The government of China has continued to improve higher education
Introduction
China is to have the largest education system across the globe.according to Gao Kao 2019, 10.31 million have already registered for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination in China. China’s government has invested 4% of the total GDP in education. In 196, a compulsory education law was passed by the Chinese government, stating that every Chinese child must pass nine-year mandatory education. 99% of the children in China receive the nine-year mandatory education. Higher education in China has shown continuous growth. The number of China tertiary institutions has grown to over 20% from 1.4% in 1978. The government of China has continued to improve higher education through its effort to bring reforms in the education system.
According to Kan., the China education system has been classified into three major categories. They include higher education, basic education, and adult education. Regarding China’s education system, the country laws suggest that every child in China should go through a nine-year compulsory education from Primary school which takes six years and the junior secondary school which takes three years. It turns out that China has a vast education system (Huang 2003). The number of higher institutions facilities has doubled in China. This has resulted to rise in the number of students in China. In 2018 China universities and colleges admitted 7.91 million students, which represents 81.13% admission rate. The rate of transition from secondary education to higher education is influenced by many factors including affordability, accessibility, enrolment and higher education facilities in China. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the transition from secondary education to higher education.
Literature Review
There exists a significant number of works of literature outlining the measures that the Chinese government has put in place in order to elicit a smooth transition for Chinese students from secondary schools to higher education. Empirical study indicates that expansion of education plays a critical role in shifting education inequality from quantitative differentiation to qualitative differentiation. Education is considered as basic need hence many students are able to access it. However, higher education in China is selective and stratified. The previous study shows that students do not only compete for admission to tertiary institution but more importantly they compete to be admitted to elite universit
ies.
Empirical study indicates byLi, 2003 and Yeung, 2013 indicate that in1949 China’s government established mass education policy so as to help in achieving social equality as well as produce a skilled workforce for economic growth and development. In 1986 the government passed a low to offer free primary and secondary education. According to Ma, 2009, new government policy to increase universities, the institution of a private university, and the development of universities in urban areas and enhancement of multiple colleges play a critical role in promoting the transition to higher education. The Chinese government continues to reemphasize the need for vocation education at the secondary school level in order to support rapid economic development (Hannum et al., 2011). More focus has also been directed to the establishment of Non-convection collages with the aim of training high skilled workers at vocation colleges, technical colleges and evening colleges.
The economic reforms in China have diversified access to higher education institutions. Though public university placement is based on national examination university entrance examination results, students can also be enrolled in the university based on high school principal recommendation. This is made available for students with outstanding performance in language skills, art, and sport (Shao, 2008; Wang, 2011).
The recommendation system is a system used to encourage the development of students, a few selected high schools are given the chance of making the recommendation and only the selected students are allowed to take assessment tests which are administered by the colleges which will then admit them as a way of ensuring there is transparency in the process. Students with sub-standard results are only allowed by the universities once they pay a fee another way is through attending private funded independent colleges or through enrolling to sub-degree programs and later apply for transfer to undergraduate programs in universities. For those students who come from families with financial resources, usually opt to go abroad for university studies. The high schools are colleges are classified into both the key and non-key institutions; the key ones are more advantageous since they enjoy more resources from the China government and also they are more prestigious as compared to the non-key institutions. Admission to high schools follows a meritocratic system where students are selected in regards to their performance from the two entrance exams which are; administered to middle school and administered to high school
Traditional Chinese families have played a major role in the education of their young ones by ensuring they have all the basics and encouraging them. Society emphasizes the need for learning since education is seen as a way of nurturing and improving the morale of young ones and as a way of improving social mobility. Just like the traditional families, the Chinese parents have also participated in the education of their children through investing in the education, shaping the children’s education, providing them with the right material for learning, other personal support and by so doing this; they encourage the kids to learn without any challenge.
Li, 2003; Parish 1984, the study shows how the government of China came up with some policies that curb the transfer of intergenerational social advantage through education. This came as an advantage to the children of workers, poor peasants, members of the state military, cadres since they were able to enter school without any restriction, this led to a higher number of learners whose fathers were not of social advantage to rise in many universities, the number of students rose from 28% in 1953 to 71% in 1965. During the Cultural Revolution, Wu, 2008 the most important criteria used for college admission was political performance. The non-educated families had the highest number of children entering the universities as compared to the families of the educated parents who are seen to have a better knowledge of education. Zhou et al, 1998, the data collected from 9656 urban residents majored in 20 cities, observes that the socio-economic background of father’s level of education and their work determines the number of students entering the university, the second study was conducted by Wu, 2008, the research covered 3087 urban adults in 1996 it shows how the impact of cultural capital on children’s to proceed to higher education is as a result from the reform era.
