ABSTRACT
Chinese higher education has gradually changed its elitist nature since its birth a century ago and embarked on the internationally recognised path of massication of higher education as a result of the dramatic expansion of enrolment since the end of the 1990s. Currently, China has the largest higher education system in the world. In 2009, there were 2305 accredited universities and colleges with a total student enrolment of 21.4 million (Ministry of Education [MOE] 2009). Among these 2305 institutions, there are 1090 universities providing four-year undergraduate programmes with bachelor’s degrees (benke), and the other 1215 colleges providing two-or three-year professional programmes (zhuanke) leading to diplomas. Most of these universities and colleges are public (1649), while only 656 of them are private. e Chinese central and local governments play the key role in directing the development of public higher education, and the autonomy enjoyed by these universities and colleges is relatively low. Students must pass the national higher education entrance examination (gaokao) before they are able to be enrolled into these universities and colleges, both public and private.
