Can Higher Education in China Keep Up?

December 4, 2008 - The last decade has seen China emerge as a major player on the international stage and in the global economy. On the educational front, too, the country is experiencing unprecedented growth.

Since 1999, the number of university students, both undergraduate and graduate, has increased by about 30 percent every year. Between 2002 and today, the number of graduates at all levels of higher education has risen fourfold.

To cope with the tremendous challenges that this growth presents to a highly structured 50-year-old system, higher education in China is borrowing more and more from American models of curriculum and institutional management.

As a part of this movement, East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai has partnered with Penn GSE in a unique collaboration. The Cooperative International Executive Ed.D. program is an initiative that has introduced the first-ever Ed.D. to Asia, in an effort to train a new generation of Chinese educators. "Penn GSE is breaking new ground internationally by working with ECNU," said Cheng Davis, vice dean for International Programs and Development. "The program, a practical departure from the more theoretical PhD programs available in China, allows participants to tap into the experiences and resources of Penn GSE and other leading players in American education, in order to improve the schools and universities they administer."

Through this program, students enrolled in East China Normal University participate in intensive seminars taught by GSE's higher ed faculty at ECNU's Shanghai campus. During their course of study, students make their way to the Penn campus for an intensive 12-week course that introduces them to cutting-edge issues in American and global higher education. Combined with site visits to area schools and universities, the course at Penn is intended to expand the students' understanding and introduce an international comparative element to their doctoral research.

Developed by Penn GSE professors and administered by GSE International in concert with East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai, the program culminates in a doctoral degree from ECNU and a Penn GSE certificate. ECNU is one of China's premier teachers' colleges, and the joint EdD program has been created in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Education.