China, People's Republic of : Accelerating the Reform of Application-Oriented Undergraduate Programs at Local Universities in Yunnan Province

Sovereign Project | 50357-001

The proposed knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will support the development of policy frameworks for accelerating the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities in Yunnan Province through research, capacity development, and policy advice to promote socioeconomic development and regional cooperation with Southeast Asian countries. The Government of the People''s Republic of China (PRC) has requested the TA from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as part of its efforts to rationalize the higher education system in Yunnan Province to fill critical skills gaps in local and regional labor markets. Following a mission in March 2018, ADB and the government reached an understanding on the TA objectives, scope, implementation arrangements, costs, and terms of reference for consultants. The TA is included in ADB's country operations business plan for the PRC, 2018 -2020.

Project Details

  • Project Officer
    Maruyama, Asako
    East Asia Department
    Request for information
  • Country/Economy
    China, People's Republic of
  • Sector
    • Education
Project Name Accelerating the Reform of Application-Oriented Undergraduate Programs at Local Universities in Yunnan Province
Project Number 50357-001
Country / Economy China, People's Republic of
Project Status Closed
Project Type / Modality of Assistance Technical Assistance
Source of Funding / Amount
TA 9526-PRC: Accelerating the Reform of Application-Oriented Undergraduate Programs at Local Universities in Yunnan Province
Technical Assistance Special Fund US$ 400,000.00
Strategic Agendas Inclusive economic growth
Regional integration
Drivers of Change Governance and capacity development
Knowledge solutions
Partnerships
Private sector development
Sector / Subsector

Education / Tertiary

Gender No gender elements
Description The proposed knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will support the development of policy frameworks for accelerating the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities in Yunnan Province through research, capacity development, and policy advice to promote socioeconomic development and regional cooperation with Southeast Asian countries. The Government of the People''s Republic of China (PRC) has requested the TA from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as part of its efforts to rationalize the higher education system in Yunnan Province to fill critical skills gaps in local and regional labor markets. Following a mission in March 2018, ADB and the government reached an understanding on the TA objectives, scope, implementation arrangements, costs, and terms of reference for consultants. The TA is included in ADB's country operations business plan for the PRC, 2018 -2020.
Project Rationale and Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy

The PRC''s higher education system - the largest in the world in terms of number of higher education institutions (HEIs) and students - has been growing rapidly, contributing to remarkable economic growth. Yet as the economy undergoes fundamental transformation and its growth has slowed, structural issues with the PRC's' higher education system have become more prominent. These include homogenization of colleges and universities, difficulties of graduates with finding employment, and insufficient capacity of HEIs for innovation and entrepreneurship. Against this background, the Ministry of Education issued guidelines for provincial governments to rationalize the higher education system by establishing a system for classifying HEIs, and to transform some local colleges and universities to offer application-oriented undergraduate programs which integrate discipline-oriented education and professionally oriented practical training through university -enterprise cooperation and meet the needs of local socioeconomic development. At the same time, research universities were guided to enhance global competitiveness and state-of-the-art disciplines.

Bordering Viet Nam, Lao People''s Democratic Republic, and Myanmar, Yunnan Province forms part of the PRC''s poor and underdeveloped western region. Its higher education system, comprising 79 HEIs (77 colleges and universities, and 2 adult education colleges), has been unbalanced in their capacity to meet the needs of local socioeconomic development, and graduates face difficulties with getting employed. When Yunnan Provincial Department of Education (PDE) initiated the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs in 2008, HEIs in Yunnan Province were undifferentiated from each other in programs they offered, particularly due to the upgrading of many three-year colleges to four-year colleges and universities (local universities) after 2000. Since then, Yunnan PDE has pursued a series of reforms to align the higher education system with skills needs in local and regional labor markets. For example, in 2014, ahead of the Ministry of Education''s guidelines, Yunnan PDE started to pilot the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at nine local universities. In 2016, it introduced a HEI classification system to comprehensively reform the higher education system, while it has started to develop world-class universities in 2018. Moreover, Yunnan Province strives to promote international cooperation in higher education, with emphasis on cooperation with Southeast Asian countries (the Belt and Road Initiative).

