The Ministry of Education (MOE) recently issued guidance on how to further reform and optimize the college enrollment system in 2024 to ensure fairness and safe operation under sound management.

The guidance highlights five areas:

First, to ensure security during the entire College Entrance Examination (CEE) process, higher education institutions (HEIs) need to develop various emergency preparedness and response mechanisms. The organization of the examinations also needs to be enhanced to avoid cheating through the use of mobile phones. Multiple support services, including public security and traffic management, epidemic prevention, noise control, and psychological counseling, should also be put in place to ensure examinees’ best performance.

Second, to guarantee the fairness of enrollment across different regions, efforts need to be strengthened to implement the national plan for supporting central and western regions with inadequate educational resources and projected lower college enrollment rates. Local special support plans should also continue to be implemented to ensure that major universities offer more opportunities to rural students just above the poverty threshold. Targeted measures should also facilitate migrant workers’ children taking the examination in cities where their parents work. On the other hand, measures should also be adopted to verify test takers’ information, especially their household registration status, so as to crack down on immigration for the benefits of the region-specific special support plans.

Third, the CEE system needs to be further reformed to ensure the exams encourage the training of well-rounded talent as well as innovative talent capable of conducting basic research. Specific implementation measures are needed for new plans involving admissions to arts and sports undergraduate programs. Vocational college entrance examinations should also be improved to balance academic subjects and practical skills.

Fourth, the MOE guidance instructs local authorities to enhance supervision over the whole enrollment process, including applicant registration, examination, and admission. In particular, the guidance underlines the importance of strict compliance with admission rules, higher transparency in the release of enrollment information, and intensified investigation and punishment of violations.

Fifth, the public release of CEE-related information needs to be improved, including enrollment policies, examination rules, final results, etc. In addition, better counseling services should be provided to examinees and their parents on how to apply to appropriate HEIs and undergraduate programs.