Chinese higher education

The National College Entrance Examination, or Gaokao (高考), is not only a fundamental institution in contemporary China but also a major stressor and potential turning point in any Chinese student's career. The saying " one exam determines one's whole life " (yi kao ding zhongshen 一考定终身) gets to the heart of the matter. The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding of why this institution has been able to persist despite of its many flaws, most importantly regional inequalities and intransparencies in the admission process. I propose the theory that the system has been able to persist, among other reasons, because students have found ways to cope with it individually. In order to comprehensively examine Chinese students' coping strategies in dealing with the Gaokao, nineteen interviews with students from East China Normal University (ECNU) conducted in 2012 were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. Following the theoretical framework by Lazarus and Folkman (1984; Folkman 2008), this paper distinguishes between problem-focused, emotion-focused and meaning-focused coping and further differentiates between prospective and reactive strategies. The results reveal that students are aware of the problems within the higher education entry system but simply consider them a given. Rather than protesting in a collective manner, students adapt to their individual circumstances and try to make the best of them: They show strategic reasoning and problem-solving skills to take matters into their own hands or find ways to cope with what cannot be changed in a positive way. Finally, to add to the discussion on the persistence of the Gaokao, students' coping strategies are interpreted as the individuals' ways to exert agency within institutional constraints.

Abstract-The purpose of this research is to investigate the correlation within three key variables in relation to students' learning outcomes: face-to-face class attendance, virtual learning engagement, and academic performance. A sample course with 3783 students' data were analysed by applying a quantitative research methodology. The research data included one semester's attendance records, students' virtual learning engagement on the university centralized virtual learning environment and the average academic performance. Both Spearman's correlation coefficient and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for the hypothesis's tests according to the variables' data characteristics. This research has verified the positive correlations between face-to-face class attendance and academic performance, virtual learning engagement and academic performance in a blended learning environment at a Chinese transnational university, which are consistent with existing research. The finding about the positive correlation between the face-to-face class attendance and virtual learning engagement suggests that students can benefit from both traditional and contemporary teaching formats by integrating the virtual learning elements into the face-to-face class delivery.

As a result of China's growing participation and importance in the process of internationalization and globalization a continuously rising number of Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. By the end of the last decade the number of Chinese students abroad made up the largest group of international students in the USA (surpassing those from India) and during the next decade this group will become the world's largest floating student population. Because of its size and the growing recognition of China and Chinese culture around the world, research on a wide range of problem areas among Chinese students abroad has been initiated, especially in Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and Hong Kong. This article looks at the variety of research issues and attempts to provide a first overview in the light of international and comparative research on international students, their mobility and their recognition by host countries as well as their influence as cultural 'irritators'.

This chapter summarizes key trends in Chinese higher education of significance for the comparative, international, and development education discourse. These trends often shape how higher education institutions (HEIs) adapt to dynamic local and global forces. Five trending themes are introduced—structural reforms, finance, re-emphasis on continuing education programs, mobility, and quality assurance and assessment. We also introduce the dominant higher educational paradigm (DHEP) and its role in influencing local, national, and global higher education systems. By understanding these trends and influences, we hope to shed some light on possible future directions of higher education in China and the significance, thereof, for comparative education.

With the advancement of the Chinese economy and increasing win-win cooperation between China and Nigeria, Chinese language teaching and learning in Nigeria has made rapid growth in recent years. There has been the establishment of many Confucius institutes, Chinese language centers, and Chinese cultural exchange centers across Nigeria. Some States and educational institutions have started including Chinese studies in their curriculum. Therefore this paper through the use of questionnaires, interviews, observations, and participation methods, surveyed the current situation of Chinese language teaching and learning in the Chinese Studies Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (NAU). The study investigates the Department's current situation of teaching and learning, courses/curriculum, teaching and learning materials, and other challenges. Finally, the paper suggested ways of how to improve Chinese teaching and learning in the Department.

