Private colleges face student shortfall

Do you know somebody who has flunked or skipped the gaokao, the all important college entrance exam? There are hundreds of schools across the country that will beg them to attend, with or without a test result.

Private colleges used to be considered the last resort for high school graduates in China. But this year, when even some second-tier State universities are scrambling to find enough students, many private colleges may struggle to survive.

Private colleges together with vocational schools occupy the bottom of the food chain of student selection based on gaokao scores. However, there has been a sharp drop in enrolment since 2008, as the graduation-age population shrinks and students flock to universities overseas. Analysts estimate a drop in student enrolments of between one-third to a half, or even more, from four years ago, when university admissions peaked.

Private institutions, especially those that are only allowed to offer junior-college-level diplomas, were set up to provide market-driven curriculums to train technical workers for the job market. However, for many students, getting a second chance to earn a degree was their only reason for going to a private college. Parents were willing to pay tuition fees several times higher than public universities if studies at a private college would eventually lead to a degree at a better university in China or overseas.

To attract students, some private colleges provided preparatory courses that sold hopes of a university degree to parents and students. However, that appeal has evaporated now because going to a public university or studying abroad has become much easier, with the incessant decrease in the number of gaokao participants and the easing of requirements by foreign schools.

And if they can, parents tend to shun private colleges due to their for-profit orientation, low academic standing, as well as a reputation of a contentious and sometimes short-lived existence.

In a typical private college, teaching is the main focus of faculty work, with little time for research. Turnover is high as young faculty regard their work as a stepping-stone for better universities. Students have become customers and recruitment is aggressively pushed like sales.

The economic impetus is paramount because investors treat colleges as business ventures to generate good returns on investment. The presidents of private colleges are often retired university officials or professors, who are hired by investors with a tight rein on school development through the board of trustees. The principal-agent relationship is never an easy one, as lofty education ideals clash with brutal financial realities.

Public universities have made life even harder for the private schools as they have aggressively expanded their student intake with the launch of hundreds of financially "independent" colleges.

Such university extensions with private investment have a significant business advantage when recruiting students who score low on the gaokao but will pay higher tuition fees, because they award degrees and can leverage the parents' reputation and faculty.

It's inevitable that many private schools will disappear in the imminent shake-up of the industry. What's uncertain is the future modus operandi of those that do survive. Will the strongest merge to become a Western-style university? Will they be allowed to award their own degrees? Or will they focus on teaching job-specific skills?

With private colleges floundering and needing to reinvent themselves, a place at a public university, secured through good gaokao results, will still be the best hope most children have of a rewarding future.

The writer is editor-at-large of China Daily. E-mail: dr.baiping@gmail.com

(China Daily 06/16/2012 page5)