Professional Education in China

Abstract

Professional education is essential for the needs of society and the advancement of industry. This chapter overviews the establishment, developmental process, and status of professional education in China. The first section reviews the history, development, and primary programs of studies. Then, this chapter reports key statistics of China’s professional education and compares it with that of several countries in the world. Third, a framework of excellence indicators for evaluating professional education is described and interpreted, followed by three cases of best practices and two inspiring stories of Chinese professional education. Lastly, significant national policies on professional education in China are listed and examined. Follow-up longitudinal investigations should be conducted to describe and extrapolate the optimal pathway to further develop the Chinese mode of professional education.

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In China, professional degrees are designed and established for the needs of specific occupational fields in society. Professional degrees have been developed primarily at post-secondary educational levels and can be categorized into full-time and part-time programs. In contrast with academic degrees, professional degrees aim to cultivate high-level practice-oriented professionals (Graduate Admissions Information Network [GAIN], 2022). Thus, the requirements of professional degrees differ from academic degrees. As of 2022, China has established a professional education system with master’s degrees as the mainstay, with doctoral and bachelor’s degrees coexisting. More specifically, there are 39 types of master’s professional degrees, five types of professional doctoral degrees, and one bachelor’s professional degree (China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Information, 2022a).

Before 1999, few professional degree programs at the postgraduate level were offered in China. Postgraduate students were mainly trained academically for faculty or scientific researcher positions (Deng, 2019). Therefore, professional education specifically targeted incumbent workers to meet their requirements for in-service improvement (Xu, 2020). To this end, the Degrees Committee of the State Council created channels for in-service personnel to pursue professional degree education and part-time training, which greatly satisfied the needs of in-service personnel to improve their professional skills (GAIN, 2022). With the rapid development of China’s economy in recent years, occupational differentiation has become increasingly fine-tuned, and new occupational types have emerged. Meanwhile, requirements for technical skills were also levelled up in the industry. Therefore, the demand for high-level professionals in the field has become more vigorous. Professional degrees not only meet the needs of existing incumbents, but also attract interest from graduating undergraduate students who wish to work in industry.

In 1991, to accelerate the training of high-level applied professionals in different areas of the domestic economy and society, the Degrees Committee of the State Council approved the establishment of professional degree programs in a few subject areas, including Master of Laws (J.M), Master of Engineering, Bachelor and Master of Architecture, Master of Public Administration (MPA), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Education (M.Ed.), Master and Doctor of Medicine, Master of Agriculture, Master and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine among other professional degrees (GAIN, 2022).

Over the decade, the Ministry of Education (MOE) in China has been vigorously promoting professional degree enrollment and program development. As of 2001, professional education in China has achieved substantial progress on program development and scale of student enrollment. For example, a total of 56 universities and colleges offered MBA programs and awarded 3,026 MBA degrees, and the number of total enrolled students reached 13,890. In addition, 70 universities and colleges provided professional master’s programs in engineering, with more than 5,690 enrolled students (GAIN, 2021). A total of 43 universities and colleges offered master’s degrees in clinical medicine, with more than 1,678 students. Twelve universities and colleges offered master’s degrees in architecture, with 200 graduates (China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Information, 2022b). Professional degrees at the master’s level have become mainstream in China. The number of professional master’s degrees surpassed academic master’s degrees in many programs of study. As of 2010, 509 institutions in China offer postgraduate programs, including 2,679 master-level professional degree programs and 66 doctoral-level professional degree programs; more than one million professional degree postgraduates have been recruited (MOE, 2012).

To conclude, the establishment of professional degrees is an essential part of China’s higher education reform, which has changed the academic-degree-only status quo. It has promoted the cultivation of high-level applied specialized talents and enriched the types of post-secondary degree programs. After years of experimentation and development, professional education has become an essential part of degree and postgraduate education.

1.2 Categories of Professional Degree

In China, the Degrees Committee of the State Council and MOE have established several national education steering committees for different programs of study. The committee comprises governmental authorities, scholars from research institutions, and experienced professionals from relevant industry. Established steering committees include the China National MBA Education Supervisory Committee, the National JM Education Steering Committee, and the National Graduate Education Steering Committee for Professional Engineering Degree, etc. (GAIN, 2022). The committees supervise the development and management of different types of professional degree programs.

Professional degree programs can be categorized as part-time and full-time programs. The part-time programs are usually taken by mature students who work full-time. Therefore, part-time programs generally take two to four years to complete. On the other hand, a full-time professional degree program generally takes two to three years to complete. Full-time programs also require a practicum for a minimum of six months (Li & Yan, 2021).

In China, full-time postgraduate professional education usually confers dual credentials, including degree certificates and graduation certificates. The degrees certify that candidates have met the requirements for graduation; whereas the graduation certificates prove that candidates have completed all training sessions of a program (Zhang & Dong, 2018). On the other hand, part-time professional degree education only confers degree certificates but no graduation certificates. Still, there are exceptions, such as MBA, LL.M, Master and Doctor of Clinical Medicine, Bachelor and Master of Architecture.

Apart from full-time and part-time degree programs, there are also non-degree programs that offer professional training at postgraduate level, namely, “postgraduate advanced courses”. These programs provide core courses of postgraduate majors without entrance examinations or educational qualifications. Therefore, degree certificates are not conferred. However, those who have completed advanced postgraduate courses can be recognized for “equivalent academic ability” and can apply for a master’s degree by passing national examinations, completing a thesis and other program-specific requirements (Liu et al., 2022).

In terms of programs of study, there is a wide range of fields for professional degrees which focus on career development. Below are some of the most common categories of professional master’s or doctoral degrees in China and in the world.

Master of Business Administration (MBA) is designed to develop student’s skills and knowledge on business and management for their career progression in various fields. Most MBA applicants are mid-career professionals with at least two years of working experience (Abasi, 2018). Some MBA degree programs also provide training on accounting or finance given candidates’ fields of interest.

Executive master’s degree is designed specifically for mid-career executive professionals. In contrast with MBA candidates, executive master’s degree candidates are required to have gained significant professional experience in their field of specialization (ibid). The most common type of executive master is Executive Master’s in Business Administration (EMBA).

Master of Education (M.Ed.) programs prepare pre-service teachers for career development in education. Some Master of Education programs provide students with credentials to teach specific subjects such as math and English language in schools (Bai & Zhang, 2018); while others are designed for already certified teachers or administrative staff to specialize in areas such as curriculum design, teaching methods, counselling, and administration (Zhu, 2019). Several universities also offer Doctor of Education degrees (Wu & Yao, 2020).

Master of Public Health (MPH) programs are interdisciplinary based on medicine. Students are taught how to monitor, diagnose, and regulate the health concerns of communities through public policies (Zhang et al., 2020). Many MPH programs are specialized in areas such as epidemiology, occupational health, and nutritional sciences. Some MPH programs only accept medical students, whereas others accept applicants from other fields including statistics and nutritional sciences.

Master of Laws (also known as LL. M) programs more practical. Programs assume that candidates already have graduated with a professional law degree and want to practice in a specialized area of law. The training usually requires candidates to combine their previous work experience and knowledge gained through research to advance their career development (Yuan et al., 2021).

Master of Engineering programs can be either academic with a focus on engineering theories and practice or professional with a focus on preparing students for work in the engineering field. Compared with academic programs which prioritizes academic publications, the professional programs mandate candidates complete training periods in industry or laboratories or a combination of the two in order to graduate (Academic Degrees and Graduate Education, 2018).

Master of Architecture programs in architecture train students through practical internships and a thesis or final project. The Master of Architecture involves systemic trainings on building science, structural engineering, or architectural history. Professional practice such as building design is used to assess candidates in order to receive their license (GAIN, 2022).

