Past/forward policy-making: transforming Chinese engineering education since the Reform and Opening-up

Abstract

Although engineering education has played important roles in China’s growing power and influence on the world stage, engineering education policy since the Reform and Opening-up in the late 1970s has not been well documented in current English-language scholarship. Informed by historical and sociological studies of education, engineering and engineering education, this paper attempts to address this scholarly gap by relating contemporary Chinese engineering education policy-making to its broader historical, cultural and ideological contexts. Based on analysis of policy documents and reports released by the Chinese government and engineering schools, and drawing on prior scholarship of Chinese (engineering) education policy, this paper employs the concept of ‘past/forward’ as an analytic lens to interpret and understand four major areas of engineering education policy change in contemporary China: institutional reform, disciplines and majors, training objectives, and curriculum reform.

Keywords:

• China
• engineering
• educational policy
• history
• Reform and Opening-up

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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¹⁹ Jin, Zhongguo.

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²¹ Jin, Zhongguo.

²² Ibid.

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²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Ibid, 83.

²⁸ Shi Guiquan, Zhongguo jindai gaodeng gongcheng jiaoyu yanjiu [Higher engineering education in modern China] (Shanghai: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 2004).

²⁹ Reardon-Anderson, ‘Science in Wartime China’.

³⁰ Ruth Hayoe, China’s Universities, 1895–1995: A Century of Cultural Conflict (New York: Garland, 1996).

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³⁴ Wang and Liu, Zhongguo.

³⁵ Ibid.

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³⁸ Jin, Zhongguo.

³⁹ Ibid.

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⁵¹ David Chan, ‘The Impacts of Globalisation on the Educational Developments in China: Policy and Challenges’, in Challenges and Policy Programmes of China’s New Leadership, ed. Joseph Y.S. Cheng (Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press, 2007), 523–66.

⁵² David Y. Chen, ‘A Study on the Amalgamation of Chinese Higher Educational Institutions’, Asia Pacific Education Review 3, no. 1 (2002): 48–55.

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⁵⁴ Ma Hongshu, Harbin gongye daxue xiaoshi, 1920–2000 [The history of Harbin Institute of Technology, 1920–2000] (Harbin, China: Harbin gongye daxue chubanshe, 2000).

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Oded Shenkar, The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impacts on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2006), 75.

⁵⁷ Jin, Zhongguo, 160.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ Chinese Academy of Engineering, ‘Zouxiang chuangxin: Chuangxinxing gongcheng keji rencai peiyang yanjiu [Towards innovation: training innovative personnel in engineering science and technology]’, in Zhongguo gongcheng jiaoyu fazhan baogao [The report on engineering education development in China], ed. Chinese Academy of Engineering (Beijing: Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe, 2012), 95–132.

⁶⁰ Gereffi et al., ‘Getting the Numbers Right’, 15.

⁶¹ Wadhwa et al., ‘Where the Engineers Are’.

⁶² Jin, Zhongguo, 157.

⁶³ Liu Fangtong, ‘Market Economy and the Moral Theory of Pragmatism’, in Economic Ethics and Chinese Culture, ed. Xuanmeng Yu et al. (Washington, DC: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 1997), 89–116.

⁶⁴ Wang and Sun, Zhongguo, 333.

⁶⁵ Ministry of Education, Zhongguo jiaoyu nianjian, 1949–1981 [China education statistics yearbook, 1949–1981] (Bejing: Zhongguo dabaike quanshu chubanshe, 1984), 296–8.

⁶⁶ Ibid.

⁶⁷ Jin, Zhongguo.

⁶⁸ The research group on educational standards in engineering programs, ‘Guanyu gongke benkesheng jiben guige de diaocha he jianyi [Suggestions on educational standards for undergraduate engineering students]’, Gaodeng gongcheng jiaoyu yanjiu [Higher engineering education research], no. 1 (1987): 73–82.

⁶⁹ Liu Yingjie, Zhongguo jiaoyu dashi dian, 1949–1990 [The chronicle of education in China, 1949–1990] (Hangzhou: Zhejiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1993), 1199.

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⁷¹ Christopher Winch and John Gingell, Philosophy and Educational Policy: A Critical Introduction (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004), 18.

⁷² Joseph M. Pettit, Pierre M. Perrolle and Patricia Jones Tsuchitani, Engineering Education in the People’s Republic of China: Report of a Visit (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1983), 17.

⁷³ Manli Li, Tongshi jiaoyu: Yizhong daxue jiaoyuguan [General education: a view of college education] (Beijing: Tsinghua daxue chubanshe, 1999), 228.

⁷⁴ Chong-Hung Zee, ‘Chinese Engineering Education: A Return Visit’, Engineering Education 66, no. 4 (1975): 351–4.

⁷⁵ Jin, Zhongguo, 169.

⁷⁶ Liang Xidong, Chen Changyu and Zhou Yuanxiang, Gaodianya gongcheng [High voltage engineering] (Beijing: Tsinghua daxue chubanshe, 2003), IV.

⁷⁷ Huajun Zhang, Dewey, Liang Shuming, and China’s Education Reform: Cultivating Individuality (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013), 22.

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⁸⁰ Jiang Kai and Xu Yujie, ‘Paradoxes of Civic and Political Education in China’s Higher Education Institutions’, in Citizenship Education in China: Preparing Citizens for the ‘Chinese Century’, ed. Kerry J. Kennedy, Gregory P. Fairbrother and Zhao Zhenzhou (New York: Routledge, 2014) 66–82.

⁸¹ Qin Zhu, Brent K. Jesiek and Jian Yuan, ‘Engineering Education Policymaking in Cross-national Context: A Critical Analysis of Engineering Education Accreditation in China’ (paper presented at the 2014 ASEE annual conference and exposition, Indianapolis, IN: USA, June 15–18, 2014).

⁸² Thomas Kwan-Choi Tse and John Chi-Kin Lee, ‘China: Defending Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’, in Citizenship Education and Lifelong Learning: Power and Place, ed. Michael Williams and Graham Humphrys (Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2003), 103–17.

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⁸⁴ Lei Qing, Wang Min and Li Ming, ‘Yingjie chuangxin, zhuiqiu zhuoyue [Embracing innovation, pursing excellence]’, in Zhongguo (see note 59), 42–3.

⁸⁵ Andreas, Rise of the Red Engineers, 77.

⁸⁶ Hu Haiqing, Li Jing and Chen Min, ‘Zhongguo chanxueyan hezuo peiyang gongcheng jishu ren cai de fazhan [The development of educating engineering and technology talents through the collaboration among industry, education, and research in China]’, in Zhongguo (see note 59), 64–5.

⁸⁷ Ibid, 65–9.

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⁸⁹ Shi Xianming, ‘Gaodeng gongcheng jiaoyu bixu huigui gongcheng he shijian [Higher engineering education must return to engineering practice]’, Zhongguo gaodeng jiaoyu [Higher education in China], no. 22 (2002): 16–18.

⁹⁰ Ministry of Education. ‘Jiaoyubu guanyu shishi zhuoyue gongchengshi jiaoyu peiyang jihua de ruogan yijian [Some suggestions on implementing the plan educating and training outstanding engineers]’, http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s3860/201102/115066.html.

⁹¹ See note 81.