FAQs on China Higher Education reform and Value of legal education
Q. What are the origin of the Chinese legal education?
A. China's legal education has a long history, which can be traced back to the first unified written law (Dd Qfng Li2) in the early Qing Dynasty. In the late nineteenth century, with the introduction of Western law, a modern legal education system was established in China and developed rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century.
Q. What are the goals of Higher Legal Education in China?
A. Chinese higher legal education focuses on a knowledge-centered education model rather than a skill-oriented education model. Thus, law students lack the capacity to apply legal knowledge to resolve practical problems, and the ability to think creatively.
Thus, there has developed heated and serious discussion among Chinese legal academics about the proper goals of higher legal education. Generally, academics propose three different goals: general high education or "academic" education, training legally outstanding persons, and legal professional education or training.
Q. What are the purpose of training legally outstanding Persons in China?
A. Some scholars and experts believe that the locus of legal education in China should be to imbue the "legally outstanding persons" (Falh2Jfnyfng) with a great amount of legal knowledge and high standards of professional ethics. They suggest learning from the educational systems of other countries, particularly Japan's model of fostering "outstanding legal professionals."
The idea of training "legally outstanding persons" is the result of strong public demands in the 1990s to combat judicial corruption and court defects at the lower trial level, including litigation delays, high litigation costs, and insufficiently qualified judges. Legal education is deemed to be an effective means to solve those problems and to meet social needs. Thus, these scholars strongly suggest that Chinese legal training foster outstanding legal specialists who are expected to have vast legal knowledge and high standards of professional ethics.
Q. How is organized legal professional education or training in China?
A. Some scholars believe the mission of Chinese legal education should be to provide professional education or training to produce students who are qualified legal professionals. As future judges, lawyers, and prosecutors, students should learn how to resolve all complicated disputes and safeguard justice in order
to meet the needs of social, economic, political, and cultural development in China.
This idea developed from China's thirty years experience with the rule-of-law process and the rapid growth of the domestic and international economy, and especially the enlightenment of the Western legal education system. In the context of legal system reform, including the legal education system reform, learning
from the experience of Western countries has been greatly encouraged and has gained the recognition and approval of the government.
As a matter of fact, the goal of legal education is an historical issue. It has varied over time, in relation to China's traditional legal culture, the social and political ideologies of the day, and the influence of Western countries. Thus, the different ideas about the goals of legal education result from changing situations in China.
Q. What are the legal teaching methods applied in China?
A. Teaching methods in China's law schools are closely related to the State goals of legal education. To a certain extent, the goal of legal education determines not only what law students should experience and what law professors will teach, but also the types of effective teaching methods that should be applied.
Our law faculty pursued the most effective teaching methods from the very beginning of legal education in China.
The general principle of teaching in China's law schools is a "combination of theories and practice": law professors should teach students not only "what (the law says)" and "why (the law says so)," but also "how (the law should be applied)."
China, a civil law country, uses teaching methods different from those applied in most law schools in common law nations.
China bases its legal education on professorial lectures and written examinations, which are more suited for the mastery of complicated written statutes. In short, the features of legal teaching methods in China can be summarized in three points: teachercentered rather than student-centered; knowledge-oriented rather than skill-oriented; lectures on content and logical reasoning rather than problem-solving and creative-thinking.
Q. Lectures on Contents and Logical Reasoning are still valid legal education methods?
A. Modern legal education in China has long been influenced by the civil law tradition, including Germany's conceptualistic method. Because Chinese law is basically written law, concept explanation, and deductive reasoning are still the basic teaching methods widely used in the classroom. Customarily, professors tend to start by introducing and explaining concepts, theories, and certain systems, and then try to illustrate the underlying key points by commentary and analysis of legal theories.
Increasingly, professors like to apply a comparative method, introducing foreign legal systems to deepen students' understanding of certain systems, to convey valuable experiences from foreign countries, and to improve the ongoing reform in China by comparison with other legal systems.
Q. What other methods are used to “educate” law students?
A. Chinese law professors focus their teaching on conceptual and logical methods, while being aware of the importance and necessity of using the elicitation method-the dialectic of inquiry.
Instead of burying them with lectures, professors inspire their students by the exchange of ideas through questions and discussions in class. Increasing numbers of professors turn class into a discussion by asking questions to arouse the interests of students and to elicit their active and creative thinking.
Study of Cases
The case method is widely used by law professors in China. Whenever teaching a legal theory or legal system, professors choose a typical case-especially new or arguable cases-to illustrate how to analyze the facts and the law or theories to be applied.
