Equity and Access to Tertiary Education: Case Study China

Transcription

1 DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION DO NOT CITE Equity and Access to Tertiary Education: Case Study China Wanhua Ma June,

2 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

3 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 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

4 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 selfstudy 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 million

5 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 21 st 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, 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 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

6 number of enrolment in regular public higher education Sources: from unpublished lecture by Wenli Li, 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 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 education 4 Year Higher Senior Junior Elementary Preschool education (secondary education Secondary education education 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

7 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 The differences of enrollment growth by provinces from Wang, Youhang (2009) unpublished report on the dynamics of higher education expansion and government policy choices 7

8 Beijing Tianjin Hebei Liaoning Shanghai Jiangsu Zhejiang Fujian Shandong Guangdong Guangxi Hainan Shanxi Inner Mongolia Jilin Heilongjia ng Anhui Jiangxi Henan Hubei Hunan Chongqing Sichuan Guizhou Yunnan Tibet Shaanxi Gansu 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 8

9 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 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 In other remote provinces, the gross enrollment was even lower, such as in Guzhou, with a GER of 11.5%in 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 The table shows the varied enrollment rates in 27 provinces in The four major municipalities Beijing, Shanghai, Tienjin and Chongqing are not Association of Chinese higher education, Academic Activity Report,2009:6:6. 9

10 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 billion Yuan, which was 4.91% of its total investment in education 10. In Shanghai, on the other hand, the municipal government invested billion Yuan in higher education ( ,), and, in 2006 alone, the total investment in higher education was over 18,932 billion Yuan, % 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 wellknown 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 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 Smaller scale Source: To be filled Henan, Suchuan, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Anhui, Qinghai, Hainan, Guizhou, Guanxi, Yunnan and Tibet. 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 EDI Category Highly Developed (100>EDI>85 Comparative high developed (85>EDI>70) Moderate developed Jinjunhu Beijing, Shanghai Tianjin East region Zhejiang, Lioaning, Jiangsu, Guandong Shandong, fujian, Hebei, Hunan Middle region Jilin Heilongjiang, Hubei, Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Henan, Anhui West region Chongqing, Shannxi, Suchuan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia Development Stagnated Guanxi, Gansu, Qinghai,Yunnan, 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, , p170 11

12 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 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, openminded gentleman, rich farmers, mid-rich farmers, intellectuals, freelances, religious professions, handcrafts, business man, peasants, workers and farmers 15. 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) Guo, Zhenshu (2008), analytical methodology in stratifying social classes in China 12

13 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. 16 Li, Yi (2009), The structure and evolution f Chinese social stratification 13

14 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

15 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) 18 considered 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, 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, 20 Yang,dongping (2006) Access to Higher Education:Widening Social Class Disparities in < Tsinghua Journal of Education > 2006:1:20. 15

16 Cadre/serviceman, and intellectuals to explain the proportion of new entrants at Peking University according to each group between Access pattern between at Peking University( %) Years Peasant/worker Cadre/serviceman Intellectuals The table reflects the changing patterns of access to tertiary education in the last quarter of the 20 th Century. Students with peasant/worker family background increased in the late 1980s, then decreased progressively from 1985 to 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 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

17 Rural students proportion of new entrants in three universities between Years Tsinghua university Peking University Beijing Normal University New entrants Rural students % New entrants Rural students % New entrants Rural students % It is interesting to notice from the table that in the three universities, all have an increase in enrollments between , 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. 22 used 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% lowest 20% Middle low 20% Middle 20% Middle high 20% Highest A national university A provincial university Hawkins et al (2008). 21 Yang,Dongping (2006) Access to Higher Education:Widening Social Class Disparities in Tshinghua Journal of Education, 2006:1: 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

18 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 Universities Average tuition Living cost scholarship loan Work study Net payment Net cost in average family Regular universities Average 4,886 5,067 6,107 5, , , ,872 3, income% Net cost in gross family income% 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 workstudy 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, Ziyuanpeizhiyurenlizibenshouyizhongguojiaoyuyurenliziyuanwentiyanjiu> Beijing: Economic Science Press.p

19 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 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% , new entrant family background in Wuhan University of Science and Technology 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

20 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

21 RCA Index based on fathers occupation Key Ord. Key Ord. Key Ord. Key Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Univ. Ord. Univ. Government official Organizational staff Manager Specialist Individual businessman Sales Private entrepreneur Workers Rural migrant worker NA NA NA NA Farmer 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

