Popularization of Higher Education in China and the Increasing Gap
between Women: Who can enter the prestigious Peking University?
Keiko OHAMA (China)
Enjoying a period of unprecedented economic development, China is now
experiencing a wave of popularization of higher education, the scale and speed of which
has surpassed that of Japan during its own period of high economic growth. In 2002, theChinese gross enrollment rate reached 15%, indicating that the country had entered theso-called “mass” access phase described by Martin Trow, followed by 27% in 2011. The
number of students going on to ordinary higher educational institutions increased bymore than four times from 1.597 million in 1999 to 6.815 million in 2011, while thenumber of ordinary higher educational institutions also grew tremendously from 1,071
to 2,409. The advent of a society that stresses academic backgrounds has intensified theseverity of the education practices in preparation for entrance examinations even morethan before. However, there is good news for women. In 2009, the number of female
students enrolled at ordinary higher educational institutions in China reached 10.826
million, amounting to 50.5% of the total. This was the first time that the number offemale students had exceeded that of male students, reversing the gender ratios that
had been seen since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Even in thesevere gao kao (National Higher Education Entrance Examination), in many provinces,
the top successful applicants are now female students. Called nu zhuang yuan, suchfemale students outnumber the top successful male applicants. As yin sheng yang shuai(women dominant over men), this phenomenon related to universities is now attracting
wide attention. Experts insist that the beneficiaries of the popularization of universities
are women. Many nu zhuang yuan go on to the prestigious Peking University orTsinghua University. I would now like to discuss the backgrounds of students enrolled
at such universities.
As to this issue, LIU Yunshan and WANG Zhiming collected an enormous amountof data regarding new students who entered Peking University after the Chinese
Economic Reform (1978 - 2005), and presented very interesting research results.i LIUet al. categorized the new students’ attributes by region, classification of urban/ruralareas, and social class, and conducted scrupulous gender analyses in a multifaceted andtime-series manner. The results were beyond expectations. After commencement of theChinese Economic Reform, especially in and after 1990, a distinct gap emerged between
urban and rural areas. As for opportunities to enter Peking University, urban malestudents consistently recorded a high percentage of more than 40% after 1978. On theother hand, rural female students hovered around a low level of just a few percentage
points. No change was observed in these two groups after the launch of the Chinese
Economic Reform. However, there was a change in the groups of rural male students
and urban female students. Although it was said that students from the rural laborclass made up more than 70% of the students at Peking University during the CulturalRevolution, the number of such students drastically declined right after the beginningof the Chinese Economic Reform. In the 1980s and 1990s, the percentages of rural malestudents and urban female students were almost the same at around 20%, suggestingthat the groups competed with each other for a limited number of opportunities to enter
the university. For the two years from 1994, however, the percentage of urban female
students surged by approximately 10 points, even considerably narrowing the gap withurban male students. Conversely, the percentage of rural male students continued todecline, even approaching that of rural female students. A set of national statistics also
reveals that in the mid-1990s, the ratio of female university students skyrocketed. What
are behind these changes? The following combined factors may be the cause.
The combination of the Socialist Market Economy Policy launched in 1992 and theglobal economy has intensified the polarization between urban and rural areas. Basedon this polarization, a new social class and rank have emerged, which affects and isreflected in university education. Another factor is the country’s family planning policy
generally known as the one-child policy. In the mid-1990s, the first generation under theone-child policy entered university. The policy has changed the family composition in
urban areas, also changing the country’s traditional male-oriented family perspective.
In urban areas, children, regardless of gender, are expected to achieve a high-level
education. On the other hand, in rural areas, where there are still many children, theidea of the priority given to boys still firmly exists. Additionally, in 1997, it became
obligatory to pay tuition fees at all universities, even though the fees had been free untilthat time. There is a year-by-year rise in such tuition fees and a wider rich-poor gap
between urban areas and rural areas. Even from an economic aspect, students fromrural areas have disadvantages. For example, there are often girls who are forced towork to earn the tuition fees for their brothers.
The gender ratio of students enrolled at Peking University (and also other higher
educational institutions in China) has been approximately equal in recent years. This isa result of the upward mobility by advantaged female students in urban areas who haveobtained many entrance opportunities, as well as downward mobility by male students
in rural areas. LIU et al. asserts that the current gender equality being realized in thisway limits progress. There is no overlooking the existence of girls in rural areas placed

in an even worse environment than thatof boys in rural areas.
Thenumberoffemale

students

enrolled in higher educational institutionsin China now exceeds that of malestudents, and this number is continuing
to grow spectacularly. At the same time,
the gap between female students fromurban and rural areas has been growing
silently.

While

theformerpoint

Peking University, West Gate

isrecognized, the latter is not. This issue presents the two aspects of light and shadow inthe country’s social development, and, in a way, also reveals a condition brought about
by development throughout the world.

i Liu Yunshan and Wang Zhiming. 2008 〈NuxingJinru Jingying Jiti: Youxian de Jinbu〉《Gaodeng Jiaoyu Yanjiu》

Vol.29 No.2