華文課本是華文敎育的根本。課本所帶來的權威和穩定，不僅是學科知識，還是集體認同，尤其是華敎發展史上第一套中學華文課本，考察編寫者的構思是最重要的目的。馬來亞獨立時代的華文課，除了《華文》選讀，討論也應該延伸到《中國文學史》《中國文學故事》二書，方能精確把握華文課即是文學課的特徵。本文的任務不是為華文敎學或撰寫敎科書提出複雜的結論，相反地至少提出一個疑問：五八年華文課究竟有甚麽讓人懷念？文學史與文學故事相互配合的模式有何敎學啓發？可是本文並不是單純的發思古之幽情，而是暢其旨趣之餘，提出述學與時代，觀念與敎授，如何進行意義構建，使得華文三書涵容晚清五四以來的學術視野，呈現深邃而廣博的知識。同時，課本所隱含思維批判的力度，也需要讀者沉潛反覆，才能對南來文人此中關涉複雜的背景，有一通盤的理解。這樣一套最通行敎科書的誕生，意味著獨立之初華文敎育處於轉型時期，故駁雜而元氣淋漓，值得闡發精蘊，細推其中關節。


關鍵詞：中國文學；華文課本；馬來亞獨立；南來文人


一、前言
二、作者與體例
三、時代精神：從朱子的大學到蕭遙天的中學
四、觀念與疑古
五、起源論與文學史陰影
六、文學說故事

Payap University is a Thai university responding to globalization by expanding programs to International students in English since 2004.  More recently Payap University began admitting Chinese-speaking students to a new major in Thai language called “Thai for Communication,” and other courses. Requirements for Thai students from the Thai part of the university study English are also being strengthened. In short there is a complicated linguistic environment at Payap University.
     
      In order to evaluate the linguistic resources, 179 students at Payap university were asked to do a Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which is an international standard for evaluating language abilities. This survey tool was translated from English into both Chinese and Thai. English-speaking, Chinese, and Thai students evaluated themselves across five oral and written categories.  This paper is a preliminary report on what we are learning about the varied language skills that Payap students bring to the Thai, International, and Chinese language programs. 

    The preliminary results described here indicate varied competencies in a variety of “spoken production” skills in various languages.  This data will be used to evaluate Payap University’s own programs, as well as make comparisons with other Thai universities, and globally.

The book concerns higher education as an academic field—the evolving nature of the field in the light of the overall development of higher education in China. As a young academic field, higher education intends to study everything regarding higher education. The book begins with an overview of the higher education reform over the last three decades in China. It discusses the policy initiatives and reforms in higher education. This book also provides a detailed narrative about the changing landscape of higher education in China.

This policy review examines major government policies and reforms regarding higher education development in three distinct periods, and analyzes their impact on financing higher education in China. The analysis reveals that with the expansion of enrollments, declining funding from central government, increasing demand for greater quality and efficiency, and ascendance of market orientations and solutions, a new mechanism of administration and financing emerged to adapt Chinese colleges and universities to change. The study describes four trends in higher education financing in China: (1) decentralization--shifting financing higher education from state government to provincial governments; (2) diversification of financing--supporting higher education with income from university enterprises, contract training for enterprises, contract research and consultancy, and donations and endowments; (3) cost sharing--sharing cost of higher education with students, parents, and other social sectors; and (4) optimization-increasing efficiency through consolidations and mergers. These reform attempts are paralleled with worldwide trends in the financing of higher education described by Johnstone. Results show that the financing mechanism of higher education has evolved to meet demands imposed by the changing political and social environment.

