A group of parents in Jiangsu Province recently gathered before their local education bureau to protest the recent announcement that it would open up 38,000 places at local colleges formerly earmarked for local students to applicants from impoverished western regions.
The new policy is a response to central government directives to further support development in western China, which has lagged even further behind that in eastern areas during the onset of a nationwide growth slump. According to Ministry of Education plans, altogether 12 provinces and municipalities will transfer quotas to 10 predetermined western regions, with Jiangsu and Hubei provinces offering the most places to western applicants.
Parents decried the perceived unfairness of the scheme, which they felt disenfranchised local students. The ministry, however, argued that the enrollment rate in the two provinces will not be lower than before, since the number of candidates participating in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam, fell this year.
Critics rejected the government’s reassurances, instead questioning why Beijing, home to China’s best universities, has made no adjustment whatsoever to enrollment quotas.
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