From Expansion to Governance
China’s Higher Education at a Strategic Turning Point
Abstract
China’s higher education system is entering a post-expansion phase in which growth is no longer
the central organizing principle. Having reached near-universal participation, the system now
confronts demographic decline, labor market mismatch, and intensified institutional stratification.
China’s experience illustrates that the move from expansion to consolidation is not merely technical
but political and normative, carrying implications for how higher education systems worldwide
adapt to conditions of scale, constraint, and uncertainty.
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