student proportions in different levels
of the Chinese regular tertiary education system.

34
 Proportion of females in short cycle and different degree programs
YR/ level of short cycle Bachelor Master degree PhD degree
education courses % degree program% program %
program%
1999 35.9 22.2
2002 46.95 41.81 39.9 28.1
2004 47.82 43.89 44.15 31.37
2006 50.13 46.32 46.36 33.87
2008 51.92 48.15 48.16 34.7
Sources: China statistics year book, 2006,
http://www.edu.cn/school_496/20100121/t20100121_441899.shtml

According to the table, one may be able to conclude that after the enrollment
increase in 1999, female students‟ participation has been improved, especially in
Ph.D. program, the proportion of females was only 22.2% in 1999, and in 2008,
and it went up to 34.7%. But the table also shows that the proportion of female
students in short cycle courses is higher than the proportions in any degree
program. The proportion of female students is over 51.92% in short cycle courses.
Here the short cycle courses refer to vocational or technical colleges.

From the above analysis, it is evident that female students are down-streamed
to vocational and short cycle courses. In his research, Wen (2005)41 made a
comparative study on two sets of data (one collected by the center for education
development at MOE in 1998 and the other by the graduate school of education,
Peking University in 2003) on the situation of graduate employment in the
following years. The first project surveyed 11,229 students from 49 universities
country wide and the second project surveyed 15,222 students from 34
universities country wide. From these two surveys, the author finds that there is a
tendency of education stratification based on gender, male/female, family
residency, ethnicity, and choice of academic discipline.

Female Proportion in two tiers, residencies and discipline distribution in 1998 and 2003
1998 2003
Total % 38.2 41.0
Academic Short cycle 38.4 48.0
training Four years 38.1 37.2
Ethnicity Han 38.0 40.8
Minorities 38.5 44.3
Family cities 48.5 47.8
residencies County and town 40.1 43.2

41
Wen, Dongmao (2005) A comparative study on Gender disparity in higher education opportunities, school
achievement, and graduate employment in China in Tsinghua Journal of Education, 5:17.

35
 Rural villages 27.9 32.0
Disciplinary Economics 52.9 43.8
distribution law 42.0 54.7
literature 69.8 64.4
sciences 34.0 41.8
Agriculture 34.8 26.4
Engineering 20.9 21.2

Wen‟s finding is in correspondence with Song‟s research which was discussed

previously. Female students in humanities and urban students have a higher rate
of access to tertiary education. There are some improvements for ethnic
minority‟s access to tertiary education.

In her research, Song (2006) who did some analysis on gender distribution in
adult higher learning institutions from 1998 to 2002, finds the proportion of
female students to be higher.

Male and female access to adult higher education from 1998-2002：unite 10thousand 42
1998 1999 2001 2002
Total M 63242.2 61745.2 65355 64275.4
population F 61095.5 59451.2 61228 61619.7
Number of M 24 28.2 25.4 110.5
students F 21.7 25.5 25.8 111.5
Proportion in M 0.379 0.458 0.389 1.722
per 1000. F 0.379 0.429 0.421 1.809

The above table show illustrates that in 1998 in adult higher learning
institution, the proportions for both male and female were equal, but following
the enrollment increase, the proportion of females grew faster. In 2002, female
student proportion increased significantly from 0.379 to 1.809.

In her research, Yang (2009) makes a comparative study on the difference of

opportunity probabilities for male and female students in different categories of
Chinese universities using a set of survey data collected in 2004-2005. The
following table details her finding.
43
Gender and enrollment opportunities in different categories of universities

42
Song, Tao (2006) Some comments on gender difference in access to higher education in China, in Youth Study,
2006:8.
43
Yang qian (2009): “Study on gender difference in access opportunities in higher education in China” in Modern education
management (Xiandaijiayuguanli), 1:16. In 2004-2005, Xiamen University conducted a survey on current university
students in 51 universities of 10 provinces, the survey covers the gender, residence, discipline, subject, parent

36
 items Male female total Derivation of
Opportunity
Probability
Proportion of age Cohort A(%) 51.72 49.28 100
Gender Proportion in MOE universities 61.75 38.25 100
Opportunity probability 1.22 0.78 1.56
Gender proportion Regular public 46.87 53.13 100
universities B2
Opportunity probability (B2/A) 0.92 1.08 0.85
Gender proportion in technological 40.74 59.26 100
colleges B3
Opportunity probability(B3/A) 0.81 1.20 0.67
Minban four year universities (B4) 64.39 39.35 100
Opportunity probability (B4/1) 1.27 0.72 1.76
Minban technical colleges (B5/A) 44.88 55.12 100
Opportunity probability(B5/A) 0.88 1.20 0.79
Independent colleges(B6) 44．46 55．45 100

Opportunity probability(B6/A) 0.88 1.13 .079

The author divided Chinese tertiary education into 6 categories as shown in

the above table: key universities under MOE, regular four year university, public
technological colleges, Minban four years colleges, Minban technical colleges,
and independent colleges. The research finds that in key universities under MOE
and Minban four year universities, male students have far more access
opportunities than female students, but in public technical colleges, female
students have more opportunities than male students. More female students are in
the less prestigious education institutions.

Residence, Gender and Education stratification

As discussed previously, residence in China is a very important indicator for

education stratification. The following section will continue the discussion on
female student access to tertiary education. In the theme paper, Jamil Salmi used
the word “streaming” to indicate the force of pushing down or up a stream. Here
one could see that there are different streams to push female students from
different social status (or class) up and down the education streams.

Between 2004-2006，Xie, et al (2008) surveyed 50 universities in Shanxi,

Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Anhui, Shangdong, Shanghai
and Inner Mongolia. In the sample, there are 10 key university, 12 non key
regular universities, 16 postsecondary vocation colleges, 2 Minban undergraduate

education. The survey sending out 16,900 questionnaires, 13,873 questionnaires returned with validity. Based on
this set of survey data, Yang made the gender difference analysis.

37
universities, 6 Minban technical colleges, and 5 independent colleges. . The
survey data revealed the advantage urban female students had in access,
irrespective of the type of higher education institution. The previous point is
further illustrated in the following table.

Ratio of urban/rural female students in different category of Institutions Unit %44

Urban/Rural Urban Rural Total Derivation
Categories of higher education %
Key universities 63.7 36.3 100 27.4
Regular non key intuitions 51.3 48.7 100 2.6
Post secondary technical colleges 54.1 45.9 100 8.2
Minban undergraduate universities 81.7 18.3 100 63.4
Minban technical colleges 69 31 100 38.0
Independent colleges 77.4 22.6 100 54.8
Total 59.3 40.7 100 18.6

Whether it is in regular higher education or in Minban higher education, the

proportions of urban female students are much higher than the proportions of
rural female students. Urban female students have much more opportunities in
access to higher education than rural females. But in comparison, the gap in
regular non key institutions between urban and rural female students is much
smaller. This might indicates that the regular non key universities play a very
important role in reducing the urban and rural gap. The above table shows that
more rural female students are in regular non key institutions and post secondary
technical colleges.

