Thursday, October 3, 2002

Chinese Institutions Look Toward Distance Education By FLORENCE OLSEN Atlanta A new survey of Chinese colleges suggests that, for the next two or three years, distance education will be a top priority of China's national universities. As many as 800,000 students will gain access to higher education through distance-education programs that have been authorized by China's Ministry of Education, says Qiong Wang, an associate professor of education at Peking University, in Beijing. Ms. Wang, who also is director of the educational-technology department at Peking University's Graduate School of Education, presented the survey results on Wednesday at the Educause 2002 conference here. The survey's questions were based on an annual study of information technology in higher education conducted by the Campus Computing Project. "It's very hard for universities to take any more students in the classrooms, yet there is tremendous pressure and interest and commitment in China to provide more postsecondary education," says Kenneth C. Green, director of the Campus Computing Project, who collaborated with Ms. Wang. The survey data also show that nearly half of Chinese colleges and universities increased their information-technology budgets by 5 percent or more this year, compared with last year. The trend contrasts with a 5-percent or greater decline in technology spending by many American colleges, as reported this week by Mr. Green, who is a visiting scholar in educational studies at Claremont Graduate University. More detailed studies comparing data from the American and Chinese surveys will be conducted in 2003, Mr. Green says. The Chinese study was based on 24 questions selected from a total of 60 used in the Campus Computing Project's study. According to Ms. Wang, 384 national and provincial universities and two- and three-year colleges in China responded to the survey, which was conducted in March and April. The survey was sent to 800 institutions. In addition to China, Hong Kong and Japan are preparing to conduct similar surveys, Ms. Wang says. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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