Like many other education systems in the world, Chinese education has undergone various reforms in order to adapt to the challenges that are perceived to emanate from the knowl- edge economy. Central to this transformation is the concept of ‘innovation’, which is to guide the country on its path from a production economy to a knowledge economy. Chinese policymakers have been targeting the higher education sector both as a motor for innovation and as a realm to be innovated, and have invested heavily in the sector’s internationalization, above all in the form of international collaboration and student mobility, affecting higher education and academia worldwide. However, a number of structural and political constraints delimit the directions that innovation can take, both within Chinese education in general and within Chinese higher education. The article takes stock of these constraints and assesses the potential for innovation in Chinese higher education in terms of the underlying school system, exam and recruitment policies, the (re-)organization of universities, as well as the universities’ and science system’s performance according to indicators of innovation. The article then identifies four ‘Chinese innovation dilemmas’, that is, educational policies and developments that are to spur innovation but run counter to existing structures and practices of educational, social, and political governance: ideological control versus creativity; state planning versus grassroots innovation; old-boy networks versus anti-corruption; and exam- based student recruitment versus flexible recruitment.

People’s Republic of China is already the second global economic superpower, but Chinese enterprises rarely become world leaders in new technologies sectors. The aims of the article were to verify if Chinese high technology companies can successfully compete with global leaders in such sectors as information technology and to find out what strategic advantages can make it possible. The author states that availability of human capital and governmental support are strategic advantages of Chinese high technology corporations that can lead them to the world leadership. Thanks to the development of PRC education system local companies have broad access to qualified specialists who do not demand wages as high as in other countries. The analysis of case studies of Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings proves that this kind of success is possible.

This empirical article examines the policies, perspectives, and practices of building and developing crossborder and transnational higher education (TNHE) programs, with special attention given to the international joint and dual degree programs in North America and Asia. Specifically, this paper reviews the historical, political, and social dimensions of two international collaborative academic degree programs between the United States and Mainland China using Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Sun Yat-set University (SYSU) as the case study. Findings suggest that IUPUI’s most cited challenge with SYSU concerns alignment with general education requirements. On the other hand, SYSU’s biggest challenge with IUPUI concerns language and cultural differences. This article offers five recommendations for teacher-scholars, policymakers, and advanced practitioners interested in developing, designing, and implementing dual degree programs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for future research on and applications and practices for TNHE programs are discussed.

Approaches to writing instruction developed in North America have gradually made their presence felt in other parts of the world during recent years. A curricular evaluation of the local needs, instruction, assessments, teacher preparation, and other pedagogical factors is crucial for the successful transmission and integration of those approaches into the new contexts.

The modernization of the system of national music education in China arouses interest in the traditions of other peoples of the world, thereby raising it to a qualitatively new level-the level of integration education and requires the creation of optimal conditions for effective development. Conversely, this article demonstrates the development of the Chinese music education in the context of the integration of educational systems is ensured by the unity of psychologicalpedagogical, musical-theoretical, instrumental and methodological training. The article concludes with insights that music education, we have identified the following principles of teaching musical art: ensuring intercultural creative interaction; the presence of metasubject culturological hermeneutics; the presence of artistic and aesthetic content of educational material; artistic and educational reflection.

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Encouragement by the Chinese government for education to move from an emphasis on passive learning, rote memorisation and mechanical training towards the development and delivery of education using active, student-centred education approaches has resulted in tensions and challenges, one of which is the reaction of students previously used to traditional passive transmission learning. To study the challenges that Chinese students face when undertaking a constructivist experience-based entrepreneurship course focused on process rather than content, eight groups of business students at a Chinese university were tasked with developing

The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty members’ usage of Open Educational Resources (OER) as well as the barriers to OER development and usage. 360 faculty members from Zhejiang University (ZJU) in China were randomly selected to complete a survey. The study found that: (1) most of surveyed faculty members rarely utilized OER, while they had some awareness of sharing educational resources; (2) the majority noticed online educational materials published for learning or reference, while they ignored open source software or licensing tools for sharing and reusing resources; (3) lack of time and skills were significant obstacles for faculty members to develop OER, while lack of incentives was a potential obstacle; (4) content, experience, and school factors affected faculty members’ OER usage; (5) online teaching experiences impacted incentive to develop OER as well as how to develop OER. It also played a key role in faculty members’ perceptions about the experience and habit factors as possible barriers to OER usage. Results of the study implicate that more serious efforts are needed to improve the awareness and development of OER in China.