Master of Fine Arts programs grant in disciplines such as the visual, performing and studio arts. This may include graphic design, photography, filmmaking, theatre, and painting. In additional to art theories, practical skills such as computer-assisted design are required for enrollment depending on different specialized fields (Zhang, 2021).

Table 1 provides a comprehensive summary of all professional degrees offered in China across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Major subject domains include education, engineering, medicine, design, and architecture.

Table 1 Professional degree programs in China

In conclusion, this section introduces the definition, history, and status quo of professional education in China. More specifically, this section overviews the founding of professional degree programs, the main categories of professional programs across undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, and the complete list of professional degree programs in China. The following sections examine data on professional education in China and the world, excellence indicators implemented for evaluating professional degree programs, best practices of professional education in China, inspiring stories on professional education, and lastly, related national policies.

2 Highlighting Data

China initiated the implementation of professional degree education in 1990. After more than a decade of effort, professional degree education has developed rapidly and achieved remarkable success.

Several professional degree categories have achieved close connection with vocational qualifications in major industries in China such as engineering, business and management, medicine, and law. Among them, the number of professional master’s degrees awarded has increased significantly in recent years, reflecting the urgent need for high-level application-oriented professionals in national economic construction and social development. In the 2008–2009 academic year, China has awarded about 489,700 professional master’s degrees and about 7,000 professional doctoral degrees. As of 2019, a total of 3.21 million professional master’s degrees and 48,000 doctoral degrees have been awarded, and 47 professional degree categories have been set up to meet the needs of the industry, with a total of 5,996 master’s degree programs and 278 doctoral degree programs across the nation (GAIN, 2022).

China actively fosters postgraduate education for professional degrees and strengthens the cultivation of a highly skilled workforce. The number of professional masters and the number of professional master’s degree recipients have both surpassed the numbers of academic master’s students and degree recipients in many programs of study (MOE, 2022). In 2020, 13,719 professional degree doctoral students were newly enrolled, accounting for 11.8% of the number of newly enrolled doctoral students, with an increase of 1.90% over the previous year. Meanwhile, 602,000 professional degree master’s degree students were newly enrolled, accounting for 60.80% of newly enrolled master’s students, an increase of 2.40% over the previous year (MOE, 2021). Next sections detail the statistics of student enrollments and degree recipients of professional degrees in the last ten years in China.

2.1 Professional Master’s Student Enrollments in China

MOE has been reporting the number of enrollments and graduates of master’s and doctoral students versus the total number of master’s and doctoral students since 2011 (MOE, ). Tables 2 and 3 summarize annual statistics between 2011 to 2020 on the total number of master’s and doctoral student enrollments, the number of academic and professional master’s and doctoral student enrollments, and their proportions. Statistics show that as years passed, the total number of master’s students increased from 494,609 in 2011 to 990,504 in 2020, experiencing a doubling of the number. Among all master’s students, the proportion of academic master’s students gradually decreased from 68% in 2011 to only 39% in 2020. In contrast, the proportion of professional masters increased greatly from 32 to 61%, also doubling the proportion in 2011. As of 2011, the number of enrolled professional masters reached 602,495, which is more than the total number of master’s students in 2011. Findings reveal that although the number of master’s, academic master’s, and professional masters all increased over the years. Professional masters demonstrated the fastest growth speed as well as the proportion, which reflects Chinese policies on further expanding the scale of professional education. Figure 1 illustrates the trend of master’s enrollments in China over the last decade. The figure shows that professional masters outnumbered academic master’s students for the first time in 2016, then experienced a minor fallback between 2017 and 2019, and surpassed academic master’s students again in 2020.

Table 2 Master’s student enrollments in China (2011–2020)

Table 3 Doctoral student enrollments in China (2011–2020)

Fig. 1

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Trend of master’s student enrollments in China (2011–2020).

2.2 Professional Doctoral Student Enrollments in China

Table 3 displays the annual statistics on professional doctoral student enrollments in China. Generally, the scale did not demonstrate significant growth in the last decade, whereas academic doctoral students accounted for most of the total doctoral enrollments. More specifically, the total number of doctoral student enrollments increased from 65,549 in 2011 to 116,047 in 2020. Among all the doctoral students, most of them have been in academic programs during the last decade. However, the proportion of academic doctoral students gradually decreased from 98% in 2011 to 88% in 2020, experiencing a fall down of 10%. In contrast, the proportion of professional doctoral students increased greatly from only 2% to 12%, which is six times more than the proportion in 2011. As of 2011, the number of newly enrolled professional doctoral students reached 13,719. Although the proportion of professional doctoral students is still way lower than the proportion of academic doctoral students, the proportion and number of enrolled doctoral students still increased significantly over the last decade, which aligns with the national policies on professional education. Figure 2 demonstrates the trend of doctoral student enrollments in China over the previous ten years. In general, the number of professional doctoral students has been way lower than that of academic doctoral students, which can be attributed to the nature of doctoral studies. However, as time passed, the proportion of professional doctoral students over the total number of enrolled doctors gradually increased.

Fig. 2

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Trend of doctoral student enrollments in China (2011–2020).

2.3 Professional Master’s Degree Recipients in China

Table 4 shows the total number of master’s degree recipients, the number of academic and professional master’s degree recipients, and their proportions between 2011 and 2020. Table 4 shows that over the past ten years, the total number of master’s degree recipients increased from 379,705 in 2011 to 662,451 in 2020. Among all the master’s students, the proportion of graduates with an academic master’s degree gradually decreased from 87% in 2011 to only 44% in 2020. In contrast, the proportion of graduates with a professional master’s degree increased considerably from 13 to 56%. As of 2011, the number of professional master’s degree recipients reached 369,459 and the proportion is larger than 50% for the first time. Data show that degree recipients increased across all categories. Figure 3 illustrates the trend of master’s degree recipients in China over the last decade. The figure shows that professional masters’ degree recipients outnumbered academic master’s degree recipients for the first time in 2020 and then kept growing at a faster speed (see green line’s slope in Fig. 3) after that, which can be attributed to the issue of Developmental Plan for Professional Graduate Degree Programs (2020–2025), this document will be detailed in the section National Policies.

Table 4 Master’s degree recipients in China (2011–2020)

Fig. 3

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Master’s degree recipients in China (2011–2020).

2.4 Professional Doctorate Recipients in China

Table 5 displays the annual statistics of doctorate recipients in China. Similarly, with professional master’s degree recipients, the total number of doctorate recipients increased from 55,618 in 2011 to 66,176 in 2020. Among all the doctoral degree recipients, most of them have been from academic programs during the last decade. However, the proportion of academic doctoral degree recipients gradually decreased from 98% in 2011 to 96% in 2020, experiencing a minor decrease. In contrast, the proportion of professional doctoral degree recipients increased from 2 to 4%. As of 2011, the number of enrolled professional doctoral students reached 66,176, only 10,558 more than doctorate recipients in 2011. Figure 4 demonstrates the trend of doctorate recipients in China in the last decade. Both the total number of doctoral degree recipients and the number of academic doctoral graduates have increased gradually. However, the number of professional doctoral graduates remains stable. The statistics suggest that the growth of professional education is mainly taking place at the master’s degree level rather than the doctoral level and the majority of doctoral students focus on academic research.

Table 5 Doctorate recipients in China (2011–2020)

Fig. 4

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Doctorate recipients in China (2011–2020).

2.5 Professional Education Development in China

Figure 5 compares the proportion of professional masters over the total number of master’s student versus the proportion of professional doctoral students over the total number of doctoral students. Both proportions of professional master’s and doctoral students have generally increased in the last decade. However, the proportion of professional masters is always higher than that of doctoral students.

