Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:08:54.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Graduate Unemployment: Dilemmas and Challenges in China's Move to Mass Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2006

Abstract

China's recent upsurge in graduate unemployment has specific causes relating to economic development, education policy-making, and reforms in the economy as well as in higher education. With a focus on graduate unemployment, this study looks at the historical and socio-economic conditions for China's move to raise the level of participation in higher education, the rationale behind the 1999 decision to accelerate the pace of expansion in the tertiary education sector, and the impact of this rapid expansion on society, and on graduate employment in particular. Martin Trow's theory is adopted as a theoretical framework within which the dilemmas and challenges of China's mass higher education movement are analysed. Through examining the relationship between the development of higher education and economic growth, this report questions whether China's higher education sector should have expanded and continue to expand on such a large scale.

Type
Research Report
Copyright
The China Quarterly, 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Sheila Davies and Kevin Fomiatti for reading a draft of this article.