 |
|
 |
Large Medium Small |
The Ministry of Education's latest move to publish a list of more than 400 approved educational programs in the country that are being jointly run with foreign collaborators, is a step in the right direction.
It has the potential to curtail dubious higher learning centers from exploiting the sector's business potential by luring students with the promise of foreign academic certifications, which are later deemed worthless.
The decision Monday has come at a time when Tang Jun, president and chief executive officer of Xin Hua Du Industrial Co, has been alleged to have received a fake doctoral degree from a US diploma mill.
China opened its education sector officially to foreign universities in 2004, hammering out a regulation on Sino-foreign collaboration in administering universities.
The cooperative endeavor was supposed to provide China with better access to high-quality education.
The regulation clearly defined the parameters of such cooperation, and encouraged jointly run schools to introduce advanced academic courses and teaching methodologies that were badly needed.
The Ministry of Education, however, had failed to make public the list of approved jointly run colleges. This had enabled many opportunists to gain a free run of the business.
The latest move should go further by publishing the relevant information online and in other media so that aspiring students can judge the academic credentials of such schools.
