Officials deny planning to turn 600 colleges into senior vocational schools

China's education authority denied on Thursday widespread media reports that about 600 undergraduate colleges will be converted into skills-based senior vocational schools.

"The core plan is to establish a management system to classify higher institutes, some of which might be categorized as applied-technology oriented," said Ge Daokai, director of the vocational and adult education division of the Ministry of Education.

For some schools, only some skills-oriented majors need be transformed into vocational education, he said.