Place Matters: Undergraduate Admission Policy in Mainland P.

R. China

Maydena/may dongmei Lee/Li 李李李

Doctoral student in educational policy and planning, Dept. of educational

administrationThe University of Texas at Austin

Focus and Purpose• A literature review associated with undergraduate students’ selection and admission in Mainland P.R. China– between the late 1990s and the present

• the admission policy and the policy practice of national and local key institutions

Significance • to shed light on the undergraduate admission policy in China

• expand the knowledge base in this field,

• and serve as a starting point for more future studies.

Data Sources• peer-reviewed journal articles, news articles, and scholarly books

• The policy perspective of China college admission is understudied – extant literature might not be extensive– however, the sources cited are well established and do not demonstrate biases.

Outline • selection approaches and processes

• the quota admission policy;• possible reasons & problems• the preferential admission policy for minorities; its reasons and problems.

• Conclusion

selection approaches & processes

• It used to be solely based on the unified national college entrance exam and has gradually become multi-leveled– Currently, three major selection approaches: the college entrance exam; the college autonomic admission; exam-exempted recommendations.

• Hierarchical process: National and local key universities select examinees before other universities; higher scores. – Then the regular universities and other colleges start their admission.

– What comes the last is the rest of the post-secondary institutions, many of which are vocational.

Outline • selection approaches and processes

• the quota admission policy;• possible reasons & problems• the preferential admission policy for minorities; its reasons and problems.

• Conclusion

the quota admission policy

• the geography- and the household registration-based quota system (Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011).

• which region one person lives and where one’s household registration belongs determine one’s chance for college access.

the quota admission policy

•On the one hand where a student comes from matters due to the fact that there are fixed admission quota for each province, and more quota are assigned to the developed regions and large cities

•the quota distribution varies from province to province, from the east to west, from the city to the country (Harman, 1994; Shen, 2007; Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011).

•students from a municipality (Beijing or shanghai) are most likely to go to a national or local key university;

•students from province capital have a higher probability than those from other cities, county town and countryside.

the quota admission policy

• On the other hand, one’s household registration, closely tied to education benefits, is equally significant.

• A university usually sets a lower cut-off score for local students and assigns a higher proportion of its fixed quota to its seat city or the capital of its home province (Yang, 2010; Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011). – To claim the benefit, one must be a resident or have a household registration certificate rather than physically live and work in the region to which a university allocates more admission quota

the quota admission policy

• Beijing and Shanghai possess a number of national and local key universities; examinees from these two municipalities benefit the most from the quota policy.– In 2009, a student of Beijing residency was 67 times more likely to be admitted to Beijing (Peking) University than a peer from Shandong and Henan Provinces (Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011).  

– Beijing residents were 41 times and 37.5 times more likely to be accepted by Beijing University than their peers from Anhui and Guangdong Provinces, respectively (“Diaocha”, 2012; “Gaokao Gongpoing”, 2012).

– In the 2009 admission of Fudan University, Shanghai residents were 53 times more likely to be admitted than the national applicants, 274 times more likely than Shandong examinees, and 288 times more likely than Inner Mongolia applicants (“Gaokao Gongpoing”, 2012).

the quota admission policy

• the urban-rural divide – urban students have been disproportionally admitted in national and local key universities

– rural students have been assigned significantly fewer quota

– before China’s higher education reform in the 1990s when there was little gap between the urban and rural students in terms of their matriculation to the most selective institutions (Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011)

the quota admission policy

• A glimpse into data (please read our book for more)

• the percentage of the reserved quota for resident applicants in national colleges ranged from less than 10% to over 70%.

• One university in Beijing – the China University of Political Science and Law – did a better job.– Between 2004 and 2009, fewer than 10% of Beijing examinees matriculated in this university, and the percentage of local students is on the decrease due to its 2006 reform for greater equity (Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011).

Outline • selection approaches and processes

• the quota admission policy;• possible reasons & problems• the preferential admission policy for minorities; its reasons and problems.

• Conclusion

the quota admission policy • Possible reasons:

– the historical practice dating back to the 1950s – local investment ( the joint construction between central and local governments since the 1990s)

– Project 985 and Project 211 more local investment to national and local universities

• Problems and Consequences – different cut-off scores are essentially associated with varying quota assigned to each province prior to the college entrance exam

– Unfair; results in geography discrimination and differential opportunities

– the inequality intensifies; unconstitutional and illegal

– some families choose to migrate to regions with more quota and lower cut-off scores

– Students in pressure and some cheated.

Outline • selection approaches and processes

• the quota admission policy;• possible reasons & problems• the preferential admission policy for minorities; its reasons and problems.

• Conclusion

the preferential admission policy for minorities

• the minimum core requirements lowered for minority applicants from border areas, mountain regions, and other areas populated by minorities

• minority examinees living in predominantly Han Chinese regions would have priority enrollment if they possess the same qualifications as Han nationals.

the preferential admission policy for minorities

• Reasons – will achieve higher education equality for minority groups (Lang, 2010; Q. Zhang & Qu, 2011).

• Problems: not an effective way of promoting education equality for minorities – Some Han students and their parents perceive the preferential policy for minorities as unfair and discriminatory toward other examinees

– forging ethnic identity for bonus points– the policy implementation varies across regions

Outline • selection approaches and processes

• the quota admission policy;• possible reasons & problems• the preferential admission policy for minorities; its reasons and problems.

• Conclusion

Conclusion • policy implications

– a particular number of slots for resident students might be reasonable in some way. the rest of the quota should be open to all students on an equal competitive basis.

– the selection approach be reformed simultaneously; make it comparable nationwide

Conclusion • Recommendations: In 2008, MoE explicitly stated the percentage of quota reserved for resident students should be less than 30%. Regardless, the status quo persists.– to explore the inaction at the institutional and local government level

– to examine the universities that have successfully increased the chances of college access for non-resident students and minorities

– to explore the rationale for Beijing and Shanghai’s quota plan and reform efforts to redress the inequality of college access

Thanks so much for your attention.

Any questions?