Opening educational resources to the outside world is an important
part of the country's educational development, Minister of
Education Zhou Ji said Tuesday in Beijing.
This includes sending Chinese students and scholars to study
abroad as well as receiving foreign students to study in China,
Zhou said while addressing a press conference held by the State
Council Information Office.
China has sent more than 580,000 students or scholars to 103
countries or regions over the past 20 years.
Over the past two years, the number of overseas students in
China has continued to rise, after being accelerated by its
accession in December 2001 to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Chinese mainland received
a total of 86,000 students from 170 countries and regions in 2002
alone.
Last year's numbers will come out in February of this year,
according to the ministry's Department for International
Cooperation and Exchanges.
Overseas educational institutions are also being encouraged to
enter China to jointly run schools with their Chinese counterparts,
so as to provide more high-level study opportunities for Chinese
citizens.
He said the country will face long-term difficulty -- the
shortage of higher-level teaching teams can hardly meet the demand
of citizen’s need to update their learning.
Thus, the Chinese government is welcoming excellent foreign
educational institutions to jointly run schools with domestic
partners, said Zhou.
Sino-foreign joint schools began to spring up in the 1990s,
according to the Ministry of Education.
Incomplete statistics from the ministry indicate that the
country has a total of 764 officially-approved Sino-foreign joint
schools, scattered throughout 28 provinces, municipalities or
autonomous regions.
China implemented the Regulations of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation
on Operating Schools last year to help promote the development of
such institutions.
To further guide teaching programs and better protect the rights
and interests of school sponsors, especially foreign partners, Zhou
said his ministry is drafting detailed rules to make the
regulations more flexible to implement.
The rules may give preferential taxation policies to joint
schools sponsors, according to information China Daily
obtained from the ministry's Department for International
Cooperation and Exchanges. The department didn't give more details
as the rules are still under revision.
Sino-Foreign joint schools can invite both Chinese and foreign
teachers to instruct courses. Course arrangement and other teaching
affairs are decided by school's councils, boards of directors or
joint management committees which can be made up of domestic and
overseas teachers, according to departmental official Cen
Jianjun.
Zhou said the scale and quality of higher education have also
shown great progress over the past five years. China has signed
agreements with Britain, France and Germany to mutually recognize
higher learning academic degrees.
(China Daily January 7, 2004)