The systematic method of learning to read case facts, collect and analyze factual and legal issues, apply law to the case, and find a solution to the dispute is not only used in legal teaching, but also in examinations. This method is successful because students enjoy discussing cases in class.
Moot Court
Compared with other methods, moot court is quite complicated. With increasing attention being paid to the practical legal teaching program, however, law school students have more opportunities to experience moot court, mainly during moot court competitions. Students are divided into different groups with various assignments and have the chance to develop important skills, including the ability to communicate effectively, think analytically, understand key legal principles, and construct sound legal arguments. Under the guidance and supervision of professors, each team of students works together to spot issues, analyze
facts, draft documents, and construct legal arguments. The groups prepare collectively and elect their representatives to present their arguments before the court.
Q. How Chinese legal education has evolved and what are the reformed adopted?
A. Education, especially legal education in China has evolved not only because of the influence of external solicitations but also to modernize the country. The driving force is the need to produce an increasingly knowledgeable workforce equipped to handle the challenges of an economy that is not only growing rapidly, but also becoming increasingly diversified and sophisticated, and more integrated at international level. In China education has been shaped and re-shaped thanks to various reforms:
The latest reforms are outlined in a comprehensive plan formally called “State Guidelines for Medium-to-Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan between 2010 and 2020,” otherwise known as the Development Plan. A second round of national discussion of the Development Plan has just been completed, and more than 30,000 suggestions were collected, reflecting national involvement in such an important issue. This plan is enormous and comprehensive, and is based on studies of various educational models.
The plan has backing from the highest levels. For example, in September of 2009 Premier Wen Jiabao visited five classes in a middle school in Beijing. He had lunch with students, and held a discussion session with teachers. On October 31, 2009, the government named Yuan Guiren as the new minister of education to lead the reform. The Development Plan’s scale, depth and detailed specifics clearly demonstrate the government and Party’s determination and ambition.
It also must be stressed that ethical issues go hand in hand with education reform. A big concern among ordinary people arises from the reform of the GaoKao, or national college entrance examination. With GaoKao no longer the only criterion for admission, various other factors such as teacher recommendations and extracurricular activities will enter the picture. Because of these changes, people are worried that new kinds of bribery and corruption will emerge. It is essential that relevant laws be established and enforced. Ethical education should be part of the reform plan. Ultimately, the success of higher education reform will be inextricably intertwined not just with the political and culture development of the society, but also with its ethical evolution.
Q. What are the main aspects of this reform?
A. Two aspects for higher education reform are key: a relaxation of central control, and opening up of the college admission process. The Development Plan specifically calls for the government to release central control, give universities autonomy, and allow presidents and faculty to run their schools. The government’s function is to be limited to providing services and funding, and to making general educational policies. Universities will be governed by national higher education laws combined with regulations set up by institutions themselves. Another striking aspect of the reform plan is modification of the college admission process. The Development Plan states that it will change from the “one-exam-decides-all” method to a thorough evaluation of a student as a whole person using multiple tests and factors.
The plan is divided into four sections. Each section covers several chapters and each chapter includes numerous issues. Section One describes the plan’s overall strategy. Section Two lays out missions to accomplish and goals to achieve. Section Three outlines the reform of the educational infrastructure. Section Four provides measurements to ensure implementation. Six chapters are devoted to specific measures, which include the following: strengthening the quality of teaching faculty; increasing the government funding of education to 4% of GDP by 2012; completing education laws and regulations; and ensuring every step of the reform meets the laws and regulations. In order to accomplish these missions and goals, the Development Plan encourages educational institutions to design their own reform programs and policies.
The defined missions of the Development Plan for higher education are to greatly improve the overall quality of education; to advance science, technologies and culture; to accelerate China’s modernization process; and to make China a great nation with strong higher education. The goals of the reform are to advance teaching and scientific research; promote collaboration between universities and research institutions so as to speed discovery and innovation; enhance the ability to serve society by providing knowledge consultation and by transferring technologies and research results into products; nurture outstanding talent; and to cultivate a group of internationally recognized Chinese universities and a number of top- ranked Chinese universities in the world by the end of 2020. In short, the goal is to make China’s higher education internationally competitive.