Ningxia University (Ningda)  is in Yinchuan, Ningxia, a Hui Muslim autonomous region in the northwest of China. Because of the 40% minority population, Ningda is a very different experience from my previous teaching and living in Chongqing (Southwest University) and Guangzhou (Zhongshan University, also known as Sun Yat-sen University). The national government is investing a great effort to more fully integrate Hui people into dominant Han culture. This investment is evident in the local infrastructure: wide well-designed roads, an excellent bus system, elegant new buildings, and many state-of-the art museums and parks in and around Yinchuan. This investment is also evident in the support for Hui education at every level, from new well-funded schools in the most remote parts of Ningxia Province to the support for Hui minority students at Ningda. I previously taught in a minority pre-graduate program and was familiar with many of the 50-some minorities in China. I remain good friends with some of those former students and have visited their home areas. But living in a minority region is a very different experience from merely having minority students in the classroom or playing tourist somewhere for a few days. It is a perspective on China that is not well understood or appreciated in the West. Though the outward signs of Hui Muslim culture are subtle – e.g. few female students wear the hijab – the sociocultural dimensions are deep and profound when it comes to marriage, employment prospects, foodways, rural poverty, and education. There are moments when I say, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in China anymore. . ." But Ningxia is China and understanding this region requires transcending the well-established tropes of life in coastal cities such as Shanghai or Guangzhou.

La imagen de España en China repercute en la actitud y la motivación para el aprendizaje de una lengua meta como el español. Puede estar muy presente, de forma consciente o no, en el imaginario colectivo, tanto social como institucional, del profesorado y del alumnado, un asunto que todavía no ha recibido toda la atención que debiera. Por lo tanto, cabe preguntarse cómo han sido las relaciones entre ambos países a lo largo del tiempo y cómo repercuten todavía en la actualidad.

La carrera universitaria de Estudios Hispánicos en la República Popular China puede remar en este sentido, con la inclusión de contenidos de la historia sinoespañola, la aportación de herramientas para un análisis autónomo y crítico, de contenidos, y, sobre todo, de perspectiva. Un
trasfondo histórico transmitiría a los estudiantes que hay retos históricos que se arrastran de antiguo, y, en su resolución, un punto de partida podría ser la reducción del desconocimiento mutuo.

Since Chinese economic reform in the 1980s that prompted increased urbanization, gap between rural and urban places continually widen, and obvious cultural differences are observed. Rural students are migrating to heterogeneous urban environments and meet problems of marginality. Perceiving the differences in urban life, these students begin to acquire urbanite and urban cultural personalities. Meanwhile, because of their original lower socioeconomic status, they are caught between rural culture and urban culture, and experience marginality in different ways. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the marginal experience of rural migrant students. Applying surveys, interviews, and observation, this study involved 55 students from 11 urban schools in China. This paper details their marginal experiences in study adaption, life experience, social interaction, relationships, and value.

The reform era Chinese society is characterised by two things: new opportunities and unequal access to them. The rising living standard is coupled with the growing gap between the rich and the poor. One of the main routes to socioeconomic mobility is education. Regional disparity in educational investment and the more relaxed implementation of family planning policies in rural areas puts one group of people in a particularly weak position in the education market. In their quest for educational achievement rural girls need to overcome economic disadvantage vis􏰁à􏰁vis their urban counterparts, and to challenge gender and kinship models that favour investment in sons’ education when competing for family resources with their brothers. The story of a young rural woman who makes her way to the urban educated middle class sheds light on the complex ways in which new social opportunities and cultural ideas of family and gender interact. Gender and class differences are intensified and played down to create distance, or to cut across it, at times in surprising ways.