Fig. 5

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Proportion of professional degree enrollments (2011–2020) (%).

Figure 6 compares the proportion of professional master’s degree recipients over total master’s degree recipients versus the proportion of professional doctorate recipients over total doctorate recipients. Compared with professional doctoral degree recipients, the proportion of professional master’s degree recipients has been significantly higher in the last 10 years. Moreover, there has been a considerable increase in the proportion of professional master’s degree recipients, whereas the proportion of professional doctorate recipients stays constant, demonstrating a stark comparison between professional education at master’s and doctoral degree levels.

Fig. 6

Source MOE (2012–2021)

Proportion of professional degree recipients (2011–2020).

2.6 Professional Master’s Student Enrollments in China and the World

Previous sections present the current statues of professional education in China. To compare the enrollments of professional education in China and the world, data are retrieved from the database Education at a Glance (OECD, 2021).¹ The analysis in this section is based on number of students enrolled in different education programs by field and sex and the number of people who graduated from an education program data file from the database. Table 6 compares student enrollments in China and the other nine countries (namely, the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, ROK, and Russia) in terms of total master’s student enrollments, professional master’s student enrollments, and academic master’s student enrollments in 2019, as the latest statistics available.

Table 6 Professional master’s student enrollments in China and the world

In terms of the total number of master’s student enrollment, the U.S. ranked first among the selected countries (N = 2,678,712), followed by Russia (N = 1,259,447), Germany (N = 1,070,851), France (N = 996,046), China (N = 811,334), U.K. (N = 485,396), Japan (N = 350,765), ROK (N = 238,012), the Netherlands (N = 184,714), and Switzerland (N = 72,252).

Among the countries selected, the U.S. and Japan did not report the specific number of professional versus academic master’s student enrollments but reported enrollments at the master’s degree level as a whole. For the other countries, including China, the U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, ROK, and Russia, the proportion of professional and academic master’s students was reported in 2019. Russia has the highest reported proportion of professional master’s student enrollments (100%), followed by France (70%), ROK (64%), and China (58%). Professional master’s enrollments in the three countries accounted for more than 50% of the total master’s student enrollments. The Netherlands and Switzerland, on the other hand, have a relatively smaller portion of professional education, with 7% and 5%, respectively. Lastly, the U.K. and Germany reported 0% of professional enrollment and 100% of academic program enrollment.

3 Excellence Indicators

This section identifies a set of excellence indicators to evaluate professional education in China and around the world. After presenting the methodology of selecting and defining these indicators, this section presents the results of the excellence indicators and compares the findings of the professional education development in the selected universities.

3.1 Design

According to OECD (Bottani, 1994), there are three core education quality indicators including context indicators, resource and process indicators, and outcome indicators. More specifically, the context indicators denote the scenario in which the education is rooted. The resource and process indicators specify the domain of cost, resources, and school processes. Subcategories such as financial indicators, participant indicators, staff indicators, and Research and Development (R&D) indicators are all included in this domain. Lastly, outcome indicators are defined by educational results, including student outcomes, system outcomes, and labor market outcomes. On the other hand, UNESCO (Education Indicators Technical Guidelines, 2009) proposed a more complicated framework for evaluating educational systems, where additional dimensions such as gross enrollment rate, net enrollment rate, age-specific enrollment rate, survival rate by grade are also included. Based on OECD education quality indicators, UNESCO education quality indicators, and previous evaluation indicator frameworks for professional degrees (Guo & Wu, 2018; Hua & Hong, 2017; Ma et al., 2019; Tian et al., 2018), this chapter proposes a two-dimensional excellence indicator framework for evaluating the scale and educational outcome of professional education.

Among Chinese universities, 24 are listed among the Top 200 Universities by the ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and listed as the Double World-Class universities and disciplines by MOE’s Double World-Class Project in China are included in this analysis. The Double World-Class Project aims to facilitate and foster the research and development of key disciplines at top Chinese universities (e.g., Tsinghua University, Peking University). Therefore, the 24 universities’ teaching and research quality can be regarded as reflecting the highest standards of Chinese higher education.

In addition, this section collects data from world’s top universities and computed the excellence indicators as references. World’s top universities refer to the top-tier international universities that are ranked highest among the universities in the world and of the highest standard of excellence (Nejati et al., 2011). The global top 5 universities (Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT], and University of California, Berkeley [UCB]) and top 21–25 universities (i.e., ETH Zurich, University of Toronto, Washington University in St. Louis, The University of Tokyo, Imperial College London) universities are selected to represent top universities’ performance on the excellence indicators. World-class universities are defined as institutions that are ranked among the foremost globally by widely acknowledged evaluation metrics of an international standard of excellence (Altbach, 2003). The universities that ranked 75–79th (i.e., National University of Singapore, The Australian National University, Fudan University, University of Bristol, Uppsala University) and 96–100th (i.e., The University of Western Australia, Carnegie Mellon University, Moscow State University, University of Florida, University of California, Davis) in the world are included to represent world-class universities.

3.2 Definitions and Sources

The two-dimensional excellence indicator framework assesses the scale and educational outcomes of professional education. Within the two dimensions, five indicators are designed to assess key domains. Moreover, since professional degrees are mainly provided in certain practical fields, these indicators were calculated based on seven fields: education, business & management, engineering, law, medicine, art and design, and architecture. The following subsections detail the methodological framework with respect to the dimensions and evaluative metrics (see Table 7).

Table 7 Excellence indicators for professional education

3.2.1 Scale

The first dimension measures the scale of professional education including the number of professional degree programs offered by institutions, the faculty-student ratio, and the ratio of professional degree conferral against academic degree conferral. The following sections describes the calculation methods the evaluation metrics in details.

The Number of Professional Degree Programs Offered. The number of professional degree programs offered per university provides an overview of professional degree program development affiliated with universities. This metric is an essential indicator to measure the scale of professional education. It also indicates the capacity of the education system to provide diversified programs of professional education to meet the needs of the labor market. This indicator ranges from 0–100: institutions with no professional education programs are scored zero, institutions with one-two professional education programs are scored 60, institutions with three-to-five professional education programs are scored 80, and institutions with six-to-seven professional education programs are scored 100.

Faculty-student ratio. Teaching quality is one of the most important indicators for evaluating educational institutions on their research and industry performance. Up till now, widely acknowledged global university rankings (e.g., QS, U.S. News, Times, and AWRU) all have adopted the faculty-student ratio as a key metric in evaluating teaching quality. This metric measures to what extent enrolled students can receive high-quality training regarding their future careers and have access to mentorships from qualified faculty members. This indicator is standardized to 0–100. A higher faculty-student ratio yields a higher standardized indicator score.

Professional Degree/Research Degree Enrollment Ratio. The professional degree/academic degree ratio refers to the ratio of new entrants to the professional programs against new entrants to the research programs. This measure shows the relative proportion of professional education scale against academic education. It indicates to what extent professional education is valued by the country and the labor market compared with research/academic education. This indicator is standardized to 0–100.

3.2.2 Educational Outcomes

The second dimension of excellence indicators for evaluating professional education assesses the outcomes of the professional education degree programs offered by the sampled institutions. Two essential indicators including the salary increase after obtaining the degree surveyed by Financial Times Global Ranking and employer reputation indicator surveyed by QS Ranking were retrieved from the websites.

Salary Increase. Salary increase refers to the proportion of increased salary before and after obtaining professional degrees. Due to limited data availability, the salary increase indicator surveyed by Financial Times (FT) Global MBA Ranking were used to compare MBA graduate outcomes. Salary increase indicator in other fields will be included if there are large-scale surveys conducted. This indicator is standardized to 0–100. Higher salary increase yields a higher standardized indicator score.

