Higher Education Development and Regional Differences in China

This paper analyzed the development of higher education and the regional differences in China, using the survey data and official statistics. Two indicators, the undergraduate students of per 100,000 population and higher education’s contribution to GDP growth, were applied respectively to study the regional differences. The results showed that higher education in China was enjoying great development, fundamentally constructed talent cultivation system and comprehensively reasonable resource distribution. However, some colleges and universities still had some problems, such as incorrect orientation, overheated scale expansion and insufficient capital investment. Besides, higher education in China was suffering from considerable regional differences, namely higher education in East China is developing rapidly and contributing more to the economic growth, while the West China has presented slower rate of higher education development and smaller contribution to economic growth. Based on the problems lying in present reality of higher education development, this paper proposed the suggestions to enhance the development of higher education in China and to dispel the regional differences in higher education performance.