Opening Education to the Outside World: Rethinking International Education in China During Post COVID-19 (Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices) 9811948798, 9789811948794

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Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices

Jian Li Eryong Xue

Opening Education to the Outside World Rethinking International Education in China During Post COVID-19

Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices Series Editors Eryong Xue, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Simon Marginson, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Jian Li, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

This book series explores education policy on Pre-K, K-12, post-secondary education, and vocational education, informing multiple experts from academia to practitioner, and specifically pays focuses on new frontiers and cutting-edge knowledge that transforms future education policy development. It has been initiated by a global group of education policy research centers and institutions, whose faculty and staff includes internationally recognized researchers in comparative education policy studies. The series’ mission is to advance the modernization of the education and social construction. This series provides policymakers and researchers with an in-depth understanding of international education policy from diverse perspectives. Topics include cutting-edge and multidisciplinary studies on identifying, analyzing and uncovering education policy reform and practice among the fields in education policy and pedagogy. It addresses how education policy shapes the development of education systems in different regions and seeks to explain how specific education policies concentrate on accelerating the development of quality education and social progress. More importantly, this book series offers policymakers and educational stakeholders, government, and private sectors a comprehensive lens to investigate the trends, rationales of education policy development internationally.

Jian Li · Eryong Xue

Opening Education to the Outside World Rethinking International Education in China During Post COVID-19

Jian Li Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

Eryong Xue Beijing Normal University Beijing, China

Funded by Beijing Social Science Foundation “Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 on the Internationalisation of Universities in Beijing and Research on Policy Innovation of Local Internationalisation” Youth Project (Project No. 21JYC015). ISSN 2730-6356 ISSN 2730-6364 (electronic) Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices ISBN 978-981-19-4879-4 ISBN 978-981-19-4880-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Foreword

This book systematically examines the idea of opening education to the outside world in China during post-COVID-19. It involves investigating the historical international education development, contextually. It also brings specific lens to epitomize the internationalization of education system in China from various dimensions. It involves exploring studying abroad at public expense since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, studying abroad at our own expense in China from the perspective of departmental coordination, Sino-foreign cooperation of running schools in China, Confucius Institutes’ development in China, Luban Workshop development in China, and running Chinese-foreign cooperation education in China. In addition, this book also offers specific suggestion to address various problems of international education development in China during post-COVID-19. Chapter 1 explores studying abroad at public expense since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. On the one hand, in the face of the grim and complex international situation abroad, the arduous tasks of reform, development and stability at home, and the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, China’s undertaking of studying abroad at public expense has faced great challenges. On the other hand, the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core has always attached great importance to the study abroad work and issued important statements on relevant issues many times, which laid the tone, pointed out the direction, and injected impetus into the development of the whole study abroad cause, including government-funded study abroad. This chapter attempts to sort out the evolution of China’s government-funded study abroad policy since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, point out the challenges encountered in its practice, and provide corresponding countermeasures and suggestions, to provide help for the development of China’s government-funded study abroad in the new era. Chapter 2 examines studying abroad at our own expense in China from the perspective of departmental coordination. Since the reform and opening, China has always adhered to the open policy of education. With the development of economy, v

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studying abroad at one’s own expense has become a choice for many people. With the rapid development of China’s economy and the deepening of China’s opening up, the number of people who choose to study abroad at their own expense increases rapidly every year. Take 2019, before the outbreak of the epidemic, as an example, the total number of people studying abroad in China was 703,500, 41,400 more than the previous year, an increase of 6.25%. The policies related to self-funded study abroad mostly revolve around guidance and service. Protection of lawful rights and interests; funding guarantee and ideological and political work are carried out from four directions. These policies usually require the cooperation of multiple departments to achieve their goals. From the perspective of departmental coordination, this chapter will analyze the self-funded overseas study policy since the new era, point out the problems encountered in the implementation of the policy, and try to give countermeasures and suggestion. Chapter 3 concentrates on exploring the Sino-foreign cooperation of running schools in China. Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools is the inevitable trend of economic globalization and education internationalization. After decades of development, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has played an important role in introducing high-quality resources and promoting the development of education in China. In June 2020, the Opinions on Accelerating and Expanding the Opening up of Education in the New Era issued by the Ministry of Education and other eight departments proposed that efforts should be made to remove institutional obstacles and intensify the reform of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Through the analysis of relevant research literature and policies, it is found that Sino-foreign cooperative education pays attention to positioning and objectives, has a relatively clear judgment of existing problems, and has many normative policy tools and measures to support the development of Sino-foreign cooperative education. There are also some problems and challenges in the concrete practice. It is suggested to strengthen the value identification of Sino-foreign cooperative education policy, enhance international understanding and cultural exchange, establish a green channel and emergency mechanism for international exchange, and take multiple measures to improve the quality of talent training. Chapter 4 examines the Confucius Institutes’ development in China. Confucius Institutes are non-profit educational institutions jointly established by China and foreign countries. After analyzing the research on Confucius Institute since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the policy documents issued by the Chinese government and the speeches made by Chinese senior leaders, it is found that the Confucius Institute is still in a dilemma of public opinion, the operation mechanism of school running is not perfect, and the guarantee of school resources is not in place. In the future, efforts should be made to balance the function positioning of language teaching and cultural communication of Confucius Institutes, strengthen market running and government cooperation in running Confucius Institutes to get rid of the dilemma of public opinion in running Confucius Institutes, and improve the operating mechanism of Confucius Institutes in terms of school-running personnel mechanism and data support, etc., and improve the operation mechanism of Confucius Institutes in terms of personnel allocation and fund raising. In terms of teaching

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course resources, mechanism innovation should be made to guarantee the resource supply of Confucius Institutes. Chapter 5 explores the establishment of Luban Workshop, which marks the internationalization of China’s vocational education. In the past five years, 18 Luban Workshops have been established and completed, which has formed a huge influence at home and abroad. The rapid development of Luban Workshop is the inevitable result of the close interdependence and symbiosis between China’s vocational education and industrial economic development, and it is a practical move for vocational education to serve the Belt and Road Initiative. From brand establishment to scale development, Luban Workshop still faces problems of imperfect system and standard, imperfect operation mechanism, and lack of guaranteed system. This chapter discusses measures for sustainable development such as policy and system guarantee, improvement of operation mechanism, and optimization of international standard system. Chapter 6 explores running Chinese-foreign cooperation education in China. Since China’s reform and opening up, in order to adapt to the rapid development of our country’s education business, expand the opening education, accelerate the modernization of education, promote education in our country in the world influence, promote foreign exchanges and cooperation, China education specification of institutions of higher learning outside school activities, on December 31, 2002, the Ministry of Education issued “interim measures for the administration of institutions of higher learning outside of school”. The measures mainly target “higher diploma, degree or non-diploma higher education” conducted overseas by Chinese institutions of higher education and pointed out that in overseas educational activities to scientific development, and actively explore and strengths, at the same time to undertake corresponding legal responsibility, “held shall give priority to with characteristic of Chinese higher education comparative advantage or discipline and taking into full consideration the needs of the country (region) and the development characteristics”, and to safeguard our country’s higher education quality standards and credibility. The policy also proposes clear procedures and norms for the approval of overseas education, including application forms, application time, diploma management, etc. It also makes clear that each school-running force must be approved by each local government and submitted to the Ministry of Education before they can carry out education activities. Chapter 7 examines the education policy of studying in China. From the perspective of public policy analysis, it is of great significance and value to explore the education policy of studying in China in the new era. “Foreign student” the definition of core concept “education policy” to “study abroad education policy” in China, on the basis of existing research results on keywords and visualization analysis under the premise of combing literature review, back in the new era of coming to China to study abroad education policy evolution, reveals new era coming to China to study abroad education policy of the present predicament, put forward the policy suggestions for the development of the students career. The purpose is to further improve and perfect the education policy of studying in China in the new era, to achieve the

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internationalization of China’s higher education to a large extent, and to enhance the comparative advantage of China’s higher education. Chapter 8 explores the internationalization evaluation of higher education in China. Since the reform and opening, the internationalization of higher education in China has experienced long-term and rapid development. Since the national Mediumand Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) was released in 2010, the evaluation of internationalization of higher education has become an important policy issue. This paper sorts out the formation path of higher education internationalization evaluation policy in China since the reform and opening, and sorts out important policies at the national level from the path of higher education internationalization policy leading to evaluation and the path of higher education evaluation policy pointing to internationalization. This paper analyzes the epochmaking role of national Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) in promoting the convergence of higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy to form the evaluation policy of higher education internationalization. This paper briefly summarizes and prospects the development experience of higher education internationalization evaluation policy in China. Beijing, China

Jian Li Eryong Xue

Acknowledgments

Eryong Xue and Jian Li share the co-first authorship and contribute equally to this book. In the realization of this book, our contributors have been supportive and willing to share their opinions and perspective on how to explore the overall Chinese education policy landscape from a concept-added policy chain perspective. We are grateful for the generosity and positive spirit of collegiality. While most of the chapters in this book are original, several are adopted from our previously published material and editors are grateful for the kind permissions granted to facilitate this.

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Contents

1 Studying Abroad at Public Expense Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 The Historical Change of the Policy of Studying Abroad with Public Funds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 COVID-19 Impacts International Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 The International and Domestic Situation Affects the Willingness to Go Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 Application Review Mechanism Affects Talent Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.4 Lack of Management Supervision Affects the Quality of Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.5 Rigid Return Regulations Affect Growth and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions for Challenges and Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Strengthen International Cooperation in Studying Abroad at Public Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Highlight the Educational Status of Studying Abroad at Public Expense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.3 Improve the Service Quality of Government-Funded Overseas Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.4 Promote the Role of Government-Funded Overseas Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 2 3 7 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 12 12

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2 Studying Abroad at Our Own Expense in China: From the Perspective of Departmental Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 China’s Study Abroad Policy Has Undergone Several Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 The Characteristics of Role Innovation Department Coordination Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Analysis of Policy Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Policy Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Analysis Policy Text of Departmental Collaboration Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 The First Is That “Black Intermediary” Still Exists in Various Ways, Threatening the Property Security and Legitimate Rights and Interests of Self-Financed Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 The Self-Funded Overseas Study Shows the Phenomenon of Younger Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 The Safety of Overseas Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Countermeasures, Suggestions, and Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 The Most Fundamental Thing Is to Further Perfect the Intermediary Supervision Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 The Education Department Should Strengthen Policy Guidance for Self-Financed Study Abroad and Improve the Management and Service System . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Sino-Foreign Cooperation of Running Schools in China . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Understanding of the Concept of “Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.2 Changes in Policies for Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.3 Important Issues Concerning Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.4 Theoretical Tools and Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.5 Policy Analysis of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.6 Positioning and Objectives of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.7 Judgment on Existing Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.8 Standardizing the Management of Chinese-Foreign Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.9 Measures to Support the Development of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . .

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3.2 Problems and Challenges of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 There Is Deviation in Target Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Language Barriers and Cultural Conflicts Still Exist . . . . . . . 3.2.3 Major Public Events Affect International Exchanges . . . . . . 3.2.4 The Quality of Personnel Training Needs to Be Improved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 Strengthening the Value Identification of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Enhancing International Understanding and Cultural Exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 Establishing Green Channels for International Exchanges and Emergency Response Mechanisms . . . . . . . . 3.3.4 Take Multiple Measures to Improve the Quality of Personnel Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4 Confucius Institutes’ Development in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 The Literature Review of Confucius Institutes . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Difficulties of Public Opinion in Running a School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 For a Long Time, There Have Been Opinions in the International Community That Confucius Institutes Are Political Propaganda Tools of the Chinese Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 The Operation Mechanism of Running a School Is Not Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.3 Insufficient Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Balancing Language Teaching and Cultural Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Improving Operating Mechanisms in Various Ways . . . . . . . 4.3.3 Taking Multiple Measures to Ensure Resource Supply . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Luban Workshop Development in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 Core Concept: Luban Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Theoretical Tool: Human Capital Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 Overview of the Background of Vocational Education “Going Out” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Policies Related to Luban Workshop Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.3 Main Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 The Standards and Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 Construction Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.4 Operating Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.5 Lack of Operation Guarantee System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Improve Systematic and Scientific Policies to Ensure Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.2 We Will Improve Policies for Ensuring Independent Funding for Various Sources of Funds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.3 Improving Policies to Ensure the Development of International Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Running Chinese-Foreign Cooperation Education in China . . . . . . . . 6.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.1 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.2 Theoretical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1.3 Normative Research: Speculative Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Overseas Education of Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Confucius Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.3 Vocational Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Challenges and Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 Imperfect Policy Guarantee Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.2 Difficulties in Raising Funds for Running the School . . . . . . 6.3.3 The Number of Students Is Lower Than Expected . . . . . . . . 6.3.4 Difficulties in Dispatching Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 Improving Policy Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.2 Establishing a Synergy Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.3 Strengthening Capacity Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.4 Multi-party Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73 73 73 75 75 76 76 77 79 80 80 80 81 81 83 83 83 84 85 85

7 The Education Policy of Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 The Definition of Core Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 International Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 Education Policy and Education Policy for Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 Literature Review of Existing Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Macro-Research on the Education Policy for Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 Study on the Educational Convergence Management of Overseas Students in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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7.2.3 Education Research on Overseas Students in Countries Along the Belt and Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 7.2.4 Study in China Against the Background of COVID-19 . . . . 92 7.2.5 Evolution of the Education Policy for Studying in China in the New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 7.3 The Existing Difficulties of the Education Policy for Studying in China in the New Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 7.3.1 Policy Iteration Is Seriously Lagging, and Supporting Measures Are Not Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 7.3.2 Single Subsidy Policy for International Students, Lack of Competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 7.3.3 The Coordinated Governance System Is Not Complete and the Emergency Response Mechanism Is Not Sound . . . 97 7.3.4 Low Level of Policy and Slow Process of Legalization . . . . 98 7.4 Policy Suggestions for Developing the Cause of Studying in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7.4.1 Accelerating Policy Update and Iteration and Building a Supporting System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7.4.2 Improve the Scholarship System and Enhance International Competitiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 7.4.3 Diversified Governance and Coordination to Enhance Risk Response Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 7.5 Strengthen the Awareness of the Rule of Law and Improve Legislation on Overseas Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 8 The Internationalization Evaluation of Higher Education in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1 Literature Review of Existing Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.1 Internationalization of Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.2 The Important Research Topics of the Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.1.3 The Approach of Higher Education Internationalization Policy Toward Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education from the Beginning of Reform and Opening to the 1980s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.1 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education in the 1990s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.2 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education in the 2000s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.3 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education Since the Release of the Outline of National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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8.3 The Path of Internationalization Compatible with Higher Education Evaluation Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 Higher Education Evaluation Policy and Internationalization from the Reform and Opening Up to the 1990s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 Higher Education Evaluation Policy and Internationalization in the 2000s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.3 Higher Education Evaluation Policies and Internationalization Since the Release of the Outline of National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.4 The Development Characteristics of Higher Education Internationalization Evaluation Policy in China . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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About the Authors

Jian Li is the Assistant Professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS), School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research interests focus on education policy studies, world-class universities, globalization, and internationalization of higher education. She has published over 60 articles and books regarding China’s education policy and comparative higher education studies. She currently also serves as think tanker at China Institute of Education and Social Development, Beijing Normal University. She’s general area of scholarship is on the assessment of education policy within education institutions comparatively. Within this general area, she has pursued four themes: the education policy studies, globalization of higher education, higher education policy and management, undergraduate students’ global learning performance assessment, faculty academic innovation perspective within higher education and comparative higher education development as a framework for institutional research. She has published over 60 articles and 20 monographs and book chapters and delivered over 60 workshops and seminars and offered more than 20 keynote, peer-reviewed and invited presentations throughout the US and in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

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Eryong Xue is the Professor in China Institute of Education Policy, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China. He was awarded Changjiang Scholars (young scholars) Award by the Ministry of Education in China. He is also a research fellow of the center for science and technology and education development strategy in Tsinghua University. He is also a postdoctoral fellow in the public administration of Tsinghua University. He has published more than 100 Chinese and English papers in the field of educational research. He has produced more than 100 CSSCI and SSCI articles. He has won the seventh award for outstanding achievements in scientific research in institutions of higher learning, the fifth national award for outstanding achievements in educational scientific research, and the award for outstanding achievements in political participation and discussion by the central committee for China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD) for more than 60 times. More than 60 independent or co-authored consulting reports were adopted by decision-making departments or approved by leaders. He has presided over more than 10 national or provincial projects such as national social science fund, natural science fund, ministry of education humanities and social science fund, Beijing philosophy and social science project, and participated in 9 national or provincial key projects such as ministry of education philosophy and social science project, and 2 international cooperation projects. The project of national natural science foundation of China was awarded excellent. He has been honored as the advanced worker of summer social practice for students at capital college and technical secondary school, the outstanding talent of Beijing division, the young talent of Beijing social science federation, the outstanding talent of Beijing universities and colleges, and the outstanding talent of Beijing. His main social part-time jobs are: member of the 14th committee of the communist youth league of Beijing, deputy director of the working committee of college students and young teachers, special expert of China education association, China education development strategy society, national academic level office, and director of Beijing postdoctoral fellowship (the 20th session).

Chapter 1

Studying Abroad at Public Expense Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

This chapter explores studying abroad at public expense since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. On the one hand, in the face of the grim and complex international situation abroad, the arduous tasks of reform, development and stability at home, and the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years, China’s undertaking of studying abroad at public expense has faced great challenges. On the other hand, the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core has always attached great importance to the study abroad work and issued important statements on relevant issues many times, which laid the tone, pointed out the direction, and injected impetus into the development of the whole study abroad cause, including government-funded study abroad. This chapter attempts to sort out the evolution of China’s government-funded study abroad policy since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, point out the challenges encountered in its practice, and provide corresponding countermeasures and suggestions, to provide help for the development of China’s government-funded study abroad in the new era.

1.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools At present, most of the research on the policy of government-funded study abroad in China still focuses on the situation from the reform and opening to the first decade of the twentieth century, and few research involve the new trends of relevant policies since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. These studies can be roughly divided into the following three aspects.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_1

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1.1.1 The Historical Change of the Policy of Studying Abroad with Public Funds. The first is the historical change of the policy of studying abroad with public funds. In his dissertation, Yu Haifeng devoted a chapter on the reform and reconstruction of China’s overseas study system since the reform and opening up, which is divided into the following parts: The proposal of reform and opening policy and the revival of overseas study activities, the shift of strategic center and the re-establishment of overseas study system, Deng Xiaoping’s thoughts on overseas study education and the reform of overseas study system, the comparison of overseas study system and the institutionalization of overseas study and the civilianization of overseas study. Liu Yan also discussed the changes of China’s study abroad policy since the founding of New China in her dissertation Study Abroad Policy change (1949–2014), which was divided into the following five stages: Policy initial establishment stage (1949–1956), policy exploration and implementation stage (1957–1966), policy tortuous stagnation stage (1967–1977), policy recovery and adjustment stage (1978–1992), and policy normative development stage (1993–present). They pointed out that the period from 1978 to the mid-1990s was the incubation period, and the work of returning to China began to be paid attention to. Relevant policy documents were issued continuously to encourage returning to China to become the orientation of the policy. National study in fund management committee was established in 1996, marked our country enterprise enters a period of prosperity or high-speed development, mainly reflected in the national study in the establishment of the foundation and the selected policy reform and the improvement of binding return policy, encouraging the construction of the return policy and likely to increase initial success reflects the return policy, etc. (Chen, 2004, 2007; Er, 2001; Feng & Chen, 2021; Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011). The second part is the evaluation and research on the policy of studying abroad at public expense. In the evaluation of the policy of studying abroad at public expense, the subject of evaluation can only be the country, the evaluation must represent the interests of the country, and the country mainly has political, economic, and cultural needs. The object of the evaluation refers to the country’s government-sponsored study abroad policy, which can be divided into three parts. The first part is the input of the policy, which mainly includes three aspects: the number of students selected, the subsidized majors, and the proportion of students sent to the region. The second is the middle section, which mainly includes the links of going abroad, studying abroad, returning to China, and making contributions. The third is the output end, which depends on the results of policy implementation, which can be divided into several dimensions: the achievement degree of policy objectives, policy benefits, and response degree. Finally, the author studies the problems and solutions in the policy of studying abroad with public funds. “Rational Review and Legal Reflections on China’s Study abroad Policy in the Past Thirty Years” analyzes China’s study abroad policy from the legal perspective and points out seven problems: first, to promote study abroad by instructions and speeches rather than by the rule of law; second, the

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department in charge of studying abroad is not very clear; third, study abroad management documents are not strong in technology, low level and confusion; fourth, the legal foundation of the study abroad policy is weak, and the institutional content needs to be enriched; fifth, the lack of sound supervision, inspection of the policy implementation mechanism for studying abroad; sixth, the lack of unobstructed channels for the relief of the rights of those studying abroad; and seven, study abroad management documents are not open or impossible to find. To solve these problems, it is necessary to increase the study abroad law research, establishing a legal system for studying abroad with the International Education Law as the core; the formulation of legal documents for studying abroad should pay attention to institutionalization, technicalities, and legal language. Play the role of the market and publicize management documents of studying abroad and relevant scientific research achievements. We will reform the management of studying abroad (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu et al., 2020). In general, the research on the policy of studying abroad at public expense in China has been relatively rich and in-depth, but there are also some problems. The characteristics and deficiencies of the current study abroad policy research in China in the article review of Study abroad Research in China are: Current Situation, Problems, and Development Trend. First, focus on long-term overall research, lack of specific research on a specific period; second, the research on government-sponsored study abroad is far more than that on self-funded study abroad, and the governmentsponsored study abroad is the main research object; thirdly, more attention is paid to the study of overseas students after they return to China, especially the study of their adaptability after they return to China. Less attention is paid to the life and study status of overseas students before and after they go abroad. Fourth, most of the countermeasures are due to the lack of empirical analysis, not strong operability.

1.1.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data According to the Outline of National Medium—and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) issued by the Working Group Office of the Outline of National Medium—and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan in 2010, “Innovate and improve the mechanism of government-sponsored study abroad and open the selection of outstanding students to study in high-level universities and research institutions abroad. We will strengthen policy guidance for selffunded overseas study and increase funding and rewards for outstanding self-funded students. Adhere to the “support to study abroad, encouraging home and to go free ‘policy, improve the level of service and management of students studying abroad”, the requirements of the relevant for further study abroad funding management and improve the efficient use of funds; on November 2, 2013, the Ministry of

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Finance and the Ministry of Education jointly issued “studying abroad funds management method”. Starting from the aspects of concept definition, budget management, revenue management, expenditure management, supervision and inspection, and performance appraisal, the measures make detailed provisions on who will be supported, where the money will come from, how the money should be spent, and how the supervision and evaluation will be conducted. The formulation of this document provides a specific institutional guarantee for the financial support of governmentfunded and self-funded overseas study. On the morning of October 21, 2013, General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Founding of Western Returned Scholars Association, which was held in the Great Hall of the People. He made it clear that “the Party and the state will follow the policy of supporting overseas study, encouraging return to China, coming and going freely, and playing their role. To do a good job in the work of overseas students as an important task of the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the country through human resources”, the 16-character study abroad policy in the new period was thus established. Compared with the original 12-word policy of “support for studying abroad, encourage returning to China, and come and go freely”, the new policy added the content of “play a role”, showing that the Party and state leaders attach great importance to the work of studying abroad and eager to see more overseas students return to work and serve the country. Therefore, on November 28, 2013, the Party Group of the Ministry of Education of the COMMUNIST Party of China issued the Opinions on In-depth Study and Implementation of the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Series of Speeches in the Education System, pointing out that it is necessary to thoroughly study and understand General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourse on strengthening educational exchanges and opening up, and strive to create a new situation of foreign exchange and cooperation in education. To learn and understand the spirit of the speech, it is necessary to study the new situation of education opening, promote reform and development by opening, strive to create a new situation of education exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries, and make positive contributions to promoting Sino-foreign educational and cultural exchanges and promoting the development of Sino-foreign relations. Starting from the background of the new situation of education opening to the outside world, more attention has been paid to the overall study abroad work and higher requirements have been put forward (Chen, 2004, 2007; Er, 2001; Feng & Chen, 2021; Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011). Solstice December 12 to 13, 2014, the national work conference on studying abroad was held in Beijing, general secretary made important instructions, Xi stressed in the new situation, study work to adapt to the developing trend of country and the party and the nation’s overall work, overall plan of studying abroad and study abroad in China, the integrated use of international and domestic two kinds of resources, to train more talented people. We will strive to open up new prospects for overseas study and make new and greater contributions to the realization of the “Two Centenary Goals” and the Chinese Dream of great national renewal. The Ministry

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of Education responded positively to this, pointing out in the Main Points of work of the Ministry of Education in 2015 issued on January 31, 2015, that it should implement the spirit of the National Conference on Study Abroad and formulate regulations on the Administration of Government-Sponsored Study Abroad. On July 1, 2015, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly issued the Action Plan for Study Abroad work 2015–2017, which made it clear to thoroughly implement the spirit of the 18th CPC National Congress, the Third and fourth plenary sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee, and the National Conference on Study Abroad Work. We will adhere to the policy of “supporting study abroad, encouraging return to China, coming and going freely, and playing a role”, and promote the connotation of government-sponsored study abroad. The specific content includes promoting the steady growth of government-sponsored study abroad, promoting the construction of laws and regulations for governmentsponsored study abroad, enhancing the service capacity of government-sponsored study abroad, and effectively improving the benefits of government-sponsored study abroad. It also emphasizes the need to strengthen overall coordination, funding guarantee, and team building. This action plan is characterized by multi-department coordination, clear time, and clear tasks and has achieved great achievements in a short period of time. According to statistics, in 2017, the number of Chinese students studying abroad exceeded 600,000 for the first time, reaching 608,400, an increase of 11.74% year on year, maintaining China’s position as the world’s largest source of international students. In the same year, the number of overseas students returning home increased 11.19% from the previous year to 489,900. Among them, 31,200 were sent to 94 countries to study abroad. 12,800 visiting scholars, accounting for 41.17% of the total number sent, and 13,200 master and doctoral students, accounting for 42.29%, have cultivated many urgently needed and strategic reserve talents with international vision and competitiveness (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu et al., 2020). On July 13, in order to implement several Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Opening Up Education in the New Era issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council and Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Commerce with the authorization of the State Council, the Ministry of Education has taken the lead in formulating the Document “Promoting education Along the Belt and Road” and proposed the implementation of the Silk Road Study Abroad promotion plan to encourage more Chinese students to study in countries along the Belt and Road, led by government-sponsored study. Adhering to the principle of “paying equal attention to studying abroad and in China, to studying at public expense and at one’s own expense, to expanding the scale and improving the quality, to managing according to law and improving services, and to cultivating talents and giving full play to their roles”, we will improve the whole chain of management and service system for overseas students to ensure their safe, healthy, and successful study abroad. The above policy documents mark that China has officially integrated the study abroad work into the national development strategy

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of “One Belt and One Road”, injecting continuous vitality into the development of government-funded study abroad (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu et al., 2020). On July 25, 2017, to carry out the central “on deepening the reform of talent development system and mechanism of opinions”, implement fundamental task, promote the world first-class university and the first-class discipline construction, and comprehensively improve the quality of higher education, the education ministry put forward the opinion on deepening the reform of the system of talent development mechanism. According to the guideline, it is necessary to strengthen talent training for international organizations, vigorously implement the “Internship Program for international organizations” sponsored by the China Scholarship Fund, and expand the number of professionals sent by the state to study abroad. China’s government-sponsored study abroad work has gradually become meticulous and professional, no longer pursuing quantity in the past, but making precise efforts. By promoting government-sponsored study abroad, we focus on cultivating talents in key fields and related professionals needed by the country, including talents from international organizations. Another document related to this is the “Opinions on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Postgraduate Education in the New Era” jointly issued by the Ministry of Education, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance on September 4, 2020, which also states that “the global distribution of state-sponsored postgraduate students to study abroad will be optimized. We will innovate talent training programs for international organizations and intensify efforts to train reserve talents for international organizations”. Second, the relevant certificates submitted to the embassies and consulates by the government-sponsored graduate students when they apply for returning to China in advance should be changed into written commitments by the applicants. Third, medical records of hospitals at or above the county level should be presented instead of the physical examination certificate of domestic medical institutions submitted by government-sponsored graduate students when they apply to return to the country of study for further completion of their studies after recuperation from illness. The adjustment of these relevant policies and measures greatly facilitates the certification procedures of governmentsponsored graduate students and fully embodies the people-oriented thought, indicating that China’s state-sponsored study abroad-related management is becoming more refined and humanized. In May 2020, the Ministry of Education and other eight departments issued the Opinions of the Ministry of Education and other departments on Accelerating and Expanding the Opening up of Education in the New Era, which made key arrangements for the opening of education in the new era, adhering to the principle of internal and external coordination, improving quality and efficiency, taking the initiative to lead, and orderly opening up. While strengthening the brand of “Study in China” and promoting the development of students’ vision of studying in China, we have introduced several high-quality education resources from abroad through Chinese-foreign cooperation to ensure that students can study abroad without going abroad during the epidemic. We have actively explored cooperation channels for high-quality education resources and expanded the space for studying abroad. In addition, great efforts have been made to improve the “safe study abroad” mechanism to further institutionalize and normalize the effective measures found in the process

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of responding to the epidemic. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China has made remarkable achievements in the opening of education, and the international influence of education has reached a new level. From 2016 to 2019, 2.518 million Chinese studied abroad and 2.13 million returned to China, accounting for nearly 80% (79.9%) of the total. In the past five years, about 80,000 government-sponsored students were sent abroad. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China’s overall study abroad undertaking still cannot be underestimated. Therefore, it is necessary to further promote the improvement of relevant supporting policies to cope with the “post-epidemic era” that may last for a long time (Chen, 2004, 2007; Er, 2001; Feng & Chen, 2021; Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011).