Both independent colleges and Minban undergraduate universities are beyond

reach to rural females. The exclusion of rural females from independent colleges
and Minban undergraduate universities can be attributed to the high tuition and
fees they charge..

In part I of this report, a table show a higher proportion of students in Minban

universities and colleges who are children of farmers and workers. But from the
table above, it is clear that there is a disparity based on gender; male students
who are from a farm and worker background make up 81.7% of the enrollment
compared to only 18.3% for females. . The gender disparity might be due to
norms in the Chinese culture that discriminate against the girl child; parents who
are farmers and workers might feel less inclined to pay high tuition and fees for
female education.
44
Xie, Zuoyu, Wang Weihong, and Chen,Xiaowei(2008) “research on Urban/ Rural women‟s access to higher
education: An analysis on different type of higher education institutions, 6:80

38
 In 2008, Lin conducted research on education problems for women in China.
She found that female students in villages had the least opportunity for tertiary
education when she compared the data of new entrants in Xiamen University
from 1995 and 2000; Xiaman is a 211 project university, which is located in the
south part of China. The following table mirrors the results from Yang‟s research.
The proportion of students with rural family background is low, particularly for
females.

Urban/rural and male/female % of new entrants in Xiamen U in 1995 and 200045

yr 1995 2000
city county village city county village
% 50.78 24.01 25.21 54.03 21.91 23.16
Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F
% 55.42 44.58 66.08 33.92 85.04 14.96 49.68 50.32 78.29 24.71 80.43 19.57

From the table, several issues could be observed. First, in both the two years,
urban students get the most opportunities; second, urban/city females‟ access to
tertiary education is improving, and third, the proportion of female students in
villages goes up from approximately 15%to 20%but disparities exist within
females based residence.

Currently in China, in any calculation, be it national GDP or calculation of

individual incomes, there is a tendency to average. The averaging of figures
leads to a cover-up of many issues; issues that are revealed once the numbers are
broken up. This is particularly true in the case of access to tertiary education by
gender. .

In a case study, Liu et al (2009)46 examined the rural/urban and gender gap
between 1978-1998 and 2000-2005 at Peking University. She finds that rural
female students are especially low in Peking University. The following two
graphs show the composition of male and female students in two different time
periods at Peking University. The first graph shows the change in composition of
new urban and rural male and female students at Peking University between
1987and1998.

45
Lin, Xiaomei (2008) Students in the development of women‟s higher education in China, unpublished master thesis,
Xiamen University,p.23
46
Liu, Yunshan (2009) unpublished report on the survey of student‟s values and attitudes in the Capital City of
Beijing.

39
 According to the graph, from the mid 1980s, the proportion of rural male
students began to decrease, while the proportion of urban male students
increased gradually from 1985 to 1998. Meanwhile, the proportion of urban
females increased.. In 1998, the proportion of rural students, irrespective of
gender decreased to the lowest level; this pattern became stable between 2000-
2005. The following table shows the composition of students differing by gender
and family background and gender between 2000 and 2005.
Pattern of new entrants family background at Peking University between 2000-2005

. It is interesting to notice that in the above graph, the proportion of new

entrants from largest to lowest is as follows: urban males, urban females, rural
males and finally rural females.

The high proportion of urban females might have something to do with

China‟s one child policy; the birth control policy began in 1982, almost at the

40
same time with the economic reform. The urban one child, whether a girl or a
boy, can get all of the family resources for education, whereas the rural girls
might have a different experience in comparison, because she might have several
siblings to compete for the family education resources, or she may not have a
quality basic education for her to compete for senior secondary education, or she
might simply be considered as not important to be educated.

In 2005, the author participated in a project that surveyed 13 universities and

colleges in Beijing using a random sample on college students‟ values and social
attitudes; there are 3,772 valid respondents in the study. The following diagram
shows the family location composition of the 3772 students. The figure below
clearly indicates the paucity in the proportion of females, irrespective of family
residence.
This pattern shows clearly in the research survey in University student value 47

Furthermore, a comparison of parental occupation of students found that

the proportion of female students with fathers as professionals, clerks and
entrepreneurs is higher. In the following diagram, 24.2% of females have fathers
as clerks, while males with father as clerks are only 17.8%. This is in clear
contrast with female students who have a father who is a farmer. The proportion
of male students with a father as a farmer is much higher than the proportion of
female students. The proportion of female students whose father is a farmer is
only 13.9% compared to 21.6% for males. .

47
Liu Yunshan (2009) Ibid.)

41
 In term of equity and access to tertiary education, many researchers use
“urban and rural”, “parental professions” and “regions” as indicators to show the
patterns of access.

Du (2008) in her research shows the same pattern for females‟ access to
tertiary education in Jiangshu province. The proportion of rural female students is
lower than urban female students and this proportion steadily decreased from
2001 to 2003. .
2001-2003 urban/rural and M/F% of undergraduates in Jiangsu province48
year location Female % Male %
2001 urban 66.2 57.1
rural 33.8 42.9
2002 Urban 66.7 57.3
rural 33.3 42.7
2003 urban 68.3 56.7

48
Du Jing (2008), “Issues on Gender equity in higher education in Feminism perspective” , Inner Mongolia University,
unpublished master thesis , p.18.

42
 rural 31.7 43.4

The above table shows that urban females have more opportunities than rural
females in gaining access into tertiary education; this is also true when comparing
urban males to rural males. In a related note however, rural males have more
opportunities than rural females.

Summarizing the discussion, Wang (2009)49 states that there is a great

disparity between urban and rural family, between the city well to do family and
lower income family, and between well-developed regions and less developed
regions for women‟s tertiary education. In her research, she finds that urban
females make up 60% of the total female student population.

It is imperative to note that a great proportion of female students get their

tertiary education in adult higher education institutions, vocational and
technological intuitions and self study programs than in regular higher learning
institutions. According to a recent MOE statistics, female proportion in adult
higher learning institutions has reached to approximately 53%.50
Part: IV: Ethnic minority and tertiary education

Current research on ethnic minority enrollment

In China, there are 56 ethnicities, with Han being the majority ethnicity at
90%, other ethnic minorities make up the remaining 10%. The 1982 birth control
policy is flexible towards ethnic minorities; urban families with ethnic
background can have two children in the cities and even more children in the
rural areas. The flexibility in the policy has spurred population growth of ethnic
minorities in China. Statistics shows that in 1953, ethnic minority population in
China was only 35,.32 millions, and it reached to 106.43 millions in 2000. The
proportion of ethnic minority population in 2000 was 8.4% (see note 53, page 21).
In the country, there are 155 autonomous unites, 120 autonomous counties, 30
autonomous states, and 5 autonomous regions.

