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Poor universities may shut down in 10 years

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-24 16:00

“With the decline of China’s population base and the descendant tendency of suitable higher education-age population, some private-run universities will face fierce competition on recruitment and are likely to shut down in the next 10 years,” said Gu Hailiang, president of Wuhan University and NPC deputy, according to sina.com.

He quotes statistics from the education bureau showing the number of students taking the 2010 national higher-education entrance exam dropping by 20% from the previous year in Beijing. In Shanghai, the number of people taking the college entrance examination has fallen for three consecutive years.

In addition, China’s aging population will grow tremendously along with the continued implementation of family planning, which will worsen the situation.

“The reduced number of people going to college will add competition among universities including private ones, and this may result in closure for some private universities.”

This requires Chinese education departments to be aware of the further development of the national higher-education system, including the total number of universities and university specialization.

Gu said that more and more parents are aware of the value of special skills for youths, and are cooling toward traditional university education. Vocational universities will grow in popularity and traditional ones may face a threat.

Because of the lack of operation experience by Chinese private universities, such as in the fields of college financing and incentive funding measures, compared with Western countries, the best way for some private universities would be to figure out a special course with distinct features in the educational market, and if not, as Gu said, “what is left for them is nothing but to close down.”