Looking Deeper Into China’s Unequal Access to Higher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Growing inequity threatens to derail China’s rise; this is especially true with respect to educational access and equity. Enrollment rates have dropped for disadvantaged students in China’s top universities. To address the problem, the government initiated a quota system and recently increased it by 30,000 places to improve access to top universities. Papers in this session by Chinese and overseas scholars contain empirical research that, taken as a whole, show the problem cannot be solved through increased quotas alone. Rather these studies point to pre-university inequalities found throughout the education system. The papers cover a diverse set of communities, including ethnic and religious minorities, rural migrant families, and remote rural households, suggesting innovative practices to improve access to higher education.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 5: Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Chair

• Gerard Postiglione, The University of Hong Kong

Papers

• Another Dual Structure in China’s Education System? Looking Into the Access and Equity Issues in Higher Education for Tibetans - Miaoyan Yang, The University of Hong Kong

• Access and Equity for Rural Migrants in Shanghai - Lisa Yiu, Stanford University

• The Partnership Between School and Home: A Cultural Explanation - Ailei Xie, The University of Hong Kong

• Policy for Whom? Educational Policies in Western China’s Impoverished Muslim Communities - Yanbi Hong, Southeast University

• Cultural Capital and the College Admission System in China - Xiaoliang Li, The University of Hong Kong

Discussant

• Jennifer H. Adams, Drexel University