At present, all local universities are guided to implement the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs in Yunnan Province. Despite achievements, the pilot reforms indicate challenges and issues, including:

(i) difficulties with adapting professionally oriented majors and clusters (i.e., groups of majors) fully in line with the needs of local industries due in part to time lag between the pace of industry transformation and upgrading and that of curriculum, teaching force, and training materials and facility development and upgrading, and to insufficient university- enterprise cooperation;

(ii) inadequate university entrance exam system based on discipline-oriented majors and graduation exam system based on thesis, as opposed to the emphasis on professionally oriented practical training in application-oriented undergraduate programs;

(iii) underdeveloped capacity for training human resources to promote cooperation with Southeast Asian countries and implement the Belt and Road Initiative;

(iv) limited public funds to develop practical training, innovation, and entrepreneurship facilities;

(v) constraints on the autonomy of local universities, particularly that of public universities to seek funding other than from the government;

(vi) unclear legal rights and obligations of the parties involved in university- enterprise cooperation.

These challenges and issues are compounded by lack of policy frameworks at the national and provincial levels for different types of universities (public, private, independent schools and institutes subordinate to universities) which are coordinated with other policy areas, to accelerate the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities.

Impact Higher education system in Yunnan Province in support of socioeconomic development and regional cooperation rationalized
Project Outcome
Description of Outcome Reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities widely implemented
Progress Toward Outcome Due to the COVID pandemic, the TA implementation period had been extended by one year and has been closed in July 2021. The achievement of the outcome will be reviewed in 2022.
Implementation Progress
Description of Project Outputs

Status of the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities assessed

Good practices and lessons learned on the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs documented and disseminated

Policy recommendations on accelerating the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities in line with local industry transformation and upgrading plans developed

Status of Implementation Progress (Outputs, Activities, and Issues)

Methodology and tools for assessing the status of the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at 31 local universities were discussed with Yunnan Provincial Education Department (YPDE) and local universities in January 2019 and finalized in early March 2019. Data collection for the assessment was carried out in June-July 2019. The final assessment report which includes reviews of legal and policy frameworks at the national and provincial levels and international experiences was discussed with YPDE and accepted in June 2020.

Under output 2, extensive field work and a series of small workshops were originally planned for carrying out in-depth case study of local universities and identifying good practices and lessons in the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the original plan to conduct extensive field work and a series of small workshops had to be revised and the TA closing date had to be extended by one year till June 2021. Together with the resource persons appointed by YPDE, field work and workshops to collect and analyze data for the case studies of local universities were conducted in March 2021. The interim report 1 which includes the methodology and tools of case studies and case studies was submitted in April 2021. Based on the case studies, the interim report 2 which includes five thematic reports was prepared and submitted in June 2021.

The interim report 2 and the policy note (final report) were discussed at the final workshop held virtually with YPDE, Yunnan local universities, and case study universities outside Yunnan on 28-29 June 2021.

Geographical Location Yunnan
Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects
Environmental Aspects
Involuntary Resettlement
Indigenous Peoples
Stakeholder Communication, Participation, and Consultation
During Project Design Yunnan Provincial Education Department, Yunnan Provincial Finance Department, and other relevant government agencies as well as some of local universities participated in the process of designing the TA.
During Project Implementation 31 local universities in Yunnan province were consulted and actively participated in data collection and analysis and development of case studies.
Business Opportunities
Consulting Services A consulting firm (international, 6 person-months; national, 13 person-months) has been recruited to design and conduct policy-oriented studies on the reform of application-oriented undergraduate programs at local universities. The firm was selected using the quality- and cost-based selection method, with a quality-cost ratio of 90:10 and simplified technical proposals. Output-based, lumpsum contract with a provision of fixed out-of-pocket expenditures was considered for the assignment.
Responsible ADB Officer Maruyama, Asako
Responsible ADB Department East Asia Department
Responsible ADB Division Urban and Social Sectors Division, EARD
Executing Agencies
Yunnan Provincial Department of Education
2 Xuefu Road, Kunming, Yunnan
Yunnan Provincial Finance Department Division of International Cooperation
Wuhuashan, Kunming Yunnan,
Peoples Republic of China
Timetable
Concept Clearance 19 Apr 2018
Fact Finding 08 Mar 2018 to 12 Mar 2018
MRM -
Approval 14 May 2018
Last Review Mission -
Last PDS Update 28 Sep 2021

TA 9526-PRC

Milestones
Approval Signing Date Effectivity Date Closing
Original Revised Actual
14 May 2018 11 Jun 2018 11 Jun 2018 30 Jun 2020 30 Jun 2021 01 Oct 2021
Financing Plan/TA Utilization Cumulative Disbursements
ADB Cofinancing Counterpart Total Date Amount
Gov Beneficiaries Project Sponsor Others
400,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 400,000.00 17 Jun 2022 325,860.00

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Tenders

Tender Title Type Status Posting Date Deadline
Accelerating the Reform of Application-Oriented Undergraduate Programs at Local Universities in Yunnan Province Firm - Consulting Closed

Contracts Awarded

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Procurement Plan

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