Chinese and Russian universities are increasingly drawn into center-periphery repositioning, as they compete for symbolic, financial, and intellectual resources locally and globally. However, their strategies on national and institutional linkages differ with regards to the individual scientist’s powers in knowledge production. As global hierarchies of knowledge productivity benchmark prestigious publications, and national industries seek access to innovative products in global research and development labs, globally connected talents become essential for elevating local research performance. This article examines the undercurrents of center-periphery repositioning in Russia and China by comparing their research and development funding and performance data, as well as contrasting their global standing with Brazil, India, South Africa, and G7 members. A method of comparative multilayered patterning of mixed data sets is used to reflect on center-periphery dilemmas facing the Chinese and Russian scientists.

With a focus on Chinese higher education students, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' perceived employability and their levels of academic and stress. The study engaged 1,155 students from three universities in China. Students responded to an online survey, reporting their confidence in relation to their perceived employability, academic engagement and stress in life. We employed structural equation modelling to explore students' confidence in each employability attribute and to assess perceived employability relation to academic engagement and perceived stress. The results suggest that self-perceptions of employability are positively associated with students' academic engagement and negatively associated with perceived stress. Perceived employability mediated the majority paths. This is one of few studies to examine perceived employability in line with academic engagement or stress and the first study to do so in China.

As Director of the Centre of American Studies of the University of Hong Kong, 1995-2016. In this capacity I raised approximately US$1,240,000 in research grants from the Starr and Ford Foundations and the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia to provide research fellowships and scholarships to bring to HK mainland Chinese scholars and students in various areas of American studies. Approximately 120 mainland scholars and students spent extended periods of time, from two months to one year, at HKU under these programmes, 1995-2010. These activities were a significant factor in helping to develop American Studies in mainland China. The University of Hong Kong lacked the interest to continue these programmes, so they have been terminated, as, I believe, has the Centre of American Studies.

As a result of China's growing participation and importance in the process of internationalization and globalization a continuously rising number of Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. By the end of the last decade the number of Chinese students abroad made up the largest group of international students in the USA (surpassing those from India) and during the next decade this group will become the world's largest floating student population. Because of its size and the growing recognition of China and Chinese culture around the world, research on a wide range of problem areas among Chinese students abroad has been initiated, especially in Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and Hong Kong. This article looks at the variety of research issues and attempts to provide a first overview in the light of international and comparative research on international students, their mobility and their recognition by host countries as well as their influence as cultural 'irritators'.

Entrepreneurship education in higher education has been actively encouraged by the Chinese government. However, entrepreneurship education using active learning methods can be at odds with traditional Chinese educational practices. Value creation pedagogy has been posited as an innovative teaching method to bridge the gap between didactic and progressive pedagogy to support entrepreneurship education across a range of students. However, there is a paucity of research into the use of value creation pedagogy and the application of novel pedagogy in the Chinese context. This research explores the views of students at a Chinese university on the value and limitations of value creation pedagogy in supporting learning and developing entrepreneurial behaviours.

As Chinese doctoral education has grown dramatically in the past four decades and developed into one of the largest doctoral education systems in the world, it has become one significant and integral part of the global doctoral education landscape. However, in the literature there is a lack of both a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese doctoral education system and of generic frameworks for understanding doctoral education in a global context, with an emphasis on the underlying value systems. This may not only hamper the research on doctoral education in China but also affect international comparison and collaboration with Chinese doctoral education. Using the theory of institutional logics, this study tries to bridge the gap by identifying the complex value systems underlying the context of the Chinese doctoral education system, through a qualitative study mainly based on interview data and complemented by documentary data. The interview involves 135 participants, including 45 university academic leaders, 33 doctoral supervisors and 56 doctoral students from 17 research universities, as well as one government policy-maker. We found that the context of Chinese doctoral education system consists of multiple logics of state, profession, family, market and corporation. The special constellation of institutional logics has shaped the current Chinese doctoral education system as a state-led model but meanwhile incorporating family characteristics, market orientation and regulated academic autonomy. The study also showed that Chinese doctoral education has been developing in line with international academic norms and global marketization trends, and has also been shaped by China’s socio-cultural tradition and the strong state regulation. In addition to the institutional logics analysis of the Chinese doctoral education system, this study paves the way for developing a novel framework for analysing doctoral education systems in other contexts and for comparative purposes.