1.2 Challenges and Problems in Practice 1.2.1 COVID-19 Impacts International Education The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in late 2019 and spread around the world, is still wreaking havoc across the globe and has had a devastating impact on education systems around the world. In August 2020, the United Nations released a briefing that identified school closures in more than 160 countries, affecting more than 1 billion students. Therefore, it is foreseeable that China’s government-sponsored study abroad will continue to struggle to develop under the influence of the epidemic for some time to come. First, students who are expected to study abroad may give up the opportunity to apply based on the realistic situation. Second, for those students who insist on studying abroad, the epidemic will undoubtedly cause serious obstacles to their plans, such as the rejection of their schools, the rejection of their visas, or even the inability to enter the country at all. Finally, even if all the procedures from application to dispatch are successfully completed, the other schools cannot exclude the adoption of online courses and other forms of “local internationalization” teaching, which is a great negative factor for students’ learning and overall training quality. To sum up, the impact of COVID-19 on international education is undoubtedly the most important and direct issue facing China’s government-funded study abroad program at this stage.

1.2.2 The International and Domestic Situation Affects the Willingness to Go Abroad With the enhancement of China’s comprehensive national strength and international status, Western countries led by the United States are increasingly worried about the impact of China’s rise on their international hegemony, so most of them are

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hostile and confrontational. The atmosphere of “new Cold War” is gradually strong, and international exchanges are hindered by politics. In addition, even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the United States under the Trump administration had begun to vigorously implement unilateralist and anti-globalization policies and measures to suppress students from China, which will undoubtedly reduce the enthusiasm of Chinese students to study abroad. In the future, even after the epidemic ends, the explosive growth of studying abroad in the past may not occur again, which is caused by the regularity of Chinese students studying abroad, not the epidemic. Firstly, the rapid development of China’s higher education and the steady improvement of university rankings make it less necessary and valuable to study abroad. Secondly, with the rise of anti-China forces abroad, patriotism in China is also rising, which makes studying abroad bring some psychological burden. In a word, both domestic and international situations have impacts on the willingness of overseas students to study abroad, which will naturally become one of the challenges faced by the undertaking of studying abroad with public fund (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu et al., 2020).

1.2.3 Application Review Mechanism Affects Talent Selection At present, the application procedure of state-sponsored study abroad led by China Scholarship Council is very complete, and the applicant, accepting institution and examining department, can complete the whole procedure without even meeting each other. But there are also problems with getting the applicants to the right schools and majors, and with getting the right applicants to the right departments. First of all, from the perspective of the applicant, the applicant’s primary goal is to successfully send and access the national financial support, and professional in choosing a school is often used when a compromise thinking, namely on the one hand, tries to meet the requirements of national study in fund management committee, to strive for school teacher, on the other hand, to consider whether their own would be able to get invitation letter or letter of admission. Cannot blindly go after famous brand. In this way, it is unknown whether the choice of applicants can not only respond to the needs of the country and society, but also meet their own interests and learning background. At the same time, they can successfully complete their studies, which will not be considered as the top priority of applicants. Secondly, it is also worth considering how much the audit department can know about the applicant in the general operation process like an assembly line. To sum up, the current report review mechanism and inhumane stylized enough cannot heal the existing personal fissure between utilitarianism and national value, regardless of the applicant or audit institutions; in fact, there are certain blindness, which is harmful for real talent selection, at least unsatisfactory (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011).

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1.2.4 Lack of Management Supervision Affects the Quality of Training At present, the work of studying abroad at public expense in China is mostly focused on the “before” and “after” parts; that is, the former focuses on the application review, and the latter manages the service of returning home. On the contrary, less attention is paid to the “in” part, which has the longest time span, and there is a lack of timely and effective management and supervision for overseas students. On the one hand, this will lead to “government-funded study abroad” into “government-funded travel”, such as some poor self-control, learning willingness is not high students play all day long indulge in the beautiful scenery and novel things abroad, completely put their studies on the side, eventually to waste. Even for those students who really want to study abroad, if there is no appropriate management and supervision system, it will be difficult to detect the difficulties they face and the help they need in their study and life abroad, which will inevitably affect the quality of training. On the other hand, the management and supervision in the process of studying abroad are closely related to the return to China and the service. Only when the usual work is done properly can the students have a continuous understanding of the change of mentality and facilitate the discovery and solution of problems. If the relevant work is completely piled up until the time of return, it will naturally be overwhelmed, and at the same time, it will greatly reduce the possibility of the smooth return of students studying abroad on public funds and make the students who originally “study but can return” become “study but cannot return”.

1.2.5 Rigid Return Regulations Affect Growth and Development There is no denying that it is natural for state-funded students to return home after completing their studies, but we should not make relevant regulations on returning home mechanical and rigid, which is detrimental to the cultivation of talents. First of all, for those projects already short time limit, such as 6 months to 12 months of the project, if blindly strident calls for the students must return, then so will inevitably lead to was just adapt to the life they went abroad, learning has not on track to begin to prepare packing, this is not conducive to the development of the students; secondly, even for those programs with a maximum time limit of two years, we should also be aware that the rigid return period may in many cases interrupt and terminate the plans of some government-sponsored students who need to stay abroad for a longer period of time, or even make them give up the idea of returning to China altogether. Finally, the current COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder that no one can predict what will happen in the future, and that a flexible approach is better able to adapt to possible changes than a mechanical return timeline.

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1.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions for Challenges and Problems 1.3.1 Strengthen International Cooperation in Studying Abroad at Public Expense The more volatile the international situation becomes, the more important it is to strengthen international cooperation to study abroad at public expense. On the one hand, as COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, efforts should be made to strengthen international cooperation on education to fight the epidemic and provide guarantee for international cooperation on studying abroad at public expense. In fact, they are all promising new fields. Studying abroad at public expense cannot and should not be stalled because of the outbreak; it is not only associated with the individual’s destiny, but also draws the country’s future development, so we must change ideas, expand their horizons, and break the inherent concept, conducting education in disease resistance of international cooperation at the same time looking for new way of studying abroad at public expense development. On the other hand, in the current world, increasingly divided but still inseparable background, we should focus on strengthening the international cooperation of foreign affairs departments of education, to lay a foundation for the international cooperation of studying abroad at public expense. Reverse the current world globalization, unilateralism and conservatism, populist ideological trend, especially the right-wing populism has strong racism, nationalism, internally for white ethnic interests first, safeguard the interests of the nationalism, willing to take political polarization method, through the inverse globalization absorb its economic interests, Against the economic and cultural value of immigration to the West. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the stability, continuity, and predictability of mutual policies based on full understanding and respect, improve the communication and docking mechanism, and counter potential policy risks with the improvement of cooperation policy mechanism (Chen, 2004; Er, 2001; Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011).

1.3.2 Highlight the Educational Status of Studying Abroad at Public Expense Study abroad education, especially the education of studying abroad funded by the state, and its status should be very noble and unquestionable. On the one hand, although China has achieved the “popularization” of higher education and the quality of higher education is constantly improving, the state-funded education to study abroad is still higher than the current general higher education, which can be basically

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divided into the category of “elite education”. The “elite” said both countries send out of talent should be one of the best of the students, but it also means that they are going to the more developed countries than we learn more advanced technology, culture and ideology, and to better the construction of our motherland, so studying abroad at public expense education status should be is a very noble. On the other hand, as Mr. Gu Ming yuan said, “There are doubts about the internationalization of education, global education governance and the community of shared future for mankind. We believe there is no need to have any doubts. Globalization will not fade away and China will be more open”. The status of studying abroad education is also beyond doubt. Even if the environment at home and abroad is not friendly to students, studying abroad education is undoubtedly correct and beneficial, and should be vigorously promoted. Therefore, from policy, public opinion, society, and other aspects, we should focus on highlighting the important educational status of government-funded study abroad, build trust, eliminate suspicion, and encourage more aspiring young students to actively apply for government-sponsored study abroad programs. After all, education cannot be closed behind closed doors, and the pace of “going out” of education should never stop. Studying abroad is always an important channel to cultivate talents (Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011).

1.3.3 Improve the Service Quality of Government-Funded Overseas Study Improving the service quality of government-funded study abroad is a full-process and long-term work. First of all, in applying for examination and approval, should change the traditional ideas, will originally cold approval into humanized service, at the same time strengthening the cooperation of the relevant departments, evaluation experts, schools, instructors and students apply for mutual communication and cooperation, let the applicant to jump out of a single category of utilitarianism, myself comprehensive need to think about their needs and country, make the right choice of application, but also enhance the understanding of the relevant agencies and personnel to the applicant, so as to select the real suitable candidates; secondly, in the process of studying abroad, students who have been sent should not be ignored. A timely, regular, and efficient communication and liaison mechanism should be established among students, administrative departments, foreign affairs departments, and tutors to grasp relevant information in time and provide targeted management and services. We should not only understand their research trends and academic progress, but also care about their living conditions and psychological state, so that they can feel the warmth of the motherland and the government, and successfully complete the entrusted task. Finally, in the service of returning to China, the time of returning to China should be flexibly arranged and designed so as not to forcibly interrupt the ongoing study and research. At the same time, supervision and service should

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be strengthened to ensure that the students who study abroad on public funds have accomplished their study and are willing to return home and satisfied with their return.

1.3.4 Promote the Role of Government-Funded Overseas Study “Playing a role” is the latest addition to the 16-character policy of “supporting study abroad, encouraging return to China, coming and going freely, and playing a role”. If those who study abroad at public expense do not play a role in the end, all that has been done before is in vain. Theoretically speaking, those who are funded by the government to study abroad have already gone through layers of examination and approval, so they should have clear pertinence and directionality and be able to serve the needs of the country. There is no reason why they cannot play their role. So, if a returned student fails to function after all, it is not so much that he is ineffective, but that the government has designed him to be ineffective. The government must assume the most important responsibility in this regard. On the one hand, from the beginning of the assignment, it should make a good plan for the positions that each person may serve in the future, and continuously guide and adjust them in the whole process of studying abroad with public funds, so that all relevant people can play their roles after returning to China. On the other hand, efforts should be made to ensure the reasonable treatment of urgently needed international talents. Although it is natural for them to take the national money to go out and come back to serve the country, as high-end talents, they should be given corresponding resource security and social status to prevent talent waste or even brain drain (Chen, 2004, 2007; Er, 2001; Feng & Chen, 2021; Gu & Teng, 2020; Liu, 2009; Liu et al., 2020; Su et al., 2011).

References Chen, C. (2007). 1978–2006: The evolution and future trend of China’s overseas study policy. Higher Education Exploration, 20(5), 30–34. Chen, X. (2004). The evolution and effect of the policy of government-sponsored overseas education in Mainland China since the reform and opening. Fudan Education Forum, 20(3), 12–16. Feng, J., & Chen, H. F. (2021). Review and reflection on the policy of returning to China after the reform and opening. World Education Information, 25(2), 60–64. Er, Y. (2001). Review of China’s current policy of studying abroad. Jiangsu Higher Education, 20(5), 101–104. Gu, M. Y., & Teng, J. (2020). New challenges and opportunities for international education exchange and cooperation in the post-epidemic era. Comparative Education Research, 42(9), 3–7. Liu, G. (2009). Rational review and legal thinking of China’s overseas study policy in recent 30 years. Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 39(6), 15–24.

References

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Liu, J., Gao, Y., Altbach, P. G., & De Vit, H. (2020). Altbach on the impact of COVID-19 on the internationalization of global higher education. Modern University Education, 36(6), 31–38. Su, Y., Hu, Q., & Zhang, X. (2011). A review of China’s study abroad research: Current situation, problems and development trend. Higher Education Exploration, 20(3), 147–150.

Chapter 2

Studying Abroad at Our Own Expense in China: From the Perspective of Departmental Coordination

This chapter examines studying abroad at our own expense in China from the perspective of departmental coordination. Since the reform and opening, China has always adhered to the open policy of education. With the development of economy, studying abroad at one’s own expense has become a choice for many people. With the rapid development of China’s economy and the deepening of China’s opening up, the number of people who choose to study abroad at their own expense increases rapidly every year. Take 2019, before the outbreak of the epidemic, as an example, the total number of people studying abroad in China was 703,500, 41,400 more than the previous year, an increase of 6.25%. The policies related to self-funded study abroad mostly revolve around guidance and service. Protection of lawful rights and interests; funding guarantee and ideological and political work are carried out from four directions. These policies usually require the cooperation of multiple departments to achieve their goals. From the perspective of departmental coordination, this chapter will analyze the self-funded overseas study policy since the new era, point out the problems encountered in the implementation of the policy, and try to give countermeasures and suggestion.

2.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tool In 2011, the figure was 339,700, doubling the overall number of overseas students. Although the statistics in 2019 did not give the specific number of students studying abroad at their own expense, considering the proportion of students studying abroad at their own expense and at public expense in previous years, the number of students studying abroad at their own expense should occupy the majority. Self-financed students have become a large and important subject in the field of education opening to the outside world. Compared with other education policies, the number of policy

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_2

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documents on self-funded study abroad is relatively small and the system is not obvious. The current research on this is also relatively incomplete. This chapter will try to analyze China’s self-funded overseas study policies from the perspective of departmental coordination in the new era.

2.1.1 China’s Study Abroad Policy Has Undergone Several Adjustments Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China’s study abroad policy has undergone several adjustments. At first, the policy was strictly controlled, and self-funded study was always restricted. Since the reform and opening, with the development of national economy and society, self-funded study abroad has gradually been liberalized. One of the landmark policies was the Provisional Regulations on Self-funded Study abroad proposed in 1984, after which self-funded study abroad was fully liberalized in China. With the increasing number of overseas students, the number of countries studying abroad, and the increasing demand of people studying abroad, the policy for self-funded overseas study has become more and more perfect. Since the new era, China has issued a series of policy documents related to selffinanced study abroad. This study collected all the representative and significant policy documents since 2012, a total of 13. For studying abroad at one’s own expenses policy of related research is less, and the existing articles’ effectiveness is not strong, the number of academic journals published after 2010 is more limited, much of this is the policy of development and evolution, summarizes the law of development policy and development trend of the analysis of policy, and gives the corresponding policy recommendations. More representative is MiaoDan countries of the policy of our country go abroad at one’s own expenses study abroad and the trend of sustainable development and the characteristics of the Times in Chinese go abroad at one’s own expenses study abroad career, basic experience and policy suggestions, which mentioned the number of at one’s own expenses study abroad in China will increase steadily, and the elite, the diffusion and the trend of the age. Finally, the author gives some suggestions on how to bring the reform measures of overseas study policy to the front line, benefit more overseas students, and strengthen publicity and in-depth investigation. The article can be used as a background for the policy of self-funded study in China in the new era. Wang Tingyu’s review and outlook, study abroad education in our country ten years on the national medium and long-term education reform and development plan outline (2010–2020), for ten years of study in education development goals, main tasks, work principle and development has carried on the system summary, reflects the international mechanism of constantly improve, also on the analysis of the study in education deficit. In addition, the author gives some policy suggestions, such as overall planning of overseas study policy, strengthening cooperation mechanism, and perfecting relevant laws and regulations (Li, 2021a, 2021b; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022; Liu, 2016; Wang, 2010; Yan & Weng, 2013).

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2.1.2 The Characteristics of Role Innovation Department Coordination Model Existing research or from macro-policy overall development trend, or from a single problem, analysis at one’s own expenses study abroad policy in the possible problems and countermeasures in the implementation process, this chapter is based on the current our country go abroad at one’s own expenses study abroad policy text mostly involves multiple departments, and the characteristics of role innovation department coordination model are used to analyze the existing policy. According to the characteristics and advantages of departmental coordination, policy suggestions are given. “The integration of various departments between governments, the high degree of coordination between government systems, and the mutual cooperation between departments can effectively avoid the overlapping of government functions and multiple management, so as to improve administrative efficiency and maximize government effectiveness”. As a decision-making model, this kind of departmental coordination theory provides a theoretical basis for the cooperation between government departments. In the process of policy design and implementation, the establishment of an effective and reasonable coordination mechanism between different departments plays a strong role in promoting the realization of policy objectives. In the implementation process of policies related to self-financed study abroad, it is impossible to achieve the effect of policy formulation and implementation solely by relying on the education department alone. It is usually necessary to cooperate with other departments to jointly complete the policy formulation and implementation process and realize common public value. For example, in the work Action Plan for Overseas Students 2015–2017, the education department needs the cooperation of the financial department to complete the scholarship-related projects for outstanding self-funded overseas students in the process of formulating the policies for the help and management of self-funded overseas students. This paper will use this model to analyze the self-financed overseas study policy texts since the new era, focusing on the security and management of overseas students mentioned in it, analyzing the problems and challenges in the current policy implementation process, and trying to give corresponding policy suggestion (Li, 2021a, 2021b).

2.2 Analysis of Policy Texts 2.2.1 Policy Content Based on the in-depth reading and summary of 14 selected policies on self-financed study abroad since the new era, it can be concluded that the contents of self-financed study abroad policies in this stage can be roughly divided into guidance and service.

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By corresponding these subjects to the departments involved in the policy implementation process, we can help analyze the characteristics of self-funded overseas study policy in the new era under the departmental collaboration model.

2.2.2 Analysis Policy Text of Departmental Collaboration Model Policies to guide and provide services for self-financed overseas students involve the Ministry of Education, the National Medium—and Long-term Education Reform and Development Program Working Group Office, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other departments, and these policies are more to provide institutional guarantee for self-financed overseas students. The guarantee involves many aspects, such as effective guidance for overseas study groups and the provision of various intermediary services before going abroad. For example, it is mentioned in the Action Plan for Studying abroad from 2015 to 2017 that “self-funded study abroad should be guided to develop in an orderly manner, laws and regulations more in line with market demand should be formulated and implemented at a faster pace, industry organizations should play a collaborative governance role, and selfregulatory mechanisms should be established for self-funded study abroad”. The Ministry of Education should cooperate with the legislative departments to promote the construction of a good self-financed study abroad ecological system. Secondly, carry out and promote various international cooperation and exchanges to create a good environment for studying abroad. Some scholars put forward the concept of “student-abroad diplomacy” in their studies, that is, “the increasing number of Chinese students studying abroad and returning to China has formed a new public diplomacy force and become a part of the non-governmental diplomatic force”. It is a win-win cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, the “One Belt And One Road” policy put forward and also offers a new way for our country at one’s own expenses study abroad, in the general office of the central committee of the communist party of China, issued by the General Office of the State Council “about to do a good job of opening education in the new period of several opinions are pointed out, to the optimization study abroad services, the role of play to the education in all the way’ ‘area construction, We will form a situation of education opening up featuring priority promotion and win-win cooperation”. At present, most self-financed students in China choose developed countries such as Europe and the United States. With the propaganda and guidance of the Ministry of Education on the choice of destination countries, studying in countries with the “Belt and Road Policy” will also become the scope of choice for self-financed students and the direction of cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education. Finally, the service system of diploma certification and employment opportunities should be formed after returning to China. Such as study abroad in 2015–2017 work action plan “for foreign students to return home after a series of

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supporting measures have very detailed provisions, namely” simplifying the students studying abroad to return relevant formalities, effectively solve the students studying abroad to settle practical problems such as employment, encourage students studying abroad to innovative entrepreneurship, encourage students studying abroad in cooperation between domestic research and personnel training, make a difference, and promote the country’s economic and social development. In this process, it is necessary to cooperate with the household registration department, human resources and social security department, educational certification institutions, and other departments to simplify the process of returning overseas students and realize the return of talents. Compared with the above various forms of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, the fund guarantee policy for self-financed students is relatively simple, mainly reflected in the way of subsidizing and rewarding excellent self-financed students. “This policy is approved by the Ministry of Education and will be awarded once a year. For those who are studying abroad and those who plan to return to China, the award scale is 600 and 50, and the amount is 6,000 and 10,000 DOLLARS respectively”. This policy aims to help self-funded overseas students who are currently studying for degrees abroad and those who have completed their studies and are willing to return to China. The fundamental purpose is to show the help and care for self-funded overseas students and to enhance the willingness of completed students to return (Liu, 2016; Wang, 2010; Yan & Weng, 2013). The protection of the legitimate rights and interests of self-funded students studying abroad can be divided into property security and personal security. Property security is reflected in the regulation and supervision of the overseas study service market mentioned in the policy. In this process, the education department works closely with the finance department, the public security department, and the industry and commerce department. In 2013 and 2014, the Ministry of Education and the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued relevant matters concerning the management of intermediary service agencies for self-financed study abroad. Although this policy has become invalid now, it also reflects the attention and management measures of the education department for intermediary service agencies. It mentioned “to improve the rules and regulations, improve the supervision system, give play to the role of social organizations in collaborative management”. A series of subsequent policies, such as The Main Points of work of the Ministry of Education in 2015 and Several Opinions on The Opening up of Education in the New Era, have made supplements to this system, improving information disclosure and introducing entry mechanism, complaint mechanism, and other management systems. It provides a systematical guarantee for the property safety of self-financed students. In 2016, the Model Text of Intermediary Service Contract for Self-Financed Study Abroad jointly issued by the Ministry of Education and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce thoroughly standardized the contract text of intermediary service agencies, forming an orderly management of the overseas study market. Personal safety is reflected in safety education, safe study abroad, and other relevant policies. First of all, education departments should organize and support overseas study service agencies and other organizations to carry out pre-departure training for overseas study personnel before they set out and arrive at the destination country. “Cross-cultural

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education, mental health and emergency management will be integrated into the training”. The training aims to prepare students to study abroad at their own expense and improve their safety and self-prevention awareness. In coordination with social organizations, training and publicity are used to prevent personal safety problems. Secondly, after overseas students arrive in their study countries, “education, diplomacy, overseas institutions and overseas students” groups should be strengthened to carry out safety education and guidance for overseas students in various forms and channels. It is unrealistic to rely only on the education department to guarantee the safety of overseas students. Local overseas institutions, diplomatic departments, and embassies should cooperate to ensure the health, safety, and legitimate rights and interests of overseas students (Liu, 2016; Wang, 2010).

2.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice Although the Ministry of Education has cooperated with various departments and social organizations to provide economic, institutional, and security guarantees for self-funded overseas students, there are still various challenges and problems in practice.

2.3.1 The First Is That “Black Intermediary” Still Exists in Various Ways, Threatening the Property Security and Legitimate Rights and Interests of Self-Financed Students Despite the introduction of a lot of management policies, there is still a certain chaos in the current overseas study intermediary service agencies. With the increasing number of self-funded overseas study groups, overseas study agencies also show a trend of rapid growth, but the service quality of most of them does not reach the standard consumers want. People Daily reported in 2019, through the eye check retrieval contains “study abroad intermediary service” enterprise, found that more than 4000 showed the abnormal operation, and more than 900 existed legal information, that is, in the process of the vigorous development of agents, how to guarantee the quality of services has become the difficult point of the problem. Of course, this problem is only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to abnormal operation, the problem of arbitrary fees, difficult to refund fees, false promises to students’ parents, falsified application materials, or problems with school qualifications are common and difficult to cure in current overseas study institutions. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. First, there are blind spots in the approval and supervision system of relevant departments, leading to the endless problems of overseas study service agencies. Second, consumers, namely students who study abroad at their own expense and their parents,

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have blind faith in price and think that high price means better service, which ultimately leads to the chaos of high and arbitrary charges by intermediary agencies. In addition, regarding the problem of falsified application materials, the current supervision department of overseas study supervision is insufficient to the application materials, resulting in the problem of false application. Once, the phenomenon of being “persuaded to withdraw” due to false application materials was found, and parents and children also suffered property losses while falsifying. At present, the existence of “black intermediary” in the market disturbs the normal market atmosphere and brings a lot of hidden dangers to students and families who study abroad at their own expense, which is a difficult problem to be solved urgently.

2.3.2 The Self-Funded Overseas Study Shows the Phenomenon of Younger Age In recent years, the trend of studying abroad at younger age, “little overseas students”, and other words have become a hot topic in the field of studying abroad. At present, the concept of “young international students” usually refers to those who have not yet entered university study, which ranges from primary and secondary schools to university preparatory and language training schools. The characteristics of this group of overseas students are young, and they study abroad before finishing their middle school education in China. There may be some problems in language, self-care ability, learning ability, and psychological maturity. At present, the most prominent problems facing the tide of young students studying abroad are: Language due to the age of the young students is too small, no pass, culture shock, and self-discipline ability is poor, for a long period of time abroad without parental supervision and company, lead to this part of the students may be infected with learning disabilities, gambling, drugs and other serious vices, for the growth of the teenagers and the development of a family is a fatal blow. And for parents, the huge tuition fees they spend to raise their children become a waste, causing the family to suffer financial losses. Some comments and reports even directly classified these problematic young students as “study abroad garbage”, criticizing them for their extravagant life, extravagance, moral degradation, spiritual decadence, and even illegal problems such as drug addiction and gambling. In view of this problem, the most urgent thing to do is to find solutions instead of just criticizing these overseas students. How to solve the dilemma faced by the young students and their parents from the policy level and prevent such a phenomenon from happening again when the current self-funded study abroad is a big difficulty. In addition, with the easing of the brain drain, new problems emerge. According to the statistics of students studying abroad in 2019, “from 1978 to 2019, the number of students studying abroad totaled 6,566,600, of whom 1,656,200 were studying or researching abroad; 4,904,400 people have completed their studies, and 4,231,700 people, or 86.28 percent of those who have completed their studies, have returned to China”. The problem of brain drain of overseas students has been

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alleviated to a certain extent. But the loss of top talent still needs improvement. At present, with the development of overseas students returning to China showing a rising trend, the problem of difficult employment of returned students has become prominent. Due to the wave of self-funded overseas study, the number of overseas students has increased rapidly, the threshold for overseas students to study abroad has become lower, and the major choices of overseas students are relatively single. In addition, under the current situation of the epidemic, many enterprises are laying off employees, which has gradually led to the difficult employment of returned overseas students. How to solve the loss of high-end talents and the employment of returned students is also an important issue at present (Li, 2021a, 2021b; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022; Liu, 2016; Wang, 2010; Yan & Weng, 2013).

2.3.3 The Safety of Overseas Students Security problem is an important problem highlighted in recent years. The safety of the students not only refers to the narrow sense of personal safety during the period of study abroad, but also protects itself from the various forms of fraud threatens property safety, don’t be deceived by black intermediary institutions led to the our country did not have inspection by a rating group like the education degree and degree, also include some of the individuals and institutions are not foreign penetration, a threat to national political security, and so on. Of course, the personal safety of international students is one of the most basic needs and needs to be guaranteed. Second, for students phone fraud occurs frequently, almost everyone had overseas experience of the students got a call from various forms of fraud, disguised in a variety of forms, such as express delivery problems, involving illegal crime, the court summons, credit card fraud, and related issues, foreign students in the group will appear from time to time someone being cheated the huge property. Anti-fraud education for foreign students and cracking down on fraud are also necessary. Finally, the problem of preventing the infiltration of Western forces is also particularly important. How to ensure that overseas students are not disturbed by various forms of deception or temptation that may exist and harm national interests is what we should pay attention to.

2.4 Countermeasures, Suggestions, and Prospects 2.4.1 The Most Fundamental Thing Is to Further Perfect the Intermediary Supervision Policies We should start from this direction, strict access mechanism of intermediary agencies, and improve the mechanism of overseas study intermediary service funds, in order to protect the interests of clients when their legitimate rights and interests are infringed. In addition, more strict examination and supervision should be carried out

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on the behavior of pre-charging, to prevent intermediary agencies from shifting and encroaching on the client’s property through contract loopholes. In the process of supervision, high-energy cadres can be coordinated, state administration for industry and commerce department supervision missions together, in the process of coordination, the coordination mechanism, set up a common and among open resources, information sharing and the policy mix, to avoid government blame each other, work together to achieve a strict supervision of intermediary agencies. Setting specific laws and regulations when it is necessary to governance norms, intermediary institutions to provide legal basis for the supervision of the administrative department for more than for the default mechanism at the same time, the mechanism for compensation contract limitation, and so on is easy to evade the ease of explicit laws and regulations support, with law to protect the lawful rights and interests of the international group. Finally, a systematic evaluation mechanism should be established to assess and inspect overseas study service agencies, put forward rectification suggestions or impose corresponding penalties on non-compliant enterprises and institutions, strictly examine their qualifications, severely punish “illegal intermediaries”, and crack down on illegal acts. Industry associations can also be established to strengthen the supervision and comparison between intermediary agencies, so that legitimate overseas study service agencies can be known to the public, and the living space of “black intermediary” can be deprived (Wang, 2010).

2.4.2 The Education Department Should Strengthen Policy Guidance for Self-Financed Study Abroad and Improve the Management and Service System It can guide self-financed study abroad students and their parents to have a correct understanding and understanding of the whole process of studying abroad through publicity lectures and other forms. First, to guide students and parents in the selection of intermediary agencies, not blind faith in price, inflated price is not equal to highend services, corresponding to improve their awareness of prevention, to avoid being cheated. At present, China’s policies for overseas students focus on the preparation before studying abroad and the service work after returning to China, and there are few strategies to deal with problems in the process of studying abroad. At present, in the special historical period of the epidemic of COVID-19, how to protect the personal safety of overseas students has become a difficult problem. In addition, it is also worth paying attention to the problem that young students are addicted to bad habits or even commit crimes, as well as the frequent and unknown amount of fraud among overseas students. The Ministry of Education can work with local student associations, embassies, or Chinese organizations to negotiate a workable operating mechanism to ensure the safety of local Chinese students. In view of telecom fraud

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and other problems, we should cooperate with the Ministry of Public Security and other departments to investigate this phenomenon, to avoid the excessive spread of telecom fraud abroad to threaten the property safety of overseas students. In addition, we can cooperate with local Chinese institutions or embassies to carry out anti-fraud, legal education and other topics of education activities; vigilance against fraud can also play a certain role in education and advice to young students. Finally, some recreational activities should be held in designated areas to help young international students who find it difficult to integrate into local culture to find a sense of belonging and adapt to local culture, and relieve their loneliness, which may be of some help to the current predicament. We also cannot ignore students ideological and political construction at the same time, the current policy for students ideological and political education in our country almost is vacant, and live alone in a few years abroad for international students in the mind is not mature likely to be affected by some Western ideas, or by some people use with heart, political safety not guaranteed, it is also possible threat to the interests of the state. Therefore, the ideological and political guidance of overseas students should be actively carried out next, and a feasible plan should be established by cooperating with the Embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other departments. At the same time, we will actively publicize some excellent cases of overseas students, play a role of role model, and provide positive guidance for small groups of overseas students. We should adhere to the policy of “supporting students studying abroad, encouraging their return to China and coming and going freely” and improve the level of services and management for overseas students. At the same time, the returnees are encouraged to start their own businesses, which can not only generate income but also provide some employment opportunities and promote economic development. For some high-quality entrepreneurial projects appropriate to give a certain degree of policy preference. For a small number of high-end talents, strive for to attract back, can give appropriate financial subsidies and other incentives, have such a talent back into the domestic work, also can adopt a more flexible way, such as study abroad talent at the same time the use of the resources for the construction of the motherland at home and abroad services, and promote the development of national economy, science, and technology (Li, 2021a, 2021b; Li & Xue, 2021, 2022; Liu, 2016; Wang, 2010; Yan & Weng, 2013).

