Marketizing higher education in post-Mao China

In the post-Mao era, reformers in the People's Republic of China have taken significant steps to privatize social welfare services. After the adoption of a socialist market system in the 1990s, educational development has bee n affected by strong market forces. It is argued that the emergence of priv ate educational institutions, the shift of state responsibility in educatio nal provision to families and individuals, the prominence of fee-charging, as well as the introduction of internal competition among educational insti tutions, clearly suggest that China's education has been going through a pr ocess of marketization. The principal goal of this paper is to examine inst itutional origins of the policy change in education, with particular refere nce to the process and implications of such changes. The paper will also ap praise the Chinese experience in the light of global practices on marketiza tion of social welfare services. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.