On 11 November 2020, the Beijing Credit Bank was officially unveiled, and Beijing Municipal Education Commission authorised 18 sub-centres of the credit bank and 19 members of the credit bank alliance.
The Beijing Credit Bank was unveiled recently, and the concept of a credit bank was once again drawn into the public eye. The functions of the credit bank including opening accounts for learners, as well as accrediting, storing, and transferring learning achievements from different channels in the form of credit by drawing on experience from the functions and characteristics of a regular bank. As Yan Xiaoping, executive deputy director of the OUC Credit Bank (Learning Outcomes Accreditation Centre), said, the credit bank is similar to “depositing small sums of money every month and withdrawing both the principal amount and interest at maturity” in a commercial bank. Learners can deposit the credits obtained from fragmentary learning at ordinary times like money in institutions authorised by the relevant state departments, and exchange them for corresponding credits, or degree and non-degree certificates when meeting specific standards.
What impact will the construction of the “credit bank” have on education? Will a national credit bank be set up? With regard to this issue, a journalist from China Youth Daily’s China Youth Online (www.cyol.com) conducted a special interview.
A learners' “lifelong archives”
A variety of learning results, including those that could not be accredited in the past, can be stored in the credit bank. They amount to an electronic lifelong learning archive for each learner.
Let’s take the Beijing Credit Bank as an example. All learning achievements obtained from degree education (regular institutions of higher learning, vocational education, adult education, and self-study examinations), non-degree education (vocational training, community education, education for older adults, and qualification certificates), or personal experience (competition results, internship experience, and work experience) can be transferred to university credits o on application when specific standards are met.
Based on the principle of “unified planning, first engage in pilot projects, and promotion in stages,” the Beijing Credit Bank is now carrying out a pilot project in vocational and adult education in Beijing. Learning outcomes are gradually accredited, including those from non-degree education, such as vocational training, community education, and education for older adults, and various kinds of degree education, as well as personal work experience, internship experience, and competition results, in order to transfer them into credits for vocational and adult education.
Sun Yueya, director of the Lifelong Education Division of Beijing Open University, introduced why the credit bank pilot project was first applied to vocational and adult education. As China enters a new stage of development, industrial upgrading and economic restructuring continue to accelerate. The demand for technical and skilled personnel in various industries is becoming more and more urgent. The credit bank helps to broaden the channels for the growth of technical and skilled personnel. Vocational and adult education both focus on cultivating applied professionals, encouraging learners to participate in vocational training, and helping them to obtain vocational certificates for their skills. Compared with regular higher education, learners are in greater need of credit accreditation and transfer.
The scope of the Beijing Credit Bank will be gradually expanded by summarising the experience gained from the practice and extend its pilot to regular institutions of higher learning and other education fields when conditions are mature. According to Chu Hongqi, president of Beijing Open University, education in China mainly falls into four major categories: basic education, vocational education, higher education, and continuing education. Apart from basic education, it is possible for the credit bank to integrate the other three kinds of education, vocational education, higher education, and continuing education, to connect degree education with non-degree education and low-level degree education with higher-level education, and to play the role of a “bridge.” Chu said, “Now, we are taking the first step, and the focus is vocational and adult education. Next, we will extend our project to regular higher education.”
As the first platform for learning achievement transfer in practical operation for the entire municipality, the Shanghai Credit Bank of Lifelong Education started from regular institutions of higher learning and their continuing education colleges, open universities, and self-study examinations. Wang Hong, vice president of Shanghai Open University, said that, “the Shanghai Credit Bank of Lifelong Education began with the mutual recognition of course credits among some institutions of higher learning. Now, a variety of channels have been established to enable the transfer of various kinds of learning outcomes among undergraduate colleges and universities, junior colleges, junior colleges and undergraduate colleges and universities, and credits of institutions of higher learning and vocational qualification certificates.”
Enabling “cooperation between enterprises and schools” and “integration between industry and education”
In 2010, the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development stated the necessity “to build a lifelong learning ‘bridge'… to establish a system for credit accumulation and conversion for continuing education, [and] to achieve the mutual recognition and connection of various kinds of learning achievements.” Since then, the concept of the credit bank has frequently appeared in a series of policy documents.
According to Yan Xiaoping, executive deputy director of the OUC Credit Bank (Learning Outcomes Accreditation Centre), there are many reasons why the credit bank attracts such great attention. Learners hope that the learning results obtained throughout their life will be recorded and recognised, which will further stimulate their enthusiasm for learning. At the same time, they can reduce redundant learning, reduce learning costs, and improve learning efficiency, truly taking an “overpass” to career development and talent growth. For institutions, and industries in particular, they can improve their own resource quality and enterprise brands by having their own resources enter the directory of the credit bank, and also optimise the contents of education and training by finding and using high-quality resources in the directory to make up for or replace the original resources of the industries.
Therefore, the credit bank is not just targeted at industries, it is also applicable to schools. It is able to play a better role in promoting the integration between enterprises and colleges and industry and education. Chu Hongqi gave an example to the journalist. He said, “People receive short-term trainings, vocational qualification certificates, and the like in enterprises and industries. The credit bank connects such non-degree education with degree education by accrediting and transferring these learning results.” In the future, “universities” in enterprises may be admitted as alliance members of the credit bank to further improve the level of cooperation between enterprises and schools.
Yan Xiaoping indicated that a “scale” has been found to establish a public service platform with unified standards, to improve the quality of education and training, to open a channel for talent growth, and to build an open and flexible lifelong learning “overpass” that connects and links all directions through a state measurement mechanism of the credit bank. This is more conducive to releasing policy dividends and promoting equal access to education.
To date, the Shanghai Credit Bank of Lifelong Education has opened accounts for 3.76 million learners and transferred credits for 91,000 people. According to Wang Hong, he has observed that the most direct impact of the credit bank on education is to develop various credit modules by crediting various curriculum systems, which is more favourable to setting up flexible and individualised curriculums. “If a university student is able to obtain 180 credits for graduation within three years, they don’t have to take four years to graduate. This has laid a foundation for the reform of the overall credit system in universities, and some schools have begun to make changes.”
The possibility of setting up a national credit bank
In 2016, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions on Promoting Credit Accreditation and Transfer in Higher Education. The document stated the need “to explore the establishment of a national credit bank, to construct a graded accreditation service network, and to accredit, record, and store learning outcomes and credits in various forms. Regional and union schools will be encouraged to establish credit accreditation, accumulation, and transfer systems.”
According to Yan Xiaoping’s introduction, a total of 16 provinces and municipalities directly under the central government have already built credit banks, and a blueprint for the “central bank” of the credit banks, i.e., the national credit bank, is being designed for construction.
Yan Xiaoping believes that the relationship between the central bank and commercial banks can serve as a reference for the construction of the national credit bank and the regional credit banks. It is the responsibility of the national credit bank to formulate standards, including credit standards, unit standards, accreditation standards, and data standards. At the same time, it is necessary for the national credit bank to supervise and manage the “commercial banks” and to establish a quality assurance mechanism. In this regard, Wang Hong also believes that institutions or platforms with the relevant functions of quality evaluation and supervision should also be set up with the national credit bank.
By China Youth Daily