For tertiary education, ethnic minorities have two choices: to go to ethnic

minority universities and colleges, or to join into the main stream universities.
Since the majority of Chinese ethnic minorities live in the autonomous regions.
Many ethnic minority regions have their own colleges and universities. As of
2005, there were 155 ethnic higher learning institutions to provide direct access
49
Wang,R.(2009) On gender equity in higher education in Science and Technology Innovation Herald,7:216.
50
http://www.edu.cn/jiao_yu_jing_fei_497/20091122/t20091122_423262.shtml

43
to ethnic minorities; they have a total student body of 146,716.51 At the national
level, ethnic minorities make up 6.55% of the total student population.52

Here, ethnic minority tertiary education consists of two aspects: the

development of ethnic minority higher learning institutions and the ethnic
minority students‟ access to tertiary education in general. The difference between
the two aspects is that in ethnic minority universities or colleges, there will be
native language education or bilingual education, whereas in regular universities,
bilingual education might not be an option.

In recent years, more research has focused on ethnic minority education;

there are a few master theses on the subject. In his master thesis, Xu made a
comparative study of ethnic minority enrollment between Han and other ethnic
minorities in the ethnic minority regions. The following table illustrates results
from Xu‟s analysis which is based on the fifth census in 2000 on Han and other
ethnic minority‟s schooling situation.
Comparison of Han and ethnic minority education in ethnic minorities regions in 200053
Education level Han Ethnic minority
Male female Male female
Never be in School 4.16 11.8 8.66 18.8
Literacy class 1.05 2.5l 1.69 3.43
Elementary school 36.15 39.18 44.95 44.3l
Secondary school 40.37 32.71 31.25 23.6l
High school 10.00 7.04 6.57 4.54
High school vocation 3.14 3.56 3.4 3 3.07
Short cycle colleges 3.08 2.23 2.32 1.49
Four undergraduate 1.69 0.91 1.1l 0.72
Graduate education 0.36 0.06 0.05 0.03

In the above table, it is not hard to see that at each level of education, Han
nationality (both for males and females) in ethnic minority regions seems to have
more opportunities to be educated, whereas ethnic minorities have fewer
opportunities. Educational opportunities are lesser for ethnic female minority
students than ethnic male minorities. Xu, from a longitudinal perspective, finds
that ethnic minority education at every level has improved from 1953 to 2000

51
Tan, min &Xie,Zuoyu(2009): “Analysis on the condition of minority tertiary education after enrollment increase”
in Higher Education Exploration, 2:28.
52
Xu,Qingchu: “Outline on a balance development of minority tertiary education in the West” in Journal of
Northwest Normal University(Social Sciences), (46)3:84.
53
Xu, Min (2007), A study on the accumulations of human capital in ethnic minority rural areas, unpublished
master thesis, Inn Mengolia University p24.

44
 (see table below) .
Proportion change of ethnic minority education at difference levels between 1953- 2000
year % of minority Percentage of students at different education level
students at Higher High school normal Middle Elementary
national level education Vocational schools school school
1953 5.9 1.5 O.9 4.7 2.9 2.9
1964 5.8 3.2 2.6 5.2 4.O 4.5
1982 6.6 4.7 4.5 8.4 3.9 5.9
1990 8.0 6.6 6.2 10.0 6.4 8.7
2000 8.4 5.8 5.9 12.3 6.8 9.1

The table illustrates the decline in the percentage of ethnic minorities in

tertiary education from 6.6% in 1990 to 5.8%. Some researchers tied this decrease
to an increase tuition fees. But the decrease in proportion may not indicate the
decrease in real enrollment numbers, because after the enrollment increase, the
proportion of Han nationality goes up faster than the proportion of ethnic
minorities.
From a historical development perspective, ethnic minority education has
been improving. The following table shows the ethnic minority enrollment
change in relation to the population from1953 to 2000.
The proportion of Minority students and minority population from 1953-2000.54
YR/program Minority Proportion of total Minority Proportion of
students/10 student population population/10 minority in total
thousands thousands population
1953 0.55 2.56 3532 6.06
1964 2.00 3.24 4002 5.76
1982 5.37 4.65 6730 6.68
1990 13.79 6.60 9120 8.04
1997 21.68 6.83 10731 8.98
2000 31.73 5.71 10643 8.41

But the table reflects two problems. First in 2000 the proportion of ethnic
minority students went down by more than one percent. Second, the ethnic
minorities make up 8.41% of the total population in 2000, but only comprise
5.71% of the student population. This is pretty low to the national target for
ethnic minority tertiary education, a policy which indicates 10% as a target rate
for ethnic minorities.

After the enrollment increase in 1999, ethnic minority tertiary education

experienced an upswing. The recent national policy for west economic
exploration has contributed to a positive for ethnic minority tertiary education.

54
Tang, Ying (2003 ) An exploration on equal opportunities of ethnic minorities higher education, Education and
Economic, 2:18.

45
 In their research, Tan and Xie (2009) present a table to show the changes in
ethnic minority tertiary education over the recent years.

Ethnic minority students in regular universities in 2006,unite 10 thousand.55

Type of education Total ethnic minority students
students
Number of students Proportion of total
students
Graduate education 110.47 5.14 4.65
Ph.D. 20.80 0.89 4.26
Master 89.66 4.25 4.74
Undergraduate/short 1738.84 107.55 6.19
cycles
undergraduate 943.34 64.84 6.87
Short cycles 795.50 42.71 5.37

The table illustrates that the increase in ethnic minority proportions from
5.71% in 2000 to 6.19% in 2006 in undergraduate and short cycles programs.
And the proportion of four year education became 6.87%. However, there is still
a need to understand gender and social stratification of ethnic minority tertiary
education.

National policy for ethnic minority education

Ethnic minority tertiary education, especially technical education, has been

getting more attention recently. However the national policy for ethnic minority
tertiary education has been in place since 1951 and it plays an important role in
helping ethnic minorities gain access tertiary education.

The content of the comprehensive policy is summarized in the following

table (Ao,2006) .
Contents for the ethnic minority enrollment policy in tertiary education56
Name / standard Ethnic regions Universal
minority priority
Some condition, ethnic minority have the right be _ + +
enrolled first.
Enrolled with lowing scores + + +
Decided the enrollment score independently _ + _
Minority applicant takes examination in minority + + _
language and minority takes the examination in
Chinese

55
Tan, Min &Xie,Zuoyi (2009),: “Analysis on the condition of minority tertiary education after enrollment increase” in
Higher Education Exploration, 2:28.
56
Ao Junmei(2006): “Individual equity, or group equity---exploration on enrollment policy for ethnic minority
tertiary education” in Tsinghua Journal of Education.,6:72

46
 Preparatory class, minority class + + +
direction oriented enrollment and dispatch _ + +
Key university enrollment quotas _ + +
Training plan for Xinjiang region _ + _
The “+”sign in the table means applicable, and “一”means not applicable。

These specific policy contents are mostly applicable to the autonomous

regions. Besides, there is a general policy that ethnic minorities need to have at
least 10 test scores added to the applicants‟ national examination score as long as
he/she identified him/herself as ethnic minority when registering for taking
national examination. This policy is intended to promote ethnic minority
enrollment nationwide. Any student whose father or mother is an ethnic minority
can be considered an ethnic minority. This policy is adjustable according to each
autonomous region‟s educational need.