Q. What is the background of the higher education system in China?
A. To understand just how significant the current reforms are designed to be, a brief review of Chinese educational history is in order. In fact, the formal establishment of a higher education system in China is relatively recent. It is widely accepted that the first modern Chinese university was established in 1895, right after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), which shifted the dominant influence in Asia from China to Japan. The national shame of this defeat awakened the empire of the Qing Dynasty, which accepted a proposal of Mr. Sheng Xuanhuai, a higher official of the dynasty and an industrialist, to empower the government by building up modern universities to educate and nurture talent with modern technologies in addition to classics. Beiyang University (now Tianjin University) was established in the city of the same name in 1895, followed by Qiushi Academy (currently Zhejiang University) in 1897, and Jingshi University (now Beijing University) in 1898. By the time the People’s Republic of China was founded, there were 227 higher institutions in China.
The government that took over in 1949 reorganized higher education according to the model of the Soviet Union. Private universities, including those established by missionaries, were folded into the state. Soviet higher education emphasized specialization rather than comprehensiveness, and reflected the new political ideology and desire for economic development. As a result, some specialized subject colleges were established or separated out from some comprehensive universities. This higher education system served the purpose of the government at the time, and trained the first generation of highly needed intellectuals to build the new economy.
As Maoist-inspired political changes swept the country, Chinese higher education went through ups and downs. From 1958 to 1963, it experienced the Great Leap Forward. The number of Chinese universities and colleges was greatly increased from 229 in 1957, to 841 in 1958, to 1,289 in 1960. The “mistake” was corrected in the following years. In 1963, the number of universities was reduced to 407. The Cultural Revolution started in 1966, pitting student Red Guards against teachers, and paralyzing formal education. A generation of students in the subsequent years essentially lost the opportunity to receive higher education. In 1970, the government allowed certain universities to re-open. However, the admission of college students was mainly decided by recommendations from peasants, workers and soldiers” and primarily based on the applicants’ political behavior. In 1977, Deng Xiaoping regained political power and eventually became the paramount leader of the country. One of his first decisions was to resume the national examination system for college admissions. Three national examinations were held from 1977 to 1979. About 18 million high school graduates from 1966 to 1977, who were willing and able to take the exams, participated in these historical educational events, and about 880,000 of them were fortunate to become college students. The college students from these three years have played important roles in advancing social and economic development in China as envisioned by Mr. Deng.
Q. How Chinese legislator is trying to improve higher education?
A. With the formalization of a regular national college entrance examination system in the 1980s, Chinese higher education was in the process of recovering and adjusting from previous social upheavals. In 1993, as market reforms deepened, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council jointly issued a Program for Education Reform that allowed the establishment of private universities. The Program proclaimed that “the State encourages all sectors of society, including enterprises, institutions, public organizations or groups as well as individual citizens, to run higher education institutions in accordance with law and to participate in and support the reform and development of higher education.” Under this policy, some new colleges were founded by non-government entities, which symbolized a major change in the Chinese higher education structure, which used to be completely controlled by the central government. Such a move led to a significantly expanded scale of higher education. College enrollment experienced an unprecedented growth. According to 2007 Ministry of Education statistics, “in 1990, less than 4% of the 18-22 age group was enrolled as students in higher education institutions compared to 22% in 2005.”
As the number of universities grew, the demand for education quality also increased. For the first time in Chinese education history, the nation implemented university rankings using a set of criteria and standards to assess quality. A major event in the effort to improve the quality of higher education by the Chinese government was Project 211, launched in 1995. One hundred universities were selected to receive special funding to improve their overall performance. Subsequently, in 1998, the Ministry of Education launched another major initiative named Project 985. The first phase of Project 985 aimed to propel 10 Chinese universities to rankings among the best in the world in the 21st century. This program was subsequently expanded, and additional universities were selected. These two government-funded projects and the university ranking system have made a significant impact on the quality of China’s rapidly proliferating institutions of higher education.
Q. How Chinese education model integrates into international systems?
A. In 2001, China was officially admitted to the World Trade Organization, which provided a great arena for exchanges with many other countries leading to opportunities to integrate Chinese education with the world. For example, the Ministry of Education has dispatched many presidents and party secretaries of top-ranked universities to visit and study in developed countries such as the United States and Great Britain. To promote multidisciplinary, academic collaborations, in early 2000 many old Soviet-style subject colleges were combined into comprehensive universities along the lines of large American universities.
Another important change in China’s higher education was the 1999 Higher Education Law. It stipulated that “universities are independent legal entities under democratic management.” However, as Lin Jianhua, vice president of Beijing University, pointed out: “Current law gives considerable autonomy to Chinese universities, but their rights have been vaguely defined.” Together, these developments during the past 20 years have set the stage for the current movement to reform the Chinese education system.
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