China is an important player in global university ranking exercise. Nevertheless, existing studies have not adequately explored how the legitimacy of adopting university ranking outcomes has been chronologically established on Chinese soil. This paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap drawing on interviews with 37 stakeholders between 2003-2021…

Teaching quality assurance has become a common concern and a common pursuit for institutions of higher learning around the world. This paper takes teaching quality as a governance issue in higher education, as different governance systems entail different approaches to quality assurance. Through a detailed examination of the Chinese system in…

This book explores the reforms sweeping China's educational sector. Traditionally dominated by rote learning, China's educational system has increasingly been criticized by the rising middle class for failing to foster creativity, for arbitrary placement of students, and for fostering regional inequities. Reforms to make Chinese education…

The relationship between the state and the university is predominantly shaped at a national level which tends to reflect the specific traditions and circumstances of individual countries. In China the Communist Party has played a crucial role in university governance making it different from any other country. However the role of the Chinese…

Intergovernmental Relations are conventionally defined as important interactions between governmental units of all types and levels. In the process of universalization of rural preschool education, intergovernmental relations act as an increasingly significant role in facilitating the operating mechanism of vertical institutions at national,…

This study concentrates on the three phases of China's de facto higher education quasi-decentralization since 1949 and center-local relations during each of the phases. The three phases are: (1) the phase of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when provincial-level control was enhanced; (2) the phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when…

The U.S. university-based extension system model has been successful nationally, but not adopted globally. Various historical factors rendered the U.S. system a less attractive option for emerging post-WWII nations. However, current changes in education and extension landscapes are creating new opportunities for the globalization of U.S.…

The current Language Policy and Planning (LPP) literature does not differentiate between LPP as practical planning and LPP as a research area. This lack of a conceptual distinction has led to difficulties in explaining the contradiction of the lethargic status of "LPP-research" and the vigorous reality of "LPP-practice." This…

This article explores the trajectory of educational changes in China over the past three decades in the context of globalization and social and economic transformation. It addresses three research questions: what educational changes occurred in China, why some educational policies worked well but others failed, how the political dynamics of…

Due to the politicisation of universities-within-the-state, the state's governance of higher education in China differentiates itself from other countries. This study examines how the Chinese central government adjusts its governance over universities between 1978 and 2018. Based on an extensive analysis of policy documents and scholarly research,…

China has adopted an unbalanced policy for economic development to improve its domestic economy and international competitiveness for more than three decades. During this process, rural education has undergone a series of reforms. With reference to compulsory education, this article argues that rural education in China is a pragmatic instrument…

The standing of vocational education is salient for how it is perceived by those who sponsor, participate in and work within it and how its provisions are supported and administered. Yet, this standing continues to be intractably low, compared with other education sectors, more so in some countries than others. The consequences for this low…

Teaching Chinese students in an American university can be both challenging and rewarding. Cultural and language differences can lead to some superficial confusion and interpretational problems. However, the vast differences in the ways Chinese students view the role of the public sector, as compared to the US, can mean that the instructors and…

The primary aim of the paper is to examine the scope of university autonomy and extent of government control on higher education (HE) through mapping out the complexity of centralised decentralisation of HE. It consists of three major parts. University autonomy is critically analysed in the first section by examining regulative rules and opinions…

The paper analyzes the nature of the basic education, and points out that the scarcity, disparity and exclusiveness to a certain degree form the inner reasons of school choice in China. In review of the policy evolution of governing the school choice problems, and analyzing the policy framework of the current stage, the paper holds that expanding…