Employer Reputation. The employer reputation metric is derived from the indicators of QS Top University Rankings 2022, based on over 75,000 responses to the QS Employer Survey. This survey asks employers to identify those institutions from which they source the most competent, innovative, and effective graduates. This metric provides evidence for the success of professional education from a labor market perspective. This indicator is already standardized in a 0–100 format.

3.3 Findings

The analysis in this section evaluates professional education development of selected Chinese universities (Tables 8 and 9), in comparison with world’s top and world-class universities in all the five indicators in standardized scores. Raw scores of all the indicators of all the included universities can be found in Appendix A. In addition, the average scores of the Chinese universities in the top 100 of ARWU, Chinese universities in the top 200 of ARWU, the world’s top universities, and the world-class universities are also computed and compared with each other to conduct further analysis regarding different dimensions of professional education.

Table 8 Selected Top Chinese universities’ standardized performance on excellence indicators

Table 9 Other Selected Chinese universities’ standardized performance on excellence indicators

Table 8 presents the selected Chinese universities’ performance in each excellence indicator. Among the Chinese universities in the top 100 of ARWU in the world, the average excellence indicators score is 59, with number of programs score of 85.71, faculty-student ratio score of 21.86, professional degree ratio of 76, and salary increase of 33.5, employer reputation of 76. Table 9 shows, among the top 200 Chinese universities in China, the average score is 58, with the number of programs score of 86.09, faculty-student ratio score of 31.09, professional degree ratio of 70.91, salary increase of 33.5, employer reputation of 68.

3.4 Discussion

The finding shows that the top 100 Chinese universities’ performance on the excellence indicators (59) is the same as that of the selected world-class universities, and two points lower than that of the selected top universities. The top 200 Chinese universities’ standardized performance on the excellence indicators (58) is the lowest but still relatively competitive when compared to that of the selected world-class universities. In general, the selected world-class universities set up more professional degree programs per university and have higher faculty-student ratio than top Chinese universities. However, top Chinese universities’ professional degree ratio is more balanced and optimized than world-elite and world-class universities, thus achieving higher dimension scores. The performance differences on professional degree ratio among sampled universities might be attributed to country differences as discussed in the previous section (see Table 6). For example, OECD (2021) reported that professional masters accounted for 70% of the total enrollments in France and 100% of the total enrollments in Russia. In contrast, professional masters only accounted for 7% of the total enrollments in Netherlands and 5% of the total enrollments in Switzerland. Therefore, the professional degree ratio indicator is greatly influenced by the country in which it is located. Professional education in China and in the world both yield satisfactory performance on employer reputation and salary increases. There are no significant differences in these two indicators between professional education in China and the world.

This section introduces excellence indicators of professional education in China and the world. It provides a detailed description of the indicator framework design, the metric selection, the implementation framework, and the calculation method. Comparisons of the excellence indicators among China and the selected countries revealed that professional education in China shows satisfactory performance regarding professional degree ratio, employer reputation, and salary increases. However, selected Chinese universities have relatively fewer programs of professional degrees per university and lower faculty-student ratio. Findings unveil the future directions that Chinese professional education should improve on. The next section examines the best practices of professional education in China, which sheds light on how China has scaled and perfected its professional education system in the last decades.

4 Best Practices

4.1 Hitting the Nail on the Head: Targeting Professional Education for Career Progression

Professional education in China aims to meet the needs of society and provide high-quality training for career progression in various fields (Zhang, 2017). Both small-scale institutions and large-scale universities have proved that the right answer for professional education is to discriminate it from traditional academic education and base it deeply on the professional field. The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), a small institution, has fostered one of the most well-known MBA programs by focusing on one professional area with an international vision and global allies.

CEIBS is a world-class business school jointly established by Shanghai government and the European Union in 1994. The motto of CEIBS is “China Depth, Global Breadth”, which has guided CEIBS to grow fast over the last decades. It is the first business school in China to obtain dual accreditation from the Association of International Business Schools (AACSB) and the European Quality Development Accreditation System (EQUIS). In addition to its headquarters in Shanghai, CEIBS owns several other teaching and research campus in Beijing, Shenzhen, Accra, Ghana; and Zurich, Switzerland. As of 2021, it has been ranked top in the Financial Times Global MBA Top 100 List for six consecutive years and in the Global EMBA Top 100 List for four consecutive years. CEIBS is now recognized as the world’s top-tier MBA and EMBA school on Chinese soil. As the pioneer and leading institution of management education, CEIBS is the first to offer full-time MBA programs, executive MBA programs, and executive education programs in China. Meanwhile, as one of the most globally well-known MBA and EMBA programs in China, CEIBS has accumulated valuable experience for China’s management education reform that other universities and institutions can learn from (Nian & Hu, 2020).

Separated from its own endeavors, CEIBS has also been trying to foster allies in China and around the world and strengthen the impact of its alumni network. CEIBS was initially jointly run by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), a top university in China, and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), a global cooperative organization for management education and training. In the process of development, both SJTU and EFMD have made significant efforts. In 2002, the Degrees Committee of the State Council officially recognized CEIBS’ MBA degree (Nian & Hu, 2020). As of 2022, CEIBS already has more than 26,000 alumni from more than 90 countries world and has provided management training for nearly 200,000 middle and senior managers at home and abroad (CIEBS, 2022a). CEIBS graduates can be found in major enterprises including PetroChina, Sinopec, China Mobile, China Unicom, Sinochem, Lenovo, Hisense, and TCL; national authority departments including the Organization Department of the Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Commerce; and Fortune 500 companies including Motorola, HP, IBM, Nokia. Graduates from CEIBS have made important contributions to China’s economic development in different fields and areas.

The practices of CEIBS emphasize the importance of focusing on professional training and distinguishing itself from academic training for professional education. The goal from day one is to expand career opportunities and cultivate professional skills for enrolled students. Only by targeting the advancement of students’ career and skill progression can professional education be successful in supporting China's rapidly changing, growing and expanding workforce environment.

4.2 Extending Featured Programs of Studies Based on Institution’s History

Universities and colleges should take advantage of their strong subject-matter expertise and establish new professional degree programs that suit the need of modern society. Tsinghua University (THU) provides a compelling example of building upon strong academic foundations to develop new professional master’s degree programs.

THU has one of the best engineering faculty in the world. Its academic Master of Engineering has experienced decades of evolution. Based on rich experience of academic training, Tsinghua University has implemented 19 full-time engineering master training programs across 15 engineering departments. THU ability to draw upon the expertise of their pre-existing Master of Engineering programs in the development of professional education provides a model for the further expansion of professional education.

At the very beginning of 2009, THU did not realize the importance of differentiating professional education from academic education (Wang et al., 2014). Soon after, the following reforms were implemented by the university:

• The framework of the program must be designed for professional engineering masters. The training objectives, curriculum settings, evaluation standards, and practical skills should be tailored for professional education.

• It is necessary to provide students with opportunities to exercise in the field of the industry through developing professional practice bases; thus, students can use the theories they have learned to solve practical problems with research significance (Du et al., 2017).

• Students are required to take both academic and professional elective courses to maintain the high quality of Tsinghua’s graduate education (Wang et al., 2014). Over the years, it has been committed to cultivating “application-oriented, compound high-level engineering technology and engineering management talents that meet the requirements of employers (Xu et al., 2010).