Ma2008）,57 a sociologist at Peking University, has conducted research on

the practices of bilingual education and education development in Xinjiang
autonomous region. He finds ethnic minority enrollment in tertiary education is
growing fast in Xinjiang region; the figure grew from a student enrollment of
3,767 in 1990 to 58,653 in 2005. The increase was dramatic after 1999; in 1999,
the enrollment figure was 19,821, but by 2003 it had increased to 44,733.

According to Ma, the national minority education policy played a very

important role in promoting this development. He found that if both parents are
listed as ethnic minorities, the applicants can get an additional score of 150 for
tertiary education enrollment in Xijiang autonomous region.

The following table shows changes/additions to the policy from 1985 to

2006 in the region. The autonomous region has the autonomy to decide the scope
of the adding test scores for ethnic minorities in national enrollment to tertiary
education.
Adding score policy in Xinjiang autonomous region from 1985 to 2006.
year Policy Criteria for getting the additional scores
scores
to add
1985 10 Muslim minority
30 Applicant, with one parent as ethnic
minority, takes the national examination in
Chinese

57
Ma, Rong (2008) the practices of bilingual education and education development in Xinjiang autonomous
region, in Peking university Education Review,2:37

47
 100 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic
minorities takes the national examination in
Chinese
National 1987 10 Muslim minority
examination 80 Applicant, with one parent as ethnic
For tertiary minority, takes the national examination in
education Chinese.
100 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic
minorities, takes the national examination in
Chinese, and files to study in regular
universities outside of Xinjiang
150 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic
minorities, takes the national examination in
Chinese and files to study universities
inside Xianjiang autonomous region.
2003 20 Applicant, who wins a national prize on
physical competition, and applicant, who
wants to study “cold major “in the
autonomous colleges.
70 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic
minorities, but take the national
examination in Chinese, and files to study in
regular universities; and applicant, with
both parents as Han, but use minority
language to take the national examination.
2006 50 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic
minorities, files to study in regular
universities; and applicant, with both
parents as Han, wants to study in ethnic
minority universities.

Ma‟s research shows that local governments of autonomous regions in China

have the autonomy to create/alter the enrollment policy to improve minority
participation in their respective regions. In order to further increase ethnic
minority enrollment, in Sichuan province, the Tibetan living area, after
compulsory, students are asked to study Chinese and Tibetan languages as well
as modern technology for three years. 58 Similarly in Inner Mongolia, there are
predatory courses for students who plan to go to tertiary education. Some other
autonomous states or counties have adopted 9+3 education mode. That is after 9
years of compulsory education, ethnic minority students could get senior
secondary education for free to finish senior secondary education.
But these solutions create problems. When scores are added for ethnic

58
http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64093/64102/116672/9691743.html

48
minorities, these students get into tertiary education; however, they are hard
pressed to keep up with the curriculum.. This is also due to the fact that
educational experiences in ethnic minority regions might differ from mainstream
secondary schools. . Hence, there is a further need to explore alternative
pedagogical techniques and encourage research on ethnic minority social
stratification, educational stratification and gender.

Part V: Main determinants of the disparities

The rapid expansion in Chinese tertiary education enrollment has led to more
access opportunities, but the problem of equity remains. The inequities are
related to both monetary and non-monetary factors. Current development of
Chinese tertiary education shows an increased competition among students to
attend selective colleges and majors. This tendency will no doubt intensify the
issue of equity since the competition actually starts from secondary education.

Senior secondary education and education equity

In China, the first 9 years of education are compulsory; this comprises of 6
years of elementary school and 3 years of junior secondary school. Senior
secondary school (3 years) is not compulsory, but generally taken as a transition
education to college. After compulsory education, students have three choices,
one is to continue schooling by entering into senior secondary schools, two is to
continue schooling by entering into vocational or technical schools, or three by
just joining the labor force. Since senior secondary education is not compulsory,
not all of the teen-agers between the ages of 15 to 17 have the opportunities to
attend, many of them who could not see a path towards tertiary education would
simply give up senior secondary education and join the labor force as mobile
workers.

So in the discussion about equity and access to tertiary education, one has to
notice that senior secondary education in China functions as a filter. Students
who could not pay, who are not highly motivated, and who are less academic
prepared, are filtered out of the education system. This is especially true in rural
areas where there is a lack of high quality senior secondary schools. So the
process of senior secondary education is focused on exclusion but not on
inclusion.

49
 In the big cities, senior secondary education is already universalized. In
2008, the gross enrollment of senior secondary education was 74.% at the
national level. 59 But in Beijing, the gross enrollment was96% in 2000. To some
extent, the gap in senior secondary education between rural/urban could be as
high as the gap between rural/urban in tertiary education. In senior secondary
education, all of the key senior secondary schools are in the cities. In many cases,
those teen-agers in rural areas or in country sides stop schooling by simply
joining the labor force after the compulsory education or even before finishing
the compulsory education, because there is no hope for them to receive a high
quality of senior secondary education.

There are two goals for the three years of senior secondary education. First,
it is to help students finish the required coursework in order to get the high school
diploma, and second, it is to prepare students for national examination. In most
cases, the preparation for national examination takes place in the second year of
senior secondary education. In that year, students are asked to decide their field
of study: humanities and social science or science. Their coursework for the
remainder of the senior secondary education is based on their choice of disciple.
For instance, if they decide to study science, they are given more math courses
and if they choose to study humanities and social science they have more classes
on history and Chinese literature.

In China, equity in tertiary education is related and/or heavily tied to equity

in secondary education. As discussed previously, Chinese secondary education is
divided in two parts with the junior secondary education being compulsory and
the senior secondary education being optional. Research finds that from 1998 to
2002, the percentage of transition students from junior secondary to senior
secondary school decreased from 59.7% to 58.3%. This means more than 40% of
students have already lost their opportunities to access tertiary education at the
end of the junior secondary education. In 1998, senior secondary student access
to tertiary education was 46.1% and in 2002, it increased to 83.5%. 60 According
to these percentages, senior secondary education has become a bottleneck for
rural student access to tertiary education. When students see no hope of getting a
good quality tertiary education, they stop their education at the senior secondary
school level.

59
http://www.edu.cn/gai_kuang_495/20100121/t20100121_441887.shtml
60
Resource: from the recent report from the task group on study of equity problem of higher education in China,
http://www.folo.cn/tb.asp?id=6666

50
 Due to the importance of senior secondary education in access to tertiary
education, most provinces and cities have established a well-structured tracking
senior secondary education system. In these senior secondary schools, high
quality teachers who are qualified student advisors support students sitting for the
national examination; however this service is not available in the rural schools. If
one wants to see more rural male/female students get equal access to the first tier
universities, or even into regular four years universities, more resources should
be put into senior secondary education in the rural areas. Current policies
referring to education and distribution of resources tend to focus on compulsory
education in the less developed regions; hopefully in a few years, there will be a
shift.