The Chinese parents are not only sending their children to universities to get any degree but they wish them to get degrees from elite universities, as a way of achieving the best degrees, the parent goes a mile and send their children to key high schools since it is perceived that children learning from key high school have better chances of getting admissions to elite universities as compared to those who don’t go to key high schools. Since entering key high school is very competitive in the region, many parents especially those living in urban cities, start nurturing and grooming their children at an early stage i.e. in primary school level. Since parents want nothing but the best for their children, they closely monitor the performance of their children at school; they also provide their kids with the best learning material as a way of improving and boosting their school performance in the two entrance examinations. Shao,2008), due to stiff competition to secure admission, the fraud and nepotism have been reported from families with the good social and political background to see their children get admission to key high school and elite universities also as a way of avoiding this competition, families with financial resources have decided to send their children to universities in overseas. (Huang and Zheng, 2010), the report shows that, in 2009, 840,000(10%) of eligible high school learners, withdrew from the National University entrance examination, more than 20 %( 21.1 %) would opt to attend universities from abroad.
Apparently, some literature suggests how most Chinese students have opted to be international students. Montgomery (2017) wrote that almost 12.8% of all international students enrolled in the United States are Chinese students. With almost 5 Million international students, it turns out that the United States hosts almost 17% of this population. The United States is evidently the top destination for international students. The United States offers quality education which is the key reason for the influx of international students into the country. Chinese student has been seen to enroll in United States Universities in pursuit of course from various fields. Most Chinese students enrolled in foreign Universities were relying on financial aid from the host university. This is because most Chinese students studying abroad were being funded by their families. As some literature project, as the Chinese economy and the family income grows, the tuition fees in China is likely to increase making the students opt for foreign studies since it will be relatively cheaper. The expansion of the Chinese education system also means that the country is bound to attract more foreign students. In this case, keeping the population growth rate in mind, it is evident that most Chinese students from secondary schools will be able to access higher education. This is due to the existence of education opportunities both in the country as well as abroad. The improved economy in China will also mean that the Chinese families will also be able to afford education for their children due to the growth in terms of their disposable income.
CHAPTER THREE 3.0
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the applied research methodology to conduct this research. The chapter specifically will focus on the research design, target population, research instrument, sample and sampling methods, instrument reliability, instrument validity, data collection procedures, and data analysis techniques. The researcher also realizes the evaluation for the research reliability.
3.2 Research design
The researcher will apply a descriptive research design to correct both quantitative and qualitative data. Orodho (2005) define a descriptive survey the research method of correcting data by administering question and interviewing a sample of individuals. Thus this design has opted for this research because it allows the application of interview schedules and questionnaires for data correction hence getting the respondent’s opinions and attitudes. Data will be gathered from sampled universities and different schools. The main objective of the research will get the respondent’s opinion and attitude on the factors that affect the transition of students from secondary school to universities.
3.3 Target Population
Borg and Gall 1977 define the target population as the hypothetical number of a group of objects, events or people that will be used to generalize the result of the study. In this study, our target population will consist of 80 respondents selected from the selected universities in China.
3.4 Sample sizes and sampling techniques
Sample refers to a small percentage of the population selected through the application of systematic procedures to represent the target population for the research (Wiersma, 1995). Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003 defines a sample as a smaller group of individuals that is obtained from the selected population for the study. According to Kothari 1985 on is able to make the inference of the population characteristic through careful observation of the representative or selected sample characteristic. According to Sekaran (2007), a sample of 20% representative for a smaller population and at least a 10% sample is representative of a large population. He also asserts that a representative sample should be above 30 to 500 persons or individuals. For this study, we have selected a sample of 80 respondents. The researcher will select 10 universities in which it will distribute 10 questionnaires in each university. The questionnaire will be administered to Chinese students from year 1 to year 3 in different Universities from different majors.
3.5 Research Instruments
The researcher collected data from Chinese university students using interview schedules and questionnaires with open and closed-ended questions so as enhance consistency in obtaining respondents’ independent opinions. Data from the student union leader will be gathered through the use of interview schedules. According to Mugenda &Mugenda, 2003 interviews help the researcher to get in-depth information that cannot be obtained using the questionnaire. The researcher is also able to get more data applying probing questions. The researcher will use the research question to develop a questionnaire that suits the study purpose. In this research, the questionnaire will be based on enrolment level, affordability and the accessibility of higher education. The questionnaire will also focus on the student and society attitude toward higher education. The researcher will also use the questionnaire to access the economic, social and institutional challenges that affect translation from secondary education to institutions of higher learning. The questionnaire will address the government policies that have been implemented to promote higher transition of high school to the higher learning institution. The researcher will also use interview schedules to get in-depth or detailed information that cannot be obtained through the use of the questionnaire. The objective of using a questionnaire is to get one-on-one information about the affordability, accessibility, enrolment and higher education facilities in China. The research will also interview the respondent on their attitude towards higher education in China. Other issues to be addressed in the interview are on inequality on the enrolment of a student in higher education in China. The interview schedules are more flexible as they allow the respondent to develop an opinion and give more details relating to the matter of discussion in the study. The interview schedule will help have the in-depth answer that gives more knowledge of the topic being studied.