Rather than academic training, the main objective of professional degree programs is to provide application-oriented professional skills. During the professional degree training, course study and thesis are mainly completed on-campus. On the other hand, postgraduates must complete professional practice for a minimum of six months. Professional practices are typically offered either at the university or through an internship. Students are mentored by both faculty members on campus and experienced professionals in industry across a wide range of engineering specialties. In 2008, the first pilot cohort of master’s professional engineering students was launched. Professional engineering students study a wide range of disciplines including electric power, water conservancy, environmental protection, petrochemical, construction, automobile, railway, and military industry (Wang et al., 2010).

THU’s expansion of prior engineering programs proves that high-quality professional programs can be developed from previously successful academic programs. This strategy has been successfully replicated by many universities and colleges in China, which has greatly advanced Chinese professional education.

4.3 Establishing High-Quality Professional Programs in Response to Social Needs

In 2018, the government announced that leading universities should actively participate in the mission of fostering teacher education for elementary and secondary education. The policy brought new opportunities and challenges. Therefore, professional education should aim to cultivate application-oriented professionals at post-secondary level with practical skills and abilities in professional fields. The best professional education should answer the national calls and meet the social needs. For example, to answer the national calls and social needs, the School of Education (SOE) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was established in late 2020 in conjunction with the School of Mathematical Sciences, School of Physics and Astronomy, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and several other schools. It aims to train high-quality teachers for in-demand STEM disciplines. As a newly founded program of teacher education, SOE, together with many other schools at SJTU, have been working hard to explore the best practice of teacher education (Liu et al., 2021).

SOE at SJTU features a young faculty with an institutional history tracing back to 1897. Nanyang College developed the first teacher education program in China. The Program of Higher Education was established in SJTU in 1985, and later became Graduate School of Education in 2007. After SOE was established, it has expanded its teaching and research focus to include elementary and secondary education fields in addition to higher education. In addition to providing professional degree programs, SOE is a research-intensive institution with two widely recognized research centers: the Center for World-Class Universities (CWCU) and the Center for Student Achievement and Human Development (CSAHD). Six additional research centers have been established since 2021 (SOE, 2022).

In response to the national call, SOE’s motto is “Exploration, Practice, Interdisciplinary”. In addition to the previous foundation of higher education research, SOE currently aims to cultivate outstanding future teachers, develop world-class education disciplines, and build new paradigms of teacher education in the top comprehensive universities.

To explore new pathways of teacher education, SOE proposed its featured training mode—the “Three Mentors” Strategy (Liu et al., 2021). As a school in one of the top universities in China, SOE of SJTU recruited faculty members with strong academic backgrounds who have received systematic educational research training to serve as students’ first mentors. Moreover, SOE takes advantage of additional faculty to build a world-class academic college with a dual-employment teacher team. Students’ second mentors come from various STEM disciplines serve as students’ second mentor by providing subject-matter expertise. Additionally, third mentors are appointed from top high schools to create a team of educations with rich practical experience. The “Three Mentors” strategy helps students gain interdisciplinary background and widen their horizons with three mentors working together to guide students’ coursework, subject-matter expertise, and practicum.

In a joint meeting between SOE and No. 2 High School Attached to East China Normal University, a teacher from No. 2 High School Attached to East China Normal University said that the establishment of SOE made her realize the importance of elementary education for national development and that the government and higher education institution really take actions to help advance the innovation and development of elementary education. The practice mentor team from high schools in Shanghai share and pass on their experience to the graduate students during a year-long internship.

The strong research foundation, rich sources on the campus, and close connections with high schools of SOE fostered the rapid development of teacher education program. The innovative solution of a multi-disciplinary team-based approach also meet both the practical and academic needs of educators. More importantly, this practice demonstrates how world-class universities answers the call of nation and take the social responsibility of cultivating elementary teachers by comprehensive university.

5 Inspiring Stories

5.1 Ding Zuyi: The Pioneer of Private Professional Education in China

In 1985, the forerunner of Xi’an Fanyi University, a private-owned institution dedicated to cultivating talents in translation and interpreting, was founded by Ding Zuyi with his entrepreneurial spirit. Since then, this little-known private school has sprouted and blossomed silently in the Western part of China. It has marked a breakthrough in the field of private higher education in China. In the beginning, Ding put forward the grand goal of “creating the Eastern Harvard” (NetEase, 2022). However, the founding of a new school was never easy. It took Ding four rounds of efforts and more than three decades to finally established the university.

In the process of running the school, Ding proposed and practiced six core school-management concepts, which reflect his original intention of founding the school. Among those, he repeatedly stressed the importance of professional education. He proposed that the aim of Xi’an Fanyi University (XFU) was to give a second chance to students who have failed the college entrance examination in China and provide opportunities for them to receive higher education. In addition, he encouraged students from XFU to develop interdisciplinary skills, including professional skills (i.e., knowledge and skills related to a specific domain), foreign language skills, and modern skills (i.e., technology literacy and communicative skills). The XFU aims to cultivate high-level technical talents needed by China. Apart from being professional personnel, students also have the potential to excel at educational research and practice (NetEase, 2022). These beliefs have shed light on promoting the development of Western translation and exploring pathways for private college and university system.

Ding agreed that the mission of professional education must answer the call of society. He proposed that the founding of private universities in China could provide a second chance for students who failed to enter public universities so that they have access to higher education. More specifically, he believed that the private professional education in China has three missions: first, teach students to contribute to the country; second, the interests of students should be prioritized; third, it is important to present China’s private higher education to the world. As an educator, Ding saw the revitalization and growth of Chinese private higher education as his own responsibility. During the 25 years of running the school, Ding devoted himself and has been recognized and respected by all sectors of society. The motto of the school is to “Dare to be the first, uphold selfless dedication, love life as a child, and conduct virtuous deeds”, which has inspired countless of graduates (NetEase, 2022).

In 2008, Ding was interviewed by China Talk and said that Chinese private professional higher education represented by XFU is a product of China’s reform and opening-up, a product of the market economy, and a response to the country’s urgent needs (China Talk, 2008). He strived for 20 years to explore the optimal pathway of private professional education. Until 2008, the number of current enrollments in XFU had reached 40,000 and more than 60,000 students had graduated. In 2020, XFU ranked first among Shaanxi private universities in the ARWU ranking. In 2021, the university has three national-level first-class professional program construction sites and was granted as one of the Double First-class private colleges and universities.

The strenuous establishment of the college attributed by Ding has had a revolutionary impact on China’s education system. The impact goes far beyond the meaning of establishing a university. He is a creative educator and pioneer of private professional education. More importantly, he has never forgotten the original intention—education for the society, and constantly learning and improving from his trials and tribulations. Thanks to his grand vision, XFU has blazed a trail in China’s education system. As one of the country’s best private universities in the field of translation and interpretation. The university has received accolades around the world with its miraculous story referred to in the media. Growing into a multidisciplinary university in less than 40 years, XFU is experimental and has become a complementary to prestigious public universities in China.

5.2 Xu Xiaonian: Random Walking Between Academia and Industry

The primary objective of professional education is to foster candidates’ practical skills in the industry. However, Xu Xiaonian set an inspiring example of transitioning between academia and industry, which he described as “Random Walking” (also known as a mathematical process) (Xu, 2011). During his career, Xu learned from both sides: he could apply theories to practice in industry and put practical experience into academic research. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at CEIBS, where he served as a Professor of Economics and Finance. His research interests include macroeconomics, finance, financial institutions and financial markets, transitional economies, and china’s economic reform (CEIBS, 2022b).

Xu has achieved great success in the academia. Prior to CEIBS, Xu was appointed Assistant Professor of Amherst College, Massachusetts on Economics and Financial Markets from 1991 to 1995 and Research Fellow in the State Development Research Center of China from 1981 to 1985 (CEIBS, 2022b). In 1996, He was awarded the Sun Yefang Economics Prize in 1996, the highest Chinese economics award, for his research on China’s capital markets (CEIBS, 2022b).

