Place Matters: Undergraduate Admission Policy in Mainland P. R. China

• In Event: International Perspectives on Higher Education Admission Policy

Abstract

This paper focuses on the admission policy and practice of national and key local institutions associated with undergraduate students’ selection and admission in Mainland P.R. China The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the undergraduate admission policy in China, expand the knowledge base in this field, and become a starting point for future studies. I draw literature from a host of sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, news articles, and scholarly books on China’s higher education and undergraduate admission policies. The China college admission policy is understudied and extant literature might not be as extensive as the frequently researched policies. However, the sources cited are well established and do not demonstrate biases.

In China, the Central and provincial governments jointly run the universities and colleges, almost all of which are public institutions (X. Wang, 2003). Some are directly affiliated with Ministry of Education (MoE); some are under other central Ministries and the national bureaus; others are under the provincial-level and city-level governments (Min, 1993; X. Wang, 2001; X. Wang, 2003). As they all abide by the same admission guidelines stipulated by the Central government, recruitment has much in common (Zhang & Qu, 2011). However, this paper does not include all public universities; rather, it focuses on national public universities directly affiliated with MoE and key local institutions (provincial, municipal or autonomous region) with national recruiting plans.

Author

• Dongmei Li, The University of Texas at Austin