References Li, J. (2021a). Shaping “The Belt and Road Initiative” international higher education: A qualitative study of international students from South-Asian countries in Chinese universities. Beijing International Review of Education, 3(1), 22–37. Li, J. (2021b). Shaping education policy of home-school cooperation in China’s preschool education: Trends and strategies. Beijing International Review of Education, 3(1), 113–119. Li, J., & Xue, E. (2021). Mapping the education policy of foreign faculty for creating world-class universities in China: Advantage, conflict, and ambiguity. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(14), 1454–1463.

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Li, J., & Xue, E. (2022). Rethinking how to create world-class universities in China: A policy mapping perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 00131857.2021.1876668 (SSCI,2019IF:1.415) Liu, Y. (2016). Analysis on the motivation of the policy change of studying abroad in contemporary China. Education Research of Tsinghua University, 37(2), 91–95. Wang, T. (2010). Review and prospect of overseas education in China in the past decade. Journal of Hebei Normal University (Education Science Edition), 23(4), 73–80. Yan, S., & Weng, L. (2013). On the legal regulation of self-financed overseas study agencies in China. Journal of China University of Geography (Social Sciences Edition), 20(S1), 173–175.

Chapter 3

Sino-Foreign Cooperation of Running Schools in China

This chapter concentrates on exploring the Sino-foreign cooperation of running schools in China. Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools is the inevitable trend of economic globalization and education internationalization. After decades of development, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has played an important role in introducing high-quality resources and promoting the development of education in China. In June 2020, the Opinions on Accelerating and Expanding the Opening up of Education in the New Era issued by the Ministry of Education and other eight departments proposed that efforts should be made to remove institutional obstacles and intensify the reform of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Through the analysis of relevant research literature and policies, it is found that Sino-foreign cooperative education pays attention to positioning and objectives, has a relatively clear judgment of existing problems, and has many normative policy tools and measures to support the development of Sino-foreign cooperative education. There are also some problems and challenges in the concrete practice. It is suggested to strengthen the value identification of Sino-foreign cooperative education policy, enhance international understanding and cultural exchange, establish a green channel and emergency mechanism for international exchange, and take multiple measures to improve the quality of talent training.

3.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools Over the past 40 years of reform and opening, China has made remarkable achievements in its economic construction and is now speeding up the pace of deepening opening up in many areas to promote reform and development. As an important cornerstone of national development, education is an important part of reform and opening. In June 2020, the Ministry of Education, such as the eight departments about to speed up the education and expand new era’s opinions on opening to the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_3

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outside world, strive to break institutional barriers, increase the intensity of Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools reform, improve the overseas education in colleges and universities, reform school for examination and approval of foreign policy, continue to advance to go abroad to study abroad, foreign students, the reform of foreign experts and foreign teachers. We will strive to make relevant legal systems more mature and formalized. After more than 40 years of development, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has become an integral part of China’s education and an important part of social undertakings in the process of opening to the outside world. In recent years, the policy of education opening to the outside world has drawn much attention from the outside world and becomes the vane of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. This chapter aims to analyze the characteristics of Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school, analyze the challenges and problems in practice, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions for Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school, to provide references for Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.1.1 Understanding of the Concept of “Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools” Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools (revised for the second time on March 2, 2019) stipulate that the scope of application is “activities jointly established by a foreign educational institution and a Chinese educational institution (hereinafter referred to as Chinese-foreign cooperators in running schools) within the territory of China to recruit Chinese citizens (hereinafter referred to as Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools)”. According to the regulation, it can be found that the concept of “Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools” has three important characteristics. First, the school is jointly run by both foreign and Chinese educational institutions. At present, there are two types of institutions: independent Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools (independent schools jointly run by Chinese and foreign educational institutions) and non-independent Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools (secondary colleges under Chinese educational institutions). Second, the school is in China. Although the number of domestic universities and vocational colleges running schools abroad is also an important form of education opening to the outside world, and the number is still increasing, according to the Regulations, only those running schools in China can be classified as “Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools”. Third, the enrollment target is Chinese citizens. In 2018, 492,000 students from 196 countries and regions came to China, making China the second largest destination for overseas study in the world and Asia. And the study in China program is not included in the

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Sino-foreign cooperative education. To clarify the concept of “Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school” is helpful to clarify the scope of research. “Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school” is one of the important forms of “education opening to the outside world” (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.1.2 Changes in Policies for Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools The 1982 revision of the “constitution of the People’s Republic of China” broke the running mode of higher education; the government of a single specified state encourages the collective economic organizations, state enterprises and institutions, and other social forces, in accordance with the law education undertakings of various kinds, which are held in this laid a constitutional basis for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. With a series of achievements made in the reform and opening and gradually deepening, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has gradually developed from scratch. The academic circles have not reached a complete consensus on the stage division of the change of Sino-foreign cooperative education policy. Many scholars analyzed whole process of policy formulation, implementation, adjustment, and improvement of Sino-foreign cooperative education and found that the change of Sino-foreign cooperative education policy was divided into three stages: from the 1980s to the end of 1994, the prudent period of policy development; from 1995 to the end of 2002, the breakthrough period of policy development; since 2003, the gradual improvement of policy development period. We make an in-depth, detailed, and comprehensive analysis of the change picture and basic characteristics of Sino-foreign cooperative education policies by using the analytical framework of gradual adjustment and obtain the basic trajectory of the development of Sinoforeign cooperative education policies: 1978–1994, the initial stage characterized by incubation and exploration; 1995–2002, the encouragement and support stage with standardized management as the main axis; from 2003 to 2009, the adjustment stage with review and improvement as the main line; from 2010 to now, quality construction project implementation phase with quality and efficiency as the core. Although the above two scholars differ in the stage division and characteristic expression of the policy changes of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, some similarities can be found. In January 1995, the former State Education Commission issued the interim provisions on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, to allow foreign legal person organization, personal and relevant international organizations and education institutions with legal person status in China and other institutions or social organizations for cooperation in running schools project, in a file using the term “Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools” for the first time. Therefore, in 1995, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools changed from “prudent” to “breakthrough”, from “brewing and exploration” to “encouragement and support”.

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In 2003, China promulgated the Regulations on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in running schools, regulating Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in the form of law, which became a milestone event in the history of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, marking the gradual improvement of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, and entering a new stage of having laws to abide by. In this year, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools from “breakthrough” to “gradual improvement”, from “encouragement and support” to “review and improve” (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018).

3.1.3 Important Issues Concerning Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools From the understanding of the concept of “Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools”, China’s open education is the need of promoting education modernization under the background of global integration, to carry out the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools; the fundamental purpose is to introduce foreign especially European and American developed countries high-quality education resources and promote the quality of education in our country to promote the rapid; for China’s socialist construction career training high-level talents, the academic research basically revolves around how to better realize this goal and launch. Up to now, the research on Sino-foreign cooperative education in the academic circle can be summarized into the following aspects: first, the path and method of reality analysis are adopted to focus on the description of the current situation of Sino-foreign cooperative education quantity, scale, and teachers under the implementation of existing policies; secondly, the implementation effect and optimization path of the policy are analyzed from the spatial regional dimension. The third is to describe the development process of Sino-foreign cooperative education policy from the historical and temporal dimension, describe its change process over time, divide the change stages by grasping important time nodes, and conduct a panoramic analysis of dynamic change. Based on the analysis of the 2017 Self-Evaluation Report on Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education, we found that the development difficulties of Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects at the undergraduate level are concentrated in the five aspects of teachers, students, management mechanism, curriculum teaching, communication, and cooperation. We should pay attention to the problems in the enrollment and teaching process and making plans; actively explore curriculum teaching reform; promote the localization of teaching materials; strengthen the construction of teachers and improve the employment system of teachers; establish cooperative management mechanism and seek external fund support; strengthen the communication between Chinese and foreign cooperation parties; and build a scientific research platform. The current local colleges appeared in the process of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in the name of the educational purpose inconsistent with the actual, insufficient investment, unreasonable curriculum, student foundation, and difficulty

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of the class are not harmonious, difficult to adapt to students’ foreign language level, foreign language teaching, and the exchange and communication of Chinese and foreign teachers. It is necessary for local colleges and universities to strengthen the system construction of examination and approval and supervision of Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools, formulate scientific and reasonable teaching plans and management methods, strengthen the construction of auxiliary teaching teams for imported courses, formulate and implement enrollment standards in a scientific and reasonable way, and strengthen the construction of Chinese-foreign cooperation management committee. In addition, there are also scholars’ opinions on cultural conflict in Sino-foreign cooperative education, radiation effect of Sinoforeign cooperative education in higher education, sustainability analysis of Sinoforeign cooperative education projects in higher vocational colleges, and construction of Sino-foreign cooperative education selection and evaluation index system (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.1.4 Theoretical Tools and Research Methods This study adopts the policy process theory, from the perspective of the whole process of policy formulation, implementation, adjustment, and improvement of Sino-foreign cooperative education, using policy text analysis method, statistical method, and so on to conduct policy analysis. Based on the data analysis method of grounded theory, 11 policy documents on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools issued by the CPC Central Committee and the Ministry of Education of the State Council from 2012 to 2021 are classified into three-level codes, namely “open login (first-level code)— associated login (second-level code)—core login (third-level code)”. The MAXQDA qualitative analysis software was used for coding and sorting. First, 11 policy texts were imported into MAXQDA, and then, these original data were interpreted word by word to form codes, and conceptual categories were formed by comparing or associating labels. After the initial concept genera were determined by open logon, the researchers found some connections among these concepts and established the main genera. Finally, a “core concept” is selected from all the discovered concept genera through systematic analysis to form the core genus.

3.1.5 Policy Analysis of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools Since 2012, the CPC Central Committee and national competent authorities have issued a number of policy documents independently or jointly with a number of relevant departments for issues related to Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. In the past ten years, a total of 14 policy documents, including opinions, notices,

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and plans issued by central government departments, including the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Ministry of Education, have been related to Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, basically establishing a policy system for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. MAXQDA software was used to encode these policy texts. Through the first round of open coding, “Work principle, work goal, public welfare principle, win-win cooperation, high fees and charges, project management is not standard, false diploma, illegal, ideological value, perfecting the system of running a school and educational qualifications, certificate and degree certificate, standardize teaching norms, charge, standardization of recruit students, foreign students management, strengthen supervision, to strengthen teachers’ education and management, strengthen the management of schools use Grasp policy boundaries, improve project management level, cadre team building, create atmosphere, strengthen research, government scholarships, opening up layout, enrich cultural exchanges, high-end leadership, encourage going global, improve working mechanism, quality assurance system, improve guarantee measures” 31 code nodes. After the initial conceptual categories were identified by open logon, some connections were found between these concepts and four main categories were established: positioning and objectives, problem determination, normative management, and supporting initiatives. Finally, the core category is defined as “Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools with the introduction of high-quality resources to promote the improvement of China’s educational quality” (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018).

3.1.6 Positioning and Objectives of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running School There are a lot of requirements and regulations about the orientation and goal of Sino-foreign cooperative education in educational policies, which clearly regulate the healthy and orderly development of Sino-foreign cooperative education. Of the 11 policy texts, the Regulations are undoubtedly the most influential. Since it was first promulgated in 2003, it has undergone two revisions in the past decade, the first in July 2013 and the second in March 2019. The positioning and objectives of the latest edition of the Regulations on Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools include four aspects. First, to run schools in accordance with the law and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security. Articles 5, 6, and 7 of the Regulations require that “Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools must abide by Chinese laws, implement China’s educational policies, conform to China’s public morality, They shall not impair China’s state sovereignty, security and social and public interests”, “they shall not set up institutions offering compulsory education or special education of military, police and political nature”, and “they shall not conduct religious education or carry out religious activities”. Second, to serve the overall interests

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of the Party and the country. The regulations stipulate that Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools “shall meet the needs of China’s educational development” and “devote itself to training talents of all kinds in China’s socialist construction” to serve China’s educational development, train builders and successors of socialism, and educate talents for the Party and the country. Third, the introduction of highquality resources to promote the development of China’s education. The regulations use the word “encourage” to express the “introduction of foreign high-quality educational resources”, which represents the goal of cooperative education, play a role in promoting education in China, improve the quality of talent training, rather than cooperating for the sake of cooperation. The second “encouraged” education is targeted at “higher education and vocational education”, without mentioning the high school stage, which is based on the status quo of China’s education industry. In recent years, China has taken a more cautious attitude toward opening up in senior high schools. Fourth, emphasize the public welfare attribute. The Regulations specifically point out that “Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools is a public welfare undertaking, which is an integral part of China’s educational cause”. Two key words are worth paying attention to: “Public welfare” and “undertaking”. In contrast to “public welfare”, there are “business” and “profit-making”, and in contrast to “undertaking”, there are “industries”. As a public welfare undertaking, Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools has the characteristics of not only non-profit but also serving the needs of the state. In April 2016, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued several Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era, which put forward the working principle of “centering on the central task, serving the overall situation, focusing on myself, inclusiveness and inclusiveness, improving the level, connotation development, equality and cooperation, and ensuring safety”. This document and the Regulations are important programmatic documents for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in China (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.1.7 Judgment on Existing Problems Problems existing in the process of policy formulation and implementation usually come from academic research and some investigation reports. In the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Strengthening the Standardized Management of Foreign-related Education in March 2012, some problems existing in foreign-related education are listed: Some institutions and individuals in the society illegally recruit students, train, and issue false diplomas and degree certificates in the name of providing foreign university diplomas and degrees. Some also rent schools in or around colleges and universities to run schools illegally, confusing and deceiving the educated. Some colleges and universities lack in-depth understanding of the other schools in their inter-school exchanges, and their project management is not

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standardized, the signing of agreements is not rigorous, and the implementation is not strict. Some colleges and universities take advantage of this to charge students high tuition fees or charge more fees for additional items, which harms the interests of students. There have been some Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools banner, through illegal recruit students, such as issuing false diploma way to seek improper benefit. In addition, there are multiple regulatory issues involved. On the one hand, it shows the pertinence of the policy, the attitude to face the problem and the determination to solve the problem and plays the role of publicity and deterrence in the society. On the other hand, it explains the scientific nature of the policy and puts forward follow-up measures based on the accurate investigation and understanding of the current situation, which shows the scientific and standardized process of policymaking, to improve the credibility of the policy.

3.1.8 Standardizing the Management of Chinese-Foreign Schools Sino-foreign cooperation in running a school involves access, process supervision, result evaluation, and other aspects of work, several policies to establish a standardized management system for running a school have been constantly adjusted. The content of normative management in the analysis policy text can be summarized into three aspects. First, improve the system to follow rules. In June 2020, the Ministry of Education, such as the eight departments “about speed up the new era and expand education open to the public opinion”, “to perfect the legal system, promote the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools regulations and measures for its implementation, for open education, standardized, high level of running school to provide institutional guarantee”, in 2019 after the second revision of the regulations. Further amendments are proposed to the Regulations and their implementation methods, reflecting the path choice of promoting system construction by means of rule of law. Second, build a contingent of cadres and improve management. In March 2012, the general office of the Ministry of Education on strengthening the management of the foreign education specification notice put forward “to further strengthen school management services concerning foreign affairs cadre team construction, strengthen the internal and external coordination ability, service ability and emergency management ability, for the healthy and orderly development of international education provides strong organization leadership and talent guarantee”. In April 2016, several Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era proposed that “Strengthening and improving the Party construction of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools and accelerating the training of a number of excellent foreign-related management talents. We will strengthen the contingent of foreign affairs cadres in education”. Both documents emphasize the important

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role of the construction of cadres in improving the management level. Only when the management level is improved can the Party’s leadership be implemented. Third, we need to put them in place and strengthen supervision. In almost all policy texts on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, there are expressions of supervision, such as “Strengthening supervision over foreign-related schools (2012)” and “Participating in international Student Assessment tests to improve China’s ability to assess and monitor education quality (2016)”. Since Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools involves both domestic and foreign school-running entities, and there are differences in schooling system, curriculum, language, culture, and teachers, effective supervision has always been the goal pursued by policymaking (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018).

3.1.9 Measures to Support the Development of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools Standardized management is to ensure the healthy and stable operation of Sinoforeign cooperative education, and it is not enough to stay at the management level. In order to promote the high-quality development of cooperative education, there are a number of supportive measures in relevant policies, such as: “create a good atmosphere. Increase the education policy of opening to the outside world publicity efforts to read (2016)”, “in the field of basic education, to strengthen the international understanding education of primary and secondary schools (2020)”, “perfect the research base of national and regional layout, strengthen international studies (2016)”, “do a good job in a batch of demonstration Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and programs (2021)”, and so on. Through these measures, China’s education initiative opens the determination. After more than 40 years of reform and opening, Sinoforeign cooperation in running schools has made great progress. By the end of 2020, there were 2,332 Chinese-foreign cooperative educational institutions and programs, 1,230 of which were undergraduate or above. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the Ministry of Education approved and put on record 580 Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and projects (7 independent legal institutions, 84 non-independent legal institutions, and 489 projects), of which 356 were above undergraduate level. Foreign affairs management focuses on streamlining administration and delegating power, granting certain foreign affairs examination and approval rights to the “double First-class” universities, and providing greater autonomy and convenience for universities to carry out foreign cooperation and exchanges. China’s education opening is marching toward the direction of high quality (Li & Xue, 2021; Liu, 2018).

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3.2 Problems and Challenges of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools 3.2.1 There Is Deviation in Target Positioning There are two different bodies in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools: foreign educational institutions and Chinese educational institutions, as well as educational authorities. Chinese-foreign cooperatively run schools and project managers have different interest demands, motivations and resource conditions, among which interest demands involve multiple aspects and interest relations are relatively complex. Regulations on Cooperation in Running Schools and other documents have expressed the goal positioning of running schools, but it is difficult to truly implement it due to the vague expression of many contents. For example, there is no clear standard for the understanding of “foreign high-quality educational resources”. The resources considered to be very high quality in foreign countries may not be high quality in China. Foreign education institutions and Chinese cooperation in running schools, more consideration, or their own interests, including the output values, culture, political influence, implement education, and cultivating potential study abroad market to seek profits, although the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools advocate cooperation and win-win, but very few foreign education institutions to promote the development of Chinese education as their goal to pursue. Although Chinese educational institutions will implement the national school-running policies and focus on introducing high-quality educational resources and improving the school-running level, when faced with some practical difficulties, especially the lack of their own strength and bargaining power with foreign educational institutions, many schools will lower the quality requirements and comply with foreign parties. Under the circumstance that the allocation of funds of colleges and universities varies greatly, some colleges and universities will make profits through Sino-foreign cooperative education projects driven by economic interests. Both foreign and Chinese educational institutions will inevitably consider their own interests in the process of running schools, which deviates from the objectives of the Party and the state of “public welfare”, introducing “high-quality educational resources” and “meeting the needs of China’s educational development” (Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.2.2 Language Barriers and Cultural Conflicts Still Exist In addition to conflicts of interests, language barriers and cultural conflicts are always important influencing factors in transnational communication. In accordance with the regulations, a foreign cooperator shall appoint a certain number of teachers from its own educational institution to teach in the Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school. During the students’ classes, a considerable part of the courses is taught by foreign

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teachers. Because the cooperation in running schools project has bigger difference in foreign language ability of students, especially Chinese and foreign cooperation projects in local colleges students level are not high, in the process of the students in the class, both at home and abroad to switch back and forth between two kinds of curriculum system, and to read a large number of foreign literature, listening to the teacher in the whole foreign language teaching, academic pressure. Since many foreign teachers come to China for a short period of time, schools usually arrange foreign classes in a short period of time for the convenience of arranging courses. Due to the language barrier, it is also difficult for foreign teachers to effectively interact with Chinese students and teachers, which limits the effect of imported resources. The biggest different between Chinese and Western culture reflected in how to deal with the relationship between the “personal” and “community”, our country’s education practice from the education values of group standard, and emphasizes the state, society, schools, the priority of others, emphasizes the collective interests, emphasis on the individual to the group, the obligations and responsibilities to others, advocate the selfless dedication; Western liberal culture is based on the individual standard, emphasizing that the fundamental goal of civic education is to learn to defend individual rights and learn to protect themselves with the law, and cultural identity directly determines the value judgment and value choice. Although it is clearly stipulated in the Regulations that foreign parties are not allowed to spread religion or make political statements that violate Chinese laws in China, the values of foreign teachers run through all their words and deeds under the influence of culture, and they act in accordance with their inherent thinking in classroom teaching and interpersonal communication. Faced with the two different values of Chinese and foreign teachers, Chinese students either excessively worship Western culture and despise their own traditional culture or appear choice dilemma and lose themselves.

3.2.3 Major Public Events Affect International Exchanges Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools requires transnational exchanges of personnel and materials, and the foreign countries that need to carry out cooperation can maintain stable connectivity with China. Since the restoration of its lawful seat in the United Nations in the 1970s, China has actively integrated itself into the big family of the world, maintained close exchanges with other countries, and increased its international influence. However, we also see that some factors are affecting normal international personnel exchanges. The most important of these are major public events, including political events, military conflicts, natural disasters, and public health crises. For example, in recent years, the trade war between China and the United States, the Restrictions of high and new technology on Chinese students going to the United States, and Sino-US cooperation have a great impact on Sino-US cooperation in running schools, and some domestic schools turn to new

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partners. The biggest public health event of the post-World War II era has been COVID-19, which started in 2020 and swept the world without warning, disrupting the normal order of the “global village”. It’s been two years since the initial outbreak and it’s still going on. As of February 2022, more than 400 million people have been diagnosed globally and nearly 6 million people have died. To deal with the epidemic, various countries have adopted different forms of control measures, so Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has been greatly affected. According to information released in August 2021, the Ministry of Education’s official website, the Ministry of Education to continue to support relief epidemic by Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools under the influence of my students to study abroad is difficult, the cooperative education institutions and projects on the premise of guarantee fairness in education, cooperative school-running features, two-way choice, the best way, provide opportunities for the domestic study of students. This incident must trigger a reconsideration of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools and how to establish a guaranteed mechanism to deal with the international exchanges with a certain “vulnerability” (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.2.4 The Quality of Personnel Training Needs to Be Improved In September 2018, the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Approving the Termination of Some Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively-Run Schools and Programs issued the following important information: According to the law of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools regulations and measures for its implementation, on the basis of the Chinese and foreign cooperator, upon examination, the foreign economic and trade university excellence five institutions, such as the international school of Beijing university in collaboration with the university of Hong Kong, held a master’s degree in dental education programs and so on. 229 projects in conformity with the articles of association and the provisions of the agreement calls for termination of approval shall be terminated. The cancelation of so many cooperative projects at one time caused a great response in China as soon as it was released. Actually early in April 2016, the general office of the central committee of the communist party of China, issued by the General Office of the State Council “about to do a good job of education in the new period opening to the outside of the several opinions of the convey is very clear policy direction”, “to carry out the assessment certification, strengthening exit mechanism”, “key surrounding countries in urgent need of natural science and engineering science, professional construction, imported high-quality resources”.

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3.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions 3.3.1 Strengthening the Value Identification of Sino-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools On the one hand, through the good access to audit, process monitoring and evaluation, strengthening exit mechanism, and a high level of foreign cooperation in running schools education institutions, nothing more, full-time under access review stage, to the full and accurate understanding of the situation of foreign education institutions, to provide false information, abroad education quality is not high, the lack of education spirit education structure is a zero tolerance attitude. Define project positioning. On the other hand, the domestic educational institutions should be carefully investigated, the main responsibility of the sponsor should be fulfilled, the project plan should be fully demonstrated, and the project with unclear orientation should not be approved before it is perfected. Among the foreign-related forms of education in China, Sino-foreign cooperation is one of the most complete forms of education with the most complete legal and policy system. It is called the “in-system” form of education, and it is one of the “three carriages” that promote China’s education reform and development along with public schools and private schools. The competent departments of education should recognize the important position of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in China, safeguard the vital interests and legitimate rights of Chinese and foreign educational institutions based on the principle of win-win cooperation, correctly handle the relationship between Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools serving the overall situation and serving students, and follow the basic laws of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools.

3.3.2 Enhancing International Understanding and Cultural Exchanges Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools is not only an exchange and cooperation in educational resources, but also a bridge of communication between different countries and cultures. From the Chinese side, the relevant personnel involved include education authorities, teachers, and students. Through international understanding education, we should strengthen cultural confidence, establish a correct world outlook, and learn how to view and face diverse cultures. From the foreign side, it mainly involves the imported teachers, and reasonable requirements should be put forward for the cultural identity and background of foreign teachers during the introduction. After foreign teachers come to China, China can arrange some cultural study tours and exchange programs to help foreign teachers know and understand Chinese culture. The two sides of cooperation, representing the two cultures of the East and the West, should not only be clearly aware of the existence of conflicts, but also humbly

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accept the existence of integration and complementarity. The key to solving cultural conflicts lies in how to overcome the obstacles of cultural differences and seek and create a common culture that both sides can identify and accept at the juncture of both cultures. Faced with the risk of cultural conflict, it is necessary to set up special emergency handling institutions and offices in Chinese-foreign cooperative schools or projects. Culture is a powerful force. The world becomes rich and colorful with diversified cultures. Every country has its own cultural characteristics. In the modern history of China, there have been many comparisons and debates between Chinese and foreign cultures, among which there have been some self-denial of Chinese culture and blind pursuit of Western culture. At present, our country has become the world’s second largest economy, and the gap between America’s economy is gradually narrowed, socialist construction entered a new era, in such a background, our respect for different cultures at the same time, want to have more cultural confidence and cultural consciousness, active publicity the Chinese culture to the world. As China continues to develop, there will be different definitions of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. Several Chinese universities and vocational colleges have gone abroad to tell Chinese stories and share Chinese experience (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

3.3.3 Establishing Green Channels for International Exchanges and Emergency Response Mechanisms The international situation is changing, the communication between countries is also complicated, and various irresistible crises have made the international communication system very fragile. China has strict management on cross-border personnel exchanges, and the procedures for both Chinese citizens going abroad and foreign citizens entering China are relatively complicated. Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools requires foreign teachers to go back and forth between the two countries frequently, and some Chinese teachers and students also need to go abroad for exchange and study. It is suggested that some special care should be given to teachers and students of Sino-foreign cooperative schools in terms of exit and entry management policies, the approval process should be simplified, and “green channel” should be opened to realize free exchange of personnel. At the same time, in light of the impact of major events such as the Sino-US trade war and the COVID19 epidemic, an emergency mechanism for international exchange of Sino-Foreign cooperation in running schools is established to ensure that in case of major crises, cooperative projects can have alternative plans and minimize the impact of external crises on students’ learning. As proposed by the Ministry of Education in September 2021, “continue to support relevant universities to accept overseas students for shortterm study in the form of mutual recognition of credits such as inter-school exchanges

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and entrusted training under the premise of ensuring educational equity and provide domestic learning platforms for them” is a good practice. In the future, this emergency mode can be institutionalized to form an emergency mechanism and enrich the existing cooperative school management system.

3.3.4 Take Multiple Measures to Improve the Quality of Personnel Training The purpose of education is to cultivate talents, so is Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. Talent cultivation is a complex system, so we should take multiple measures to create an atmosphere, build a platform, and provide support for the improvement of talent cultivation quality. On the premise of ensuring the introduction of high-quality educational resources and strict supervision, there should be some concrete measures to improve the quality of training. First, optimize the curriculum. Curriculum is the carrier of students’ learning, and the curriculum setting of Sino-foreign cooperative education projects should reflect the characteristics of cooperative education, which should not only consider the current situation of foreign teachers’ concentration in teaching specialized courses, but also the learning effect of students. By innovating the curriculum system, such as increasing students’ internship time and opportunities in foreign companies, enabling them to learn the language in practice, or making full use of information technology, blended teaching, immersive teaching, and so on. The curriculum should also do a good job of market demand research, talent training, and socialist construction of our country together. Second, we will do a good job in the construction of qualified teachers. Chinese teachers can be improved by strengthening training, maintaining regular exchanges and study abroad, and introducing returned students to teach in China. On the one hand, foreign teachers can attract more talents through higher salaries. On the other hand, we can consider solving the problem of long-term residence of foreign teachers in China at the national level, so that more foreign teachers can choose to teach in China for a long time. Third, build flexible and diverse school systems. Based on the spring and autumn semesters in our country, we should make some creative adjustments according to the foreign schooling system. Student status management, learning duration, and other aspects can also be adjusted around the characteristics of the major, so that students can have more time and space for self-development (Li & Xue, 2021; Lin & Ling, 2010; Liu, 2018; Piao & Li, 2021; Xue, 2017).

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References Li, J., & Xue, E. (2021). Returnee faculty responses to internationalizing “academic ecology” for creating world-class universities in China’ elite universities. Higher Education, 81(5), 1063–1078. Lin, J., & Ling, Q. (2010). High-quality development of Sino-foreign cooperative education: Policy tracks and policy supply. College Education Management, 15(6), 1–12. Liu, Q. (2018). Development difficulties and countermeasures of Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects at undergraduate level. Modern Education Management, 20(4), 25–30. Piao, J., & Li, Z. (2021). Problems and countermeasures in Chinese-foreign cooperation in local universities. Education Theory and Practice, 41(24), 13–16. Xue, E. (2017). Policy analysis on the reform and development of Sino-foreign cooperative education. China Higher Education Research, 20(2), 24–28.