Xu also has rich experience in several transnational enterprises and financial institutions. He has worked for China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) as Managing Director and Head of Research, for Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific as Senior Economist, and for the World Bank (Xu, 2011).

In an interview conducted by Southern People Weekly (2011), Xu recalled the turning points where he jumped between industry and academia. Constant thinking about “the way out (of the poverty)” guided him through his undergraduate and postgraduate study. The eagerness of “seeing the world” incentivized him to quit job, pursue his Ph.D. in economics, and work at a university in the U.S. His research and award-winning experiences encouraged him to accept an offer from an investment bank so that he could apply theory and knowledge in real scenarios. And lastly, his interests in research pushed him back to academia. Xu returned to academia and became a professor at CEIBS after eight years of commercial banking. The rich experience of Xu enables him to tailor lectures for his students using both his industry and academic knowledge.

Born in a fast-changing era in China, Xu’s experience of switching between roles in academia and industry reflects the zigzag of Chinese professional education development among post-secondary institutions. Xu spent decades figuring out where his passions were by being specialized in multiple occupations. Accumulating knowledge from both environments, he became one of the most well-known professors at CEIBS imparting hands-on knowledge to his MBA and EMBA students. Similarly, it took China several years to pinpoint the position of professional education in higher education, precisely defining the training objectives and outcome expectations, and finally establish a systematic training mode.

6 Latest Research

6.1 General Trends

This section examines research related to professional education in China over the last ten years from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. The keywords of “professional degree” and “professional education” are used in advanced search. To ensure the quality and timeliness of the analyzed literature, the China Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) database is selected in the journal source category. The publication time range is set to cover the past decade from 2010 to 2021. Meanwhile, a comparison is made between research in professional degrees or professional education in China and the related research in the world. Web of Science (WOS) is selected as the targeted database, where Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HC) articles are included. The same keywords of “professional degree” and “professional education” are used, and the time range is set as 2012–2021.

The research literature is selected and screened based on the following criteria:

• The selection excludes news reports, enrollment brochures, school and degree site profiles, memorabilia, book news, and other documents;

• The basic elements of article keywords, authors, institutions, and references are not missing;

• The content of the article is related to professional education or professional degree.

The following analysis compares the latest research on professional education in China and in the world using the built-in data analysis and visualization tools within the CNKI database and the WOS database. More specifically, it analyzes the publication trend by year, the main themes and research areas of the included studies, and the subject domains and programs of studies of the selected research.

6.1.1 Publications Distributed by Year

Tables 10 and 11 present the search results for the number of publications on professional education against the number of publications on educational research in CNKI and in WOS respectively. The results show that generally, the percentage of publications on professional education over the total educational research published in WOS is significantly higher than that in CNKI.

Table 10 Proportion of the number of publications on professional education against the total number of educational research published in CNKI

Table 11 Proportion of the number of publications on professional education against the total number of educational research published in WOS

Figure 7 demonstrates the published articles on professional degree or professional education in the WOS database distributed by years. The WOS search results display steady growth in the number of publications related to the professional degree or professional education as shown in Fig. 7. The year 2021 yielded the largest number of published articles, followed by 2020, 2019, and prior years. Generally, professional education has gained more and more interest and is studied at higher rates by the educational researchers in China and the world. The number of publications in WOS demonstrates a slow but steady increase. The publication trend analysis indicates that professional education exhibits its importance gradually in the current education system.

Fig. 7

Source Compiled from search results from WOS

Publications distributed by year in WOS.

6.1.2 Publications Distributed by Countries

Figure 8 presents the number of publications from WOS distributed by the top 12 countries. The findings show that the U.S. yielded most publications on professional education or professional degrees in the last ten years, followed by Brazil, Russia, Australia, the U.K. (England), Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.

Fig. 8

Source Compiled from search results from WOS

Publications distributed by country in WOS.

6.1.3 Publication Distributed by Themes

Figures 9 and 10 present the publications distributed by main themes among the CNKI and WOS search results, respectively. Figure 9 shows that the top 10 themes among the CNKI articles are professional degrees, professional education, professional masters, innovation and entrepreneurship education, system design and implementation, training mode, optimizing study, strategic studies, vocational schools, and case studies. The results suggest that most selected studies focus on one specific professional degree or education program, regardless of programs of study or subject domains. In addition, a great number of studies examine training modes, training syllabus, and strategies or pathways to optimize professional education. Several other streams of research also emerge on their own. For example, innovation and entrepreneurship education and marketing education gained great interest from researchers (Gong et al., 2017). There are also many studies that evaluate professional education programs, including performance studies, case studies, and program optimization studies (i.e., studies on how to improve a professional degree program by optimizing its curriculum, course setting, and practicum plan). The themes analysis on professional education reveals that Chinese post-secondary institutions are striving to set up new programs that suit the needs of society. Meanwhile, researchers adopt different types of methods to evaluate professional degree programs.

Fig. 9

Source Compiled from search results from CNKI

Publications distributed by theme in CNKI.

Fig. 10

Source Compiled from search results from WOS

Publications distributed by theme in WOS.

Figure 10 displays the major keywords and headings among the search results from the WOS. The top 10 headings are human, female, male, adults, surveys and questionnaires, curriculum, clinical competence, middle aged, health personnel, and attitude of health care performance. Results returned from WOS indicate that research on professional education mainly focuses on areas related to medical education and health care trainings, especially for adult skill development.

6.1.4 Publication Distributed by Subject Domains

Finally, the academic subject areas are analyzed. Figure 11 shows that most articles discuss professional education as an integral part of higher education that discriminates itself from academic education instead of discussing a specific program of study or subject domain. The top 10 most discussed subject domains related to professional education are computer software and computer applications, business and finances, oil and gas industry, architecture and engineering, automation technology, professional education, finance, accounting, electricity industry, and medical education. Few studies are conducted on social sciences and humanities, including education and psychology.

Fig. 11

Source Compiled from search results from CNKI

Publications distributed by program of study in CNKI.

In contrast, as shown in Fig. 12, search results from WOS reveal that the top 10 categories in the related studies are education and educational research, health care sciences, psychology, behavioral sciences, public environmental occupational health, business economics, nursing, general internal medicine, communication, and social sciences. The main research themes that emerged from WOS search results present a different pattern compared with that from CNKI. Findings reveal that most published articles from WOS are related to health care professionals or health personnel. In addition, the main themes extracted from the search results also suggest that professional education is mainly concerned with adult or middle-aged people’s career advancement after graduation. Most research focuses on the personal development one can get from professional education, especially health care professional education (Ma & Zhang, 2021).

Fig. 12

Source Compiled from search results from WOS

Publications distributed by program of study in WOS.

6.2 Discussion

The search results reveal that most articles were published from institutions such as normal universities, medical schools, and engineering faculty. Those are the major bases of professional degrees. Based on the review of the selected articles, three main research themes of professional education in China are identified and elaborated in the following sections:

• focusing on applicational and occupational subject domains;

• developing optimal curriculum and training modalities;

• exploring professional education in the new era.

6.2.1 Focusing on Applicational and Occupational Subject Domains

The results reveal that most selected studies focus on a professional degree and professional education, regardless of programs of studies or subject domains. More specifically, most research retrieved from CNKI focuses on fields including engineering, education, clinical medicine, finance, accounting, or professional degree in general. For example, Yao et al. (2022) examine the innovative competency of professional graduate students by evaluating 167 professional engineering masters’ engineering creativity at Zhejiang University on six dimensions: fluency, richness, originality, feasibility, economy, and reliability. Based on the findings, they propose the following suggestions for professional education in China. First, institutions should enhance engineering activities and establish an evaluation scheme with engineering creativity as the core. Further, institutions should form an evaluation focused on students’ creativity and innovative competence. Pang et al. (2022) summarize the history and current status quo of medical education in China. The authors describe the “Two Tracks in One” training mode, that is, to systematically combine the didactic training in medical schools and the clinical training in hospitals so that the professional medical students can gain theoretical knowledge and practical skills at the same time.

