A Study on the Scale of Higher Educational Enrollment and Changes in Student Composition at RTVUs*
WEI Shunping1 YUAN Yaxing2
1. The OUC Research Institute of Open and Distance Education, Beijing 100039
2. The OUC Academic Affairs Department, Beijing 100039
Abstract: This paper explores the scale of higher education enrollment and changes in student composition at Radio and TV Universities (RTVUs) in China over the past decade (from 1999 to 2010). Enrollment is expanding year on year in line with China’s economic growth. Students are changing greatly in terms of professional level, age at admission, gender, marital status and educational background. Open education is seeing fewer undergraduate students. Students are getting younger, and the number of male and married students is decreasing. The proportion of junior college students with a high school education is greater than those with a technical secondary school education. There is either a high positive correlation or a high negative correlation between the four categories of professional level, age at admission, gender and marital status. These findings are of significance for RTVUs in terms of guiding development planning, enrollment, teaching and student support.
Key words: RTVU open education; enrollment; number; composition; change
* This paper represents one of the outcomes of the “Study on the Characteristics of Web-Based Higher Education Graduates and Factors Affecting Their Graduation” (Approval number: 2011-079Y), one of the adult education research planning subjects raised during the “12th Five-Year-Plan” period of The Chinese Adult Education Association.
I. Introduction
The massification of higher education in China has accelerated since 1998, reaching an enrollment rate of 26.5% in 2010. The changes to educational models and student composition produced by this expansion clearly influence the operation of higher education institutions. Thirty years of development have positioned China’s RTVUs on the cusp of a new era. A thorough investigation into student composition will be of great significance to RTVUs in terms of guiding development planning, enrollment, teaching and student support. To this end, it is necessary to analyze the changes of scale of higher education at RTVUs in recent years, explore these changes in conjunction with other recent developments and identify changes in the composition of the student body. Based on this analysis, it will be possible to make suggestions for RTVU education and teaching. Conventional statistics, visualization, and correlation analysis methods are used to evaluate the data. Explanations and discussions are given based on these findings.
II. Research samples
In 1999, the Ministry of Education launched the “China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU, now The Open University of China, OUC) Pilot Project for the Reform of Personnel Training Models and Open Education” (hereinafter referred to as the Project) with the dual aims of promoting the nationwide implementation of a modern distance education project and establishing personnel training, teaching and administrative models and operating mechanisms for RTVUs. The Project endeavors to identify special channels that can be used to cultivate a large number of practice-oriented professionals who can play a long-term role in China’s economic construction and social development. In 2007, the Project passed the Ministry of Education’s summative evaluation, which concluded that: “Open education has become a major factor in promoting the development of distance education and continuing education” (Gaojiaotinghan [2007] No. 58). As a result, RTVU open education has been formally included in the rankings of national higher education as a new educational form. As of this year, RTVU open education has enrolled 4.58 million students, accounting for approximately one-eighth of total higher education enrollment, one-third of total adult higher education enrollment and more than 75% of total web-based higher education enrollment.
The rapid development of RTVU open education is demonstrated by its enrollment scale. Since 1999, enrollment has been expanding with every passing year. In 2010, the CCRTVU enrolled 919,300 students in open education, with 244,200 students joining undergraduate programmes, 612,200 joining junior college programmes and 62,900 joining the “One College Student per Village” programme[1]. RTVU open education has become the largest, most influential form of web-based higher education among RTVU’s diverse portfolio of educational forms, far exceeding similar web-based higher education programmes in terms of scale. This research will use a sample of students enrolled since the launch of RTVU open education in 1999 to examine changes to the number and composition of enrolled students. It also includes enrollment data from other RTVU higher education programmes dating back to before 1999. In view of the RTVUs’ aim of using distance higher education to serve local economic development, the research focuses on exploring the correlation between scale of enrollment and national economic development, in order to prove the relationship between education and the economy, and provide evidence to predict the future development of the scale of RTVU higher education enrollment.
III. The correlation between the scale of higher education enrollment at RTVUs and China’s economic development
Both theoretical studies and national policies have explicitly stated that education encourages economic development. In terms of theoretical studies, University of Chicago agricultural economist Theodore W. Schultz’s proprietary method of “remainder analysis of economic growth” estimated that the human capital produced by education contributed 33% to national economic growth in the U.S. from 1929-1957 and concluded that human capital investment provided the highest return on investment[2]. From the perspective of national policies, the strategy of revitalizing the country through nationwide science and education was first raised in The Decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Progress of Science and Technology promulgated on May 6, 1995. As Jiang Zemin pointed out: “Revitalizing the country through science and education means thoroughly implementing the idea that science and technology constitute the primary productive force. Science, technology and education must become priorities for economic and social development, in order to increase national scientific and technological strength, realize the capacity to transform this into productivity, and improve the whole nation’s awareness of science and technology.” Today, the knowledge and talent provided by science, technology and education benefit economic and social development as a whole. The basic idea at the heart of “revitalizing the country through science and education” is that education can boost economic development.
The National Outline of Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) (the Outline) formulated and released in 2010 represents a further implementation and fulfillment of the strategy of revitalizing the country through science and technology. Based on the preface to the Outline, the goal of education in China is to cultivate talent and achieve a transformation “from a big populous country to one rich in human resources”. Ultimately, the development of education will contribute to economic development and social progress, and improve the quality of life of China’s citizens. Looking at it from the perspective of the Outline, educational development must meet the requirements of economic development. However, as the document points out, “China’s education still lags behind national economic and social development and cannot fully meet the needs of the people for high quality education.”