ABSTRACT
Higher education in China has a history of over a century following the foundation of the Zhongxi School in Tianjin during the Qing dynasty in 1895. Since the priority of higher education is to foster superior specialisms, when it comes to students' education and training it is quality that becomes the key feature of higher education. Two aspects of quality assurance in higher education must be stressed: first, the supervision of quality from government and the Educational Administration Department and, second, quality assurance and its procedures within the particular college and university. The issuing of the 'Temporary Regulation of College and University Evaluation' has led to three basic forms of evaluation – eligibility evaluation, 'optimisation' evaluation and institutional evaluation of colleges and universities. In order to implement the strategy of becoming a more prosperous country through the development of science and education and by embracing the knowledge economy era, China has developed distance-learning delivery of higher education.
