Great progress of higher education in Ningbo

Category: On The Campus
Published: Tuesday, 24 September 2013 14:48

In the past, Ningbo was quite weak in higher education. However, in recent years, Ningbo has made a leap-forward development in the education undertaking. As a result, Ningbo is today a quite advanced in higher education in Zhejiang, whose status is only next to Hangzhou. The higher education is now making greater and greater contribution to human resources, knowledge acquisition service and learning capacity that are necessary for the social and economic development of the city.

In recent years, Ningbo has taken active measures to introduce quality international educational resources so as to quicken its step to bring forth high-end theoretical and practical talents with international perspective. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China is the first one in China that has the status of an independent legal entity and a campus of its own. In 2011, a five-year TAFE project, the first one in Zhejiang, started in Ningbo. In 2012, Ningbo was approved by the Ministry of Education as one of the first pilot areas for comprehensive educational reform in international cooperation and exchanges.

Ningbo has built many a platform to promote the cooperation of the government, the enterprises, the schools and the research institutes. Thanks to such platforms as the Forum of University Presidents and Entrepreneurs and the "Conference of University and Enterprises on Talent Training", over 500 enterprises established cooperative relations with the universities and colleges. As a long-term mechanism, Ningbo released the "Rules of Promoting Cooperation of Vocational Schools and Enterprises", the first regulation in China for the protection and promotion of the cooperation of vocational schools and enterprises. In 2012, Ningbo Municipality released the "Measures of Promoting Cooperation of Vocational Schools and Enterprises of Ningbo Municipality", a policy that aims to tighten the link of education, science and talents.

As fund is the fundamental for higher education, Ningbo Municipal Government allocates special funds for higher educational institutions. Since 2005, the city has added over 50 million yuan year on year to the special fund for development of the service-oriented educational system. Since 2008, the city decided that most of the addition to the educational fund should be used for the development of the service-oriented educational system. In 2013, the average expenditure on a BA program student in a college in Ningbo was raised to 12,000 yuan a year, and 10,000 yuan on a student of a senior vocational school. In two years, the expenditure on a senior vocational school student should level that on a BA program student in Ningbo.