In this article the thesis is submitted that there is something fundamentally wrong with Western Sinology, or 'Chinakunde', or 'Zhongguoxue' (as distinct from 'Hanxue', which is a kind of old-fashioned philology aggrandised with quasi- if not pseudo-philosophy). 'China experts' either pretend to be knowledgeable about everything related to China, in which case they cannot be taken seriously, or - eventually - admit not to be scientific all-rounders with respect to the country, in which case they cannot be called China experts. The author, who graduated in Sinology from Leyden University and in economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, not only believes that the study of China has to be taken to a higher level (a belief, he expects, no tenured professor of Chinese Studies/History will share); he also explains how this long overdue task could be accomplished. The study of China should be neither mile-wide-but-inch-deep nor mile-deep-but-inch-wide; it should (and could!) be mile-wide-and-mile-deep. The heyday of Sinology is yet to come.

This study aims at introducing and discussing the concept of 'academic culture,' the Chinese concept of 'talent cultivation', and the influence of 'academic culture' in the process of 'talent cultivation'in the Chinese context. It uses the analysis of some observation notes and relevant literature that examines the issue of 'academic culture'. The Chinese 'talent cultivation'is fascinating and seems useful due to the significant development of the higher education system with the increasing internationalization and the innovation of scholars. However, some challenges such as academic scandals and academic corruption, the falsification and plagiarism of academic achievements, the phenomenon of money-worshipping, the vulgar pragmatism, the utilitarianism, the academic creation of falsehood, the culture of guanxi, the lack of talent competition, and the lack of competition with consciousness remain actual. It appears that the cultivation of creative talent and innovative research involves the enhancement of the whole academic organization and environment.

В статье изучен китайский опыт реформирования высшего образования, который во многих аспектах является созвучным с белорусской действительностью. Делается вывод о том, что массовизация является объективной необходимостью нового экономического уклада, в то время как коммерциализация является финансовым инструментом этого перехода, а интернационализация -инструментом обеспечения качества предоставляемых услуг.

This article identifies the international and domestic drivers of current changes in China's higher education. It then touches on the national agenda and policy concerning reforms in China's higher education since the 1990s. By arguing factors that are affecting and will affect changes, it is pointed out that two focuses can be seen in recent reforms in China's higher education: qualitative enhancement and quantitative expansion. Based on examining the qualitative improvement and massification of higher education in China, major trends and issues are discussed.

Cultural and developmental perspectives (Flowerdew & Li, 2007) of plagiarism were explored through interviews with Chinese graduates of UK master's degrees after they have returned to work in transnational higher education in China. This allowed reflection on experiences of plagiarism in the context of the participants' educational history, life in the UK and their return to China. These accounts provided narratives of their development of academic integrity and a cultural comparison of the British and Chinese understandings of plagiarism. Interpretive repertoires (Gilbert & Mulkay, 1984) identified the significant commonalities and inconsistencies within and between the participants' accounts. The findings suggest that the participants use UK institutional vocabulary and have developed a more strict approach to plagiarism and academic integrity during their master's course and in their subsequent educational career. Analysis indicates that rather than being equivalents, plagiarism and the corresponding Chinese terms are dependent on the particular assessment backgrounds in the UK and China. Having moved between and adapting to these educational contexts, the potential for these returning Chinese graduates to act as a cultural bridge for academic integrity within internationalised higher education is discussed.

“World-class” research universities have long been a priority in the educational, corporate, and political spheres in China. With the establishment of the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), China seeks to develop globally competitive research universities that are based on position in the global rankings. In this article, the author examines the role of college environment (e.g., academic, campus, interpersonal) on college student’s learning and development relative to China’s quest for “world-class” universities. Utilizing Jamil Salmi’s (2009) theoretical framework of ‘world-class universities,’ this article introduces Chan’s conceptual framework of ‘Environment-Learning-Resources (ELR)’ to suggest how the college environments influence the imposition of structure, processes, and student learning at emerging global research universities in China.