Chapter 4

Confucius Institutes’ Development in China

This chapter examines the Confucius Institutes’ development in China. Confucius Institutes are non-profit educational institutions jointly established by China and foreign countries. After analyzing the research on Confucius Institute since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the policy documents issued by the Chinese government and the speeches made by Chinese senior leaders, it is found that the Confucius Institute is still in a dilemma of public opinion, the operation mechanism of school running is not perfect, and the guarantee of school resources is not in place. In the future, efforts should be made to balance the function positioning of language teaching and cultural communication of Confucius Institutes, strengthen market running and government cooperation in running Confucius Institutes to get rid of the dilemma of public opinion in running Confucius Institutes, and improve the operating mechanism of Confucius Institutes in terms of school-running personnel mechanism and data support, etc., and improve the operation mechanism of Confucius Institutes in terms of personnel allocation, fund raising. In terms of teaching course resources, mechanism innovation should be made to guarantee the resource supply of Confucius Institutes.

4.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools 4.1.1 The Literature Review of Confucius Institutes Since its establishment in 2004, Confucius Institutes have attracted extensive attention from academic circles at home and abroad. In terms of the number of studies, in 2014, the 10th anniversary of the founding of Confucius Institutes, the number

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_4

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of studies on Confucius Institutes reached the first publication peak. In 2017, the peak BBS “One Belt and One Road” international cooperation was held in Beijing, BBS around “to strengthen international cooperation, build One Belt and One Road, achieve win-win development” theme for dialogue and exchanges in many areas, the Confucius Institute as promoting “neighborhood” all the way along the country an important part of cultural communication once again become a research hotspot. In terms of research content, foreign studies mostly study Confucius Institutes from the perspectives of cultural soft power, China’s rise, foreign policy, educational aid, and economic globalization. In China, most of the research on Confucius Institute education focuses on practical operation, including resource guarantee, operation management, and quality testing, with the aim of improving the quality of Confucius Institute education. (1) Research on the functions of Confucius Institutes. Foreign scholars hold the bias of “cultural threat theory” toward the development of Confucius Institutes, believing that Confucius Institutes lack academic independence and become a tool for the export of ideology by the Chinese government. Most scholars hold a positive attitude toward Confucius Institutes. Confucius Institutes have made great contributions to promoting the Chinese language, spreading Chinese culture, and highlighting the appeal of Chinese culture. (2) Study on resource security of Confucius Institutes. It points out that in the future, we should accurately grasp the target of training overseas local Chinese teachers. Balanced culture structure, rich culture level; extend the cultivation path and way, perfect the cultivation mechanism; integrate various resources; and strengthen training guarantee to improve the training of local Chinese teachers in Confucius Institutes. On teaching materials and curriculum resources security, some scholars comprehensively examined from 2006 to 2019, Confucius Institute teaching resources development, think that Confucius Institute teaching resources development is “a tone” and “two lines”, the expanding mode, the system of the basic form, structure to be optimized, the high-quality goods rate high, needs to improve national teaching material of rare and local teaching material use efficiency is low, the platform is attached importance to, but the positioning drift, lack of integration of resources and other characteristics. This paper proposes to promote the construction of Chinese teaching resources in overseas national education system, implement the development of “bilingual+” teaching resources, continue to strengthen the digital and market-oriented construction of Confucius Institutes, recommend Chinese teaching resources to improve quality and efficiency, and build a “Community of Chinese teaching resources construction”. (3) Research on the operation and management of Confucius Institutes. Some scholars have divided the operation and management modes of Confucius Institutes into four modes: Chinese-foreign institutions of higher learning, Chinese-foreign institutions of higher learning and transnational corporations, foreign governments and Chinese institutions of higher learning, and foreign organizations and Chinese institutions of higher learning. Based on the cultural background and needs, some scholars have divided the operation and management mode of Confucius Institutes into Chinese teaching, characteristic cultural dissemination, Chinese teaching and professional skills, and training of Sinologists. About operation management, different scholars have different views. Some scholars advocate moderate government intervention,

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emphasize the inevitability and effectiveness of intervention, and require scientific and reasonable provisions on the scope, methods, and strategies of government intervention. Some scholars advocate university-enterprise cooperation, delegating some rights, and carrying out “limited marketization” management and operation. (4) Study on the quality monitoring of Confucius Institutes. Some scholars established a horizontal reference system for the evaluation of different Individuals of Confucius Institutes, presented the running situation of each Confucius Institute in a quantitative form, and attempted to construct a general evaluation index framework for Confucius Institutes by using key performance indicator method. From the perspective of sustainable development, some scholars have established the Confucius Institute evaluation Index centering on the six core elements of “thinking, teaching, project, operation, influence, reward and punishment”. Some scholars made an evaluation and exploration from the dimension of its cultural influence communication power. Based on the five-factor theory of intercultural ability, the influence of Intercultural communication of Confucius Institutes was specifically divided into multiple abilities, namely intercultural cognition, adaptation, conflict management, cultural display, and media communication (Chen, 2015; Chu & Yue, 2015; Liang, 2021; Wang & Ning, 2016; Wu, 2014; Xiao, 2018; Zhang & Gu, 2015; Zhou & Qiao, 2008). From the perspective of culture, education, economics, diplomacy, politics, law, and sociology, scholars have conducted systematic research on Confucius Institutes. For example, from the perspective of global governance, some scholars have analyzed the causes and countermeasures of problems in the construction of TcSOL and Confucius Institutes. Some scholars from the perspective of cultural “present” to re-examine the Confucius Institute culture dissemination way and its value understanding explore culture “presence” in Confucius Institute culture dissemination activities on the field, object, subject, form, and content choice of meaning and significance, for the Confucius Institute to carry out diversified culture dissemination activities provides constructive ideas, thus for the Confucius Institute of sustainable. Development provides a research model with reference significance. In terms of research methods, some scholars conducted policy text analysis and TF-IDF word frequency analysis on all the policies of Confucius Institutes since its establishment in 2004 and all the relevant policy provisions of “Confucius Institutes” mentioned in national education policies and strategies. Some scholars have conducted comparative studies on the running conditions of Confucius Institutes with other language institutions (British Council, Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute, Cummens Institute, Sejong Institute, Japan Foundation for International Exchange, etc.) and suggested that in the future, in addition to comparing Confucius Institutes with other institutions, some researchers compared the characteristics of China and the West in academic research to increase the cross-cultural understanding of Confucius Institutes. For example, some scholars have systematically combed and compared 160 Chinese and English academic papers with Confucius Institutes as the key words since 2015, drawing a picture of the mirror image of Confucius Institutes at home and abroad. Based on the development data of Confucius Institutes from 2015 to 2017, some scholars adopted the method of quantitative analysis to conduct quantitative research and analysis on

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the growth trend of Confucius Institutes, intercontinental and national characteristics of their distribution, the correlation between the distribution density and the level of national development, school-running status, course characteristics, number of classes, and annual teaching workload (Chu & Yue, 2015; Wang & Ning, 2016).

4.1.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data In 2006, the Confucius Institute Charter specified the business scope of the Confucius Institute, the nature, composition, and responsibilities of the Confucius Institute headquarters, the bidding conditions and procedures of the Confucius Institute, funding security, management, and obligations. After the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Confucius Institute development Plan (2012– 2020) began to usher in a new period of running Confucius Institutes. According to the Confucius Institute Development Plan (2012–2020), the basic principles of Confucius Institutes in running schools are as follows: adhere to scientific orientation, highlight characteristics, adhere to government support and non-governmental operation, adhere to Sino-foreign cooperation and endogenous development, and adhere to local services and mutual benefit. The key tasks of our work are to improve the quality of school running, establish and improve the system of human resources for teaching and management, establish and improve the system of international Chinese teaching materials and teaching resources, establish, and improve the Chinese examination service system, and actively carry out cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. The year 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of the Confucius Institute. On September 27, Xi sent a congratulatory letter to mark the 10th anniversary of Confucius Institutes around the world and the first global Confucius Institute Day. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the running and construction of Confucius Institutes. Liu Yandong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 9th Global Confucius Institute Conference in Xiamen, Fujian Province. He stressed the need to look to the future, cooperate on an equal footing, jointly promote the development of Confucius Institutes, and make new contributions to building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity. In 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a notice to promote the Belt and Road Education Initiative, pointing out that it is necessary to support more social forces in the construction of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms, strengthen the construction of Chinese language teachers and Chinese language teaching volunteers, and spare no effort to meet the needs of Chinese language learning in countries along the Belt and Road. As of December 2019, 550 Confucius Institutes and 1,172 Confucius Classrooms had been set up in 162 countries and regions, and the scale and influence of Confucius Institutes are still growing. All over the world people to learn Chinese and to understand China’s enthusiasm high, individuation, differentiation, diversification of Chinese learning Japanese demand increases, the Confucius Institute proposes new challenge to Chinese education agencies at various

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levels, such as, at the same time as a whole education resource, expanding scale and improving the level of school which has created new opportunities. In 2020, the Ministry of Education changed the name of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, China National Leading Group Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Hanban), to the Ministry of Education’s Chinese-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center. The Confucius Institutes are also entrusted to the China Foundation for International Chinese Language Education, a non-governmental public welfare organization. This document states that the development of Confucius Institutes has promoted a new historical period, and the nature, mode, and orientation of Confucius Institutes have undergone new changes. Confucius Institute director of Seoul’s Yang said, the Confucius Institute to internationalization, the conversion of the folklore, professional foundation run is complied with the demand of the new era of change, will provide the new organizational structure and mode for the Confucius Institute, safeguard the Confucius Institute continues to have the resources, more conducive to the development of international Chinese education around the world in the future (Chen, 2015; Liang, 2021; Wu, 2014; Xiao, 2018; Zhou & Qiao, 2008). In terms of educational objectives, the goal of the Confucius Institute is to upgrade the goal of the Confucius Institute from expanding the goal and improving the quality to a new stage of “promoting exchanges, mutual learning and harmonious coexistence of diverse human civilizations with cultural exchanges as the link”. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, at the beginning of the establishment of Confucius Institutes, the development goal of Confucius Institutes was mainly to expand the number and scale of institutes. After the initial development of Confucius Institute, the school running of Confucius Institute gradually focuses on the improvement of school running quality. For example, the first Confucius Institute Conference in 2006 pointed out that Confucius Institutes should firmly establish brand awareness, adhere to quality first, and always put the quality of education in the first place. A series of policy documents, including the Confucius Institute Charter, Confucius Institute Bidding Process, Confucius Institute Fund Management Methods (Interim), and Standards for International Chinese Language Teachers, were further formulated to guarantee the management and teaching of Confucius Institutes. The Confucius Institute Development Plan (2011–2020) proposes five main tasks, including “first, to highlight development priorities and improve the quality and level of education; Second, to establish and improve the system of teaching and management human resources; Third, to establish and improve the system of international Chinese teaching materials and teaching resources; Fourth, to establish and improve the Chinese examination service system; Fifth, we should actively carry out cultural exchanges between China and other countries”. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Confucius Institute in 2014, Liu Yandong proposed to “focus on improving the quality, service demand, close cooperation and mutual benefit for the future development of Confucius Institute in the new decade. We should actively promote localization, diversify forms of exchange, and open channels for mutual learning between Chinese culture and outstanding cultures of the world. We should innovate the mode of running schools, advance the reform of teachers, teaching materials and teaching laws, and

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give full play to the role of schools, society and the government to promote the sustainable development of Confucius Institutes”. From the very beginning, Confucius Institutes have two basic functions: Chinese education and cultural dissemination. Based on the principles of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit, Confucius Institutes carry out overseas Chinese language teaching and educational and cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries. Cultural transmission is not the conspiracy theory of cultural export as some politicians say. As General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in his letter of congratulations on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Confucius Institutes around the world and the first Global Confucius Institute Day, “Confucius Institutes belong to Both China and the world”. The cultural communication function undertaken by Confucius Institutes is not only to promote the cultural “confidence” of the Chinese nation, but also to convey to the world the concept of “beauty and harmony” and “universal harmony” of a community with a shared future for mankind. In addition to their basic functions, the majority of Confucius Institutes mainly adopt the mode of cooperation between Chinese universities and foreign universities, thus further assuming the social service and academic functions of universities. Confucius Institutes provide social services in the following ways. To design various Chinese language courses tailored to local social backgrounds to promote local people’s in-depth understanding of Chinese culture. By providing services such as HSK test, Chinese Bridge competition, Confucius Sinology Program, Study in China and scholarship programs, and participating in local community activities, it promotes further cooperation with universities and local libraries and schools and forms a Chinese-foreign cooperative community oriented to local services. On the other hand, the Confucius Institute set up international Chinese education majors in domestic support and develop higher levels of Chinese as a foreign language teacher, based on the system research and development of Chinese teaching courses, series of the Chinese language promotion plan, through the system, the scientific research to ensure the plan of the Confucius Institute, each work and applied, to further expand the influence of the Confucius Institute. At the same time, Confucius Institutes also cooperate with other universities to set up academic research institutions or high-level personnel training institutions with Sinology or Chinese studies as the center, so as to build a higher platform for academic research and exchange, create more opportunities, and give full play to the important function of academic research. In the form of running schools, Confucius Institutes have been constantly optimized. First of all, from the very beginning, Confucius Institutes were a typical example of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. The Chinese side will send teachers, and the other schools will volunteer to host them. According to the Confucius Institute Application Process and the Confucius Institute Fund Management Methods in China (Interim), Confucius Institutes will properly match the rights and interests of Sino-foreign cooperation under the management and guidance of Hanan. The Chinese side shall provide the start-up fee and the foreign side shall provide the venue. The operating expenses shall be invested 1:1 by both China and foreign countries. At the same time, the daily management and teaching work of Confucius Institutes shall be applied for

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by foreign parties, cooperation agreements signed by Chinese and foreign educational institutions, and the board of directors shall be set up, and the directors of both sides shall be appointed respectively. From the very beginning, social organizations and volunteer groups have played an important role in running Confucius Institutes. According to the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reform, the state should further encourage social organizations and Chinese-funded institutions to participate in the construction of Confucius Institutes and overseas cultural centers and undertake cultural exchange programs. We will support more social forces to help develop Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, strengthen the ranks of Chinese language teachers and Chinese language teaching volunteers, and make every effort to meet the demand for Chinese language learning in b&R countries. After the new transformation in 2020, Confucius Institutes will transition from government management to social management. Finally, with the development of information technology in education, Confucius Institutes have made further progress by leveraging the dividends brought by information resources. The General Office of the Ministry of Education, in its Notice on printing and Distributing Key Points of Education Informatization work in 2016, pointed out that it should strengthen the construction of Confucius Institutes on the Internet, further enrich online Chinese teaching resources, and optimize online course platforms (Chen, 2015; Chu & Yue, 2015; Liang, 2021; Wang & Ning, 2016; Wu, 2014; Xiao, 2018; Zhang & Gu, 2015; Zhou & Qiao, 2008).

4.2 Difficulties of Public Opinion in Running a School 4.2.1 For a Long Time, There Have Been Opinions in the International Community That Confucius Institutes Are Political Propaganda Tools of the Chinese Government Confucius Institutes suffered a major setback in some Western countries in 2020. Since the beginning of this year, 13 Confucius Institutes in the United States have announced that they will close by 2020, bringing the total number of Confucius Institutes to one-third in the United States. In April 2020, the last Confucius Classroom in Sweden announced its closure. In June, the German state of Bavaria held a hearing to investigate Confucius Institutes. Confucius Institute is regarded as a kind of cultural invasion. The negative attitude of the international community and academia toward Confucius Institutes has led to the dilemma of public opinion in running Confucius Institutes. On the one hand, Confucius Institutes have been strongly supported by the Chinese government for a long time and are a cooperative school run by the Chinese government and foreign social organizations, with little intervention from foreign governments. Even if officials have repeatedly stated in our country, the Confucius Institute is professor of Chinese language, no cultural invasion or the meaning of

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cultural soft power penetration, but in the past for a long time, the opening ceremony of the Confucius Institute will often have national leaders, attended the access of foreign state leaders, and often have the Confucius Institute of opportunity, combined with the background of the Confucius Institute, the pure financial allocation. It is hard not to associate politics with Confucius Institutes. In the recruitment publicity of Confucius Institutes and various media reports, various cultural communication activities held by Confucius Institutes have been highlighted, resulting in the misunderstanding of Confucius Institutes as cultural communication and cultural export. On the other hand, China’s remarkable development in recent years has aroused the vigilance of Western countries, and this kind of conflict is more prominent (Chu & Yue, 2015; Wang & Ning, 2016; Zhang & Gu, 2015).

4.2.2 The Operation Mechanism of Running a School Is Not Perfect School-running body. Confucius Institutes are mainly run by the Chinese government and foreign universities. After the establishment of Sino-Foreign Language Exchange Center and China Foundation for International Education of the Ministry of Education, the rights and responsibilities of Confucius Institutes, Sino-Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Education and China Foundation for International Chinese Education need to be further clarified. People mechanism. After comparing different language communication institutions, it is found that the ratio of managers and teachers is different between Confucius Institute and other language institutions. Managers of the British Council and la Francoise account for 70% of the total staff, while those of the Confucius Institute account for only 10%. English teaching due to the huge global demand, it is no longer necessary for the UK to promote English teaching on its own. Therefore, the British Council mainly undertakes cultural exchange activities and promotes cooperation between the state and relevant institutions. On the one hand, the ratio of administrators to teachers in China is related to the need for many teachers to engage in Chinese teaching, and on the other hand, it also reflects the unreasonable personnel mechanism in Confucius Institutes. A stable, moderately sized, and experienced professional management team is very important for the long-term sustainable development of Confucius Institutes. The proportion of managers (mainly Chinese managers) is too low, the term of office is too short, and the work handover is frequent, which may lead to the disconnection between the two managers, or at worst, it may cause the fluctuation of management quality, thus affecting the long-term stable development of Confucius Institutes. Student employment mechanism. Problems are hard to guarantee. The long-term development of the Confucius Institute, the first thing to consider the students, because whether meet the student appeal to a large extent determines the quality of students at the Confucius Institute and admissions effect, if the students think in Confucius Institute do not accept the expected quality education, or

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in Chinese education cannot find professing, right after work. The attractiveness of the Confucius Institutes themselves would be greatly diminished. Therefore, Confucius Institutes should further improve their education and teaching, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, further leverage the advantages of online education, improve education in a more flexible and rich way, and monitor the teaching effect in real time. In terms of student employment, considering the shortage of local teachers, a circular mechanism can be set up to allow excellent local students to circulate to the local teachers and to realize the circular development of student employment and teacher security (Chu & Yue, 2015; Wang & Ning, 2016).

4.2.3 Insufficient Resources Money. For a long time, Confucius Institutes have relied too much on government funding and lacked the ability to raise funds. Some colleges even have to rely on a fixed annual income to survive. Although in some developed countries, school districts and governments have extra financial budgets for Confucius Institutes, and social organizations also donate a certain amount every year, Confucius Institutes in some economically underdeveloped regions are often in a state of insufficient funds and limited development. At present, the curriculum resources of Confucius Institutes are expanding, and the system has been basically formed. The number of new varieties is increasing, the type of level is rich, the number of languages is rising, and the supply quantity is expanding. However, there are still a series of problems in the curriculum and teaching resources of Confucius Institutes. To be specific, the structure of teaching materials is not perfect, the rate of high-quality materials is low, there are too few cultural reading materials and reference books, and too few customized teaching materials for different countries. Repeated resource projects, mostly traditional projects, failed to show the cultural life of the Chinese people in today’s era, network platform resources lack of integration, low international influence. In addition to the Online Confucius Institutes, Confucius Institutes have carried out the construction of “multi-databases, multi-platforms and multi-resources”, involving “main teaching materials database”, “local teaching resources database”, “teaching case database”, “Case database of Chinese and Foreign Cultural Differences”, “Guide platform for The compilation of International Chinese Teaching Materials”, “Confucius Institute digital Library”, “Confucius Institute book donation platform”, etc. In addition, the courseware, audio and video, animation, and other materials developed with the project teaching materials are very rich. Unfortunately, most of the resources are scattered and fail to be effectively coordinated and integrated, thus providing limited resource support to Confucius Institutes online.

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4.3 Countermeasures and Suggestions 4.3.1 Balancing Language Teaching and Cultural Communication The question of which is more important between language teaching and cultural communication is one of the key issues that Confucius Institutes have been widely discussed and disputed in the international public opinion. In fact, language and culture can never be completely separated, and language itself has the double value of communication. On the surface, language is used as a tool for cultural communication between people. But in fact, when language occurs, it conveys the cultural ideas and activities behind it. Therefore, there is no need to put cultural communication “prominently on the public screen”. This is especially true in the current international situation. The Ministry of Education of the Chinese and foreign language communication and cooperation center will be its function which is defined “as the development of the cause of international Chinese education professional non-profit education organizations, committed to learning Chinese, for the people in countries around the world know China to provide quality services, for the Chinese and foreign language communication and cooperation, the world multicultural mutual learning build friendly mutual cooperation platform”. It also highlights the function of language teaching. So, is cultural transmission still meaningful? In fact, in the language communication structure of various countries, the classroom often undertakes the function of language teaching. Various cultural activities often assume the function of cultural transmission. Cultural activities are widely welcomed by language learners in pleasing forms. It is impossible to cut back on cultural activities just because cultural transmission is not allowed. Language and activities are magic weapons to arouse the attraction of Chinese culture. The culture of “going out” should be transformed into a culture of “causing”. Cultural activities should not be abandoned, and cultural transmission should be made natural by focusing on language. It is better to talk about cultural exchange than cultural communication. Because in the current international situation, the dissemination of Chinese culture does not need to be done deliberately. Confucius Institutes should shift their function from cultural communication to cultural exchange. Embracing the world’s diverse cultures with a more equal and open attitude, Chinese culture highlights its characteristics and makes mutual achievements in the nourishment of world culture (Chen, 2015; Chu & Yue, 2015; Liang, 2021; Wang & Ning, 2016; Wu, 2014; Xiao, 2018; Zhang & Gu, 2015; Zhou & Qiao, 2008).

4.3.2 Improving Operating Mechanisms in Various Ways We will promote diversification of schools. The main reason why Confucius Institutes have fallen into the dilemma of public opinion is that the form of running

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Confucius Institutes is no longer suitable for the current international situation. To better carry out cultural communication, the government and the state may help to improve the popularity of Confucius Institutes and better open the work situation in the early stage of the establishment of Confucius Institutes. However, with the establishment and expansion of Confucius Institutes around the world, the government should no longer step too much in front of the stage. Specifically, on the one hand, countries with many Confucius Institutes have begun to take shape. The government should delegate schooling to society as far as possible and promote non-governmental schooling. The subjects of Confucius Institutes should not be limited to universities and governments. Social organizations, enterprises, and communities should all be potential partners of Confucius Institutes in the future. In 2020, the operation and management of Confucius Institutes were transferred from Hanban to China International Foundation for Chinese Education, which shows this trend. What is lacking now is the vigorous publicity of this information and the updating of the understanding of Confucius Institutes. On the other hand, we should promote cooperation between governments in running schools. There is no contradiction between promoting marketization and governmental cooperation in running schools. First, in countries with few or no Confucius Institutes, it is impractical to rely solely on private education, because such countries and regions tend to be relatively backward in economic development. Rather than considering the ideological infiltration of Confucius Institutes, they need support from all aspects of the Chinese government. In such countries, it is necessary for the Chinese and host governments to establish Confucius Institutes. In addition, under the impetus of some international policies (such as the “One Generation, One Road” initiative), the government of the host country needs Confucius Institutes to provide Chinese language teaching and other services. Therefore, it is more necessary for the Chinese government and the government of the host country to carry out cooperation in running Confucius Institutes. With the increasing national strength of China and the increasing economic value of Chinese, it is particularly important to scientifically evaluate the country’s market environment, actively carry out commercial distribution, and promote the marketization operation of Chinese teaching resources in a hierarchical and progressive manner. In layering and layout, we should consider two aspects: one is the maturity of the local Chinese teaching ecosystem. For mature countries, high-level dialogue should be maintained, and administrative intervention should be reduced. For the emerging countries of Chinese teaching, we should cooperate with each other to cultivate the market. To the less developed countries of Chinese language teaching, we should give preferential policies and aid. 2 It is to cooperate with “Chinese characteristics power diplomacy” strategy, actively participate in the “area” construction, by country, type, the key to establish market operation mechanism, the joint agency hatching quality projects both at home and abroad, make good use of “cooperative publishing, copyright output, commodity exports” three major overseas promotion mode, walk in the local market rule, and promote Chinese textbooks into overseas mainstream market channels. We will strengthen the team building and improve the operation capacity of Confucius Institutes. The current Confucius Institutes seem to be shouldering too much of the burden of international Chinese

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language education. The number of overseas teachers (including volunteers) and educational institutions of Confucius Institutes ranked first among major international language communication institutions. In terms of the personnel mechanism arrangement of the Confucius Institute in the future, the proportion of management personnel should be appropriately increased so that the Construction of the Confucius Institute can have a high-level and stable team, and T should focus on improving its operation capacity. Gradually transfer education and teaching positions to overseas local teachers. The world Confucius Institute big data platform will be established to collect data accumulated by Confucius Institutes themselves. Adjust the layout and course arrangement of Confucius Institutes in real time. In addition, the data accumulated by students in the learning process cannot be ignored. Fully mining and sorting out these data can constantly improve the teaching efficiency of Confucius Institutes. Of course, to achieve such a goal, some information technology may be needed, which requires breakthroughs and experiences exploration to provide precise services for the development of Confucius Institutes under the current condition that the funds of Confucius Institutes are not very sufficient (Chu & Yue, 2015; Wang & Ning, 2016; Zhang & Gu, 2015; Zhou & Qiao, 2008).

4.3.3 Taking Multiple Measures to Ensure Resource Supply Many national language promoters earn a lot of money each year. For example, the British Council, one of the sponsors of belts, earned 717 million pounds in 2019, accounting for 58% of its total income. Confucius Institutes can learn from the practices of other international language promotion agencies to charge part of the fees for information consultation on Chinese language examination and Chinese language teacher certification, Chinese education, and culture and expand their funding sources. With the increasing influence of China in the world and the increasing demand for Chinese language learning, Confucius Institutes should seize the opportunity to attract more social funds by providing language services, talent services, training services, and cultural exchange services to expand and develop themselves. For example, to provide order-type personnel training services for enterprises and to obtain financial support from enterprises. Therefore, local teachers should be specially provided with opportunities to experience Chinese culture through training and summer camps, so that they can further improve their education and teaching level and cultural literacy in a real Chinese environment, better carry out Chinese teaching, and promote international understanding. Second is to provide more development opportunities for teachers, teachers and volunteers reflecting the problem of low development opportunities, pay less; the Confucius Institute shall establish and improve the mechanism of teacher professional development and title assessment system, for on-the-job teachers to provide professional training courses on a

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regular basis, while increasing teachers’ salary treatment, make the Confucius Institute teacher someone to, and can retain a person’s occupation. To ensure that excellent Confucius Institute teachers do not leave their posts due to lack of development opportunities or inability to maintain daily life. Course teaching resources. First, the construction of curriculum and teaching resources follows the same idea of decentralization as teacher resources. The Chinese language teaching and curriculum resource development of overseas national education system can adopt the form of “other countries leading, China assisting” and adjust the participation of Chinese competent departments according to the market situation of overseas countries. Second, strengthen scientific research and promote teaching curriculum innovation. We should give full play to the scientific research expertise of Chinese language resource research bases at home and abroad and entrust targeted research projects. We should make full use of the scientific research funds of the language center to design research projects carefully and enhance the correlation between theory and practice. Culture communication and cultural exchange agreed upon in a rich and colorful activities, not only to make dumplings, cut a papercut, calligraphy, and traditional Chinese culture, but also actively to explore “Chinese + high speed rail” on behalf of the modern scientific and technical development level of China’s new features such as cultural projects, and all-round show Chinese culture in the form of more vivid. Finally, we should continue to promote the digital construction of teaching resources of Confucius Institutes. After handing over more rights of research and development and implementation of course teaching resources to teaching and research institutions in other countries, competent authorities should focus on promoting the construction of Confucius Institute course teaching resources platform, connecting resources into a network to benefit Chinese learners in a wider range. To be specific, cloud computing, big data artificial intelligence, and other technologies should be applied to the development and management of Confucius Institute course teaching resources, to build a diversified and personalized online learning environment for the learning needs of different groups around the world (Chen, 2015; Chu & Yue, 2015; Liang, 2021; Wang & Ning, 2016; Wu, 2014; Xiao, 2018; Zhang & Gu, 2015; Zhou & Qiao, 2008).

References Chen, X. (2015). Research progress of Confucius Institutes: The contrast between domestic and foreign perspectives and its policy enlightenment. Guangxi Social Sciences, 20(6), 198–202. Chu, X., & Yue, H. (2015). The development strategy model and factors analysis of “limited marketization” of Confucius Institutes. Journal of Northeast Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 20(5), 211–215. Liang, Y. (2021). Research on the development of teaching resources in Confucius Institutes. Education Academic Monthly, 20(5), 24–30. Wang, H., & Ning, J. (2016). Moderate intervention: Government behavior selection in the development of Confucius Institutes. Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 48(1), 54–61.

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Wu, J. (2014). Cultivation of local Chinese teachers in Confucius Institutes: Current situation, problems and countermeasures. Journal of South China Normal University (Social Science Edition), 20(5), 63–66. Xiao, M. (2018). On the Cultural communication function of Confucius Institutes in the context of globalization. Journal of Communication University of China, 2(3), 167–177. Zhang, D., & Gu, T. (2015). Research on the development mode of Confucius Institutes—A comparative study of four Confucius Institute. Fudan Education Forum, 13(1), 50–55. Zhou, Z., & Qiao, Z. (2008). Research on the mode of overseas Confucius Institute cooperation in running schools. Jiangsu Higher Education, 20(5), 32–35.

