VC’ S CORNER
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Chinese imperial commissioner Hwang How Cheng, visiting School of Mines in Ballarat in 1906.
All the VET in China
The waves of reform are surging through the higher education system of the world’ s new largest economy; a bigger, more skilled workforce is the goal.
By David Battersby
With the recorded history of migration from China to Australia now nearing its 200th anniversary, there is much to marvel at in terms of the growth of that country and the relationship between our two nations.
This link continues to prosper, not only in terms of trade but equally in education. This year, close to 100,000 students from China will attend Australian universities and more than 150,000 Chinese students will be engaged in educational programs in Australia – from secondary school through to PhDs.
China itself has also been undergoing an
educational revolution. The outcomes are staggering. More than 7 million students will graduate from universities there this year. It is also likely that in-bound international higher education students to China in 2015 will exceed the number of the country’ s students going abroad for their university education, such is the growing reputation of its universities.
In 2015, as we contemplate our own deregulation and reform of higher education, the next wave of change is already underway in tertiary education in China. It dwarfs what is occurring in Australia.
In June 2014, the State Council, China’ s cabinet, decided to implement a major tertiary education initiative to improve the quality of the country’ s vast labour force and increase graduate employment.
There are concerns in China about graduate unemployment rates, which have reportedly been up to 30 per cent. There has also been a decline in the number of candidates taking the national graduate school entrance examination, leading to further concerns about whether university academic and research programs lead directly to employment.
There is, however, a more fundamental reform imperative for China. As one report put it bluntly, there is a need to improve the image of perceived cheap, made-in-China products.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang was more eloquent, suggesting that,“ The rise of the Chinese economy is accompanied with quality improvements of Chinese products and services, and such improvements rely on a large number of skilled workers”.
“ Imagine the scale and level of Chinese products and services if most of the
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