Admission and Graduate Employment

Abstract

In 1977, owing to the resumption of the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) in China, 5,700,000 examinees took the national unified examination; 270,000 of them were admitted. Since the reform and opening-up policy of 1978, the total number of examinees of the NCEE had reached around 128 million, 53,860,000 of whom had been admitted over the thirty years from 1978 to 2008. Over the period of rapid growth of Chinese higher education between 1999 and 2008, there had been a total of about 40,100,000 newly admitted students. In terms of the total number of examinees of the NCEE, the total number between 1999 and 2008 accounted for 50% of the total number between 1978 and 2008. Moreover, in terms of the total number of newly admitted students of regular HEIs, the total number between 1999 and 2008 accounted for three quarters of the total number between 1978 and 2008. In 1978, 400,000 examinees were admitted and the rate of admission was nearly 7%. In contrast, in 2008, about 6,000,000 examinees were admitted and the rate of admission was 57%. Therefore, the number of newly admitted students in 2008 was fifteen times the number admitted in 1978 and the rate of admission has increased by 50% over the thirty years (MOE, 2008d).