―Institutionalized mechanism‖ in equal access

To access tertiary education, one has to pass senior secondary education and
then take the national examination. The Chinese national examination system has
been passed down from the Chinese academic history. The examination is
content focused, and it is well known for its toughness. The nation examination
takes place in the first weekend of June every year. And all students are required
to take the examination based on their residence; residence here means the place
where students register, but not where they actually live. Therefore, children of
the mobile workers need to go back to their hometown for both their senior
secondary schooling and to participate in the national examination (national
enrollment quotas are decided by residency). Inside the country, the national
examination has been considered as the most fair system in the world by many
people, (students, parents, and policy makers), but careful examination reveals
problems beneath the façade of fairness.

As mentioned before, access to tertiary education in China is dependent on

the national examination score. Generally speaking, the higher the test scores the
better the access opportunity . But in many cases, the assumption may not be
true.

In her research, Luan (2007) 61 finds disparity for students to enter into
different categories of universities across provinces. Applicants, in Beijing with a
516 test score can enter 211 projects universities, while in Hunan provinces, one

61
Luan, Zhaoyun (2007) exploration of the problem equal access to higher education in
Shangdong Province, unpublished master thesis, Shandong Normal University ,p32.

51
may need to have 593 test scores or above to get into 211 project universities.
The following table shows the variation.
Test scores for access to higher learning institutions in different provinces in 2006.
Humanities and social science (test scores) Sciences and engineering(test score)
categories
regions regular local short regular local short
211/985 university colleges cycles 211/ 985 university university cycles
Shandong 568 549 526 280 583 553 527 280
Beijing 516 467 442 338 528 476 442 350
Hunan 593 556 513 320 547 496 467 280
Zhejiang 583 550 501 491 570 527 466 448
Tianjin 477 436 410 350 505 455 430 340
Qinghai 452 386 348 315 434 374 335 320

Theoretically, in tertiary education enrollment, in less developed provinces,

the test scores to get into the best universities should be lower, like in Qinghai
province in the table. But in fact, this is not always true. For example in Shanghai,
Beijing, and Tianjin, where there are plenty of education opportunities, a student
with a much lower test score can get into good quality institutions, whereas in
other provinces like Hunan and Shandong provinces, the situation would be very
different.

Recently, the Association of Higher Education in China presented a set of

analysis by looking at the first tier universities enrollment national test scores. It
reveals the same problem.

Comparison of test scores from some provinces to be in the first tier universities in 2008 and 200962
Year 2008 2009
provinces Humanities and Sciences and Humanities and Sciences and
social science (test engineering(test social science (test engineering(te
scores) score) scores) st score)
Beijing 515 502 532 501

Henan 557 563 552 567

Anhui 553 563 543 579

Jiangxi 520 512 515 518

Zhejiang 550 550 606 605

Fujian 547 534 569 582

62
Special Report on Academic Activities of Association of Higher Education in China, 2009: 6: 24.

52
 The above table shows the minimum test scores needed for students to get
into four year undergraduate universities in several provinces. In Beijing to get
into four year universities in 2009, the minimum test score was 532 in
humanities and social sciences, while in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, the
required test scores were 606 and 569 respectively.

In her research, Yao (2007)finds that at Ocean University in Tsingdao, a

coastal city in the Shangdong provinces. New entrants in the university come in
with different test scores; students from Shanghai can get into Ocean University
to study humanities with a score of only 501 whereas students from Shangdong
have to have a test score of 592 as of 2006. And for science majors, in 2006,
students from Shanghai just needed a test score of 468, whereas students from
Shandong had to have a test score of 618.
Enrollment test scores of Ocean university of China63
provinces Humanities sciences
2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006
Shandong 600 593 592 637 624 618
Beijing 480 492 532 500 472 542
Tianjin 548 510 508 533 462 541
Shanghai 464 484 501 463 476 468
Hebei 537 517 560 566 546 548
Guizhou 551 564 546 520 551 560
Qinghai 501 504 452 518 478 474

Many reasons contribute to the current inequity in access to the first tier
universities. In his research, Prashant Kumar Loyalka (2009) used the term
“ institutional mechanisms” 64 Here institutional mechanism consists of two parts:
pre-college entrance exam and post college entrance exam. In China, for access
to tertiary education, an applicant has to follow the path that is institutionally
prescribed. So the pre-college entrance exam institutional mechanisms include
residence permit (rural/urban), tracking system in senior secondary school, the
university and major enrollment quotas, the decision on the adding score criteria
and the decisions on the minimum enrollment test sore by provinces.

The phenomenon discussed above is related with the national enrollment

quotas system. Every year, before the national examination, national universities
63
Yao, Zhaoyun (2007), Research and Analysis on the Issue of the Equal Opportunity of the
Higher Education Enrollment of Shandong Province, Shangdong Normal University, unpublished master
thesis,p.33.
64
Prashant Kumar Loyalka (2009) Institutional mechanisms and sorting across China‟s higher education system, unpublished
conference paper for 2009 International Academic symposium on Higher Education Finance.

53
will set up enrollment quotas among the 31 regions and provinces under the
direction of MOE. Generally speaking, the quotas system is always in favor of
provinces and cities with a strong tertiary education, that is, higher the gross
enrollment of the provinces or cities, lower the test score needed to get enrolled.

Currently, there does not seem to be much research on how the enrollment
quota is set up, but the following table shows Peking University enrollment quotas
in a few provinces in 2008.
The planned enrollment quotas of Peking University in some provinces in 200865
provinces Numbers Numbers Total Numbers %Opportunity
planned to planned to enrollment registered for to get into
enroll in enroll in Peking Peking
Humanities science and University (10 University
and social engineering thousand
sciences people
Beijing 106 180 280 10.37 17.94
Henan 30 49 79 90.5 0.88
Jiangxi 18 27 45 38.44 1.17
Anhui 20 23 43 61 0.70
Hubei 25 42 67 52.5 1.28
Gansu 10 10 20 30 0.67

The above table indicates that Peking University planned to enroll 280
students in Beijing in 2008, the total number of students the university planned to
enroll in Henan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei and Gansu was 254 students. The number
of students the university planned to enroll in Beijing is more than the total
number of the other five provinces. Therefore, the possibility for a student to get
into Peking University in Beijing is much easier than the possibility for students
in other provinces.

