ABSTRACT
The choice of the two keywords ‘quality’ and ‘equality’ as essential elements for a descriptive-analytical study of Chinese higher education has by no means been made accidentally. In contrast to regulations before the Cultural Revolution, ‘access’ to higher education was transformed in accordance with central documents issued between 1966 and 1969. In view of the “anticipation of economic development and the conscious planning for industrialisation”, the reorganisation of higher education institutions and readjustment of university departments received top priority on the agenda of education policy. One of the first and important measures in reorganising the education system after the fall of the ‘Gang of Four’ was the radical transformation of access to higher education, an area of education policy which has been the sensitive in twists and turns of Chinese domestic politics. Parallel to quantitative changes in China’s higher education system, a number of measures have been taken to improve the quality of teaching and research at universities and colleges.