The interview will be conducted at the location of the respondent’s choice. The research will communicate with the school administration prior to the interview so as to get the list of the students who will participate in the interview. To seek the consent of the respondents the research will contact the selected participants sample through emails. The data obtained during the research is expected to have valuation due it the characteristic of the individual being interviewed.
Platton (1990) states that the researcher should develop a framework for communicating the results of the research findings. The data collected will be coded and edited so as to identify irrelevant data. The researcher will use charts and tables to record the data obtained. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentage, and measures of dispersion like mean and standard deviation will be used in the analysis of data. The research will employ qualitative data analysis so as to give detail meaning of the data gathered. The data collected through interviews will be analyzed through thematic analysis. According to Maghuire and Delahunt, 2017 involves the application of codes to analyze the data gathered, helps in identifying the most important information in the research.
Ethics
The researcher should consider observing different and complex ethical issues when conducting the research. Since the research was dealing with a different person it was important for him to gain consent from the respondent. The researcher started with identifying the student to participate in the research. The respondents were approached with a consent letter to show that we had permission to conduct the research in the university. The respondent has the right to withdraw from the interview hence all the participants gave opinions freely without coercion. The participants were given a consent form to sign before to say whether they wish to continue with the interview. This is to make sure that the interviewee voluntarily gave consent as per the BERA guidelines (2018). The research also gave assurance of confidentiality in regard to the information shared by the respondents. The researcher assures the respondent that information issued will only be used for research use an no other commercial use.
Evaluation of Research Design
Based on other empirical studies we need to strengthen our research methodology and findings. Among the issue we should improve on is the pilot study. In our research, we have stated that we will interview the secondary school graduates. For the pilot, we carried out a semi-structured interview with students of three selected universities. The participant was selected from year 1 to 4 students in the selected universities. The university selection was based on the accessibility of the researcher. The student participating in the study were selected by the student union leaders in the university using the stratified random method so as to ensure that the researcher gets an opinion from a student from different backgrounds.
The main objective of the research is to add existing knowledge. It is, therefore, possible for the researcher to reflect on what is learned from specific research work as well research process. For this paper, the research objective was to analyze the student perception and attitude on the transition from secondary education to higher education. The research chose to use both quantitative and qualitative methods in the form of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to correct data. This approach was perceived to be a better method of data collection in this type of research. The semi-structure interview is considered to be beneficial as the respondent have the opportunity of providing in-depth and more detailed answers (Cohen et al, 2011), however, it is hard to compare the variables due to large data-set. Hence this has an impact on the researcher.
Further, the researcher found it hard to develop a question for the interview. This was a result of narrow questions and hence reduced the researcher engagement with the interviewee. Our object was to access the level of transition from secondary education to higher education, to ensure that the interview is successfully carried the researcher needs to have background information on the research topic. This will help in developing questions that are related to the factors that affect the transition to higher education. The specific objectives of the current subject should form the basis of the interview questions. Further, the researcher should explore societal challenges that influence the transition to the universities and other tertiary institutions. The research question in the questionnaire should consider the government policies that have been put in place to increase accessibility to higher education.
A comparison between China’s education systems with a developed nation should access. The research also tries to analyses why China which is among world developed countries has no well-elaborated education system. This illustration can be deduced as a result of a significant number of Chinese students studying overseas. If at all China had a proper education system, then it means that most Chinese will be able to access education in their local country. As seen in the United Kingdom, the number of Chinese students in the universities in the United Kingdom is high despite paying relatively high fees as compared tom local students in the country. Either, although this justification of poor education system structure in China is not well-orchestrated in this research paper, it can also be among the top reasons why China students would prefer to go to foreign countries for higher education.
Despite the limitation associated with research design, data collection was successful. For example, we did not experience difficulties with ethical issues as well as access. This has impacted on our knowledge as we have learned the benefit of having achievable research objectives and application of the right research methods to meet the research objectives. The research also highlights the future is of study that should be considered in the future. Scholars should try and evaluate the role of government policies and behavior change in the transition from secondary education to higher education in China.