The same situation applies to other “985 program” and “211 project”
universities, such as Fudan University in Shanghai, Zhongshan University in
Guangzhou, and Nankai University in Tianjin. Here, the well-known public
universities, which are heavily invested with national funds, seem to benefit local
needs. The problem of the localization of national universities has been among
public concerns recently. Zhang, Quanta, a professor from Peking University
considered this to be unfair due to the redistribution of public tertiary education
resources; it should be considered as location discrimination.66 As Zhang says, in

65
Special Report on Academic Activities of Association of Higher Education in China, 2009: 6: 25.
66
http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2010-01-06/041519406695.shtml

54
remote areas, there are not many education resources; children there may not
have even a high quality compulsory education in comparison with children from
areas like Beijing and Shanghai. Public universities should take the responsibility
of bringing equity to children with a lower quality of initial education. The
problem is that in China in tertiary education enrollment, more attention is given
to national examination test score, but discrimination in enrollment quotas is
neglected.

Tertiary education policy related problem

Inequity in access to tertiary education could also be policy related. At the

beginning of 1978, when all of the students were supposed to be enrolled based
on the results of the national examination, there were some new entrants who
entered under the “walk and reading” policy program. Then there was a policy
for universities to admit a few extra students, by asking them not to use
university accommodation, (then universities were asked to provide every student
a bed in dormitories). That policy provided a path to children from urban cadres.
Based on that policy, in 1985, a so-called “ twin-track” system started. In 1985
when universities first experienced financial difficulty, the national government
gave universities some kind of autonomy to keep a few slots for fee-paying
students. Statistics shows that in 1988, nationwide, there were 422,000 fee-
paying students in public higher learning institutions, 67 though there was no clear
idea on policy quotas for the percentage of fee-paying students, but the number
increased each year until 1997, when the twin track policy was stopped, As in
1985, when the twin-track system was first adopted, the students who can get into
the fee-paying track were not likely to be the children of farmers or workers.

Similar thing still in practice now is the “Gongjian policy.” In 1993, when
<the outline for education development> was published, there is a phrase in the
document termed “gonging.” Gonging means that the local government should
take some financial responsibility to build higher learning institutions together
with the center government. Traditionally, Chinese tertiary education was solely
sponsored by the central government, but following the explosive growth of the
tertiary system, it is no longer possible for the central government to be the sole
sponsor, so even before the decision to establish the cost sharing system, the
central government issued a call for the local governments to support tertiary
education.

67
“Debate: is tuitions in higher education “evil”
http://xzx.shnu.edu.cn/Default.aspx?tabid=421&ctl=Details&mid=1043&ItemID=1825&SkinSrc=%5BL%5DSki
ns/zhixing1/zhixing1

55
 When local governments started to put money toward national universities, it
is conditional on universities accepting more students from the local cities or
regions.. In 2007, eight MOE universities in Wuhan get additional 1,770 students
into the universities from Wuhan city areas because the Wuhan municipal
government has supported those universities. The students who got into the
universities were called “gongjian students”. They got into the eight universities
with test scores that were 20 below the minimum Hubei province tertiary
education entrance test score. And this has been in practice since 2002. 68 As
national universities, this act favors local students, and it is unfair to student‟s
nation-wide. Whether this “gongjian” enrollment only happens in Wuhan city
needs further investigation, but obviously it reflects the side product to the
original idea of the “Gongjian” policy.

Rural girls and the compulsory education law

In my research on girl‟s education in a minority county in Hebei province from

2002 to 2004, I found that more girls dropped out of schools earlier than boys.
Mostly they dropped off at the beginning of second year of junior secondary
schools.69 There are many reasons for this dropout of the schools. Too poor to
pay the school fees, distance to schools and no hope of entering into good senior
secondary schools and lack of motivation for school all are reasons for the female
drop-out rate. In his research, Xing (2003)70 found that even in economic
developed areas in Shan Dong province, when the family economic situation is
much better than in my sample county, rural girls tend to leave school sooner
because there are more opportunities to get paid jobs.

In their research on basic education development and policy suggestions, both

Wang & Lang (2007)71 did a case analysis of a few less economic developed
counties in Gansu province; two of the six counties are ethnic minority counties.
86 center schools are included in this research, Research shows that enrollment
for girls are high in elementary schools but not in junior secondary schools. In
one of the minority counties, female enrollment was only 34% and in another
county, female enrollment was 84%. This shows that though there is a
68
Question and answers on the enrollment of “gongjiansheng” http://www.hb.xinhuanet.com/zhuanti/2007-
05/28/content_10140029.htm
69
Ma, Wanhua (2003) why do girls stopping going to schools?—a case analysis on girls dropping out of schools
in one of the Hebei County” Peking University Education Review, 3 :70-77
70
Xing, Zhiqiang ( 2003) analysis for girls dropping off schools in economic developed areas, master thesis.
71
Wang Jiayi & Liang, Yongping (2007) Developmental condition and policy research on basic education in the
North West poverty areas in Peking University Education Review, 2:148-156.

56
compulsory education law, it is not fully carried out in the rural local community.
According their research, the dropout rate in one of the county was 57.89%.

As a result, rural women‟s education level is very low. In <the developmental

report in China: society and development---a research on the gap of Chinese
regional development gap> report in the rural areas, almost 59 percent of women
have an elementary education, only about 42% of women have a junior
secondary education and about 14% of females are illiterate。At the age of 20,
only 14.5% of females are in colleges.72

Now that the low enrollment of rural female students in every tier of tertiary
education has become obvious, it is also clear that they do not have the
opportunities to finish junior secondary education. In China, except for the
central government‟s role in pushing compulsory education, local governments,
especially communities do not seem to pay much attention towards getting girls
to finish their junior secondary education. When parents stop girls from going to
schools, there is no law enforcement for protection.

Monetary factors and educational equity

The cost of tertiary education

Many researchers have examined the monetary factors that create barriers for
access and success in tertiary education for poor students. In China, national
GDP spending on education was only 3.48% in 2009. With this low education
expenditure, the only choice for universities is to increase fees and tuition or take
loans from the bank to maintain daily operations.

Chinese tertiary education was free until 1993. Even in 1985, when the dual
track system was adapted, those who were selected in the tuition track only
needed to pay 200RMB per academic year, amounting to mostly a symbolic
contribution. In 1993, when the “Outline for Chinese education reform and
development” was published, there began a real discussion of collecting tuition
and fees for college students, which was then called a “cost-sharing mechanism.”
In 1994, the Chinese government decided to implement tuition and fees in a few
universities, with tuition of only 800 RMB. In 1997, all universities began to
charge tuition and fees, the tuition were 2,000 RMB. At the time, there were few
protests to the change, perhaps because the annual tuition was low in comparison
72
http://www.china.com.cn/lady/txt/2005-03/02/content_5799481.htm

57
with 6,000RMB ( About 750 US dollars), which was the fee rate in 2004. 73 In
1999, when the increased enrollment policy was implemented, all of the
stakeholders seemed to be satisfied—s students in senior secondary schools and
their parents were especially pleased, because this would mean they likely would
have more opportunities to access tertiary education. Presidents of regular
colleges and universities felt that tuition and fees would help the universities with
their finances and operational capacity. The center government was supportive
because it meant the universities were able to take more students without asking
for support. Only the Minban institutions felt pressured for lack of
competitiveness to get good senior secondary graduates.

