Laws of the People's Republic of China

Ministry of Education

Circular on Provisions concerning Establishing Chinese-foreign Cooperatively-run School Offering Higher Education for Academic Qualifications above Regular University Education and Handling of Program Applications

Jiao Wai Zong [2004] No.63

Departments (Committees) of Education in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government:

In accordance with the relevant provisions in the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools and the Implementation Measures for the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, an application for establishing and conducting a Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school offering higher education for academic qualifications at or above the regular university education and granting corresponding-level certificates of academic qualifications or certificates of academic degrees of a foreign educational institution shall, after obtaining the opinions from the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities of where the school to be established or the program to be conducted is located, be subject to the examination and approval of the Ministry of Education. And this Circular is hereby given on relevant provisions concerning the application and handling work as follows:

I.

With regard to the Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school and program to be established and conducted, a Chinese educational institution shall, in March or September of every year, advance application to the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities of where the school to be established or the program to be conducted is located.

The application document for the school to be established shall include all the documents stipulated in Article XIV of the Implementation Measures for the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools; and the application document for the program to be conducted shall include all the items stipulated in Article XXXVII of the Implementation Measures for the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools.

The application documents submitted to the Ministry of Education shall be in quintuplicate, among which, an electronic file with an extension name of "mdb" (please refer to the website of the Ministry of Education for the relevant procedure) shall be simultaneously submitted with the Application Form for Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively-run School and the Application Form for Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively-run Program.

II.

The exact time and procedure for the reception of the application document by the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities (including the circumstances under which the education administrative authorities receiving the relevant application document on behalf of the provincial people's government) shall be publicized.

III.

The provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities shall examine the application documents for the school to be established or the program to be conducted. And the examination shall include the aspects as follows:

1.

Whether the application document is complete and accords with the legal pattern; and

2.

Whether the Application Form for Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively-run School and the Application Form for Chinese-Foreign Cooperatively-run Program are correctly filled in, and whether there are missed columns; and

3.

Whether the qualification of the two parties in the Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools accords with laws and regulations; and

4.

Whether the contract signed by the two parties in the Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools accords with laws and regulations; and

5.

Whether the charter of the school to be established accords with laws and regulations.

In case that the application form is incorrectly filled in and the contract and charter of the cooperatively-run school fail to accord with the laws and regulations, the applicant shall initiatively point them out to the Chinese educational institution.

Besides, with regard to the school to be established and the program to be conducted, the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities shall put forward written opinions on whether they are in line with the development requirement of the local education, whether they basically accord with the stipulated conditions, whether they possess competitiveness and indispensability for the local region, and whether they belong to the high-quality educational resources needed by the local region etc..

IV.

The provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities shall, before April 20 or October 20 of every year, finish its examination work, and submit, before April 30 and October 30 of every year, to the Ministry of Education the written opinions of the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government on the school to be established and those of the education administrative authorities on the program to be conducted and the application document of the applicant to establish Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run school.

The examination and approval time limit for the Ministry of Education shall be calculated from May 1 or November 1 of every year. With regard to those applications received after April 30 or October 31 due to special reasons, the examination and approval time limit for the Ministry of Education shall be calculated from the exact date of receiving the application documents and the written opinions of the provincial (autonomous regions, municipalities under direct control of the Central Government) people's government or education administrative authorities.

The Ministry of Education will respectively organize expert deliberations on the application of the school to be established and the program to be conducted, and will, in written form, inform the Chinese educational institutions the time needed for the expert deliberations.

V.

The application of the Mainland educational institutions and the educational institutions from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region or Taiwan Province for establishing and conducting a cooperatively-run school offering higher education for academic qualifications at or above the regular university education shall be handled with reference to the spirit of this Circular, and the application document shall undergo corresponding readjustments in accordance with the relevant provisions.

Please comply with and implement the provisions as mentioned above.

Ministry of Education

September 10, 2004