China's higher education scale ranks first in the world

Chinanews, Beijing, Oct 16 – The scale of China's higher education now ranks first in the world, surpassing that of Russia, India and the United States. China's higher education has expanded from one open only to the very few in the past to one shared by the common people in society. The achievement, which might take decades for other countries to accomplish, was made possible in China in just a short peroid. In 1999, Chinese government decided to expand its education scale in colleges and universities. In 2006, the student enrolments for Chinese colleges and universities reached 5.4 million, which was 5 times the student enrolment figure in 1998. There are now 25 million students studying in colleges and universities, the gross enrollment rate reaching 22%. While Chinese people's per capita GDP is a little bit more than 1,000 US dollars, the country has managed to make its higher education accessible to more common people in society in just a few years, an accomplishment which other countries might take several decades, or even a longer time to finish. From 2002 to 2006, the land area for Chinese colleges and universities had increased from 1.12 million mu (746, 666, 704 square meters)to 2.12 million mu(1, 413, 333, 404 square meters), while the teaching area had increased from 120 million square meters to 270 million square meters. During this time, the total value of teaching facilities increased from 61.7 billion yuan to 142.4 billion yuan. The teaching conditions and campus construction in colleges and universities had improved greatly.