Following the enrollment increase, the tuition was increased too. Such as in
Beijing, the average university tuition is between 4,200 to 5,500RMB. In science
and engineering, the tuition is between 4,600-5,500RMB, and in languages and
medical sciences, the tuition is between 5,000-6,000RMB. 74 Besides tuition
increases, living expenses also increased, with accommodation costs growing
from about 270 RMB in 1997 and in 2004, to 1200 RMB currently. Factoring in
meals, books, and transportation, a student‟s expenses for an academic year could
easily top more than 10,000RMB. The rapid increase of tuitions and fees
definitely became a big burden to many families.

As calculated in 2004, urban citizen‟s annul net family income was

9,422RMB, and rural family annual net income was 2,936RMB. 75 Based on that
calculation, for an urban household to support a college student to finish his/her
education it needs to spend four years of net family income, whereas a farmer
needs to spend 13.6 years of net family income to support a college student. In
the less developed regions in the west, where the tuition and fees could be a bit
lower, about 7,000RMB, four years expenses would be 28,0000RMB, equivalent
to a farmer‟s 35 years net income. In order to find alternatives to support poor
students, every August, CCTV and other public media ask for donations.

Then there are the cases of poor new entrants, who could not pay and have to
give up the opportunities. The tuition increase caught the attention of the central
government, so in 2005, there was another administrative order to stop the
increase by setting up a fixed tuition rate for public universities with more
73
Li, Zhifeng, (2007)” Analysis on the relevance of national loans to tuition in China” in Journal of southwest
Jiaotong University, 2:27.
74
Gao, Guijuan & Chen, Hui (2005), “The evolution of tuition in higher education in China” in Journal of Qujing
Normal University, 1:86
75
Graduate unemployment due to university enrollment increase in from 1999,
http://news.ifeng.com/special/gaokao/30year/200705/0523_1193_122847.shtml

58
government subsidies. Now in “211 project” and “985 program” universities , the
tuition is about 5000 RMB.

59
 Tuition levels at the six top public universities in 200676
Universities Regular programs Programs in Art and
（RMB） Music (RMB)
Tsinghua University 5,000 12,000
Chinese Renmin University 5,000 10,000
Beijing Normal University 4,800 8,000
Beijing University of 5,000-6,000 10,000
Technology
Fudan University 5,000-6,500 10,000
Huadong University of 5,000-6,000 10,000
Technology

In Minban universities and independent colleges, tuitions and fess could be

three times or four times higher than that of regular public colleges and
universities. Legally, in China, all higher learning institutions are not for profit.
But profit seeking could be clearly observed in Minban universities or colleges.

Students loans and assistance program

Actually the national policy in providing financial aid has been in practice
since 1999. The national support system includes needs-based aid and, merit aid
from the center government, university aid, society aid, different loans and work
study program. In the following table, Loyalka (2009)77 provides a detailed
description of those aids and loan programs.

76
Xiao, Jie (2007) A study on tuition of public universities and equal opportunity to higher education,
unpublished master thesis, Wuhan University of Technology.
77
Prashant Kumar Loyalka (2009) Is aid reaching poor students? The distribution of student financial aid across
Chinese higher education system, unpublished paper in paper collection “ 2009 International Academic
Symposium on Higher Education Finance” Beijing, Nov.7, 2009.p. 234-235

60
 Main types of college student financial aid in China
Type of aid
Government need-based
Need-based grants
Living and meal subsidies
Government merit aid
Merit-based scholarships
Need-based merit
scholarships
Special major scholarship
University Aid
Tuition waivers
Work study program
Special need subsidies
University scholarships
University needs-based aid
Society aid
Grants and scholarships
Loans
National school-based loans
Home-based loans
Description Amount and coverage
All students who faced with RMB1,000-3,000 per year,
financial difficulties coverage of 20% of all university
students
Subsidies to defray living and various
meal costs
Awarded to top-performing RMB8,000per year
sophomores, juniors and seniors 0.3% of all university students
Top performing sophomores, RMB5,000.
juniors and seniors who have 3% of all university students
financial difficulties
Given to students major in special various
need of the country
Reductions in student tuition various
Typical work study arrangement various
Subsidies for students in dire According to need
need
Merit scholarships given by various
university
Subsidies for low-income various
students
A hodgepodge of aid from local
government, corporations and
philanthropic organizations.
Provided by commercial banks in RMB6000 per year
coordination with the university, Government subsidizes interest
should be repaid within 6 years while students attends college
after graduation
Provided by National RMB6000 per year
development bank, students apply Government subsidizes interest
through country-level students while students attends college
financial aid offices in their
hometowns, should be repaid
within 10 years after graduation

From this table, one can see there are different opportunities to get help for
poor students to finish their tertiary education, but a careful examination of those
aid programs, exposes the limitations within each of these categories.

First, need-based scholarships provide the most coverage. The program is

designated to provide coverage to 20% of all university students. But, in his
research, Loyalka finds this aid is subject tracked to the first and second tier
universities. This means more opportunities for science students to get
government need-based aid and fewer opportunities for humanity students and
less opportunity for students in the third tier universities. This finding is not
61
surprising, however, because the first tier and the majority of second tier
universities are national universities, so most of the government aids go to the
national universities.

Though the government need-based aid provides the most coverage, the
amount of money is only 1,000 to 3,000RMB per year, which, for a truly poor
student, may not be enough to support attending and completing tertiary
education.

Second, the merit-based scholarship is ideal for poor students, because the
amount of the money is 8,000RMB. Since it is merit-based, however, it is very
competitive, and only those students with the highest academic ability can get the
scholarships. It is also science subject based. As a result, the two aid
scholarships are difficult for student of average talent to get.

Third, university aid is also favors students in the sciences. In recent years,
28.3% students in sciences and 24.8% students in humanities in the first and
second tier universities have received the aid, so chances to receive this aid in the
third tier universities have been low. Loyalk‟s research shows the distribution of
aid for the first tier students is 32%, versus 27% in the second tier, and 18% in
the third tier universities. This might also indicate that more male students than
female students are receiving the aid, because female students enroll
disproportionately in humanities and social sciences at second and third tier
colleges.

Fourth, endowment funding in Chinese higher education is very limited. Only

the first tier universities like Peking and Tsinghua have education foundations
and collect donations from private sources. The resulting social aid programs
can only provide support to a few students in the first tier universities, regardless,
though the students who get this award occasionally receive significant amounts
of funding, usually 2,000 to 3,000RMB.

Loan programs seem to be a good choice for all need-based students, and
between Jan. and Sept from 2002, four national commercial banks in the country
started to offer such programs. But, according to Li (2004), there are several
problems with this program. First it is hard to measure or estimate household
income in China. Since there is no system to record family income, all of the
information for the loan comes from the student own statement. Second,
commercial banks are all profit seeking in loaning out money, and there are
always disputes between students and banks on the term of the loans and the
62
repayment windows for the loans.