Chapter 5

Luban Workshop Development in China

The establishment of Luban Workshop marks the internationalization of China’s vocational education. In the past five years, 18 Luban Workshops have been established and completed, which has formed a huge influence at home and abroad. The rapid development of Luban Workshop is the inevitable result of the close interdependence and symbiosis between China’s vocational education and industrial economic development, and it is a practical move for vocational education to serve the Belt and Road Initiative. From brand establishment to scale development, Luban Workshop still faces problems of imperfect system and standard, imperfect operation mechanism and lack of guaranteed system. This chapter discusses measures for sustainable development such as policy and system guarantee, improvement of operation mechanism, and optimization of international standard system.

5.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools 5.1.1 Core Concept: Luban Workshop Luban Workshop is an international project of China’s vocational education overseas education through Tianjin National Modern Vocational Education Reform and Innovation Demonstration Zone under the background of the Belt and Road Strategic cooperation initiative. Luban Workshop concrete based on image of ruban craftsman “powers”, follow the equality, cooperation, can adjust measures to local conditions, quality priority, strong technology, basic principles, production and education cooperation with overseas education institutions to carry out vocational education record of formal schooling education and technical training, share the achievements of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_5

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China’s outstanding professional education and professional culture new mode of international cooperation. Luban Workshop connotation defined in technical skills of teaching and training of international institutions as the carrier, with engineering practice innovation project as the main line, on the basis of international standards, in the local industry and the development need talent as the guide, supported by national demonstration area of high-quality resources, service products and technology of China, and output capacity to cooperation. Cultivate local technical talents familiar with Chinese technologies, products, and standard. Luban Workshop is a concrete platform to share the teaching mode, professional standards, technical equipment, and teaching plan of China’s vocational and technical education with the world. This platform is built by constructing teaching mode, developing professional standards, relying on technical equipment, training local teachers, and developing teaching resources. Its core goal is to cultivate high-quality technical talents urgently needed for local economic and social development (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021).

5.1.2 Theoretical Tool: Human Capital Theory Human capital theory is founded by American economist and Nobel laureate Theodore w. Schultz; the theory is that human capital is the main resource in all resources, the accumulation of specialized human capital is the real motive force of economic growth, and human capital “quality” and “quantity” to a large extent determine the development prospects of human. The so-called human capital refers to the knowledge and technology of workers in the form of ability, which is a kind of ability with economic value. Education plays a decisive role in the formation of this ability. Promoting human capital through education can more effectively promote the common development of regional economy than promoting material capital. Therefore, the theory of human capital not only provides a theoretical basis for studying how vocational education promotes the coordinated development of regional economy, but also provides a theoretical basis for the international development of vocational education. Due to the “area” all the way along the countries and regions are the characteristics of the backward production technology, lack of high-level industry and technical personnel, the “going out” enterprises in China in the relevant countries and regions to carry out the project appeared frequently related problems such as insufficient human resources, technical support is not enough, seriously affect the efficiency of the project of. And the main task of the vocational education is to cultivate high-quality professional technical talents, promote the development of internationalization of China’s vocational education can be output abroad vocational education resources in our country, the local human capital formation, can compensate for the lack of human resources in the construction of “area”, “area” construction in the formation of the human resources needed to supply chain. Vigorously developing the internationalization of vocational education can better serve the promotion and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, and cultivate

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high-level professionals who are familiar with international rules and understand the culture, language, and technology of countries and regions along the Belt and Road. Since 2016, the research of Luban Workshop has begun to rise. According to the results of cnKI and Baidu academic search, “Luban Workshop” as the subject has contributed more than 230 research results. According to the literature study, the research on Luban Workshop started from the construction practice of Luban Workshop in Thailand in 2016. As the first Luban Workshop outside China, Luban Workshop in Thailand has carried out researches on its positioning, functions, standards, and systems at the early stage of construction, providing replicable, scalable, and sustainable samples for subsequent project construction. Judging by the citation relationship, the two articles published by Professor Jingquan Lv in 2017 and 2018 laid the foundation for subsequent research. These two articles systematically elaborated the origin, connotation, and model of Luban Workshop and comprehensively expounded the innovation-oriented international service project of Luban Workshop in theory and practice. His subsequent monograph “Core Meaning of LUBAN Workshop”, “Analysis of LUBAN WORKSHOP”, and related articles have made a systematic explanation of the core meaning of Luban Workshop and put forward the development strategy and management policy of Luban Workshop construction. In addition, Yang Yan et al. also analyzed the motivation, connotation, and characteristics of Luban Workshop construction. The above research laid a theoretical foundation for the construction and development of Luban Workshop and laid a foundation for the subsequent application research. Researchers from Tianjin Academy of Education have played an important role in the application and research of the core concepts of Luban Workshop. In addition, Cheng Suli, Liu Yan, and other scholars have conducted studies on the urban rail, Traditional Chinese medicine, business, Internet of Things, and other specific professional issues related to Luban Workshop construction. The research on the core meaning of Luban Workshop has entered the field of professional construction. Throughout ruban workshop of core principles applications, more research results of this study provide a reference for theory and research category, the current research focus on brand building, the path of internationalization, resources construction, and other areas of the building, or for a specific professional study, and for how to apply ruban workshop construction standards from building a ruban workshop. To the standardized operation based on standards, there are few studies on the process investigation, experience summary, specification sorting, and strategy construction of actions. Further enrichment and innovation are needed: First, there is still a lack of authoritative explanation on the connotation of Luban Workshop, which will produce many theoretical perplexities in the implementation process. Therefore, it is urgent to provide systematic theoretical explanation. Second, there is still a lack of system construction for the international standard of Luban Workshop. Therefore, it is urgent to construct a model system that embodies both Chinese characteristics and international standards in the new era. Third, the guaranteed policy of Luban Workshop lacks the demonstration of “three-dimensional integration” from theory, system, and practice. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the guaranteed policy design of Luban Workshop. That is to say, the research and development of a process-based overall operation macro-system is

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a top priority for the construction of Luban Workshop in the period of scale development, so it is necessary to conduct in-depth exploration of the operation process of Luban Workshop (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data 5.2.1 Overview of the Background of Vocational Education “Going Out” On August 19, 2005, Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and the Ministry of Education signed an agreement in Tianjin to jointly build the “National Vocational Education Reform Pilot Zone” (pilot Zone for short) in Tianjin. On March 23, 2006, Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and the Ministry of Education issued the implementation plan for the construction of the pilot area and put forward seven experimental focuses. Until June 2010, Luban Workshop has laid a foundation for its origin through five years of experiment and exploration. We launched the implementation plan for the “going global” strategy of vocational education. Encourage vocational colleges to run schools overseas and open the channel of international cooperation in running schools of vocational education between Tianjin and Southeast Asia. In June 2015, the construction task of the demonstration zone was successfully completed. In terms of opening up and exchange with the outside world, the demonstration zone has begun to pay equal attention to high-quality “bring in” and exploratory “go out”. The innovative practice in the past five years has made all-round preparation for the birth of Luban Workshop. On July 4, 2015, Tianjin Municipal People’s Government and the Ministry of Education signed a cooperation agreement in Tianjin Sea Education Park, deciding to jointly build the only “National Modern Vocational Education Reform and Innovation Demonstration Zone” (abbreviated as the upgraded version of the Demonstration Zone) in Tianjin. As the upgraded version of “demonstration zone”, Tianjin will be built into a new highland of vocational education system innovation, a new engine for system construction, a new window for international cooperation, a new platform for regional coordination, and a new fulcrum for quality improvement (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.2.2 Policies Related to Luban Workshop Project On April 29, 2016, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era, which is the first programmatic document to comprehensively guide the development of China’s opening of education since the founding of the People’s Republic

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of China. It marks the systematization and sharing of China’s vocational education brand with the world and opens the precedent of establishing concrete institutions abroad to implement academic education and technical training. In July 2017, the central comprehensively deepen reform leading group meeting examined and approved the “about to strengthen and improve the work of the Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges several opinions, file clear requirements in the field of cultural exchanges form ruban workshop and so on one batch of have the international influence of the brand project, ruban workshop has become one of international brand construction projects in the field of Chinese and foreign cultural exchanges”. In September 2018, President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of 10 Luban Workshops in Africa at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). In December, President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing ceremony of Luban Workshops in Portugal in Lisbon, officially elevating Luban Workshops into a national strategy. The Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Modernization of Education (2018–2022) in 2019 states: “Encourage and support institutions of higher learning, vocational colleges and enterprises to jointly go global, build a number of bases for talent training, scientific and technological innovation and cooperation, and cultural exchanges, and promote the construction of a number of ‘Luban Workshops’”. China’s Education Modernization 2035 encourages “accelerating the construction of overseas international schools with Chinese characteristics and encouraging qualified vocational schools to set up Luban Workshops overseas”. In July 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education, which proposed to improve the construction standards of “Luban Workshop” and expand the connotation of schools (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.2.3 Main Implementation Brand start-up stage (2015–2018). During the three years from September 2015 (when the preliminary planning and scheme design of Luban Workshop was launched) to September 2018 (when President Xi Jinping announced the construction of 10 Luban Workshops in Africa), the “project construction” of Luban Workshop went through an experimental and exploratory period from practical to practical, from design to implementation, and from inference to actual combat. Luban Workshop’s original aspiration is to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative, promote international production capacity cooperation, and serve to build a community with a shared future for mankind. It is to share China’s excellent vocational education programs with the world. In July 2017, the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform deliberated and approved several Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Cultural and People-to-people Exchanges between China and other countries. The document clearly required the formation of several internationally influential brand projects such as Luban Workshop in the field of cultural and people-to-people

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exchanges. Luban Workshop has become an international brand building project in the field of Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. The “brand creation” of Luban Workshop has experienced a mature period from development orientation, target tasks, construction principles, and core connotation to implementation path, construction mode, and policy guarantee. With Luban Workshop in Thailand and Luban Workshop in India as important symbols and quality scales, Luban Workshop’s “project construction” and “brand creation” have the conditions for promotion and application. Luban Workshop has been gradually defined from brand name to connotation, marking the formal establishment of Luban Workshop (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021). Practice development period (2018–2021). From September 2018 to September 2021 (President Xi Jinping proposed the construction of 10 Luban Workshops in SCO countries), during the three years, the core of Luban Workshops will be fully interpreted with the construction of benchmark projects in Portugal, Djibouti, South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia as the theme. It is also a critical period to complete the national task of building 10 Luban Workshops in Africa, and the construction of Luban Workshops starts a new journey. In September 2018. At the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of 10 Luban Workshops in Africa to provide vocational skills training to African youth. In December of the same year, President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing ceremony of Portugal’s Luban Workshop project in Lisbon. So far, Luban workshop formally rose as a national strategy. In December 2019, Tianjin Municipal Education Working Committee, Tianjin Municipal Education Commission and Tianjin Finance Bureau formulated and promulgated the “Tianjin Vocational Education” Luban Workshop Construction Project and Fund Management Measures”. It comprehensively explains Luban Workshop’s positioning, construction principles, construction support, construction mode, construction requirements, construction tasks, research and promotion, division of responsibilities, project application, project review, project management, performance rating, inspection, and acceptance, etc., providing an important foundation and solid guarantee for highquality project construction. In December 2020, Luban Workshop in Madagascar was inaugurated. So far, it has taken nearly two and a half years from President Xi Jinping’s proposal to build 10 Luban Workshops in Africa to the successful completion of the construction. In July 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Vocational Education, which proposed to improve the construction standards of “Luban Workshop” and expand the connotation of schools. In September of the same year, at the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of SCO member states, President Xi Jinping proposed that in the next three years, China would provide 1,000 training opportunities for poverty alleviation to SCO member states and build 10 Luban Workshops. Luban Workshop has started a new development journey and entered a period of rapid growth. Under the leadership of Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, supported by the Ministry of Education and other relevant ministries, Luban Workshop is an international brand of Chinese vocational education and a

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brand project of cultural exchange between China and foreign countries created by Tianjin vocational education personnel through practice, research, summary, and promotion. It has become a national strategy to help partner countries strengthen vocational education capacity building, improve people’s well-being, and serve the Belt and Road Initiative (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021).

5.3 Challenges and Problems in Practice 5.3.1 The Standards and Specifications The standardization mode is formed by the standardized, institutionalized, and unified cooperation procedures, teaching methods, and target provisions in the construction and implementation of Luban Workshop. The lack of standards will become an important bottleneck restricting the rapid expansion of standards and the guarantee of talent training quality of Luban Workshop.

5.3.2 Selection Criteria The selection criteria are condensed based on sufficient demonstration of the feasibility of the project before the construction of Luban Workshop in Sino-foreign cooperative colleges and universities, including the construction target, construction foundation, construction plan, and expected results. First, it should consider whether the two sides of the construction institutions have reached the same construction goal. The project construction positioning and thinking should be based on serving the “Belt and Road” Initiative and the “community with a shared future for mankind”. Second, foundation construction is a necessary condition for selection. Indicators can be formulated from three aspects: international cooperation capacity and conditions guarantee of Chinese and foreign schools, strength of Chinese-funded enterprises in project construction cooperation, and political, economic, and cultural environment of cooperative countries. The major advantages of Chinese and foreign institutions, the site conditions of teaching and training in foreign institutions, the number of students, the quality of teachers, and the ability of previous international cooperation projects can be taken as important indicators. The influence of Chinese enterprises in project construction cooperation at home and abroad as well as local benefits and future development as reference indicators; the environmental considerations of the area where Luban Workshop project is located can be analyzed by indicators from the political, economic, geographical, and cultural background of the partner country, the support provided by the government of the partner country, the development level of the local relevant industries of the cooperation major, and the overall

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demand for technical and skilled personnel. Third, the construction period of Luban Workshop is three years. A set of scientifically detailed and feasible construction plans should be formulated and the construction contents such as site construction, teacher training, resource development, standard construction, and teaching equipment should be defined in the construction period to facilitate the selection. Fourth, expected results of project construction, characteristic innovations, and international social benefits are also important selection criteria (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021).

5.3.3 Construction Standards The completion standard is the achievement mark of Luban Workshop after the completion of the three-year construction period and the indicator basis of project acceptance. Due to the attributes and characteristics of Luban Workshop’s international vocational education cooperation project, it can be regarded as the standard of teaching resources and internationalization. Professional teaching standards, teaching model standards, teacher training standards, talent training quality standards of five aspects to improve the indicators. First, the standard of teaching resources refers to learning hardware and software resources such as Luban Workshop site, teaching equipment, paper teaching materials, digital resource CD-ROM and special learning website. Second, the development of international professional teaching standards can lay the basic teaching system and norms for the international cooperation of the professional and the cultivation of international technical and skilled talents, which is an important standard for Luban Workshop to adhere to the path of internationalization. From local talent cultivation goal, clear partner school’s close professional teaching standards, grasp the local Chinese companies for technical skill talented person’s actual demand, the professional qualification certificate of the domestic or international standards, development career ability training as the main line, professional ethics and professional quality education throughout the course system, and determine the talents cultivation target and specifications. Third, sharing teaching mode, engineering Practice Innovation Project (EPIP) is Luban Workshop’s teaching mode. In the standard formulation of teaching model, the research results of overseas Luban Workshop teaching model, the effect of publicity and promotion, the quality of teaching and research activities of Chinese and foreign teachers, and other indicators can be carried out. Fourth, the quality standards of international teacher training. The standards of the teaching staff in the partner countries can be considered from the quality of teacher training, the awards of participating in Chinese or international skills competitions, scientific research and technical service achievements, and other indicators. Through the installation, debugging and maintenance of the equipment, foreign teachers are trained so that they can master China’s advanced vocational education mode and be equipped with practical operation and guidance for students to use China’s vocational education national competition equipment to learn technical skills. Organize foreign teachers from overseas Luban Workshops

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to participate in Chinese or world skills competitions, so as to test the skill level of teachers from the cooperating countries after completing the training in China. Teachers at home and abroad shall jointly write papers and topics on the research of Luban Workshop, jointly provide technical services for cooperative enterprises, and enhance the core teaching ability of existing assets. Fifth, the quality standards of talent training. Academic education and vocational training are the two major functions of Luban Workshop, which serve the training of localized talents. Therefore, the quantity and quality of local technical youth training should be designed as the standard for the establishment of Luban Workshop, and indicators should be set for the promotion of academic qualifications or vocational qualification certificates in talent training. At the same time, Luban Workshop should be promoted to be included in the education system of partner countries to realize mutual recognition of academic qualifications (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.3.4 Operating Standards The long-term health development and operation of Luban Workshop need daily standardized system and quality evaluation and supervision system standard guarantee. First, institutional norms and standards. Orderly and reasonable promotion of Luban Workshop cannot be separated from the construction of normal system. A series of standardized system standards can be formulated around the institutionalization of Sino-foreign cooperation exchange, teacher training, overseas teaching management, equipment management, student enrollment, and internship. Second, we will establish standards for quality evaluation and supervision system. Security ruban workshop for sustainable development of the education quality and the ability to operate need to constantly improve and improve the evaluation and supervision system, respectively, from the Angle of teacher training, teaching, and evaluation system of regular for overseas ruban workshop construction and talent training quality assessment, and give the performance evaluation of rewards and punishments, in order to promote ruban workshop and efficient operations management and highquality personnel training. The construction of international cooperation mechanism lags. The international operation mechanism of Luban Workshop is the key factor to ensure its long-term operation, including the teaching management mechanism that is in line with Chinese and foreign standards, the international integration of industry and education, the continuous international double-teacher team mechanism, the international teaching resource development mechanism, etc. At present, there is no overall institutional arrangement at the national level. Second, the bilateral cooperation mechanism is not sound, there is no established responsibilities of both sides of the Sino-foreign construction, multi-party cooperation procedures, and regulatory exit access system; third, the cooperation mechanism is not rich in content. Luban Workshop involves functions, specialties, and humanities, including the government, universities, enterprises, and institutions, but a set of mechanisms

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with clear levels and rich contents has not been formed. Fourth, the mechanism lacks legal guarantee.

5.3.5 Lack of Operation Guarantee System The establishment of cooperative relations between schools and enterprises is mostly stagnant, and the cooperation between enterprises and construction colleges has not yet formed for Luban Workshop capital cost operation. Has built ruban workshop gradually entered the stage of business development in the future workshop scale expansion, replicate promotion, equipment maintenance, the cultivation of students coming to China to face the source of the funds, rely on China’s long-term failure to form a “blood transfusion” and “blood” function, is difficult to meet the long-term operation of the sustainable development goal (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021).

5.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions 5.4.1 Improve Systematic and Scientific Policies to Ensure Development (1) Promote project development through systematic and overall planning. The government plays a crucial role in the construction of Luban Workshops in Africa, and the leading power of the government must be fully brought into play during the pilot project. With the gradual implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government has introduced relevant policies and measures to accelerate the development of modern vocational education and vigorously support the “going global” of vocational education. Many universities and enterprises in China have joined forces, from planning to create ten “Luban Workshops” in Africa to giving full play to the collaborative strength of universities and enterprises to jointly promote the project construction. However, the core leadership of the government is indispensable in this process. Therefore, the government is required to promulgate policies and measures to integrate resources, coordinate cooperation, and strengthen cooperation between schools and enterprises, so that schools and enterprises can jointly promote the construction process of “Luban Workshop”. Relying on the guidance of government policies, the forces of vocational colleges and enterprises should be consolidated to establish a unified goal, complete the teaching tasks of vocational colleges, and cultivate a group of excellent technical and skilled talents, so as to speed up the “going out”. In this process, the enterprise can be adequate teaching facilities, training venue for vocational colleges, to ensure the teaching work smoothly, vocational colleges into standardization, ordering the development way of 屮, based on the

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university-enterprise cooperation mode, the African “ruban workshop” the project smoothly without the government’s policy guidance. Through the review of relevant policies of Luban Workshop, it is found that there is no medium- and long-term plan for the international development of Luban Workshop, and the improvement of the level of international cooperation projects in vocational education should be scientifically planned, and the development ideas and focus should be clearly defined. “Opinions of Tianjin People’s Government on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education” clearly points out the number of Luban Workshops to be built overseas. “Tianjin Vocational Education” Luban Workshop “Construction Project and Fund Management Measures” supports “the implementation of eight action plans of China-Africa Cooperation and the acceleration of the construction of Luban Workshops in Africa”. At present, the primary task of Luban Workshop is the international expansion of individual scale and intercontinental area. The local government and education department can consider designing the development plan of Luban Workshop internationalization and improve the strategic understanding and positioning of Luban Workshop internationalization in the new era. First, Luban Workshop is a physical platform for China’s vocational education achievements to be shared with the world under the Belt and Road Initiative and has become a strong support and highlight for China’s vocational education to accelerate and expand the opening up of education in the new era. To achieve a high-level global intercontinental layout, vigorously cultivate international localized technical and skilled personnel, and continue to promote Luban Workshop education as a platform to serve international production capacity cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. (2) Efforts will be made to enhance the international influence of China’s vocational education and the international competitiveness of the industry (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.4.2 We Will Improve Policies for Ensuring Independent Funding for Various Sources of Funds Formulate support policies led by the government. During the first construction period of Luban Workshop, the project funds came from the support of the local government. The government established “Luban Workshop Special Fund” in the special funds for vocational education to support the start of overseas Luban Workshop. After completing the initial construction in the first week, Luban Workshop will face a series of development problems, such as equipment maintenance and update, workshop scale upgrade and professional expansion, teaching resources development and information enhancement, international student training and student reserve, etc. Relying only on a school to independently complete the above in-depth construction needs, the financial pressure is a prominent contradiction. If the financial support is not in place, it is likely to face the dilemma of waste, and if the government continues to give financial support, there will be huge pressure, and the long-term operation

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of the workshop cannot be realized. Local governments and financial departments may consider giving play to the leading role of government in funding investment and increase financial support to foreign teachers from advanced vocational education countries introduced by vocational colleges, overseas study and study of our teachers, docking of professional teaching standards, introduction of vocational qualification certificates and other fields. Formulate the rules for project acceptance and reward management of Luban Workshop, carry out a round of performance evaluation every three years, and grant reward funds to workshops with outstanding construction results. The government can also attract social funds and private capital to participate in international exchanges and cooperation of vocational colleges by formulating preferential policies, to realize the diversification of funding sources of Luban Workshop. At the same time, Chinese and foreign cooperative colleges and universities will establish special development funds for international exchange and cooperation, which can provide guarantee for the long-term development of Luban Workshop. Local government, education administrative department, foreign affairs department, and finance department may consider establishing and expanding multichannel fund investment mechanism. First, attract all kinds of social capital to Luban industry internationalization project, attract the participation of industrial enterprises and social funds, set up international education exchange and cooperation fund with a wide coverage of teachers and students, and form a multi-channel funding guarantee mechanism. The second is to formulate the implementation plan of international training so that Luban Workshop can provide paid skills training services to overseas enterprises, laying a solid economic foundation for the international development of vocational education. The funds of Luban Workshop project will be jointly borne by Chinese and foreign cooperative universities and participating enterprises. The Chinese school is responsible for the training expenses of the partner’s teachers in China, the labor costs of The Overseas construction of The Chinese teachers, the development of teaching resources of Luban Workshop, and the expenses related to the start-up and operation of the project. The foreign cooperative school is responsible for the site infrastructure construction, academic education, and vocational training costs, as well as the start-up and operation of Luban Workshop. Enterprises provide teaching equipment for overseas Luban Workshops in the form of donation or lease (Li, 2019; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017).

5.4.3 Improving Policies to Ensure the Development of International Faculty Formulate policies for the introduction of optimized faculty structure. Local governments and education authorities can consider the talent bonus policy to attract the professionals returning from overseas study to become international teachers, so as to build a team of teachers with international vision, knowledge of international rules, competence, and reasonable structure. One is to hire high-quality compound

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technical skills teachers who are proficient in professional foreign aid and professional skills as leaders to enhance the international ability of the specialty; employ management personnel with international project construction experience to implement international cooperation and exchange projects. Second, the establishment of professional access mechanism for foreign teachers, the introduction of foreign vocational education high-end experts, masters of technical skills and teachers quickly optimize the international plus capital structure from the entrance of talents and hire several foreign teachers with high comprehensive quality and strong professional ability. Formulate management measures to encourage the growth of teachers. Local governments and education authorities may consider formulating incentive systems to enhance the participation of full-time teachers in workshop construction. The first is to implement the special training system whereby full-time teachers and management staff of Luban Workshop, who are selected by both sides of the Sino-foreign cooperative schools, regularly go to advanced countries for further education, so that the teachers of Luban Workshop can improve their vision and ideas of international education during their overseas training. It can also give full play to state-sponsored overseas study to cultivate high-end talents in secondary vocational schools and give full play to the demonstration and guidance of state-sponsored overseas study to cultivate high-end talents. The second is to improve the weight of assessment on the teaching ability of localized teachers in the school’s professional title assessment. Teachers’ bilingual teaching ability and participation in international project construction are taken as assessment indicators to motivate teachers to participate in international school running. Formulate guidelines for training international double teachers. China’s vocational education has entered a new era of international “export and import”, and the teaching staff is an important support for secondary vocational schools to carry out international cooperation and exchanges and serve the “Belt and Road” Initiative of vocational education. The training of full-time teachers in vocational schools should be completely adjusted to meet the needs of international education, and the double-qualified teachers should be trained to master the latest trends of international industrial development and cutting-edge knowledge of technology. The education administrative departments should formulate policies to support the improvement of international teaching ability of teachers in secondary vocational schools. Guided by local governments, educational administrative departments, and foreign affairs departments, it sets up international projects of industry and education integration in cooperation between multinational enterprises and vocational colleges and cultivates international double teachers in secondary vocational schools. The management culture of transnational enterprises and international advanced production training equipment are introduced, and teachers are encouraged to practice and make plans in the factories of transnational enterprises after completing productive training teaching tasks, so as to master the latest technological development trends of international industries and industries. The two sides of the university and enterprise cooperate to carry out technological research and formulate technical standards. Improve the teaching ability of international talent training by exchanging technology

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with technical personnel of enterprises with international resource background (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021). Establish talent training objectives that meet the needs of local economic and social development. Luban Workshop project has made it clear that the talent training target is interdisciplinary talents with international vision, strong cross-cultural communication ability, and application ability. First, the school needs to define the unique positioning of international education and develop new advantages of traditional specialties through international cooperation projects. Luban Workshop will jointly investigate the industrial demand and labor force technical level of the partner country, so as to form a localized talent training program in line with the local economic and social characteristics. Based on the requirements of the service occupation, establish the concept of personnel training to serve the economic and social development of the cooperative country, develop the local youth and people to improve technical skills, and improve the vocational education certification system. Vigorously promote the construction of domestic legislation and system, and legally protect the implementation of international vocational education. Washington Agreement, Sydney Agreement, Dublin Agreement, and other agreements on mutual recognition of academic qualifications guarantee and promote the continuous improvement of the quality of professional education in developed countries. In addition, mutual recognition of academic qualifications is the development trend of the internationalization of Vocational education in China. China can try to legislate and promote international treaties initiated by UNESCO and other international organizations. Further expand the number of countries with “Belt and Road” countries for mutual recognition of vocational education qualifications, further establish bilateral and multilateral policy consultation mechanism of mutual recognition of academic qualifications based on mutual trust and mutual benefit, change the concept of vocational education in China, and promote the mutual exchange of vocational education among countries co-built along the Belt and Road. Change the traditional organizational model and set up a project team type international management organization. The international project model of Luban Workshop determines that both Chinese and foreign schools should break the traditional departmental organizational structure, to meet the complex and special organizational needs of multi-department coordination and multi-function development in the process of workshop construction and operation. The Chinese and foreign parties shall jointly establish a special working group for Luban Workshop project, with a small number of full-time staff and most part-time staff. The person in charge of the working group is the school leaders of both sides, who are mainly responsible for the formulation of macro-objectives for the construction of Luban Workshop. The full-time staff is the executive director of workshop construction, responsible for medium management, including the formulation of construction and operation plans. Both sides shall define the number and target of sub-projects such as workshop site layout, equipment installation and transportation, curriculum development and development, training, and research of existing resources, opening ceremony, recruitment media publicity,

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enterprise cooperation and negotiation according to the existing scheme, and coordinate the completion schedule of each sub-project. Make clear that part-time staff can be responsible for each sub-project, specifically implement the work schedule and achieve goals, and optimize the work process. Teachers and staff of Sino-foreign cooperative schools are responsible for the implementation of specific tasks for each sub-project, and feedback the progress and difficulties in each process. The responsible persons at all levels are responsible for solving the problems step by step to achieve the macro goals of Luban Workshop (Ke & Chen, 2021; Li, 2019; Liu, 2017; Lu, 2020; Wang & Yang, 2020; Xue, 2017; Yang, 2018; Zhang, 2021).

References Ke, Y., & Chen, X. (2021). Research on cooperative operation mode of multi-vocational education between China and Africa based on “Luban Workshop”—A case study of automobile testing and maintenance specialty. Mechanical and Electrical Technology, 11(6), 104–106. Li, S. (2019). Characteristics, problems and promotion strategies of overseas education in Chinese universities. Education Management of Universities, 20(13), 98–103+124. Liu, H. (2017). “One Belt and One Road” modern vocational education Luban Workshop international exchange records. China Vocational and Technical Education, 20(16), 51–52. Lu, J. (2020). The core connotation of Luban Workshop is an international brand of Chinese vocational education. Union Journal of Tianjin Vocational Colleges, 20(1), 66–67. Wang, L., & Yang, Y. (2020). Global vocational education community of destiny: China’s participation in global vocational education network governance based on “Luban Workshop”. China Vocational and Technical Education, 20(6), 12–19. Xue, W. (2017). Reflections on the quality construction of Sino-foreign cooperative education. Education Management of Colleges and Universities, 20(11), 89–94. Yang, Y. (2018). Analysis of motivation, connotation, and characteristics of Luban Workshop construction. China Vocational and Technical Education, 2018(11), 68–69. Zhang, L. (2021). Application of the core meaning of Luban Workshop: Cognition, action and strategy. Vocational Education Research, 20(9), 6–7.