In contrast, few previous studies have been conducted on social sciences, humanities and art. Since the origin of a professional degree stems from social needs, findings reflect that the social needs for professional education are more related to the fields such as engineering and medicine in China in the past decades (Zhang & Dong, 2018). However, as the society advances in various fields, more research has been conducted on domains including psychology and behavioral sciences. Hu et al. (2021) argue that there is an increasing need for clinical and counseling psychology in China after the outbreak of COVID-19. Yet, there are many unresolved issues and challenges in the development of professional education, such as unclear subject orientation, mismatched training objectives between the program setup and the actual social needs, and insufficient clinical practicum. Therefore, to promote high-quality professional education in clinical and counselling psychology, institutions should establish standardized evaluation methods to evaluate professional programs’ training objectives, curriculums, faculty, and outcomes. For Master of Arts, Zhang (2021) presents how Beijing Film Academy initiated the “New Talents Program” and “Postgraduate Top-Notch Talent Experimental Class” to encourage innovation and explorations in fostering cutting-edge film art talents. Until now, it has achieved breakthrough and significant effect on professional education.

To sum, although the main body of literature focuses on fields related to computer science, business and finance, and engineering, needs for different professionals evolves with social change. Accordingly, program design and training models should also be adjusted to meet current needs of the market.

6.2.2 Developing Optimal Curriculum and Training Models

A great number of studies examine the curriculum, training mode, training syllabus, developmental strategies, and pathways to optimize professional education. Zhang and Chen (2022) surveyed pre-school teachers from eleven universities and colleges to examine the development and challenges of pre-school teacher education. They probe the quality assurance mechanism for preschool education, including its development, revision, and improvement. Li et al. (2018) describe the practice of the professional veterinary degree in China and identify three core skillsets: the first category is veterinary medical knowledge and skill. The second category is management skill. The third category is high-level compound talents. With clear training objectives, veterinary professional education has achieved great breakthrough since 2000 (Li et al., 2018).

Another stream of research investigates the outcome quality and career satisfaction, which marks the transformation of professional education from its initial stage to the outcome stage. Li and Xiong (2013) introduce China’s civil engineering professional education degree program, which was the first major to receive international recognition among the engineering bachelor’s degrees. They further describe the relationship between engineering education evaluation and professional engineer registration system, compared civil engineering education evaluation between China and the U.K., and described the international mutual recognition pattern of civil engineering education evaluation. Zhang and Wu (2014) observe the professional education outcomes by evaluating the effectiveness of course teaching, professional practice, dissertation writing, and social work practicum among 143 social work masters’ graduates of a comprehensive university for two years. Findings show that most of the students have provided positive comments on the effectiveness of social work professional education. They also identify some problems in the curriculum design and professional practicum, which leads to their low levels of confidence on theory and practice.

To conclude, different phases and components of professional education have been studied deeply to determine the optimal curriculum, training mode, training syllabus, and developmental strategies. After decades of development, outcome analyses have been also conducted to evaluate professional students’ career progression after graduation to serve as feedback for program improvements.

6.2.3 Exploring Professional Education in the New Era

The last theme identified in the related literature discusses the emerging paradigms of delivering professional education in the new post-Covid era through various teaching methodologies and modalities.

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic in late 2019 has had a profound impact on education in China and around the world. Different modalities for delivering professional education are adopted to reform the traditional in-school teaching methods to blended learning or fully online learning. Wang (2022) discusses the educational transformation of music majors in colleges and universities in the post-epidemic era. She analyzes the opportunities and challenges brought by the pandemic and proposed potential new modes of music professional education in colleges and universities in the post-epidemic era. He (2021) analyzes the demand for the professional education in the health industry in the post-epidemic era. The author finds that there will be increased demand for medical innovation; the pace research and development of new medications will accelerate; the demand for innovation in high-end life biotechnology will increase; and the telehealth will develop rapidly. In addition, various needs for disease prevention and treatment will also emerge, which will promote multidisciplinary integration in the professional health care industry. He (2021) claims that these changes promote further integration and development of medical education, scientific research, and technological innovation.

In sum, the new era requires fast adaptation of technological development, in-depth research on the training mechanism, and institutional guarantees for cultivating professional students.

7 National Policies

7.1 The Fundamental Policy

In 2020, the Chinese government issued Developmental Plan for Professional Graduate Degree Programs (2020–2025), in which several key issues were discussed, as shown in Fig. 13. This fundamental policy aims to increase the number of professional degrees and to establish a curriculum designed for professional degrees. Three policies soon followed and were launched to complement the general policy regarding program setup, program evaluation, and the future development trend. More specifically, the Plan stresses that new professional degree programs should be created based on key areas of national strategic development, and the program establishment should be based on the curriculum designed specifically for professional degrees rather than indiscriminately borrowing from academic degrees. In terms of evaluation of programs, the nation will implement a series of professional education evaluation standards and indicators, since the current evaluation indicators are adapted from prior academic degree indicators and are not well-suited to professional education. Thus, it is important to develop evaluation indicators that align to the goals and design of professional education. Essential dimensions include employment, career development, and practice. Lastly, the document suggests that China should greatly expand the scale of professional degree enrollments. In the meantime, a national professional degree committee shall be established to ensure the long-term development and alignment of professional degree programs.

Fig. 13

National policies on professional education

7.2 Recent Policies

Table 12 details the key points of Developmental Plan for Professional Graduate Degree Programs (2020–2025), followed by a series of policies that align with the key points and goals. The following sections provide a more comprehensive description of the policies and actions taken by the nation and higher education institutions.

Table 12 National policies on professional education

7.2.1 Establishing a Standardized Process for Adding and Cancelling Professional Degree Programs

The Development Plan stresses the importance of defining the program framework and degree conferral criteria for professional master’s degrees. The professional master’s program design should focus on career progression and cater to the various needs of society and related occupational fields. It is important that training should help students develop a complete and systematic knowledge of their field of practice and the basic requirements for conferring a master’s degree should be clearly defined. Graduate students are expected to master robust theories and demonstrate solid expertise in related industries or occupational fields. Further, graduates should develop abilities to solve practical problems through research and experiential learning.

Universities and colleges should form a more flexible mechanism for professional master’s degree management. In prior years, professional master’s degree categories have been added in the fields of modern manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, information technology, service industry, and social governance. It is necessary to carry out a pilot program before setting up a new professional master’s degree category. Moreover, universities should constantly revise the mechanism for adding new professional degree programs. For professional master’s degree programs newly developed by colleges and universities, they should have formed a certain scale of professional education and be recognized by the society and the industry for official approval by the Degrees Committee of the State Council. If an institution can present evidence on the long-term satisfactory performance on student enrollments and graduation, the Degrees Committee of the State Council will officially approve the new program. Universities and colleges, industry can also submit applications for the establishment of master’s degree categories using the same procedures as long as the programs meet the social needs.

7.2.2 Expanding the Scale of Professional Education

China will continue to promote the growth of professional education for master’s degrees and expand the academic offerings of professional master’s degree programs. The integration of industry and education is emphasized by many specialization areas (Chen et al., 2020). In addition, the development of practicum sites is regarded as an important component for evaluating a master’s degree program, although it is not a mandatory requirement for an academic degree program. The government continues to instruct degree-granting units to optimize the scale and proportion of professional postgraduate students to increase overall student enrollments (Tang & Wang, 2017).