And third, to evaluate the government aid program, there is a need to

understand whether it would provide the coverage necessary for individual
students. According to governmental statistics on tertiary education, the
proportion of needy students is around 20%. But, some research show that in
agriculture and normal universities, the proportion could be closer to 30%,78 and
some statistics also shows that in the west regions, the proportion of poor
students could reach to 40%. 79 In making decisions of where to study, poor
students will usually choose those universities with seemingly lower tuition and
fees, but they are often unaware that, since those universities have less financial
aid, they might be better served by a more elite institution with greater levels of
aid. According to Zhao (2004),80 at the end of 2002, though 19% of students
needed financial supports, only 10% got the loans. Today, the situation has
improved with the new loan policy, discussed in the conclusions..

Conclusion

New policies for equity in tertiary education

This report provides an overview of the issue of equity and access of tertiary
education in China by first looking at the scale of Chinese tertiary education. For

78
Study on the problems and strategies of providing fellowships to poor students in China
http://wenda.tianya.cn/wenda/thread?tid=6a2b7d567ec8d097
Lin, hong & Tang,Fengtao “Ways to help poor students getting out of the dilemma of
79

assistantships in less developed regions, “Journal of Jingdezhen Comprehensive College,22:2

80
Zhao, Jianjun (2004), “Some thought on improving national loan policy” in Peking University Education
Review, 2:1:11.

63
over 30 years, gross enrollment in tertiary education has increase from 1.56% to
23.3%. Following the enlargement of the student scale, the number of
institutions has been increased from 400 in 1978 to more than 3500 in 2009.
There are multiple providers to tertiary education. But, due to China‟s
unbalanced economic development, less economic developed regions provide
less opportunity for mass access. In the economically more developed regions,
where tertiary education has mass enrollment levels, there is a serious
competition for the first tier universities; more urban students have opportunities
to access the first tier universities; and more rural students have access to second
or third tier universities. Even when rural students have opportunities to access
first tier universities, in many cases they become vulnerable to “disciplinary
stratification.”

The gross enrollment increases since 1999 have created more opportunities
both for male and female students to access tertiary education. Currently female
proportion has reached more than 49%. With that proportion, it may appear that
women have made great strides toward gender equity, but behind the simple
gender parity, the proportion of female students in master and Ph.D. degree
programs is still relatively low. Female students are still under-represented in
science and engineering, in particularly, and, furthermore, at the undergraduate
level, more female students are in the second and third tier universities than in
first tier institutions.

For the convenience of analysis, much of the research examines gender as a

category to represent all female students. A careful examination of female
student family background in conjunction with the location and quality of the
universities they attended exposes further divides in access, showing that urban
female students experience higher degrees of access to the first tier universities
and more ambitious and, likely, rewarding academic majors than rural males and
females. Rural females with poor family background have the most difficulty to
access the nation‟s best universities. Here in tertiary education, just as in society
as a whole, issues of gender equity are closely related to issues of social class.

Opportunities for ethnic minorities to access tertiary education have

improved with special national education policies and regional governments‟
autonomy in promoting local education development. In order to have ethnic
minority students truly access opportunities for “main streaming” tertiary
education, many regional schools begin to offer “preparatory programs” and,
even, “bilingual education” with governmental financial support, but current

64
research on the impact of such programs on social stratification of ethnic
minorities and gender are still limited, exposing a need for further research.

As explored throughout this report, there is an array of barriers for access to

tertiary education. The non-monetary barriers mostly originate from the
educational system itself. First, all of the key senior secondary schools are in the
cities, resulting in urban children benefitting from this system design at the
expense of rural children. Second, though not many people really understand how
universities enrollment quotas are set, there is a tendency of enrolling local
students in national universities. This raises the question of how to distribute the
best education resources most equitably. Third, in the process of competing for
the best education resources, even national tertiary education enrollment policies
could be used to benefit the local few. Fourth, across the country, there is a
compulsory attendance law, but it does not seem to function as a law in the
reality, when parents intentionally want their girls to drop out of school, and the
law is rarely invoked to protect girls. There is a need to enforce the compulsory
education law in order to have more rural girls finish secondary education.

There are monetary factors to prevent poor students, both male and female, to
access tertiary education. Though the national government has put a lot of effort
in setting up different financial aid programs, it does not seem to be able to
provide access to all of the qualified but under-represented students even in the
second tier and third tier colleges universities.

Three new policies have been in place to further erode those barriers. One is
to invest more money in the less developed regions, to provide more tertiary
education opportunities to ethnic minorities and students from poor families. The
other is to allow poor students to take loans from their hometown before they get
registered at colleges and universities. Many provinces in the country started to
implement this policy, which intends to meet the financial needs of all students,
in 2009. The third policy is to develop technical and vocational education to
complement standard tertiary opportunities in the country. The on-going
“Building 100 model technical colleges” initiative is the governmental effort to
get more students interested in technical tertiary education.

Together with those policies, the Chinese government is strategically

developing tertiary education by locating at least one “211 project” institution in
every province and autonomous region. To increase tertiary education enrollment
and improve the quality of tertiary education in less developed regions, a policy
has been adapted to develop vocational and technical colleges using heavy
65
government investment. For instance,, according to Wang (2007)81, the center
government allocated 9.5 billion RMB, together with 5.9 billion RMB from the
local government, to establish fellowships to support vocation and technical
education. Poor children in technical schools could get 1,500RMB monthly to
cover their living expenses and those students receiving fellowships pay no
tuition.

Monetary problems for accessing to tertiary education seem easy to be solved,

while non-monetary factors are more challenging. Parents‟ traditional views on
girls and girls‟ education in the countryside will likely require a long time and a
continuous effort to achieve change. Aside from some preparatory programs in
ethnic minority regions to help minority students to access tertiary education,
there is no attention even to understanding ethnic minority girls‟ participation in
education. In this case, it might be necessary to have laws to help rural girls
complete their schooling.

81
http://www.gov.cn/zxft/ft34/wz.htm

66
Suggestion for further research

In term of equity and access, some final proposals for follow-up efforts to
continue this examination of equity of access and success in tertiary education in
China. The first is to establish a national statistics database, to monitor the
changes of tertiary education, particularly to capture data on access and equity.
Second, it is imperative that the quality of rural senior secondary schools is
improved, to attract more rural children. Third, more attention should be given to
rural girls in helping them to finish secondary education and take advantage of
opportunities to access tertiary education. And fourth, there should be more
research on ethnic minority participation in tertiary education, to further
understand the social, education and gender stratification of ethnic minorities in
tertiary education, so that educational policies would be more relevant and
specific.

In the Chinese tertiary education system, the best quality universities are all
public or national. Since they are national universities, everyone should have
equal opportunity to access. One important issue that emerged through the
execution and analysis of the research for this report is how to distribute the
country‟s limited best education resources in order to be fair to everyone. This
provides a challenge to “211project” and “985 program” universities: to look for
the best students with creativity and explore as broadly and honestly the role they
should play in driving equity in terms of access and success for the future of
Chinese tertiary education.

67