Chapter 6

Running Chinese-Foreign Cooperation Education in China

This chapter explores running Chinese-foreign cooperation education in China. Since China’s reform and opening up, in order to adapt to the rapid development of our country’s education business, expand the opening education, accelerate the modernization of education, promote education in our country in the world influence, and promote foreign exchanges and cooperation, China education specification of institutions of higher learning outside school activities, on December 31, 2002, the Ministry of Education issued “interim measures for the administration of institutions of higher learning outside of school.” The measures mainly target “higher diploma, degree or non-diploma higher education” conducted overseas by Chinese institutions of higher education. The policy also proposes clear procedures and norms for the approval of overseas education, including application forms, application time, diploma management, etc. It also makes clear that each school-running force must be approved by each local government and submitted to the Ministry of Education before they can carry out education activities.

6.1 Literature Review and Theoretical Tools 6.1.1 Literature Review A total of 331 literatures with the subject word “overseas education” were searched in CNKI database, and the top ten subject words. In addition to the highest proportion of overseas education 184 times (39.32%), the main keywords of relevant literatures also involve other aspects, among which the literatures related to the Belt and Road appeared 126 times in total, accounting for 26.92% of the top 10 literatures

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_6

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related to overseas education. This was followed by higher vocational colleges 54 times (11.54%), Chinese-foreign cooperation 40 times (8.55%), education opening 23 times (4.91%), internationalization of higher education 21 times (4.49%), and international students 20 times (4.27%). The literature related to overseas education has a long time span, and the earliest literature can be traced back to 1998. From 1998 to 2015, the number of studies on overseas education remained relatively low, with less than 10 published per year, except in 2003, when the number increased to 20. This is closely related to the Interim Administrative Measures for Overseas Education of Institutions of Higher Learning adopted by the Ministry of Education on March 29, 2002, which came into force on February 1, 2003, and was abolished on November 10, 2015. Therefore, after 2015, there was a sharp increase in the number of studies on overseas education from 2016 to 2017. After a slight decline in 2018, the number reached a maximum of 59 in 2019, while it declined in recent two years. This is closely related to the “Guidelines for Higher Education Institutions running Overseas (Trial) (2019 Edition)” issued by China Association of Higher Education on September 26, 2019. In 2021, a total of 48 studies on overseas education were published. Among the 331 literatures searched by CNKI with the subject word of “overseas education,” 81 literatures were from core journals. In the literature of core journals, overseas education still ranks first, appearing 41 times (30.6%) in total, followed by studies related to the Belt and Road, appearing 40 times (29.85%) in total. This was followed by higher vocational colleges (11.94%), Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools (10.45%), overseas branch schools (6.72%), overseas students (5.22%), and education opening to the outside world (5.22%). The research theme of core journals is consistent with the overall literature research direction. The time variation trend of literature publication in core journals of overseas education in China can be seen that the development trend is basically the same as that of all literatures, with little difference. The literature can be traced back to 2001 at the earliest. Before 2016, the number of literatures published in core journals of overseas education was limited, with less than 3 articles in total. It increased to 13 in 2017 and reached a maximum of 16 in 2019, and then declined in the last two years. In 2021, the number of literatures published in core journals of overseas education in China is 8. Among the collected 331 literatures, a total of 66 literatures containing “policy” were screened. The top 10 specific subject words, and their time distribution. The research on overseas education policy is basically consistent with the overall research direction and time development trend. Overall, the number of studies on overseas education in China is small, with 331 papers published in the past 20 years, among which 81 are high-quality studies and 66 are policy studies. The research topics are mainly concerned with the Belt and Road Initiative, higher education, and higher vocational colleges. It is characterized by a long research time span, a small number of studies, and a concentration of research topics. The growth rate of the overall number of studies is not obvious before 2017 (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Liu, 2017; Peng, 2021; Tu, 2009).

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6.1.2 Theoretical Tools Firstly, this chapter will carry out literature research, and form a new understanding after literature research based on collecting and sorting out relevant literatures in the research field. In literature research, policy text analysis will be chosen as the main analysis method, and the existing literature will be sorted out with literature measurement tools. Policy text analysis is a widely used research method in policy research, but there are few research on policy text analysis in China, especially in education policy text analysis. The existing text analysis of education policy involves both content analysis and discourse analysis, but the research is not theoretical and deep enough. Most of the research is limited to the description and analysis of the shallow level of the text and has not yet “gone” out of the text. Some scholars expressed that the text should “dialogue” with its historical context and social practice to reveal the rich connotation and internal logic of the policy text. At the same time, the standardization of research and the organic combination of research methods and theories also need to be strengthened.

6.1.3 Normative Research: Speculative Analysis Unlike Empirical research, Normative Investigation does not aim to “confirm” or “falsify” an assumption, but rather to interrogate, explain, or justify educational values by systematically criticizing, speculating, and demonstrating. Many educators in ancient and modern times, such as Dewey, Rousseau, Comenius, Confucius, Mencius, and so on, conducted normative studies on educational activities. These pioneers’ thoughts on education are still of great significance today. In normative research, speculative analytical methods often assume the function of explaining the world as it should be. The so-called speculation is a thinking process of “from here to there, from the outside to the inside” of the empirical materials by conjecture and logical reasoning, and it is the thinking and discrimination of various concepts, judgments, and their mutual relations. The early scientific research originated from the rational investigation of empirical knowledge, but the birth of modern science put this rational knowledge activity on the basis of stricter empirical examination. On the basis of text analysis, this paper will carry out a speculative analysis based on existing policy texts and policy implementation effects, and put forward suggestions for the implementation of China’s overseas education policy (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Liu, 2017; Peng, 2021, 2021b; Tu, 2009).

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6.2 Policy Text and Implementation Data 6.2.1 Overseas Education of Higher Education As the change of times development and the international situation, after eighteen big in our country adopted a new opening to the outside world policy, March 28, 2015, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce of the National Development and Reform Commission, issued “to promote to build the silk road economic belt and the twenty-first century the vision and action of the Marine silk road,” emphasize “in peace, development and cooperation, win-win for the theme of the new era, In the face of sluggish global economic recovery and complex international and regional situations, it is all the more important and precious to carry forward the Silk Road spirit.” To further standardize overseas education activities and help overseas education to develop better. In April 2016, general office of the central committee of the communist party of China General Office of the State Council issued the about to do a good job of education in the new period open several opinions, pointed to “adhere to the open still wider to the outside world, and stronger Chinese education, to promote cultural exchanges and continuously improving the quality of education in our country, the national soft power and international influence,” emphasize “by encouraging schools and vocational colleges to cooperate with enterprises to go out, Encourage social forces to participate in overseas education, and steadily promote overseas education.” On July 13, 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a notice on “Promoting the Joint Construction of the” Belt and Road “Education Action,” pointing out that “the Silk Road” cooperative education promotion plan should be implemented. Chinese institutions of higher learning with conditions should concentrate on competitive disciplines, select suitable cooperation points, conduct preliminary demonstration, and establish talent training mode, operation management mode, local service mode, and public relations mode, so as to make schools take root and blossom and bear fruit smoothly. The Ministry of Education held a symposium on overseas education in October 2017, proposing to strengthen policy support and institutional innovation for overseas education. In December of the same year, the Ministry of Education issued a Notice on Investigation of Overseas Education of Colleges and universities to all provinces and relevant universities, focusing on the development of Overseas Education of Chinese colleges and universities since the cancelation of administrative approval for overseas education. In February 2019, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the “China’s Education Modernization 2035.” Immediately, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the “Implementation Plan for Accelerating The Modernization of Education (2018–2022),” proposing to speed up the construction of overseas international schools with Chinese characteristics. In September 2019, the China Association for Higher Education issued the Guidelines for Overseas Education of Institutions of Higher Learning (Trial) (2019 Edition), which consists of six chapters: general provisions, feasibility analysis, preparation and construction,

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education and teaching, organization and management, and supplementary provisions, providing practical guidance for overseas education of institutions of higher learning. However, as a guiding document issued by a social organization, this document does not have legal or institutional significance for the suggestions on overseas education of colleges and universities. At present, there is still no institutional norms for overseas education in China (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Peng, 2021, 2021b).

6.2.2 Confucius Institute Confucius Institute is a non-profit established Sino-foreign cooperative education institutions, to adapt to the world countries (regions) of the people’s need for Chinese learning, promote the countries all over the world (region) of the people’s understanding of Chinese language and culture, strengthen the education and cultural exchanges and cooperation with the countries all over the world, the development of friendly relations between China and foreign, the development of Confucian culture, and promote the development of the world cultural diversity, building a harmonious world. In June 2004, China began to cooperate with foreign institutions to set up Confucius Institutes overseas. The Confucius Institute at Tashkent National Oriental Institute in Uzbekistan, the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland in the United States, and the Confucius Institute at the University of Nairobi in Kenya signed cooperation agreements, becoming the first Confucius Institute to be established in Asia, America, and Africa, respectively. In November, the Confucius Institute in Seoul, South Korea was officially inaugurated, becoming the first Confucius Institute in the world. In 2006, Confucius Institute Headquarters/Center for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language of the Ministry of Education issued the “Interim Measures on The Management of Chinese Funds for Confucius Institutes” and the “Confucius Institute Charter” and other documents, defining the basic development direction of Confucius Institutes, namely “To meet the needs of people in all countries (regions) for Chinese language learning, To enhance people’s understanding of The Chinese language and culture, strengthen educational and cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries in the world, develop friendly relations between China and foreign countries, promote the multicultural development of the world and build a harmonious world.” Confucius Institutes also undertake the construction of Chinese language teaching resources, including overseas Chinese language teaching materials, popular Chinese language teaching materials, adult and children’s teaching materials, and paper and online multimedia teaching materials. At the same time, government-enterprise cooperation and international cooperation are adopted to promote teaching resources. The “Development Plan for Confucius Institutes (2012–2020)” issued in early 2013 clearly states in the guiding ideology that the work of Confucius Institutes should “meet the needs of China’s public diplomacy and cultural and people-to-people exchanges,” and “seize the opportunity, make a

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rational layout, focus on Chinese language teaching and focus on quality improvement, and strive to run one Confucius Institute successfully as soon as possible.” Chinese schools at all levels and of various types have made steady progress in establishing overseas schools, and the number of overseas institutions and programs has continued to increase. By September 2019, Chinese universities had launched 128 overseas institutions or projects (including 25 independently run by universities after the cancelation of examination and approval). These institutions and projects were mainly run by 84 universities from 21 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities on the mainland in 48 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, the United States, and Oceania. From the perspective of overseas education practice, Chinese universities’ overseas education institutions can be divided into two modes. First, independent educational institutions are mainly set up overseas by Chinese universities, such as Soochow University in Laos (2011), Xiamen University Malaysia (2016), and Peking University HSBC Business School UK (2017). Currently, there are relatively few such overseas educational institutions. The second is the Sino-foreign joint schoolrunning mode, which can be divided into inter-school cooperation, school-enterprise cooperation, school-government cooperation, or mixed cooperation according to the different nature of the cooperative object. Among them, the Chinese and foreign intercollegiate combination education refers to the cooperation with overseas education institutions by Chinese universities, adopting “X + X” form of running a school, the students in domestic colleges and universities to learn after a period of time overseas colleges and universities to study can get a Chinese and foreign university degree certificate at the same time, such as Bangkok business school of Yunnan university of finance and economics (2013) and Beijing normal university and Cardiff in Chinese college (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Liu, 2017; Peng, 2021, 2021b; Tu, 2009). Chinese-foreign university-enterprise joint education activities are jointly carried out by Chinese universities and overseas enterprises. For example, Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) and ISI of Japan jointly established Tokyo College of BLCU in 2015. Finally, in a mansion combination, education is provided by a foreign government-related conditions for offering education and relatively independently by Chinese colleges and universities to carry on the education and teaching activities, and awarded China university graduation certificate and degree certificate, such as Tong university and the City Florence, Tuscany sifang district government and Italy’s environment ministry protocol to build the Fiorentina overseas campus of Tonja university (2014). The cooperative subjects of Chinese-foreign mixed education are relatively complex, involving Chinese universities, overseas universities and Chinese and foreign enterprises or organizations. For example, Tsinghua University and University of Washington jointly established Tsinghua University Global Innovation Institute (2015) with the support of Microsoft (Jiang & Xia, 2019). As an important institution for the dissemination of Chinese language and culture, as well as an important organization for China to carry out educational activities abroad, Confucius Institutes have long worked experience in the gift, publication, and cooperation of Chinese language books. However, with the change of the international situation, the frequency and quantity of various works have changed. In 2009, both the number of books donated, and the number of recipient institutions

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reached the peak. In that year, Confucius Institute Headquarters provided “Great Wall Chinese” online courseware to more than 230 Confucius Institutes in 74 countries, equipped Confucius Institutes with equipment to experience Chinese culture, and donated a total of 4.3 million books to 2,169 teaching institutions throughout the year. In 2019, 164,000 books were donated, the lowest ever. In the past 14 years, Confucius Institutes have donated a total of 14.637 million books to 14,105 teaching institutions (no data were available in 2010), with each institution receiving an average of 897 textbooks and each student receiving an average of 7 textbooks. In terms of the average number of books donated by each institution, the average number of books donated by each institution was the highest in 2009, reaching 1,982, and the lowest in 2012, 470. The number of books per student per year dropped from about 45 in 2006 to 0.09 in 2019.

6.2.3 Vocational Education China’s vocational education is also actively going abroad, contributing Chinese wisdom to the world’s training of technical personnel. Since March 2016, Tianjin Bohai Vocational and Technical College built China’s first overseas “Luban Workshop” in Thailand, “Luban Workshop” has been built in Britain, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Portugal, and other countries. In September 2018, at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), President Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of 10 “Luban Workshops” in Africa to provide vocational skills training for African youth. In March 2019, Africa’s first Luban Workshop was put into operation in Djibouti. Later, “Luban Workshop” in Kenya and “Luban Workshop” in South Africa were opened and put into operation. Up to now, China’s vocational colleges have set up 10 “Luban Workshops” overseas. In addition, Egypt, Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia, and other “Luban workshops” are accelerating progress. As of May 2019, Tianjin set up outside the eight “Luban workshop” already cover the secondary vocational education, higher vocational education and undergraduate education, graduate education at all levels, a total of 9 categories, 23 professionals in overseas, and has set up a cumulative training students for relevant countries and regions more than 4, 000 people, more than 600 people, training teachers. It has been highly valued and widely praised by cooperative countries. First in higher vocational colleges in our country set up an independent outside into the organizational system of the national education system of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk Hong Kong industrial and commercial college, and the fall of 2019 the first open a business enterprise management, logistics management, and information technology professional, as of September 2020, Sihanouk port business school recruits only the 23 full-time bachelor’s degree. The Bangphakong Branch of Yunnan College of Communications in Thailand was established in 2018. It was the first to offer the major of rail transit. In 2018, only 13 Thai students were enrolled, and in 2019, 11 Thai students were enrolled (Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Peng, 2021, 2021b).

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6.3 Challenges and Problems 6.3.1 Imperfect Policy Guarantee Measures At present, China’s institutions of higher learning and vocational colleges’ overseas education policies and measures are not perfect, which restricts the promotion of institutions of higher learning and vocational colleges’ overseas education. On the one hand, as the competent authority for overseas education, the Ministry of Education abolished the Interim Administrative Measures for Overseas Education of Institutions of Higher Learning in November 2015 and has not issued new normative documents for overseas education. In September 2019, China Association for Higher Education issued the Guidelines for Overseas Education for Colleges and Universities (Trial), which provides practical technical guidance for overseas education, but it has no legal and institutional significance as its makers are social organizations. Overall, China has not established a sound supervision and certification system for the quality of overseas education. If there is insufficient regulation and guarantee for overseas education at the national level, overseas education may be in a state of disordered competition, and the quality of overseas education cannot be guaranteed (Jiang & Xia, 2019).

6.3.2 Difficulties in Raising Funds for Running the School Lack of funds is a key problem commonly encountered by Chinese universities in the process of running schools abroad. Some current policies and regulations in China virtually hinder the development of overseas education. According to the Financial Rules for Public Institutions issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2012, public institutions must strictly control their foreign investment and are not allowed to use the financial allocation and its balance for foreign investment. The research group’s survey and questionnaire survey found that the biggest difficulty to be overcome in the further development of overseas education is insufficient funds. More than onethird of the surveyed universities and colleges said they had difficulties in funding for overseas education, and more than half of them regarded the lack of funding as the biggest problem facing the further development of their overseas education. Compared with the government’s support for Confucius Institutes and enterprises’ overseas investment, the financial support and policy support for Chinese universities’ overseas education are obviously insufficient. As an important way for higher education to “go global,” overseas running of colleges and universities should be supported by certain policies and funds. While encouraging colleges and universities to “go global,” helping colleges and universities to solve or alleviate the problem of insufficient funds in overseas education is conducive to promoting the healthy and sustainable development of Chinese colleges and universities in overseas education.

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6.3.3 The Number of Students Is Lower Than Expected Insufficient or unstable source of students is the third and common difficulty faced by colleges and universities in the process of running schools abroad. There are many reasons for the shortage or instability of overseas students. First, there is competition for students between Chinese universities and local universities and European and American universities running schools abroad. For example, the Malaysian branch school of Xiamen University has not been running for a long time, and most people in Malaysia are not familiar with the branch school. In addition, the enrollment rate of higher education in this country is relatively high, and some well-known universities from other countries also go to Malaysia to run schools. Therefore, the recruitment of Xiamen University Malaysia Branch school is difficult, and the competition for students is fierce. Second, the lack of scholarships reduces the attractiveness of Chinese universities to foreign students. Foreign students recruited by overseas institutions and programs of colleges and universities are usually unable to apply for Chinese or local government scholarships, and it is also difficult for colleges and universities to provide scholarships independently, which reduces the attractiveness of colleges and universities to foreign students. Laos, for example, GDP per capita is low, most of the college students pay tuition is difficult, and apply to study abroad to Laos for students to the Chinese government scholarship and relatively more, plus the Laos suzhou university is insufficient funds, infrastructure construction is slow, superposition of a variety of reasons, led to the school recruitment of student’s scale is small, lack of students (Jiang & Xia, 2019; Peng, 2021, 2021b).

6.3.4 Difficulties in Dispatching Teachers At present, many colleges and universities conducting overseas education face difficulties in dispatching teachers and administrators, mainly for three reasons. First, it is difficult for university teachers and administrators to enter and exit the country. To further support colleges and academy in expanding foreign exchanges and cooperation in the talent innovation to create entrepreneurial energy, “about strengthening and improving the teaching scientific research personnel temporary go abroad on business management guidance” (hall of document [2016] no. 17) is the teaching scientific research personnel temporary go abroad on business management has issued new guidelines. However, some local foreign affairs departments, education administrative departments, and universities have not implemented the guidance and are still using old documents to manage foreign affairs. In addition, some localities and universities have implemented quotas for teaching and research personnel going abroad temporarily on business, and the approval process is rigid. As a result of the above factors, the application and approval procedures for overseas school-running personnel to go abroad are tedious and take a long time, applicants have insufficient opportunities to pass the examination and approval, and their stay abroad is subject to

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many restrictions. In addition, the visa management is too strict, and sometimes the teachers of colleges and universities participating in overseas education cannot apply for exit visas or multiple entry visas, which makes it difficult to dispatch teachers of overseas education. Secondly, there are institutional barriers for the promotion of professional titles and salaries of university teachers working in overseas institutions and projects. At the level of national policies, the work, life, and professional development of teachers in Confucius Institutes are guaranteed, but there are no relevant documents to guarantee the work, life, and professional development of teachers participating in overseas education, which is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of teachers to work in overseas education institutions and projects. At the school level, teachers face pressure from work, professional title promotion, and family, and are not enthusiastic about teaching or management in overseas institutions or projects. Thirdly, the wages of overseas educational institutions and projects of colleges and universities set up in developing countries are not competitive, and economic losses result in low willingness of college teachers to work in educational institutions and projects of colleges and universities in developing countries and most “Belt and Road” countries. There are great differences in the way and intensity of cross-border higher education supervision in countries around the world. Japan, Sri Lanka, and other countries have relatively lax supervision, while Britain, Malaysia, Thailand, and other countries have relatively strict supervision. For example, the Thai government has stipulated that foreign investor are not allowed to set up independent institutions of higher learning in Thailand without special examination and approval. At the same time, it has set a high threshold for foreign investors to set up institutions of higher learning and has made strict regulations on the school’s floor space, proportion of foreign shares, proportion of foreign staff, auditing, taxation, and visa for foreign personnel. Due to insufficient preparation in advance and lack of in-depth understanding of relevant laws and policies governing cross-border higher education in the host country, some Chinese universities have encountered great difficulties in running schools abroad. For example, some countries, such as Singapore, have undergone major changes in their policies governing cross-border higher education in recent years. If foreign universities running schools in this country do not timely understand the policy changes and respond to them, they will encounter difficulties in running schools. In a few countries, due to the change of government, the new government does not fulfill the school-running agreements or cooperative school-running agreements signed with overseas universities during the term of the previous government, and some school-running institutions and projects set up by colleges and universities in China and other countries have to be suspended (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Peng, 2021, 2021b).

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6.4 Countermeasures and Suggestions 6.4.1 Improving Policy Design Relevant government departments should comprehensively consider the relationship between institutions’ overseas education, study in China and Confucius Institute construction, and make top-level design for institutions’ overseas education. The administrative departments of education shall give classified guidance to institutions running schools abroad and adopt different administrative measures for public welfare and non-profit institutions running schools abroad and for-profit institutions running schools abroad. The relevant government departments shall organize experts or entrust a third party to evaluate the level and quality of institutions running schools abroad and provide financial subsidies to the non-profit institutions and projects running schools abroad with high level and good quality. Some non-profit institutions and projects with high educational level and outstanding achievements set up in developing countries along the Belt and Road can be included in the national education aid plan after evaluation. The state education administrative departments should actively strengthen the certification of academic degrees in overseas schools, continue to expand the number of countries signing agreements on mutual recognition of academic degrees, and make China’s academic degrees in line with more countries and regions. From the perspective of encouraging and standardizing, relevant government departments should coordinate the entry-exit affairs of funds and state-owned assets of institutions running schools abroad, and clearly define normative guidance documents on the investment, use and management of funds and assets of institutions running schools abroad. The education administrative departments of the state should expand the autonomy of universities in running schools abroad and allow them to enroll an appropriate number of Chinese high school graduates who live and study abroad with their parents, so as to diversify the source of students for running schools abroad and ensure the sustainable development of the source of students for running schools abroad.

6.4.2 Establishing a Synergy Mechanism The practice of running schools abroad involves many subjects, such as the government, universities, and enterprises, and requires the cooperation of many subjects to achieve stable and long-term development. At present, it is necessary to further establish and perfect the coordination mechanism to improve the quality and level of overseas education. First, it is necessary to clarify the coordination between the government, universities, and “going global” enterprises in the practice of running schools abroad. In the practice of running schools abroad, the government should play the role of policymakers and macro-managers to provide policy support and guarantee for running schools abroad as well as administrative standard management.

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“Going-out” enterprises shall, according to their own development needs, propose overseas education projects and participate in the implementation of overseas education. It should be guided by the development needs of overseas production and operation of “going-out” enterprises and the education needs of the school location, and carry out high-level overseas education activities centering on talent training and social services. Secondly, it is necessary to improve the cooperation mechanism of equal rights and responsibilities, shared risks, and win-win benefits in the practice of overseas education, so as to provide a sound institutional guarantee for the practice of overseas education. Thirdly, it is necessary to build an exchange platform of complementary resources and information exchange for overseas education, effectively integrate the resources of the government and “going global” enterprises, and promote the sustainable and healthy development of overseas education (Jiang & Xia, 2019; Peng, 2021, 2021b).

6.4.3 Strengthening Capacity Building Overseas education is an integral part of China’s vocational education and falls within the power of independent education in accordance with law. The practice of overseas schooling is full of innovation and uncertainty, so its capacity construction needs to be strengthened urgently. First, we should clarify the orientation of overseas education and emphasize quality and efficiency. From the practice effect of overseas branch schools set up by domestic and foreign universities, the good operation of overseas branch schools is closely related to the Alma Mater’s clear positioning of overseas branch schools. Overseas schools should, based on in-depth planning and demand-oriented, offer majors that meet the needs of the economic, social, and cultural development of the place where the school is run, so that the main business of overseas schools is prominent, with distinctive features, excellent quality, and remarkable benefits. Secondly, it is necessary to build a high level and competent team of teachers and management personnel, and constantly improve their teaching ability, cross-cultural communication and management ability and administrative ability. It is necessary to formulate and improve performance evaluation standards for teachers and administrators participating in overseas education and implement incentive methods combining material rewards and spiritual incentives to arouse their enthusiasm for participating in overseas education. Thirdly, it is necessary to improve the organizational structure design of the overall coordination of overseas education, optimize the institutional setting of overseas education, strengthen the coordination and cooperation among various departments in the university, integrate the high-quality resources of various departments in the university, and provide a strong organizational guarantee for the continuous promotion of overseas education (Feng, 2010; Liang, 2021; Liu, 2017; Tu, 2009).

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6.4.4 Multi-party Financing Sufficient resources are the necessary conditions for the sustainable and high-quality development of universities’ overseas education. Government departments should organize experts to overseas educational institutions in colleges and universities, and project review, good to some basis, outstanding achievements of colleges and universities non-profit projects and overseas educational institutions to provide funding support, in the “area” all the way along the developing countries to set up effective prominent cooperatively run schools and project learning Chinese government scholarship, outstanding foreign students of talented Chinese students provide the corresponding amount of domestic per student allocation. Some overseas institutions and projects of colleges and universities with good educational foundations and outstanding achievements set up in low-income countries will be included in the national education foreign aid plan after review and approval. The approved assets can be exported or purchased locally in accordance with the law. The relevant government departments should support the normal outbound of funds of institutions of higher learning for overseas education and set up special channels to make the reasonable foreign exchange flow needed for overseas education smoother. The relevant government departments to work outside of universities are tuition income problem, ensure the overseas school tuition income can entry in accordance with the law, and the tax or tax incentives, overseas education in colleges and universities offering tax breaks or giving money to the exemption of tax, encourage enterprises and social organizations to participate in and investment overseas education in colleges and universities (Feng, 2010; Jiang & Xia, 2019; Liang, 2021; Liu, 2017; Peng, 2021, 2021b; Tu, 2009).

References Feng, X. (2010). Discrimination between “speculative” and “empirical” methods in higher education research. Peking University Education Review, 8(1), 172–178. Jiang, K., & Xia, H. (2019). Bottleneck problems and countermeasures of overseas education in universities. Jiangsu Higher Education, 2011, 18–24. Liang, Y. (2021). Research on the development of teaching resources in Confucius Institutes. Education Academic Monthly, 20(5), 24–30. Liu, L. (2017). Reflection and defense on the research paradigm of educational norms. Journal of Education, 13(6), 26–35. Peng, C. (2021). The achievements, problems and prospects of cross-border education in China—A review of the Outline of National Medium—And Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020). Journal of Hebei Normal University (Education Science Edition), 23(4), 65– 72. Tu, D. (2009). Text analysis of education policy and its application. Fudan Education Forum, 41(5), 22–27.

Chapter 7

The Education Policy of Studying in China

This chapter examines the education policy of studying in China. From the perspective of public policy analysis, it is of great significance and value to explore the education policy of studying in China in the new era. “Foreign student” is the definition of core concept “education policy” to “study abroad education policy” in China, on the basis of existing research results on keywords and visualization analysis under the premise of combing literature review, back in the new era of coming to China to study abroad education policy evolution, reveal new era coming to China to study abroad education policy of the present predicament, put forward the policy suggestions for the development of the students career. The purpose is to further improve and perfect the education policy of studying in China in the new era, to achieve the internationalization of China’s higher education to a large extent, and enhance the comparative advantage of China’s higher education.

7.1 The Definition of Core Concepts In the new century, the internationalization of higher education has entered a historic leap stage. During this period, under the influence of various internationalization policies, China’s higher education opened to the outside world to an unprecedented height and carried out multi-dimensional, diversified, and multi-level educational cooperation and exchanges with other countries in the world. In January 2000, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the regulations on institutions of higher learning to accept foreign students, perfect the management system of institutions of higher learning to accept foreign students, but also the category of foreign students, student recruitment and admissions, scholarship system, teaching management, school management, made a further explanation of the social management, and other matters. “Foreign students

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_7

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refer to foreign citizens who hold foreign passports and register in Chinese institutions of higher learning to receive academic education or non-academic education,” the regulation states. In April of the same year, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on the Implementation of the Annual Evaluation System of Chinese Government Scholarships and the Annual Evaluation Method of Chinese Government Scholarships. The evaluation method is more concise and clearer than the previous regulations, focusing on quantitative indicators, enhancing the autonomy of schools and making it easier for schools to operate. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education offered Chinese government scholarships to 152 countries. In September 2000, 1,664 new students from 130 countries received Chinese government scholarships to study in Chinese institutions of higher learning. In 2000, 5,362 students from 148 countries received Chinese government scholarships to study in China, accounting for 10.28% of the total number of international students in the whole year. In 2000, a total of 52,150 international students from 166 countries studied in 346 institutions of higher learning in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government (excluding Taiwan Province and Hong Kong and Macao Special administrative Regions). Among them, there are 35,671 long-term students and 16,479 short-term students (those who study for less than 6 months). Since then, the cause of Studying in China has developed rapidly (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

7.1.1 International Students In March 2017, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security issued the Measures for the Administration of Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students in Schools, replacing international students with “international students” and making it clear that “international students” refer to foreign students who do not have Chinese nationality and receive education in schools. “School” refers to all kinds of schools of pre-school education, primary education, secondary education, and higher education in China. The appellation of “international student” is consistent with that of “international student,” but in the existing research literature and the actual teaching management process of the school, the meaning of “international student,” “foreign student,” and “International student” is basically the same. The term “overseas students in China” referred to in this paper refers to foreign citizens registered in Chinese institutions of higher learning with foreign passports and receiving academic education, including undergraduates, master’s students, and doctoral students.

