Parents of students going to college crowd in front of stands set up by universities for recruitment, course set-up, and other information. Information disclosure is essential for those people concerned.

 

The Annual Report on the Transparency of Higher Education in China 2014 was released on March 11 in Beijing. Produced by the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the report is the first of its kind to examine the degree of information disclosure in institutions of higher education in China. It covers 115 institutions of higher education included in Project 211, Project 985 and other domestic institutions of higher learning.
 

The Ministry of Education issued Measures for the Information Disclosure of Institutions of Higher Learning and Information Disclosure List for Institutions of Higher Learning in 2010 and 2014 successively to increase management transparency in higher learning institutions; protect the lawful rights and interests of the public, students, teaching and managing staff in institutions; and supervise higher learning institutions to implement rule of law. It calls for higher learning institutions to innovate in management by carrying out the list, which makes clear the obligation and specifies standards for higher learning institutions regarding information disclosure.

The report found that under the guidance of aforementioned documents and supervision of the Ministry of Education, information disclosure of higher learning institutions has been greatly enhanced. In 2014, many universities improved in building and innovating their websites for information disclosure. They also made progress in publishing information in a timely and effective way.

The report also pointed out problems existing in information disclosure of higher learning institutions. First, some universities have not attached enough importance to information disclosure, and they are still yet to meet the requirements specified in aforementioned documents. Second, a lack of standardization, timeliness and comprehensiveness are common problems in information disclosure at higher learning institutions. For example, some information that needs to be accessible to the public is not published online or is with restricted access. Third, information is not arranged in a scientific and reasonable order, impacting the efficiency of information disclosure. Fourth, in terms of column-building and daily maintenance, official websites of higher learning institutions are far from being a friendly environment for users.
 

The report proposed several measures to counter the identified problems. It suggested that higher learning institutions shift from a traditional and internalized philosophy and mode of management. They must recognize and enhance the status of teaching and managing staff as well as students, and guarantee the right of the public to know information about institutions. They should improve their ability at building and maintaining websites, stressing the construction of columns for information disclosure. They should focus on the information disclosure of key areas of management, specifying the main body, time limit and content of information disclosure in these areas, so as to disclose information in a timely, comprehensive, effective and accurate way. 

Through investigation, the report identified the following top five universities for best information disclosure: Ocean University of China in Qingdao, Shandong Province; Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; Hunan University; Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei Province; and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

 

Deng Zhimei is a reporter at Chinese Social Sciences Today.