22 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 (person) Proportion (%) Number (person) Proportion (%) laid-off workers farmers or fisherman workers professionals common employees Government officials technicians executives self-employed entrepreneurs others total the missing data 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 Institutions 27 Institution name Provinces Science average Humanities 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, Min, Weifang & Wang, Rong ( 2006)(eds.) China Education and Human Resource Development , Peking University Press, p

23 Foreign Languages University of Overseas in Jilin Jilin 12,500 12,500 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 Trend of Rural population in China ( ) 29 Total population In 10,000 Rural population In 10,000 As % of Total ,307 59, ,188 82, ,002 86, ,533 83, 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 p

24 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 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

25 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

26 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 unemployed. 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 Master Doctor The table shows more master and PhD students with father occupations as farmers and workers 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, p 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

27 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 Student family background Information technology (hot) Mechanical engineering (cold ) Design and arts Executives and professionals Management staff, selfemployed, and others Worker, farmer and laid-offs Total 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, p Yang, Dongping 34 Zhao, Haili (2003): Public policy for higher education. Shanghai: Shanghai Finance University Press: p

28 total Short cycles Four year undergraduate Master 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 20 th 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

29 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 YR % 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) 36 can 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 Students in regular HED. Cohort between Access opportunities male female Male female Male 5.16% 5.99% 7.71% 12.21% 17.77% 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: and Ma, Wanhua (2005) History, current condition, and problems for Chinese women s higher education in Exploring Education Development,:3: 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

30 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: person Song, Tao (2007) A study on gender difference in access to higher education in China, master thesis, p

31 Subject/ Year Chinese and literature English Performing Art, and Music Physics Applied Chemistry E.Informati&Te ch. Computer Science E.infom&Engin eering total % M F M F M F M F M F M F M F M F Pre-school M Education F Physical Education Philosophy History Law Economics Information Management Tourism M F M F M F M F M F M F M F 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 ; in law, female students consistently outnumbered male students with from ,(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

32 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 In 2008, the situation remains the same. The following table shows the gender composition of Peking University new entrants in Gender disciplinary distribution of new entrants in Peking University in Ma, Wanhua (2005) Women s higher education development in China, history, current situation and problems, in Exploring Education Development, 3: Resources: from the university provost office. 32

33 colleges Gender Student % Disciplines Gender Student % number number math M Information M management F F physics M sociology M F F chemistry M Government M administration F F Life M Foreign M science F languages F Earth and M Marxism M space theory science F F psychology M Arts M F F Software, M Yuanpei M Micro college Electronics F F M Information M communica tion F 57 and 4.23 technology F Chinese M Engineering M F F History M City and M environment F F Archeology M Environment M F science F Philosophy M School of M management F F Internationa M Law M l relations F F Economics M F 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

34 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 programs Master degree programs Postgraduate courses Total number of entrants Female students Sources: Education statistics yearbook 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

35 Proportion of females in short cycle and different degree programs short cycle Bachelor Master degree courses % degree program% YR/ level of education PhD degree program % program% Sources: China statistics year book, 2006, 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 Total % Academic Short cycle training Four years Ethnicity Han Family residencies Minorities cities County and town 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

36 Disciplinary distribution Rural villages Economics law literature sciences Agriculture Engineering 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 :unite 10thousand 42 Total population Number of students Proportion in per M F M F M F 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 to 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 The following table details her finding. Gender and enrollment opportunities in different categories of universities 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 , 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

37 items Male female total Derivation of Opportunity Probability Proportion of age Cohort A(%) Gender Proportion in MOE universities Opportunity probability Gender proportion Regular public universities B2 Opportunity probability (B2/A) Gender proportion in technological colleges B3 Opportunity probability(b3/a) Minban four year universities (B4) Opportunity probability (B4/1) Minban technical colleges (B5/A) Opportunity probability(b5/a) Independent colleges(b6) Opportunity probability(b6/a) 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 ,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

38 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 Regular non key intuitions Post secondary technical colleges Minban undergraduate universities Minban technical colleges Independent colleges Total 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

39 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 yr city county village city county village % Gender M F M F M F M F M F M F % 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 and 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 1987and Lin, Xiaomei (2008) Students in the development of women s higher education in China, unpublished master thesis, Xiamen University,p Liu, Yunshan (2009) unpublished report on the survey of student s values and attitudes in the Capital City of Beijing. 39

40 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 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 The following table shows the composition of students differing by gender and family background and gender between 2000 and Pattern of new entrants family background at Peking University between 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