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7.1.2 Education Policy and Education Policy for Studying in China The study of modern policy science originated in the United States after World War II and is the product of the rapid development of politics, economy, and science and technology in contemporary society. “Policy science takes the policy field in social and political life, namely the actual policy practice, policy system and policy process, as its research object. Its basic goal is to correct the direction of human society, improve the public decision-making system and improve the quality of public policy making.” According to Lasswell, the founder of policy science, policy science is “the study of analyzing future trends with new methods focusing on the formulation of policy plans and policy alternatives.” Delors believes that the core of policy science or policy research is to take policymaking as the object of research and reform, including the general process of policymaking, as well as specific policy issues and fields. The nature, scope, content, and task of policy research are to understand how policy evolves and to improve the policymaking process in general and in particular. Education policy belongs to the category of public policy. By paying attention to foreign policy scientific research, Chinese scholars define education policy based on Chinese practice. Zheng Xinli believes that education policy is “a plan and policy formulated by a political party or government for the development and operation of education.” Education policy is a public policy designed by the government and the government to adjust social problems and interests in education. To understand the connotation of education policy from four aspects: (1) education policy is a quasipublic product solution proposed to solve policy problems; (2) education policy is multi-perspective or multi-stakeholder; (3) education policy formulation and implementation are public activities; (4) education policies are value-laden. In the study of education policy, we should not only start from education itself, but also look at education policy from multiple perspectives. Based on the viewpoints of the above scholars, education policy is the sum of a series of norms, systems, laws, and regulations that gather specific problems in the field of education and coordinate the distribution of interests of education-related subjects. Accordingly, the education policy for overseas students in China refers to a series of norms, systems, laws, and regulations that focus on specific issues in the field of education for overseas students in China and coordinate the interests of various stakeholders, such as the government, universities, and international students. The purpose is to promote and guarantee the sustainable development of international students’ education (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

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7.2 Literature Review of Existing Studies 7.2.1 Macro-Research on the Education Policy for Studying in China Foreign student education is the important content of China’s opening to the outside world and modernization of education, study abroad education policy research in China a lot by text analysis and statistical analysis, the analysis, thought our country foreign student education policy change show “scale - quality improvement - branding” logic, the development of policy tools rich variety, basic perfect policy system. However, the policy supply in the field of education quality is relatively insufficient, and the use of capacity building, system reform, and incentive tools are insufficient, and the form is relatively single. Using relevant theories of education policy, he pointed out that the reform of the policy of studying in China is subject to “path dependence,” that is, depends on the “stability of internal policy.” Therefore, the author puts forward the idea of adjusting the educational policy for foreign students in China, that is, attaching importance to the quality of training, implementing convergence management, and attaching importance to the political function, on the other hand. However, the author also points out the existing problems and suggests that in the future, we should promote the legislation of education for studying in China, improve the efficiency of policymaking, improve policy matching, and strengthen policy implementation. Through empirical research, this paper points out that education policy, education quality, economic factors, and other factors have a key impact on the attraction of international students in China, that is, the policy orientation is influenced by other environments and conditions. The number of students studying in China has increased significantly, with the majority coming from Asia and the largest growth coming from Africa. Countries along the Belt and Road Initiative have become the new driving force for the growth of students studying in China. Chinese government scholarships have become an important lever to attract highlevel talents to study in China (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

7.2.2 Study on the Educational Convergence Management of Overseas Students in China Convergence management of international students has always been the principle and direction of China’s international student education development, but due to the nature of international students’ education, enrollment history, education mode, management system, and other reasons, colleges and universities are difficult to achieve convergence management. The lack of enrollment policy and system design for international students is the root factor that makes convergence management

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difficult to achieve. Based on this, it is necessary to establish the qualification examination mechanism for international students, strictly control the entrance threshold, improve the enrollment system, and achieve the organic combination of “enrollment - cultivation - management.” In convergence management become the inevitable choice under the premise of colleges and universities based on quality, and the efficiency of development goals, values, principles, management of which direction of consensus, grasp the particularity and professional students’ management work, reflect “two-way convergence” concept, to strengthen the construction of management team, gradually realize the convergence of Chinese and foreign students teaching management.

7.2.3 Education Research on Overseas Students in Countries Along the Belt and Road In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the education policy for overseas students in China, the postgraduate education in countries along the “Belt and Road” has made significant progress in terms of scale, structure, scholarship funding, and student source areas. It is suggested to promote the balanced development of the scale of postgraduate students studying in China, optimize the scholarship system for postgraduate students studying in China, improve the enrollment system for postgraduate students studying in China, and build the education brand for postgraduate students studying in China. China in cooperation with foreign students education of countries along the inter-operability can further promote the study in education, promote the regional education for international students in all the way “area,” and enhance the level of higher education internationalization and foreign students education of countries along the precise docking and regional development strategy, to build international students education ecological system, strengthen the education for international students international competitiveness. “Area” all the way to China to study abroad training linked to alleviate poverty students’ countries, the study found that the development of China education can promote human capital accumulation, to attract foreign investment and technology spillover channels for students from countries such as significant poverty reduction effect, the effects of poverty reduction in low- and middle-income countries and the smaller the gap between rich and poor countries (Cai et al., 2019; Wang, 2020).

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7.2.4 Study in China Against the Background of COVID-19 COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the internationalization of higher education, and global study abroad education is taking on new directions and forms. There are three important issues for the internationalization of education in the post-epidemic era, and the policy of expanding the number of international students in China should be adjusted instead of pursuing quantitative development to qualitative improvement. In addition, importance should be attached to promoting Sino-US educational exchanges as the key and core of education internationalization. Based on the existing research results, this paper adopts literature research, statistical analysis, the problem of interpretation based on existing research, the combination of policy text collection, induction, sorting, and further explores the problems existing in the current study in education in China, and combined with the existing research foundation, put forward opinions and suggestions to perfect the study abroad education policy in China.

7.2.5 Evolution of the Education Policy for Studying in China in the New Era Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the education of Chinese students in China has undergone a profound transformation from scratch, from small to large, from point to area, and then from emphasizing the expansion of scale to focusing on improving quality and efficiency. The education policy for international students also upholds the belief of “spreading local culture to the world and improving the influence of the country through international students’ education,” which is constantly consolidated and improved, and constantly reformed and innovated. (A study on the Evolution of Educational Policies for Foreign Students in China in New China). In 2010, the Outline of the National Medium- and Longterm Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) was issued, proposing to further expand the number of foreign students. According to the study in China Plan released in the same year, by 2020, the number of foreign students studying in mainland universities and primary and secondary schools will reach 500,000, among whom 150,000 will receive higher education. The establishment of these goals points out the direction for the next stage of education development in China. Since then, China’s investment in the education of overseas students in China has increased year by year, the quality of training has gradually improved, and the construction of policy system has been constantly improved, which has made remarkable achievements. In 2013, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Deepening comprehensive Reform in the Field of Education in 2013, proposing to expand the scale of students studying in China, implement the Study in China Plan, and promulgation relevant regulations on the enrollment and management of foreign students, so as to improve the education level of students studying in China. In 2015, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance comprehensive consideration and

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price changes of economic and social development, the college culture factors, such as cost, issued a about perfecting Chinese government scholarship funding system and improve the standard of notice, emphasize notice to strengthen the management of Chinese government scholarship, specifically embodied in three aspects, first is to perfect the scholarship funding system. Scholarships are provided in accordance with educational exchange agreements or memorandums of understanding signed by the Chinese government with the governments of relevant countries (regions), schools, and international organizations. Secondly, we should improve the standard of scholarship, establish the standard of scholarship according to the students’ basic study and living needs, and the financial situation of the country. We should also establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism for the standard of scholarship according to the domestic economic and social development and price changes. Finally, it is necessary to improve the mechanism of scholarship distribution and management and confirm the specific way of scholarship distribution according to the composition mode of scholarship. Since 2015, the “2015–2017 Overseas Study Work Action Plan,” “Education Action for Jointly Building the Belt and Road,” “The 13th FiveYear Plan for National Education Development,” and other policy documents have been released successively. The state has promoted the training of talents in noncommon languages in a planned way, carried out research projects on international and regional issues and high-level training programs for foreign language talents. We will give priority to sending talents in non-common languages to countries along the Belt and Road for further study. Students will be sent to the five countries along the Belt and Road for education. By learning the main common languages of each country and conducting international and regional studies, students will serve the needs of the country’s overall development and cultivate urgently needed professionals for the Belt and Road Initiative. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the number of students studying in China has continued to increase. By 2016, China has become the largest destination for overseas study in Asia, and the attractiveness of studying in China has further improved in matching with the country’s economic strength and comprehensive strength. In recent years, the number of students studying in China has increased in all continents, but students from Asia still play an absolute leading role. From 2013 to 2018, the proportion of Asian students remained at around 60%, with the smallest fluctuation in the overall proportion. As of 2018, 59.95% of students come from Asia, 16.57% from Africa, 14.96% from Europe, 7.26% from the Americas, and 1.49% from Oceania (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018). In 2016, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era, stressing the need to improve the teaching and management of students studying in China, enhance the quality of talent cultivation, and create a “Study in China” brand. By improving the legislation, providing legal protection and legal norms, it is conducive to improving the quality of international student training, enhancing the attractiveness and expanding the scale of studying in China, and improving the internationalization and modernization level of China’s education. During this period, improving the management and service system of studying in China and “improving the quality

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and efficiency” became the new theme of developing the education of studying in China. In July 2017, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly promulgated the Measures for the Administration of School Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students. This is China’s education policy for studying in China with the highest administrative effect in the new era and also the highest-level guidance policy for universities to conduct the education for studying in China. The measures, which are based on the experience and lessons of past policies and in response to the changing situation, focus on improving the management of institutions of higher learning, improving the quality of education, and making it more attractive to study in China. Adhere to the combination of standardized management and optimized services, put forward a series of new requirements, promote the university to strengthen the standardized construction of international student management, and promote the university to further improve the service level of international students. In the same year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Allowing Outstanding Foreign College Graduates to Work in China, which was the first policy for outstanding foreign College graduates to work in China. Under the guidance of the policy of studying in China, the number of overseas students in China increased from 52,150 to 492,185 from 2000 to 2018, and the proportion of overseas students with degrees increased significantly, from 26.3% in 2000 to 52.4% in 2018. The proportion of overseas students with degrees was 52.4% in 2018. Secondary school students, undergraduate students, and graduate students accounted for 4.7%, 32.7%, and 17.3% of the total number of overseas students in 2018, respectively. According to the Department of International Cooperation and Exchange under the Ministry of Education, the majority of foreign students are majoring in Chinese and Western medicine, but not many are in STEM fields or finance, Accounting, Management, and Economics (FAME). At the National Education Conference held in 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed “to create a more internationally competitive education in China,” which is not only an affirmation of the cause of studying in China, but also indicates the direction of the development of education in China. In 2018, the Quality Standard for Higher Education for Overseas Students (Trial) issued by the Ministry of Education is the first quality standard document specifically formulated for the education of overseas students in China. In 2019, China’s Education Modernization 2035 clearly proposed “building an international study center,” which further clarified the policy goal of building a brand for overseas students in China. In May 2020, the Ministry of Education updated the Notice of the Ministry of Education on Regulating the Acceptance of Foreign Students in Chinese Institutions of Higher Learning issued in November 2009, making supplementary provisions on the acceptance of international students for undergraduate and junior college studies in Chinese institutions of higher Learning in accordance with the Requirements of the Measures for the Administration of Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

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7.3 The Existing Difficulties of the Education Policy for Studying in China in the New Era 7.3.1 Policy Iteration Is Seriously Lagging, and Supporting Measures Are Not Perfect The policy update and iteration of education management standards for studying in China lag practice, which restricts the development of education for studying in China. At present, there are many problems such as long renewal period and small adjustment scope of overseas education policy. At present, the policy construction of studying in China is not commensurate with China’s position in the international student market. Compared with developed countries and regions in Europe and the United States, China’s policy on international students is not sound. For example, regarding the issue of work-study program for international students in China, although the Ministry of Education in 2021 emphasizes the issue of “Management Measures for Work-study Activities of International Students in Institutions of Higher Learning,” no effective plan has been published so far. The preparatory education system for studying in China has not been established nationwide. From the current point of view, China’s lag in the formulation of education policies for studying in China will certainly affect the management level of international students. In the long run, the lag in this aspect will have a very negative impact on the attractiveness of studying in China and the development of the education cause of studying in China. Considering the opening up of education in the new era, the Measures for the Administration of Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students issued in 2017 redefined the responsibilities and obligations of government departments and universities. However, some regulations lack supporting systems, and there are many obstacles in the implementation of the policies, and their operability remains to be discussed. For example, a new chapter on “Supervision and Management” has been set up in the Measures for the Administration of School Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students to strengthen follow-up supervision of school enrollment and cultivation of international students. Among them, the primary task is to clarify the State Council education administrative department to establish a sound international student training quality supervision system, emphasizing the supervision responsibility of provincial education administrative department. However, both the quality supervision of international student training and the policy implementation and evaluation mechanism of local governments and universities have not been put into practice, and the implementation of policies lacks effective supporting measures. The visa application process for overseas students to study in China is complicated, and the materials are complicated. However, domestic universities generally do not set up corresponding jobs, nor are they equipped with specialized personnel to provide consultation and help. In addition, the medical insurance system provided by China for overseas students is also slightly weak, with fewer types of insurance combinations and limited amount of insurance. It is urgent to establish a more diversified

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medical and social insurance system for overseas students. We still have many deficiencies in scholarship and financial aid, work-study policy, medical insurance, entry and exit visa, and accommodation for students. Therefore, we cannot provide a convenient and convenient path for graduate students who want to study in China. This objectively increases the difficulty for international students who intend to study in China and may weaken their willingness to study in China, thus affecting and restricting the quality improvement of overseas students.

7.3.2 Single Subsidy Policy for International Students, Lack of Competitiveness With the continuous expansion of the number of overseas students in China and the strategic importance of national brand building, the system and complexity of the policy for studying in China are also increasing, and there is an urgent need to strengthen strategic coordination and multi-department cooperation. From the perspective of policy implementation level, the division of power and responsibility of three important subjects, national, provincial, and university is still not clear enough. On the one hand, there are many restrictions on the authority of universities to independently recruit students, enroll students, formulate teaching plans, and set up majors. In particular, the qualification examination of international students funded by national scholarships is subject to the dispatching of China Scholarship Council. Universities have limited autonomy, but the dispatching scale and conditions are different, which brings challenges to the allocation of teachers and teaching arrangements. On the other hand, the main role of provincial governments is not fully played, and there is still a lack of clear provisions on the rights and responsibilities of provincial governments in policy design, which leads to the lack of systematic planning for the education of international students and the difficulty in establishing the awareness of building regional education brands. From the perspective of the financial aid system, the financial aid system and mechanism for international students in China are not perfect. There are still a few types of scholarships for international students in China. At present, Chinese government scholarships are mainly used. The number of students funded by government scholarships is limited, and the funding intensity and duration are not attractive to some excellent students. In 2018, there were 63,041 Chinese government scholarship students, accounting for only 12.81% of the total number of students in China. Compared with developed countries such as the UK and the United States, China’s current scholarship amount and coverage are insufficient to meet the study and living expenses of international students, thus restricting the large-scale development of overseas education in China (Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wei et al., 2018).

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7.3.3 The Coordinated Governance System Is Not Complete and the Emergency Response Mechanism Is Not Sound Although the main body of education management of international students is gradually diversified, the division of responsibility of each main body is still not clear, which directly restricts its function. Some scholars made statistics on documents related to the education of international students published from January 1, 1978, to December 31, 2019, and found that: In terms of issuing subjects, 86.6% of the education policies for international students in China were published by the Ministry of Education, while only about 20% of the policy texts were published by the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission, and even less by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security. The education of international students is not only involved, but also diversified because the education objects come from many countries and have different cultural and life backgrounds. The development of education for Chinese students in China is an important strategic guideline and component of promoting friendly exchanges and cooperation between The Chinese people and people of other countries and building an international environment for peaceful development. At the end of 2019, as COVID-19 broke out across the world, countries took temporary measures such as temporarily closing borders and suspending personnel exchanges. With the recurrence of the epidemic in China and the spread of the epidemic abroad, the order of social production and life has been severely disrupted. The number of students applying to study in China will be greatly reduced, and those already studying in China will also face various uncertainties. On May 22, 2020, the Leading Party Members’ Group of the Ministry of Education issued the “Notice of the Leading Party Members’ Group of the Ministry of Education of the COMMUNIST Party of China on Studying and Implementing the Spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s Important Reply to All Pakistani Students in USTB.” The circular stressed that all units should strengthen their responsibility and integrate studying in China into the overall development strategy of the university. All units strictly implement the requirements of “Management Measures for Recruiting and Cultivating International Students” and “Quality Standards for Higher Education for International Students in China (Trial),” and do not blindly pursue international indicators and the scale of international students in China. Constantly improve the rules and regulations and management methods, strict enrollment review, process management and evaluation system, establish a standardized management system and workflow. However, the Ministry of Education has not issued relevant policies and regulations regarding the enrollment policy, training program, and follow-up development direction of overseas education in China under the background of the epidemic. It is easy for local governments and universities to issue their own overseas study management policies under epidemic prevention and control, which will affect the healthy development of overseas study education.

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7.3.4 Low Level of Policy and Slow Process of Legalization The main body of China’s education policy for studying in China is the education administrative department of the State Council and relevant departments. Related policies are often in the form of notices, opinions, measures, regulations, rules, and other forms, which are not only scattered and fragmentary, but also have limited influence, authority, and effectiveness. Currently, the highest level of special policies for studying in China are departmental regulations, namely the Measures for the Administration of School Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students, which came into effect in July 2017. These regulations were jointly formulated and issued by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security in the form of decrees. But in fact, overseas education in China not only involves the Ministries of Education, Foreign Affairs, and public security, but also involves the ministries of human resources and social security, the Ministry of Finance, and other ministries and commissions. Due to the limitation of hierarchy and effectiveness, the Administrative Measures fail to fully cover the field of education for overseas students in China. As a result, some urgent issues in the field of education for overseas students in China, such as employment and parttime employment, are not well reflected in the Administrative Measures, but only briefly mentioned. Overall, the management system of international students’ needs to be further improved. From the 1980s to the present, measures for the administration of the foreign students (1985), primary and secondary schools to accept foreign students management interim measures (1999), the regulation on administration of institutions of higher learning to accept foreign students (2000), and in 2017, the implementation of the measures for the administration of the school and to develop international students is the main basis of study appropriate to the various stages of education in China. During this period, there were dozens of normative documents concerning foreign students at the national level, covering many fields such as professional probation, marriage, degree awarding, diploma management, scholarship evaluation, teaching quality, residence management, and so on. In the current educational legal system, there are few provisions on studying in China, and most of them are referential and principled. For example, The Education Law of the People’s Republic of China (Article 69) and the Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China (Article 67) have weak guiding significance for the educational practice of studying in China. Local normative documents issued in recent years mainly involve scholarship management and application for international students. In terms of operability, coordination, and adjustment of legal norms, it is difficult to fully support the legalization of international student training (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

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7.4 Policy Suggestions for Developing the Cause of Studying in China 7.4.1 Accelerating Policy Update and Iteration and Building a Supporting System Formal management and convenient services can improve the quality and satisfaction of overseas education, which is an important guarantee for establishing the brand of overseas education and retaining high-quality talents. In terms of educational policies and regulations for studying in China, on the one hand, it is necessary to standardize the enrollment, training, assessment, and evaluation mechanism of foreign students to ensure the quality of education for studying in China. First, the state should establish a clear selection mechanism for international students, strictly examine their application qualifications and conditions, and ensure the quality of students. Second, we should improve the training mechanism, strengthen the preparatory education system for international students, and provide a bridging learning platform for students with insufficient Chinese language skills or learning ability. Third, we should establish a quality assessment system for studying in China and clarify the training requirements, assessment standards, and evaluation systems for international students. On the other hand, need to perfect the service system in China, to improve the level of information service in university, students from admission to graduate school information management system of the whole process, enhance the books management, logistics personnel, the students management, and related services personnel of English and intercultural communication training. It is also necessary to actively promote the assimilation of management and service between overseas students and Chinese students, so as to better integrate overseas students into Chinese society and culture. The government should further improve the visa, medical, employment, and internship policies for international students to facilitate their study and life in China.

7.4.2 Improve the Scholarship System and Enhance International Competitiveness Financial burden is one of the important factors affecting whether foreign students choose to study in China. Providing work-study opportunities for overseas graduate students is a good way to attract more international students to pursue graduate studies in China. In order to enhance the attraction of self-financed foreign students, it is suggested that on the basis of improving relevant management measures, the restriction of work-study program should be gradually lifted. Under the principle of not harming the domestic labor market, part-time jobs should be actively and orderly provided to overseas students. Opening employment areas and granting quasinational treatment to international students will help them better integrate into the life

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of studying in China and attract potential students. The leading role of scholarships in studying in China is obvious. While continuing to expand the number of government scholarships, we should promote the establishment of a three-tier scholarship funding system at the national, local, and university levels, support and encourage enterprises and individuals to donate, and increase the coverage and intensity of scholarships. At the same time, appropriate increase of government scholarship per student financial allocation mobilizes the initiative of universities to recruit overseas graduate students. In addition, we should further deepen the evaluation method of scholarship for overseas graduate students and enhance the positive guiding role of scholarship in attracting excellent students (Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wei et al., 2018).

7.4.3 Diversified Governance and Coordination to Enhance Risk Response Capabilities The education policy for international students is a systematic and comprehensive policy field, which is not only closely related to school education, but also involves foreign affairs, finance, ethnic religion, and other fields. At the same time, the work of studying in China also involves the governance bodies at the national, provincial, and university levels, so it depends very much on the cooperation of multiple governance bodies. To be specific, first, to strengthen the party’s overall leadership over the education of overseas students in China, the administrative departments of education give full play to their overall planning and coordination functions, actively communicate and coordinate with foreign affairs, finance, development, and reform departments, further clarify the division of powers and responsibilities, give full play to the business functions of all departments, and speed up the expansion of education to the outside world. Second, clarify the division of power and responsibility among the state, provincial level, and universities, and strengthen the governance pattern of “national supervision, provincial leadership and university autonomy,” strengthen top-level design at the national level, and take charge of relevant laws and regulations, funds input, supervision, incentive, and other functions. Provincial governments should play a role in overseas study brand building and system planning based on local economic and cultural characteristics. Colleges and universities give full play to their own characteristics and advantages in running schools and give full play to their autonomy in the examination and approval of enrollment, specialty setting, curriculum arrangement, faculty construction, tuition standards, and other aspects. The COVID-19 outbreak was unexpected, and most universities did not establish an effective public crisis emergency response system at the first time, which made them unprepared to face the severe epidemic situation. Therefore, the administrative departments of education should formulate as soon as possible a regular policy system for the management of overseas education in response to the epidemic, including international student enrollment policy, international student

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training program, international student employment policy, and measures to deal with the interruption of overseas education caused by the epidemic (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Wang, 2020).

7.5 Strengthen the Awareness of the Rule of Law and Improve Legislation on Overseas Education Administering education according to law is to manage education and standardize educational behavior according to law. That is, based on socialist democracy, make the education work step by step on the track of legalization and standardization. Specifically, it is to use law to regulate educational management activities, coordinate educational relations, guide educational activities, solve educational contradictions, protect the legitimate rights and interests of schools and teachers and students, and promote the healthy and rapid development of education. Improving relevant legislation on education for students studying in China will help build the brand of “Study in China” and strengthen legal guidance, norms, and guarantee. In practice, the innovation-driven development strategy has conflicted with the actual demand for international talents and the legal provisions. In 2018, China formulated the Quality Standards for Higher Education for International Students (Trial) for the first time, which solved the problem of long-term absence of quality standards for overseas students in China. However, as a normative document with low effectiveness and still in the trial stage, it is difficult to transform it into the specific responsibility of education administrative departments and universities in the short term. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade mature policies and experience into laws in time and break the system of legislative norms centered on teaching management. Integrate and refine the relevant provisions scattered in The Education Law, Higher Education Law, Regulations on Academic Degrees, Exit and Entry Administration Law, Administrative Measures for the Recruitment and Cultivation of International Students and Regulations on the Employment of Foreigners in China. We should strengthen the operability of legislation by revising and linking legislation and formulating supporting systems. On this basis, a legislative system has been formed that combines school training, government supervision services and social support, integrates educational opportunities with employment opportunities, and places equal emphasis on talent training and development. Local governments and colleges and universities will further establish implementation rules and regulations, so that the legal norms are concretely implemented in the government’s responsibilities and school training behavior (Cai et al., 2019; Liu & Lei, 2019; Sun, 2021; Wang, 2020; Wei et al., 2018).

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References Cai, Z., Yang, G., & Zhang, H. (2019). What is the quality of overseas education in China—Based on the “Belt and Road” education in C University? Education Research of Tsinghua University, 20(4), 104–112. Liu, X., & Lei, J. (2019). Research on the development of international student education cooperation between China and countries along the belt and road since the “Belt and Road” initiative. Comparative Education Research, 2(12), 12–21. Sun, H. (2021). Key features, achievements and prospects of the education policy for international students. Educational Research of Tsinghua University, 30(20), 88–93. Wang, Y. (2020). Internationalization of education in the post-epidemic era. Comparative Education Research, 20(9), 8–13. Wei, H., Yuan, R., & Lai, D. (2018). Research on the factors influencing international student attraction in China: An empirical analysis based on Bilateral Data between China and 172 countries. Education Research, 39(11), 76–90.

Chapter 8

The Internationalization Evaluation of Higher Education in China

This chapter explores the internationalization evaluation of higher education in China. Since the reform and opening, the internationalization of Higher education in China has experienced long-term and rapid development. Since the national Mediumand Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) was released in 2010, the evaluation of internationalization of higher education has become an important policy issue. This paper sorts out the formation path of higher education internationalization evaluation policy in China since the reform and opening up, and sorts of out important policies at the national level from the path of higher education internationalization policy leading to evaluation and the path of higher education evaluation policy pointing to internationalization. This paper analyzes the epoch-making role of national Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) in promoting the convergence of higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy to form the evaluation policy of higher education internationalization. This paper briefly summarizes and prospects the development experience of higher education internationalization evaluation policy in China.

8.1 Literature Review of Existing Studies 8.1.1 Internationalization of Higher Education Internationalization of higher education has a long history. In recent years, the evaluation of internationalization of higher education has entered the policy agenda. “Internationalization of education” refers to World War II, international exchange, discussion, collaboration, solving the common problems in the education developing

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 J. Li and E. Xue, Opening Education to the Outside World, Exploring Education Policy in a Globalized World: Concepts, Contexts, and Practices, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4880-0_8

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trend, the emergence and development of international organization, the strengthening of international cooperation, the reform of educational system closed and isolated state, made the schools of various levels on the domestic and international development trend has been the three major characteristics of education internationalization. “Internationalization of higher education” refers to “the process of integrating an international, cross-cultural or global perspective with the goals, functions (including teaching, research, and social services) and implementation of higher education.” In 2010, the Outline of The National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) was officially released. This is China’s first education plan after entering the twenty-first century, in which “internationalization of education” was written into the policy text for the first time. The outline clearly regards internationalization as the long-term development strategy of higher education, and macro-policies as the conditions to support the development of internationalization of higher education. The connotation of “internationalization of higher education” is summarized as four aspects: study abroad, study in China, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, and foreign exchange and cooperation. At the same time, the evaluation of the internationalization of higher education is gradually developing with the popularization of college evaluation. In 2017, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the “push forward world first-class university and the first-class discipline construction measures for its implementation (provisional)” (“double top universities”) policy, international exchanges, and cooperation will be as one of the important aspects of the double top university construction, with particular emphasis on the international influence as important index selection double first-class universities. In December 2020, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Evaluation Method for the Effectiveness of the “Double First-class” Construction (Trial), which took the “evaluation of international exchange and cooperation” as one of the six evaluation indicators of the double first-class construction. From the perspective of national strategy, China not only attaches more importance to the internationalization of higher education, but also attaches great importance to the evaluation of the internationalization level of higher education (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017). There is abundant research on internationalization of higher education in China. Since then, studies on the relationship between internationalization of higher education and foreign language education, evaluation of internationalization of higher education, regional cooperation in the development of higher education, overseas and local higher education, and strategies of internationalization of higher education have become new hot topics. The research on the evaluation of internationalization of higher education is a relatively new research field.

