Education and Innovation

Another interesting discussion occurred in class this week concerning the Ministry and Minister of Education. The Ministry of Education oversees the entire Chinese educational system, such that every university is centrally managed like an old-style Communist work unit. Such control extends to courses and degrees, in that the Minister of Education maintains a catalog of degrees that can be awarded by Chinese universities, sets the number of students that can be admitted into each university and program, and sets the minimum scores required for admission to degree programs at each university.

As a result 20,000 students across China will soon compete for 20 spots in Peking University's masters program in teaching Chinese as a second language. Our language tutor is applying to a similar program at Beijing Language and Culture University, but is competing with 1,000 classmates for one of 20 spots.

But the interesting discussion concerned a recent request to the Minister to create a new Masters in Human Rights Law at Peking University. Right now the program is only accorded the status of a certificated program. But some professors of international law at PKU would like to elevate the program to the status of the other legal masters' programs, such as international law, economic law, civil law, and criminal law. But the Minister's catalog has not been updated since 1997, and shows no sign of being revised any time soon. And some elements in the Ministry evidently feel that elevating a certificated program in Human Rights Law to the level of the other masters' programs would look bad.

One can speculate about why the Ministry does not want this program to get additional credibility. At a higher level, however, one must wonder about the effects of such centralized planning on Chinese innovation. If the Ministry prevents universities from adjusting their enrollments according to market forces, then how can China expect to compete on the global stage? Granted, this is only one piece in a much larger puzzle, but it's certainly a big one...