41 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

42 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 urban/rural and M/F% of undergraduates in Jiangsu province 48 year location Female % Male % 2001 urban rural Urban rural urban Du Jing (2008), Issues on Gender equity in higher education in Feminism perspective, Inner Mongolia University, unpublished master thesis, p

43 rural 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 millions in 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:

44 to ethnic minorities; they have a total student body of 146, 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 Education level Han Ethnic minority Male female Male female Never be in School Literacy class l Elementary school l Secondary school l High school High school vocation Short cycle colleges Four undergraduate l 0.72 Graduate education 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 Tan, min &Xie,Zuoyu(2009): Analysis on the condition of minority tertiary education after enrollment increase in Higher Education Exploration, 2: Xu,Qingchu: Outline on a balance development of minority tertiary education in the West in Journal of Northwest Normal University(Social Sciences), (46)3: Xu, Min (2007), A study on the accumulations of human capital in ethnic minority rural areas, unpublished master thesis, Inn Mengolia University p24. 44

45 (see table below). Proportion change of ethnic minority education at difference levels between year % of minority Percentage of students at different education level students at national level Higher education High school Vocational normal schools Middle school Elementary school O O 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 The proportion of Minority students and minority population from YR/program Minority students/10 thousands Proportion of total student population Minority population/10 thousands Proportion of minority in total population 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

46 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 Ph.D Master Undergraduate/short cycles undergraduate Short cycles 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 education 56 Name / standard Ethnic minority regions Universal 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: 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

47 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 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 year Policy Criteria for getting the additional scores scores to add 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

48 National examination For tertiary education 100 Applicant, with both parents as ethnic minorities takes the national examination in Chinese Muslim minority 80 Applicant, with one parent as ethnic minority, takes the national examination in 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 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 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

49 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

50 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 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 Resource: from the recent report from the task group on study of equity problem of higher education in China, 50

51 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

52 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 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 Beijing Hunan Zhejiang Tianjin Qinghai 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 Year provinces Humanities and social science (test scores) Sciences and engineering(test score) Humanities and social science (test scores) Sciences and engineering(te st score) Beijing Henan Anhui Jiangxi Zhejiang Fujian Special Report on Academic Activities of Association of Higher Education in China, 2009: 6:

53 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 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 China 63 provinces Humanities sciences Shandong Beijing Tianjin Shanghai Hebei Guizhou Qinghai 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 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

54 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 The planned enrollment quotas of Peking University in some provinces in provinces Numbers planned to enroll in Humanities Numbers planned to enroll in science and Total enrollment Numbers registered for Peking University (10 %Opportunity to get into Peking University and social sciences engineering thousand people Beijing Henan Jiangxi Anhui Hubei Gansu 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:

55 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 feepaying 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 ns/zhixing1/zhixing1 55

56 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 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 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 : 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:

57 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 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 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

58 with 6,000RMB ( About 750 US dollars), which was the fee rate in 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: 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, 58

59 government subsidies. Now in 211 project and 985 program universities, the tuition is about 5000 RMB. 59

60 Tuition levels at the six top public universities in Universities Regular programs (RMB) Programs in Art and 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 Technology 5,000-6,000 10,000 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 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

61 Main types of college student financial aid in China Type of aid Description Amount and coverage Government need-based Need-based grants Living and meal subsidies Government merit aid Merit-based scholarships Need-based merit scholarships Special major scholarship All students who faced with financial difficulties Subsidies to defray living and meal costs Awarded to top-performing sophomores, juniors and seniors Top performing sophomores, juniors and seniors who have financial difficulties Given to students major in special need of the country 61 RMB1,000-3,000 per year, coverage of 20% of all university students various RMB8,000per year 0.3% of all university students RMB5,000. 3% of all university students various University Aid Tuition waivers Reductions in student tuition various Work study program Typical work study arrangement various Special need subsidies University scholarships University needs-based aid Society aid Grants and scholarships Loans National school-based loans Home-based loans Subsidies for students in dire need Merit scholarships given by university Subsidies for low-income students A hodgepodge of aid from local government, corporations and philanthropic organizations. Provided by commercial banks in coordination with the university, should be repaid within 6 years after graduation Provided by National development bank, students apply through country-level students financial aid offices in their hometowns, should be repaid within 10 years after graduation According to need various various RMB6000 per year Government subsidizes interest while students attends college RMB6000 per year Government subsidizes interest while students attends college 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

62 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

63 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 79 Lin, hong & Tang,Fengtao Ways to help poor students getting out of the dilemma of 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

64 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 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

65 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 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

66 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

67 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