Online higher education (also named as ‘Internet College’ or ‘Distance Postsecondary Education’) has been introduced since 1998 as a supplemental and experimental means to expand higher education penetration across the country in China. With the rapid development of Internet infrastructure in recent years, along with booming online non-degree education, namely, language and IT, online higher education has also been increasingly robust to address the growing demand from China.  It’s manifesting to both domestic and foreign universities that significant market potential and growth can be explored.

Chinese Universities

Before 1998, there’s only one entity called China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU) was established and approved by China MOE to offer distance postsecondary degree programs in China. With a simple aim to play bigger roles in accessibility to meet the increasing demand, more Chinese universities were approved to offer online higher education programs, namely, 4 in 1998, 31 in 2000, 64 in 2005 and ultimate 68 in 2011, under the scheme of ‘Several Comments on Supporting Some Universities and Colleges to Set Up Experimental Online Education Institutions and Distance Learning’ (Ministry of Education, PRC, 2000). By 2011, 6,000 support centers, offer 8,557 online higher education programs for 153 majors in 10 disciplines with a total enrollment of 10 million students. Until recently, the Chinese government has officially announced to forfeit this regulation to only eligible 68 Chinese universities, or in a nutshell, any Chinese university (2,000+) can offer launch online higher education program after some necessary procedures.

Foreign Universities

Until recently, online higher education degree offered by foreign universities have been on the radar, given new education reforms in China that domestic pathway becomes more difficult for Chinese students seeking academic progression to improve employability. Some of them, especially those working in multinationals with a decent English proficiency, started to look for options in addition to domestic pathways.

From the regulatory perspective, there’s no existing regulations/guidelines in place to prohibit foreign universities to directly market and offer market online higher education degree programs to Chinese students, which is quite different from the campus-based overseas study type that is governed by notable ‘White List’ mechanism. It’s widely predicted by market insiders that growing recognition will be placed to foreign online higher education degrees, market interest is skyrocketing.

A list of foreign online brands (just name a few) have expanded access to China, some even realized 5X enrollment growth and targeted a 10X enrollment target this year—

• UMass Amherst
• Indiana University
• Imperial College
• University of Liverpool
• Stevens Institute of Technology
• RDI
• Cousera
• EdX
• Udacity