In 1981, China's Ministry of Education completed a report on strengthening the leadership and administration of private continuation schools. These documents clearly show the negative attitude held by the State Education Commission toward private higher education. In response to these reports, some administrators have suggested that a series of laws governing private schools be established so that private school operations might be standardized. Top administrators argue that China's current private higher institutions of learning are unable to accomplish their goals and often encounter financial difficulties. Other administrators deny the advantages of private higher education from another perspective, believing that China's higher education system is already too vast, and that the state is hardly able to support public higher learning institutions.
Private education is a complicated phenomenon with far-reaching repercussions.
Consequently, decisions concerning its future are not easily made. The State Education Commission worries that private higher learning institutions will encounter financial problems, requiring that they turn to the state for financial assistance. Additional concerns include the character and quality of national higher education, whether or not its scope is adequate, and student assignment pressures. Before solutions to these problems are settled upon, the existing bureaucracy is loathe to make definite policy decisions concerning private higher education. Nevertheless, change is in the works, and China's existing private higher education institutions have raised important questions concerning many aspects of country's current education and social needs.