Xue Jinwen

China

Human rights are the rights and freedoms of humans in their nature, and represent the basic conditions for the free and complete development of the humankind. The educational development level is an important mark of the level of realization of human rights. China's higher education realized the historic development in the 1998-2007 period, and the number of the enrolled students at common colleges and universities across the nation had exploded from 3.4 million to 18.85 million, the number one in the world. This has laid a solid foundation for China to develop into a powerful nation of human resources from a large-population nation. The domestic and foreign comments are mixed on the vigorous efforts by the Chinese Government to develop the higher education when the economic and financial conditions are still very limited. However, in the perceptive of the security of human rights, the historic development of China's higher education is definitely of positive and significant strategic importance to the development of China's human rights undertaking.

1.Ten-year historic development of China's higher education

China's higher education has witnessed the swift development over the past decade. The gross enrolment rate of China's higher education jumped from 9.8% in 1998 to 15% in 2002, and further to 23% in 2007. At the same time, the expenditure on the higher education has also grown considerably, a result of the expenditure diversified investing mechanism for the higher education. The national higher education expenditure only totaled at CNY 54.9 billion in 1998, including the fiscal education expenditure of CNY 35.7 billion. By 2005, the total higher education expenditure jumped by 460%, or an average annual growth of 24.5%, to CNY 255 billion, while the fiscal education expenditure for common colleges and universities soared 310%, or an average growth of 17.3%, to CNY 109.1 billion. During the period between 1998 and 2006, the land area of the common colleges and universities throughout the country grew 260%, the educational and administrative buildings increased by 370%, the value of the educational equipment and devices rose 470%, and the fixed assets raised 640%. All of these have ensured the continuous improvement of the educational conditions.

Take Nankai University for instance. The number of the enrolled undergraduates and postgraduates doubled from 10,659 in 1998 to 21,905 in 2006. The educational undertaking expenditure swelled 345% to CNY 850 million in 2006 from nearly CNY 247 million in 1998. At the same time, China has also mobilized various social forces to engage in the higher education. At present, there are a total of almost 300 private common colleges across the nation, and 300-strong independent schools under universities.