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8.1.2 The Important Research Topics of the Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education One of the important research topics of the evaluation of internationalization of higher education is about the construction of the evaluation index system of internationalization of higher education. Looking around the world, there have been many institutions around the world to evaluate the internationalization of higher education. For example, the OECD’s Council for Institutional Management Higher Education (IMHE) and the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) have jointly implemented the International Quality Review Process (IQRP) project; The “CIGE Model for Comprehensive Internationalization” developed by the American Council on Education (ACE); Commissioned by the Department of International Studies of the Ministry of Education, China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) developed the Index System of The Development of Internationalization of Higher Education in China and the index system of internationalization evaluation developed by Southwest Jiaotong University. It is of great significance to construct a proper evaluation system for the internationalization of higher education for accurately grasping the development of the internationalization of universities and regulating the healthy development of internationalization. Domestic scholars have paid attention to the internationalization evaluation of higher education and done a lot of in-depth studies. As early as 2002, there is a six-dimensional index system in the book Internationalization of Higher Education: the Trans-century Trend, including international educational concepts, international training objectives, international courses, international personnel exchanges, international academic exchanges and cooperative research, and international sharing of some educational resources. In 2005, the Evaluation Index System of University Internationalization is based on the composition, observation points and weights of the index system of university internationalization. An international evaluation index system is constructed, which includes 7 first-level indexes and 18s-level indexes, including international concept and plan, international institution setting, international student structure, international faculty structure, international curriculum, international scientific research, and Sino-foreign cooperation. There are significant differences in internationalization between research universities and quasi-research universities, between the world’s top 500 and non-top 500 research universities, and between the eastern coastal and inland research universities. And put forward five categories of strategic planning and organizational structure, personnel composition and exchange, teaching and scientific research, related conditions and facilities, and achievement exchange 18 indicators. Such as trying to build the evaluation index system of colleges and universities graduate student education internationalization, the graduate education internationalization is divided into strategic positioning internationalization, personnel quality, internationalization and internationalization operation elements, the factors of financial internationalization and internationalization of organizational elements, such as the five dimensions, put forward a set of evaluation index system could be operated. Wang Xian ping

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(2010) points out that the university international is in idea, behavior, and the results on three levels of evolution process, therefore, can pass the university international concept consciousness and ability of university internationalization, and performance of result of internationalization dimensions to build colleges and universities internationalization degree of evaluation indexes at all levels, and on this basis to determine the weight of each indicator. In order to establish a more perfect evaluation index system of university internationalization development degree, the paper puts forward a specific quantitative method of evaluation index. The feasibility of using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the internationalization level of universities is verified. Cloud-l, li (2019) through theory study, group discussion and expert consultation, logic model and internationalization cycle model as theoretical basis, constructs the comprehensive evaluation index system of higher education internationalization capabilities (including three-level indicators, 9 secondary indicators, and 24 tertiary index) and using network analysis and factor analysis method to determine the weight of the indexes at all levels. At the same time, the team also conducted a comparative study on the existing typical international evaluation indicator systems. The team compared 9 typical evaluation indicator systems at home and abroad from the evaluation purpose, evaluation tool development method, main content of evaluation, data collection method, and other aspects. It is pointed out that self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and quantitative analysis are the main methods of international evaluation of higher education. It can be seen that domestic scholars have accumulated abundant research on the evaluation index system of internationalization of higher education and put forward similar but different evaluation indexes centering on the core connotation and value of internationalization (Jin & Li, 2014; Liu & Li, 2019). Most of the evaluation studies on internationalization of higher education in China focus on the construction of evaluation index system or model design. Although the construction of the evaluation index system of university internationalization is very important, this study hopes to pay more attention to the development trend of the evaluation of university internationalization at the national policy level. The construction of evaluation index system means that we have the tools to evaluate and measure the internationalization level of colleges and universities. However, the ultimate orientation of the evaluation of internationalization of colleges and universities is determined by the fundamental issues such as what to evaluate, how to evaluate, and who to evaluate, which need to be grasped from the macro-policy level. From the perspective of retrospective policy research, this study will sort out the origin and development of China’s higher education internationalization evaluation policy along the two paths of higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy, and analyze the difficulties and challenges encountered in the implementation of the current policy. From the review of existing literature, it can be found that the Outline of National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) issued in 2010 is an important milestone for the internationalization development and evaluation of higher education in China. The development of higher education internationalization evaluation policy in China has experienced two paths. The first is from the internationalization policy of higher

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education in China, in the process of the gradual development and maturity of internationalization policy, the introduction of the evaluation policy of internationalization level, quality, effect, and so on. Second, starting from China’s higher education evaluation policy, the connotation and content of evaluation continue to expand, and the internationalization of higher education as one of the evaluation items into the university evaluation system, the internationalization of higher education in the evaluation system is constantly strengthened, the index system for the internationalization of higher education is constantly developed and improved. In the process of the development of higher education internationalization evaluation policy, the epoch-making significance of The Outline of National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) lies in the integration and unification of higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy for the first time, and the integration of the two independent development paths into a new track. This study will take the introduction of The Outline of National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) as the inflection point and take the phased development of China’s higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy as the reference, to sort out the gradual formation of higher education internationalization evaluation policy at the policy level. According to the process and trend of policy development, the future direction of policy is analyzed and discussed (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017).

8.1.3 The Approach of Higher Education Internationalization Policy Toward Evaluation Although the policy of internationalization of higher education in China can be traced back to the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, this study focuses on the policy of internationalization of higher education since the reform and opening, considering the guiding significance and reference value of relevant policies to the current internationalization of higher education. Domestic scholars generally divide internationalization policies of higher education into three types, namely study abroad policy, study in China policy, and Sino-foreign cooperative education policy. In the early stage of reform and opening, China gave priority to restoring and rebuilding the system of studying abroad and studying in China. It was not until the 1990s when the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development that the Sino-foreign cooperative education policy was gradually introduced.

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8.2 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education from the Beginning of Reform and Opening to the 1980s From the beginning of reform and opening to the 1980s, studying abroad and studying in China gradually went on the right track. The state has issued a series of policies to guide the orderly development of study abroad and study in China. In terms of studying abroad, the Report on Increasing the Number of Students sent abroad was issued in 1978, which confirmed the decision to increase the number of students sent abroad. In 1979, the Interim Provisions on The Administration and Education of Students Studying Abroad were promulgated, which set out specific provisions on the administration of students studying abroad. In terms of studying in China, the Regulations on the Trial Implementation of Foreign Students was promulgated in 1979 to open the channel for accepting self-financed international students. In the same year, the Report of the Working Conference on Foreign Students was issued, suggesting the establishment of a degree system for foreign students and the issuance of degree certificates. In 1985, the Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Students was promulgated to make it clear that the universities where foreign students are studying should deal with students who violate discipline. In 1989, the Regulations on Enrolling Self-funded Foreign Students in China was promulgated to further expand the scope of institutions of higher learning to accept foreign students in China and the autonomy of colleges and universities to conduct international student education (Jin & Li, 2014; Liu & Li, 2019; Wang, 2010). At this stage, the internationalization policy is mainly about the guidance and management of overseas study activities, and there is no obvious evaluation tendency. For example, in 1986 promulgated by the State Council “about study abroad personnel work several tentative provisions in the regulations,” the policy of studying abroad is on-demand dispatch, ensure the quality, of learning, to strengthen the management and education of studying abroad personnel, efforts to create conditions for students studying abroad to return to put this to use, and play an active role in the construction of socialist modernization. “Government-sponsored students studying abroad should study hard according to the plan and return to China as scheduled.” “Self-funded students studying abroad should report to our embassy or consulate abroad and contact. Embassies, consulates, and relevant domestic departments should also take the initiative to contact self-funded students, protect their legitimate rights and interests, encourage them to study hard, and care about their life and study abroad.” The above provisions do not have an obvious assessment nature but focus on emphasizing the responsibilities and obligations of those who study abroad and the guidance and help of relevant departments. This may be because the system of studying abroad is in the ascendancy, and there is an urgent shortage of talents with overseas study experience to build the country. Therefore, it is emphasized that China actively accepts returnees from overseas study to work in appropriate positions, and the evaluation mechanism for overseas study is not clarified. Again as in 1985 promulgated by the State Council provisions in the measures for the administration of the foreign

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students, accept students should follow the foreign policy and education system of our country, both countries, carry out standard of insist, merit, create conditions and gradually increase the policy of, on students should be strict requirements in the study, and earnestly help; positive political influence, not imposed on others; To do a good job in teaching is the central link of cultivating overseas students. Teaching should be arranged according to the educational system and teaching plan of our country and the actual situation of overseas students. We should strengthen teaching research, improve teaching methods, and improve teaching quality. The study of foreign students should not only be strictly required, but also consider their characteristics and difficulties. If necessary, courses and contents can be added or reduced, or separate classes can be opened, to enable them to learn real skills. Foreign students should be managed in accordance with the provisions on student status management of the university. For international students who abide by the school discipline and have excellent academic performance, the school may commend them and give them certificates and prizes or hold a commendation meeting and announce it in the whole school. For foreign students in China, the emphasis is on leadership and management, while there is no corresponding evaluation of the policy and implementation of foreign students in China (Jin & Li, 2014; Liu & Li, 2019).

8.2.1 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education in the 1990s In the late 1980s, as relevant policies relaxed restrictions on studying abroad and delegated the management of international students to universities, the internationalization of Higher education in China developed rapidly, and “going abroad fever” took shape nationwide. In 1992, in accordance with Deng Xiaoping’s speech during his southern tour, the state formulated a 12-word policy on studying abroad: “Support studying abroad, encourage returning to China, and come and go freely.” In 1993, the Notice on Issues Related to Studying Abroad at One’s own expense was issued, in principle, abolishing all restrictions on those who study abroad at their own expense, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of those who study abroad at their own expense. But with the complicated development of studying abroad, after experiencing the tide of going abroad at one’s own expense, the phenomenon that the personnel who go abroad to study does not return to China on schedule is increasingly serious, and the country begins to tighten the policy of going abroad to study at one’s own expense and being sent by the government. In 1994, according to the outline of China’s Education Reform and Development, China started to establish the China Scholarship Council, aiming to standardize the policy of government-sponsored overseas study and the selection procedure for overseas students, to institutionalize the policy of overseas study and establish a long-term mechanism of overseas study and return. In 1995, the government issued the Plan for Reforming the Administrative Measures for the Selection and Sending of government-funded students

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abroad, stipulating the policies of “open selection, equal competition, expert evaluation, merit-based admission, contract assignment and compensation for breach of contract,” and improving the administrative measures for government-funded students studying abroad to promote government-funded students studying abroad and returning home after completing their studies. In terms of studying in China, with the “Regulations on The Enrollment of Self-financed Foreign Students in China” issued in 1989, the power of recruiting foreign students was delegated to various universities, which expanded the channels for foreign students in China and simplified the examination and approval procedures for foreign students in China, making the number of foreign students in China maintain a steady growth in the 1990s. In 1991, China issued the Trial Measures on Granting Chinese Degrees to International Students by Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning, which put forward the management requirements of “strict requirements and quality assurance” for international students. The standardization of the policy of studying in China makes the work of studying in China proceed steadily. In 1992, the State Education Commission issued an internal document, “Notice on Foreign Institutions or Individuals running schools in China,” which showed a cautious attitude toward Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. However, with the speech of Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour and the introduction of the Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools has gained an opportunity for development. In 1993, the State Education Commission issued the Notice on Cooperation in Running Schools in China by Individuals from Overseas Institutions, which clearly stated that we should seize the opportunity to introduce and selectively use beneficial management experience, educational content, and funds from abroad by accepting donations for education and cooperation in running schools. It is beneficial to the development of China’s educational cause. In 1995, the State Education Commission issued the Interim Provisions on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, which stipulated the procedures, subjects of running schools, leadership system, and other important issues of Chinese-foreign cooperation, which constituted the basic framework of China’s policy on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. In 1996, the Degree Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Strengthening the Administration of Degree Conferment in Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education Activities, standardizing the degree conferment in Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions. In the 1990s, Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools gained a chance of development. During this period, the Chinese government also began to encourage and support international exchanges and cooperation among colleges and universities. The Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China promulgated in 1998 clearly stipulates that “the state encourages and supports international exchanges and cooperation in the cause of higher education.” During this period, such high-level research university construction projects as “211 Project” and “985 Project” were launched one after another, bringing international exchanges and cooperation into the important indicators of university construction. In 1995, the “211 Project” overall construction plan proposed to “enhance international exchanges and cooperation of higher education, expand the influence of China’s higher education in the world.” The Action Plan for revitalizing Education for the twenty-first

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century issued in 1999 calls for “strengthening international academic exchanges. In addition to sending short-term visiting scholars, senior visiting scholars will be selected to study and exchange in first-class universities abroad. Invited overseas well-known scholars to China for short-term lectures and research. We encourage overseas students to return to China for service.” The international exchange and cooperation of higher education has also become an important part of the internationalization of higher education (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017). After the 1990s, the internationalization policy of higher education in China began to show the beginning of evaluation and gradually moved from management to evaluation. For example, in the Plan for Reforming the Administrative Measures for the Selection and Assignment of Students studying Abroad with Public Funds issued in 1995, the China Scholarship Council issued a Certificate of Qualification for Students studying abroad to those who applied for employment and published the list in the newspaper, to increase the sense of honor of the admitted students and strengthen social supervision. Admitted students studying abroad are required to sign agreement with the study in fund management committee, study abroad fund committee in accordance with the provisions, to provide support and services, study abroad personnel guarantee during the period of study abroad studying, to carry out the study, the approved research program, according to the requirements of the time limit stipulated by the agreement and work back home, defaulters must compensate for all the funding costs and penalty due to breach of contract. For those who fulfill the agreement and return to China as scheduled, we will provide financial support for them to carry out scientific research better after evaluation. From the above measures, CSC’s management of government-funded overseas students has gradually included quality assurance, third-party evaluation, and other evaluation tendencies, and has begun to play the role of evaluation policies in guiding, encouraging, supervising, and selecting overseas study policies. The interim provisions on Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in 1995 clearly require a Chinese-foreign cooperatively run school to accept supervision, “article 32, cooperative education institution shall accept the guidance of the administrative department of education, management, supervision, assessment and examination,” the school cannot achieve expected goals or in educational resource shortage situation can apply for dissolution. Since the 1990s, the policies related to the internationalization of higher education in China have shifted from leading and managing the internationalization to regulating its normal development and operation by evaluating the internationalization.

8.2.2 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education in the 2000s After the arrival of the twenty-first century, the internationalization of higher education in China has entered a new period of rapid and stable development. In terms

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of studying abroad, the conditions for studying abroad at one’s own expense are relaxed and the procedures for selecting and sending students at public expense are standardized, which makes the number of studying abroad in China increase rapidly. At the same time, the state issued “about encouraging overseas students studying abroad in a variety of forms for the service of several opinions (2001), the study on further strengthening the introduction of overseas talented work several opinions (2007), the Ministry of Education to carry out overseas high-level talents introduction plan work plan” (2009), and other important policy documents, we will establish mechanisms for bringing in overseas talents through various channels to attract high-level overseas talents back to China. In terms of studying in China, the Regulations on the Administration of Accepting Foreign Students in Institutions of Higher Learning was issued in 2000, marking that the work of overseas students has entered a legal stage. In the same year, issued on the implementation of the Chinese government scholarship system of annual review notice and policy measures for the annual review of scholarship in China government scholarship evaluation system is established, in 2008 issued notice concerning the expenses for the living standard of the adjustment of foreign student scholarship adjustment scholarship standards to protect and attract the students studying in China. In 2003, the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools were promulgated, and in 2004, the Measures for the Implementation of the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools were promulgated, bringing Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools into a legal and standardized stage. In 2006 and 2007, the Ministry of Education issued the policy documents “Opinions on Several Issues concerning Current ChineseForeign Cooperation in Running Schools” and “Notice of the Ministry of Education on Further Standardizing the Order of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in running schools” to further standardize the implementation of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools and promote the steady and healthy development of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. With China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001 as the symbol, China’s commitment to open a greater level of education market, under this background, the internationalization of higher education presents an irresistible trend of development. During the decade of the twenty-first century, the internationalization of higher education in China has made great progress in all aspects. After the twenty-first century, evaluation has become one of the common policy tools of internationalization of higher education in China. In 2000, for example, the regulation on administration of institutions of higher learning to accept foreign students explicitly put forward to evaluate the quality of education for students studying abroad and scholarship qualifications and, “article 6, the Ministry of Education management of the students work throughout the country as a whole, is responsible for receiving foreign students, guidelines and policies, to manage the Chinese government scholarship, To coordinate and guide all regions and schools in accepting foreign students, and evaluate the management and education quality of foreign students in all regions and schools.” “Article 21 Foreign students who come to China to study under Chinese government scholarship shall receive an annual review of their eligibility for the scholarship. The evaluation work

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shall be carried out by institutions of higher learning in accordance with relevant regulations. Foreign students who fail to pass the evaluation will have their eligibility for Chinese government scholarship suspended or cancelled.” In 2007, the Ministry of Education issued the notice on further standardize the order of Chineseforeign cooperation in running schools, there are also assessed through standardize the order of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, improve the quality of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools regulations, I will take relevant measures to further strengthen the regulation of administration of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, focus on promoting mechanism of two platforms and two construction. Relying on the education foreign-related supervision information network, a Chinese-foreign cooperation supervision information platform will be opened; developing a working platform for issuing certificates in Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools; to carry out quality assessment of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools in selected provinces and cities according to major disciplines and establish quality assessment mechanism of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools; strengthen the responsibilities of the school-running units and administrative departments at all levels as required by laws and regulations, and establish a law enforcement and punishment mechanism for Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools. In order to enhance the openness of government affairs and information disclosure, the Ministry will gradually release to the public the list of approved Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools and programs. You can see that is different from the early internationalization policy evaluation activity is mainly used for the selection and specification of selecting talents to serve the management, the internationalization of the twenty-first century later policy from the perspective of quality assurance, put forward the policy effect assessment requirements, evaluation has become one of the quality of higher education internationalization security policy tools (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010).

8.2.3 Policy and Evaluation of Internationalization of Higher Education Since the Release of the Outline of National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) The Outline of the National Plan for Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010–2020) has written the internationalization of education into the policy text, stressing the need to further open education to the outside world. To strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, introduce high-quality education resources, improve the level of exchanges and cooperation, carrying out international cooperation and education services, innovation and improve the mechanism of the professional study abroad, to further expand the scale of foreign students, and strengthen the cooperation with international organizations such as the United

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Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization, strengthen the education of the mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions exchanges and cooperation, etc. The introduction of the Outline means that the internationalization of higher education in China is getting deeper and more complex, and it also means that the internationalization of higher education has become an important part of the connotative development of higher education in China. It is necessary to strengthen international cooperation and improve the level of internationalization of higher education to transform the higher education into the conversional development. It is necessary to enhance the level of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, introduce high-quality educational resources, strengthen the work for overseas students, and closely combine the cultural exchanges with the cultivation of international talents. In 2016, the General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Several Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era, aiming at creating a new situation of opening up education with better quality and higher level. “Opinion” to do a good job of education in the new period open to the public for the deployment proposed to enhance education opening to the outside governance, request to strengthen the leadership of education opening to the outside work, put forward the “around the center, the service general situation, to I give priority to, eclecticism, enhance the connotation of level, development, equality, cooperation, to ensure safe” principles of work. The Opinions set up a macro-strategic layout for the internationalization of higher education in China in the new era. In 2017, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Development and Reform Commission began to implement the “Double First-class” construction, taking the internationalization level as an important index for the evaluation of universities. One of the selection criteria for the “double First-class” construction universities is “attracting high-quality teachers, research teams and students from overseas with strong ability in international exchange and cooperation.” It has achieved remarkable results in student exchange, credit mutual recognition, and joint training with worldclass universities. It has in-depth academic exchanges and research cooperation with world-class universities and academic institutions and has deeply participated in major international or regional scientific plans and projects and participated in the formulation of international standards and rules. Higher education internationalization policy in the new era serves the top-level strategic deployment of the country and the convolution development of higher education, showing a trend of integration and complexity. Evaluation has been an indispensable part of the internationalization policy of higher education since the outline was issued. For example, the 2016 Opinions on the Opening up of Education in the New Era stipulates that the quality of cooperative education should be comprehensively improved by improving the access system, reforming the examination and approval system, carrying out evaluation and certification, strengthening the withdrawal mechanism, strengthening information disclosure, and establishing a successful experience sharing mechanism. We will further separate management, office and evaluation, and form a quality assurance system that integrates government oversight, school self-discipline, and public evaluation. Regarding the management policies for international students in China, the Measures for the Management of School Enrollment and Cultivation of International

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Students issued in 2017 also clearly stipulates that the Education administrative department of the State Council shall establish and improve the quality supervision system for international student cultivation. The administrative departments of education of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall supervise the training of international students in their respective administrative areas.” In addition, overseas education, and other new hot spots, such as the “Confucius Institute Development Plan (2012–2020)” issued in 2013 pointed out that in order to highlight development priorities and improve the quality and level of education, it is necessary to establish and improve the quality evaluation system and improve the exit mechanism of Confucius Institutes. During this period, the policy of internationalization of higher education has consciously included the evaluation system into the scope of the policy, taking the evaluation work as the basic condition of the operation of the internationalization policy (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017).

8.3 The Path of Internationalization Compatible with Higher Education Evaluation Policy 8.3.1 Higher Education Evaluation Policy and Internationalization from the Reform and Opening Up to the 1990s The history of college evaluation in China can be traced back to 1985, when the State issued the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Education System, which proposed that “the state and its educational administrative departments should strengthen the macro-guidance and management of higher education. The administrative departments of education should also organize the educational, intellectual, and employing departments to conduct regular evaluation of the running level of institutions of higher learning and give honors and material support to schools with outstanding achievements. Schools that are not doing well should be rectified or even closed.” This is the first time for China to put forward the concept of “evaluation” clearly in the policy level, which lays a foundation for the development of higher education evaluation in China. In 1990, the State Education Commission issued the Interim Provisions on the Evaluation of Higher Education, which marked the institutionalization of the evaluation of higher education in China. The provisional regulations put forward three basic evaluation methods: “qualification evaluation,” “school-running level evaluation,” and “selection evaluation,” which laid the foundation of the teleology and methodology of college evaluation in China. In 1993, China issued the Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development, which proposed that “the government should transform its functions from direct

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administrative management of schools to macro-management by legislation, appropriation, planning, information services, policy guidance, and necessary administrative means. We should attach importance to and strengthen decision-making research, establish consultation, deliberation, and evaluation institutions with the participation of experts from all walks of life in education and society, put forward advice and suggestions on higher education policies, development strategies, and plans, and form democratic and scientific decision-making procedures,” emphasizing the transformation of government functions from managers to evaluation. The Education Law of the People’s Republic of China promulgated in 1995 clearly stipulates that “the state implements an educational supervision system and an educational evaluation system for schools and other educational institutions.” The Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China issued in 1998 stipulates that “the level and quality of education of institutions of higher learning shall be supervised and evaluated by the administrative departments of education.” During the period from the reform and opening up to the 1990s, the higher education evaluation system was initially established in China, and the evaluation content in this stage did not obviously involve the internationalization policy of universities. However, the policy at this stage clarified the basic goal of education evaluation to guarantee quality, which laid a foundation for the introduction of evaluation system in the construction of international quality assurance system (Chen et al., 2009; Li, 2005; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017).

8.3.2 Higher Education Evaluation Policy and Internationalization in the 2000s In the 1990s, China began to try to carry out teaching evaluation in colleges and universities. From 1994 to 2002, 190 colleges and universities were evaluated for their qualifications. From 1996 to 2000, 16 universities were evaluated for excellence; twenty-six universities were randomly evaluated from 1999 to 2001. In 2002, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Program of Undergraduate Teaching Level Evaluation in Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning (Trial), which combined the current qualification evaluation, excellent evaluation, and random evaluation programs into the program of level evaluation. In March 2004, the State Council issued the “2003–2007 education revitalization Action Plan,” the first proposed “undergraduate teaching evaluation orientation five-year round of periodic evaluation,” and in August of the same year, the establishment of the Ministry of Education higher education teaching evaluation center is responsible for the organization and implementation of undergraduate teaching evaluation work. This indicates that the evaluation of higher education in China has formally entered the development stage of legalization and standardization. From 2003 to 2008, the level assessment was formally implemented, and 589 colleges and universities in China were evaluated successively. At this stage, the evaluation of colleges and universities is on the right track, but the evaluation of internationalization is still in its infancy. In 2004,

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the Ministry of Education issued the Undergraduate Teaching Level Evaluation Plan for Colleges and Universities, which listed the proportion of bilingual courses in the total curriculum and the teaching quality of bilingual courses as one of the indicators of college level evaluation. From the perspective of evaluation indicators, internationalization of higher education has been included in the evaluation system of higher education, but the status of internationalization in the index system is relatively low.

8.3.3 Higher Education Evaluation Policies and Internationalization Since the Release of the Outline of National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020) The introduction of the outline will promote the evaluation of higher education in China to a new height. “The outline” clearly put forward to “improve the teaching quality assurance system, improve the evaluation of college teaching,” “speed up the construction of first-class universities and first-class disciplines.” On the basis of the construction of key disciplines, we will continue to implement the “985 Project” and the construction of innovative platforms for superior disciplines and continue to implement the “211 Project” and launch key disciplines with distinctive features. Improve management mode, introduce competition mechanism, implement performance evaluation, and carry on dynamic management. We encourage the university to open its competitive disciplines to the world, support participation in and establishment of international academic cooperation organizations and international science programs and support the establishment of joint research and development bases with overseas high-level education and research institutions. Accelerate the pace of establishing world-class universities and high-level universities, cultivate a number of top-notch innovative talents, form a number of world-class disciplines, produce a number of internationally leading original achievements, contribute to enhance China’s comprehensive national strength”, “promote professional evaluation. Specialized institutions and social intermediary institutions are encouraged to evaluate the level and quality of disciplines, specialties and courses of higher learning. Establish a scientific and standardized evaluation system. Explore cooperation with international high-level education evaluation institutions to form a school evaluation model with Chinese characteristics. Establish the institution of higher learning quality annual report release system, highlight the government’s evaluation role to improve the scientific nature of government decision-making and management effectiveness. We will standardize decision-making procedures, open discussion of major education policies before they are introduced, and fully listen to the opinions of the people. An education advisory committee has been set up to provide consultation and argumentation for education reform and development and make major education decisions more scientific. We will establish and improve basic national standards for education. We will integrate national education quality monitoring and evaluation institutions

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and resources, improve the monitoring and evaluation system, and regularly issue monitoring and evaluation reports. We will strengthen education supervision and inspection and improve the education accountability mechanism.” It can be said that the impact of “Outline” on education evaluation lies in the clarification of “separation of management, management and evaluation” in the field of education, and higher education reform is no exception. Since then, in 2011 introduced the undergraduate course of common colleges and universities teaching assessment, clearly put forward to build a “five one” with Chinese characteristics of the undergraduate teaching evaluation system, set up “based on school self-evaluation, in colleges and universities evaluation, professional certification and evaluation, international evaluation and teaching basic condition monitoring data norm as the main content of” teaching evaluation system. In 2012, the Ministry of Education issued the Implementation Measures for the Qualification Evaluation of Undergraduate Teaching in Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning and the Index System for the Qualification Evaluation of Undergraduate Teaching in Ordinary Institutions of Higher Learning to guide the evaluation of higher education. The evaluation index system also pays more attention to the quality of education and teaching and the connotation development of higher education. With the introduction of “outline,” the goal of higher education evaluation in China is to develop higher education connotative type. Internationalization, as one of the important components of the connotative development of higher education, has become one of the important contents of higher education evaluation in the new era. At the same time, with the continuous progress of domestic scientific research on the evaluation system of internationalization of higher education, the tools used to evaluate the internationalization of higher education are more abundant and perfect (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017).

8.3.4 The Development Characteristics of Higher Education Internationalization Evaluation Policy in China Since the reform and opening in the last century, the internationalization of higher education in China has experienced rapid and steady development, and the evaluation policy of internationalization of higher education has become more and more important with the connotative development of higher education. Reviewing the change patterns of higher education internationalization policy and higher education evaluation policy since 1980s, we can see the development trend from “management leadership” to “evaluation in management” to “evaluation promoting management” and then to “separation of management and evaluation.” In the 1980s, China’s higher education internationalization policy and evaluation policy were just starting, and the two sides did not form a convergence. The Chinese government still occupied the absolute control power in the development of higher education internationalization and had a strong “management leadership” on the internationalization policy. After

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the 1990s, China tried to hand over the autonomy and initiative of running schools to universities themselves, and the government would realize the transformation from the management function to the supervision, evaluation, and audit function. The evaluation of higher education in China has been carried out formally, and the internationalization of higher education has experienced large-scale development. Due to the lack of evaluation experience and technology, at this stage of higher education internationalization policy began to try to use evaluation tools to ensure the level and quality of internationalization. However, due to the limitation of conditions and level, the internationalization policy of higher education in this stage is still administration-oriented, with evaluation in the management. After entering the twenty-first century, the internationalization of higher education in China has been further accelerated, and the evaluation of higher education has entered the stage of institutionalization and scale. Evaluation policy tools have been widely used in the daily work of higher education. The internationalization policy of higher education has also introduced evaluation to promote management and quality assurance through evaluation. After the release of the Outline of National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020), “separation of management and evaluation” has become the basic idea of China’s higher education construction, and both management and evaluation have become the components of higher education internationalization policy. As an important part of the connotative development of higher education, internationalization of higher education has been brought into the evaluation system of higher education. The policy of internationalization of higher education and the policy of evaluation of higher education have been connected, and the evaluation of internationalization of higher education has become a new normal (Chen et al., 2009; Jin & Li, 2014; Li, 2005; Liu & Li, 2019; Luo et al., 2009; Wang, 2010; Xu, 2006; Zhu & Zhang, 2017).

References Chen, C., Zeng, M., Wen, D., Weng, L., & Yu, Z. (2009). Investigation and evaluation of internationalization of research universities in China. Education Review of Peking University, 20(4), 116–135. Jin, S., & Li, X. (2014). Research on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of university internationalization level: A case study of Southwest Jiaotong University. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Science Edition), 15(4), 107–112. Li, S. (2005). A preliminary study on the evaluation index system of university internationalization. Journal of South China Normal University (Social Science Edition), 20(6), 113–116+160. Liu, Y., & Li, N. (2019). Construction of comprehensive evaluation index system of internationalization ability of higher education. College Education Management, 13(5), 52–60. Luo, Y., Li, Q., Han, J., & Qu, F. (2009). A preliminary study on the construction of evaluation index system for internationalization of graduate education in colleges and universities. Degree and Graduate Education, 20(11), 64–69. Wang, X. (2010). Construction of evaluation index system of university internationalization development degree. Higher Education Development and Evaluation, 26(3), 55–59.

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Xu, J. (2006). Review on internationalization of higher education in China since 1990s. Higher Education Research of Science and Technology, 20(4), 1–5. Zhu, W., & Zhang, H. (2017). Review on policy changes of internationalization of higher education in China. College Education Management, 11(2), 116–125.