2025-06-12
China’s 2024–2035 Education Master Plan puts higher education at the forefront, aiming to boost research universities, expand access, and foster global collaboration. It targets equity through regional investment and reforms aligning academic programmes with labor market needs.
East Asia and the Pacific
HE planning
China unveiled its Education Master Plan (2024–2035)—a strategic roadmap to transform the country into a global education powerhouse and raise the overall quality of its education system. A central tenet of the plan is to ensure that government spending on education remains above 4%.
Among the plan’s nine strategic initiatives, higher education takes center stage. China is setting its sights on advancing research-intensive universities and revamping academic disciplines to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving higher education landscape. This also includes inviting leading international institutions specializing in STEM to launch joint programmes with Chinese universities. Promoting student and faculty exchanges and international research collaboration is a priority.
Nationwide, the plan seeks to expand access to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programmes. To address regional disparities, it mandates the creation of advanced research institutes in central-western and northeastern provinces, while channeling additional resources into ethnic minority regions to spur development and promote equity.
The plan also calls for deep structural reforms that better align education with China’s economic and social needs. This includes exploring the creation of a national big data platform to monitor and match labor market demand with educational output—tracking employment trends and enabling adjustments to academic programs and disciplines.