Moreover, the country will further expand the scale of postgraduate education for professional doctoral degree programs. Increasing professional doctoral degree programs are added including degrees in clinical medicine, engineering, and education. The existing academic doctoral degree programs should not be regarded as preconditions for the addition of professional doctoral degree programs. Instead, the most essential conditions for the addition of doctoral degree programs are integration of production and education and collaboration between universities and industry.

In addition to the expansion of professional masters and doctors, the regional distribution of doctoral degree programs will also be improved to support regional social and economic development (Li & Yang, 2017). Continued innovation and change in these areas should lead to the increased recruitment of postgraduates.

7.2.3 Adopting Employment-Oriented Indicators in Professional Program Evaluation

Universities and colleges should construct optimal mentorship teams for professional education. Newly recruited research mentors for professional masters should have research or practical experience in industry. Experienced professionals are also required by the mentor team so that enrolled students can carry out research and practice in the industry (Li et al., 2019). Moreover, institutions should set up high standards for selecting the professional mentors. Thus, a dual mentor system for professional masters can be formed (Ma et al., 2021).

Universities should advance the reform of professional education curriculum for the integration of industry and education. Mentors should invest more efforts on professional ethics education and emphasize students’ future career progression. Universities are also encouraged to formulate joint training programs with industry, setting up unique practical courses and teaching materials. Government-qualified sectors are even encouraged to develop professional and technical ability standards to promote the evaluation of professional education.

MOE sets to improve the evaluation of professional graduate students. Specifically, the evaluation indicators should be application-oriented. Professional masters no longer need to complete academic dissertations to receive degrees. The final project can be presented in the form of dissertations, research reports, planning and design, product development, case analysis, project management, and works of art. For professional doctorates, dissertations should demonstrate the ability of independently undertaking highly technical work and making innovative applications in specialized technology.

Moreover, the evaluation method for professional degree programs should be improved by incorporating industry-related indicators. Universities should avoid evaluating professional education by simply counting the number of published papers. Instead, it is important to assess the quality of professional degree programs primarily on their course settings, practicum offered, and connections to industry.

To summarize, this section reviews the core policies related to the establishment, development, and evaluation of professional education in China. In general, professional education will continue to be greatly expanded in both the number of programs and enrollments over the next decade. Moreover, administrative committees for different fields including the Degrees Committee of the State Council, the Education Steering Committee of the State Council, and MOE have been developed to monitor the further development of professional education in China. Further, they have worked together to develop policies and documented regulations to ensure the quality of professional education.

8 Summary

Professional education is an indispensable part of higher education. It aims to cultivate application-oriented professionals with solid practical abilities in occupation practice. This chapter introduces the history, current status, types, highlighting data, excellence indicators, best practices, inspiring stories, national policies, and latest research of professional education in China.

Highlighting data presented in this chapter find that China has advanced greatly since the first professional degree program was set up in 1991 and established a wide range of professional programs covering fields like business and finance, management, education, engineering, medicine, art and design, and architecture. Moreover, China has gradually increased enrollments, graduates, and the scale of professional education. In comparison with global professional master enrollments ranks high among the selected countries, demonstrating the positive effect of related national policies on enlarging the scale of professional student enrollment.

Furthermore, this chapter provides excellence indicators to analyze professional education development. The analysis provided a step-by-step description of the indicator framework, metric calculations, and presents the results for universities in China and the world. Overall, China performs competently on various dimensions of professional education including professional degree ratio, employer reputation, salary increases, professional degree programs per university, higher faculty-student ratio, whereas top Chinese universities have relatively fewer programs of professional degrees per university and lower faculty-student ratio. The composite score of excellence indicators of the Chinese universities in the top 100 of ARWU is the same as world-class universities and close to world’s top universities.

In addition to highlighting data and excellence indicators presented above, the chapter also illustrates the philosophy of practice, success achieved, inspiring stories, and related national policies in professional education in China. The best practices and inspiring stories both suggest that professional education must be established on solid academic foundation, evolve with social changes, be aligned to the practices of industry, and adapt to latest national needs. In addition, China has made great efforts to explore and implement optimal pathways to develop the Chinese mode of professional education as evidenced by latest research and launched national policies.

To conclude, professional education provides great opportunities for career progression and practical skill development. To date, professional education in China has achieved significant outcomes and fostered a great number of professionals in various fields. Further investment will be made by the country, universities, and colleges to advance professional education in China.

Appendix A

Institution	Rank	Number of Program	Faculty- student ratio	Degree ratio	Salary increase	Employer reputation
Tsinghua University	28	6	11.5	13.1	60	85.1
Peking University	45	5	10.2	N/A	N/A	84.1
Zhejiang University	52	7	11.8	1.2	60	80.0
Shanghai Jiao Tong University	59	6	11.3	3.0	110	79.3
University of Science and Technology of China	63	2	7.3	N/A	N/A	67
Fudan University	77	5	11.1	4.4	77	78.3
Sun Yat-Sen University	89	5	15.7	2.9	N/A	59
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	101–150	7	16.2	1.2	N/A	60.4
Nanjing University	101–150	7	17.1	1.1	N/A	62.1
Xi’an Jiaotong University	101–150	6	12.5	4.6	N/A	65.1
Beijing Institute of Technology	151–200	5	13.8	N/A	N/A	65.2
Central South University	151–200	7	19.9	N/A	N/A	N/A
Harbin Institute of Technology	151–200	3	10.2	N/A	N/A	57.8
Jilin University	151–200	5	11	N/A	N/A	59.5
Northwestern Polytechnical University	151–200	2	13.2	N/A	N/A	N/A
Shandong University	151–200	5	N/A	N/A	N/A	86
Sichuan University	151–200	5	16.4	1.8	N/A	N/A
South China University of Technology	151–200	4	13.3	0.6	N/A	N/A
Southeast University	151–200	7	11.8	N/A	N/A	47.4
Tianjin University	151–200	5	9	N/A	N/A	55.4
Tongji University	151–200	6	10.9	N/A	N/A	66.3
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	151–200	2	15.6	N/A	N/A	NA
Wuhan University	151–200	7	15.2	1.7	N/A	68.5
Top 1–5
Harvard University	1	7	9.5	2.5	N/A	100
Stanford University	2	7	7.3	N/A	N/A	93.1
University of Cambridge	3	7	11.1	N/A	N/A	95.8
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	4	4	8.4	N/A	N/A	95.8
University of California, Berkeley	5	7	18.9	0.5	N/A	87.4
Top 20–25
ETH Zurich	21	4	15	0.1	N/A	84.0
University of Toronto	22	7	25.5	0.5	N/A	77.8
Washington University in St. Louis	23	7	11.6	2.0	N/A	57.1
The University of Tokyo	24	7	10.6	0.1	N/A	86.8
Imperial College London	25	4	11.3	3.5	N/A	85.5
Top 75–80
National University of Singapore	75	6	18.8	2.4	N/A	92.2
The Australian National University	76	5	17.6	N/A	N/A	79.1
Fudan University	77	6	11.1	4.4	77	78.3
University of Bristol	78	6	14.4	0.5	NA	70.1
Uppsala University	78	5	16.5	NA	NA	62.3
Top 95–100
The University of Western Australia	96	5	21.3	3.8	NA	66.9
Carnegie Mellon University	97	4	13.5	NA	NA	74.0
Moscow State University	98	6	9.1	NA	NA	87.2
University of Florida	99	7	16.3	0.2	NA	64.5
University of California, Davis	100	6	13.2	0.2	NA	65.5