Opportunities and Challenges for Private Education in China: A Review of the Latest Policy Revisions

Purpose:This study reviews the latest revisions to“lmplementation Regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China.”In doing so,this study provides a comprehensive overview of the policy and its history,as well as the future outlook of private education in China.Design/Approach/Methods:Data were collected from the official website of the Ministry of Education of China as well as the media.Findings:This study identifes the background,rationale,major breakthroughs,and impacts of the revised policy.Originality/Value:This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the latest revisions to"Implementation Regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China."In addition to an academic interpretation of these policy changes,it suggests how private education in China may develop.

Does Life Expectancy Affect Private Educational Investment in China?

In this paper, we emphasize the interactive effect between life expectancy and human capital accumulation, and test the positive feedback of longevity to educational investment in China. This is very important for understanding the pressure from the aging population and the increase in private educational investment in China. We first show in an extended human eapital investment model that life expectancy growth acts as a driving force for educational investment. We then build a difference-in-difference-in-differences empirieal framework and use cross-province data to examine the effect in China. We use the maternal mortality rate （MMR） to identify the difference in life expectancy between genders, and the illiteracy rate or average years of education by gender for educational investment. The empirical results comply with the theory, in that increases in life expectancy significantly lower illiteracy rates and improve the average schooling years in China. This content of the present paper is closely related to crucial issues like population aging, human capital accumulation and gender discrimination. Policy implications are discussed based on the empirical results.

Variegated Roles of and Relationships Between Private Tutoring and Schooling: Insights From the State of Maharashtra, India

Purpose:The relationship between private tutoring(PT)and mainstream education is among the complex themes characterizing PT discourses in the literature.This study examined the complications of practices and processes in tutoring and schooling to elucidate different roles played by PT and its relationship with mainstream education.Design/Approach/Methods:This study used qualitative data from a diverse set of 37 PT providers from the State of Maharashtra,India,to delineate their roles and explore their relationship with schooling in this context.Findings:The classification of PT providers roles into complementary,accommodating,competing,and substitutive ones demonstrated a diverse range of relationships between PT and mainstream education.Further analysis showed that these relationships are dynamic in nature,and the boundaries between them are blurred.Originality/Value:Research in the field of PT has been consistently pointing toward a perplexing mixture of positive and negative outcomes resulting from its relationship with mainstream education.This study transcended the positive vis-a-vis negative binary approach by contributing to the deeper understanding of PT relationships.Furthermore,it exemplified how future studies can disentangle the complexities of such relationships by deploying flexible,context-specific theoretical approaches.

Acceptability of Physical Examination by Male Doctors in Medical Care:Taking Breast Palpation as an Example

In this study,we conducted an investigation among medical workers,patients and college students concerning their acceptability of breast palpation performed by male doctors（hereinafter referred to as “acceptability”,or “the examination”,respectively,if not otherwise indicated）,to get the information about their acceptability and reasons for accepting or declining the examination among the three population. A questionnaire investigation was conducted in 500 patients with breast diseases,700 students of medical colleges,and 280 medical workers working in hospitals. The subjects were asked to choose between two options： accept or do not accept（the examination）. The subjects were asked to fill out the questionnaire forms on free and anonymous basis and the questionnaire forms were collected on spot,immediately after completion. The questionnaires collected were coded,sorted out and checked. Data of the eligible questionnaires were input into Epidata software and analyzed by SPSS. Upon the establishment of the database,the intra-group data were tested by utilizing χ2 test. Among 1480 questionnaires,1293（90.41%） questionnaires were retrieved. Our results showed that 56.78% of patients reported that they could accept breast palpation by male doctors. About 59.66% of medical staff expressed their acceptance of the examination,but only 35.03% of students said the examination. On the basis of this study,we were led to conclude that the examination is not well accepted by different populations,and therefore,（1） medical professionals and administrators should pay attention to the gender-related ethics in their practice and the feeling of patients should be respected when medical examinations involve private or sensitive body parts;（2） to this end,related departments should be properly staffed with doctors of both sexes,and this is especially true of the departments involving the examination or treatment of private or sensitive body parts;（3） health education should,among other things,include helping female patients to overcome the fear and anxiety in such examinations. This is of great importance since some women may miss the opportunity to get timely diagnosis.

Development of Private Higher Education in Macao: Exploring the Relationship between Government and Private Sector

The development of private higher education in Macao has experien- ced rapid growth in the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to understand this trend by investigating the facts and figures supplied by official sources and to analyze the role between the Government and the private sector. This paper shows that the attitude of the Macao Government is neither authoritative nor laissez-faire toward private higher education. On the one hand, the Government is investing heavily in the public sector. On the other hand, it is assisting the private sector by various means. However, there is a lack of systematic planning in the area of public-private partnership. There are also two issues which may hinder the current development of private higher education. They are an outdated legal framework and a lack of standardized quality assurance measures.

On the bankruptcy of private higher education institutions in China

In recent years,closing down private higher education institutions(HEIs)has become a serious problem in China.It seems that doubt is cast on the rationality of private HEIs and severe competition contributes a lot to their development.Many problems in the process of self-development are caused by both internal and external factors.From the perspective of sustainable development and the healthy development of students,priority should be given to the evolution of an idea to provide a positive environment for the development of private HEIs.This paper is an effort to deal with the statement that higher education in China is a seller’s market and aims to do an objective estimate of the development space for private HEIs.In addition,it shows a clear understanding of establishing the prediction system for relevant issues of private higher education to guarantee the sound development of private HEIs.

Commercial Civil Society:A Perspective on Private Higher Education in China

Two distinctive paradigms have been used in researching higher education phenomena in China’s process of social transformation.The first might be described as“critical realist,”and the second as“interpretivist.”The book Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities:In the Move to Mass Higher Education,has inclined toward the second paradigm and a central concept is that of“civil society.”However,the authors of this article argue that the concept of“commercial civil society”may better explain the characteristics of Chinese private higher education.Different from civil society that is based on voluntary action and contributions,commercial civil society is characterized by profit making behavior.This article focuses on analyzing the profit making features of Chinese private higher education,and thus aims to supplement the interpretivist analysis presented in the book.The authors believe that the concept of“commercial civil society”not only reflects certain features of the social environment in which Chinese private higher education operates,but may also be helpful for analyzing private higher education phenomena in other countries.

“Screening”or“Meritocracy”:Does the Choice of a Private School Help Students Achieve Higher Academic Performance?-Based on the PISA 2018 Analysis of Four Provinces and Municipalities in China

The introduced policy of“synchronized enrollment of public and private schools”has once again triggered the debate on the effectiveness of public and private schools.Based on the data of the Program for International Student Assessment(PISA)2018 from four Chinese provinces and municipalities,this paper explores whether private schools gain a relative advantage in student academic performance through student“screening”or academic“meritocracy,”through a hierarchical linear model(HLM)and an empirical test of the propensity score matching(PSM).It has been found that the academic performance of students in private schools is significantly better than that in public schools.But with background,metacognitive ability,and learning hours of students in private schools controlled for,such academic performance is not significantly superior,suggesting that private schools rely heavily on student“screening”to achieve a relative advantage in student academic performance.This finding has also verified the scientific nature of the above policy.