# The beginning of course evaluations in Chinese universities


*Having reviewed how modern Chinese higher education began as an import
from the Soviet Union, with very centralized and rigid curricula and no
local autonomy, we now come to a watershed. Universities are gradually
given more power to modify the curricula, and at exactly the same time,
systematic course evaluation systems are introduced. I later argue that
this is a crucial precursor to the Top Level Courses Process, which is
essentially a giant national course evaluation system.*

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Around the same time that the universities gained more freedom over
their curriculum and teaching, efforts began to measure and improve the
quality of courses. The Shanghai Higher Educational Bureau began
experimenting with evaluation in 1983, to raise the quality of teaching,
strengthen the teaching of basic courses, and improve the training of
practical ability. At all 45 institutions of higher education in
Shanghai, courses on the history of the Chinese revolution, political
economy, philosophy, English, Chinese, higher math and general physics
were examined to catch teaching problems, and to promote the reform of
teaching (Zhou Yuliang 1986, 458). In 1984, the Higher Education Bureau
of Jiangsu province conducted the first peer-reviews of teaching quality
in teacher’s colleges and universities since the founding of the
People’s Republic of China. The process lasted 25 days and involved 50
people, who examined a broad range of materials and questions:

-   Conditions of teaching work, including teaching documents
-   Whether implementation and reform of teaching content met the proper
  requirements
-   Whether the questions in examinations were written scientifically
  and seriously
-   Teachers’ academic levels
-   Attitudes towards teaching
-   Teaching methods and teaching results
-   Students study burden
-   Study attitudes and the ability for self-study
-   Aptitude tests

The purpose of this peer-review exercise was for institutions to learn
from each other. It was purely qualitative, with no standardized
measurements (Zhou Yuliang 1986, 459-460).

There were a number of other experiments with teaching evaluation, using
different units of analysis. Zhejiang University and East China Chemical
Industrial College both implemented evaluation of departments in 1983.
The next year, Beijing Normal University also implemented an evaluation
of course teaching quality in their departments. In 1985, South China
Normal University experimented with course evaluation throughout the
whole school. A trial program for appraising the quality of teaching,
based on teaching attitudes, content, methods, and results, was printed
and dispatched to all departments (Zhou Yuliang 1986, 459-460).

After these various experiments, the practice of evaluating courses and
teaching practice in higher education gradually became formalized in
1985. In May, the “Decision on Reform of the Educational System by the
CPC Central Committee” pointed out that "the educational and
intellectual sections and the employment units are to be organized to
appraise the levels at which institutions of higher learning are run"
(State Education Commission, cited in Zhou Yuliang 1986, 461). In June,
the Ministry of Education organized a meeting on the problems of
evaluation in engineering education, and then in November published the
“Circular on the Implementation of a Study and Experiment on Appraisal
of Higher Engineering Education”, which contained the two appendices
“The Standard System for Appraisal of the Educational Levels at which
Higher Industrial Institutions are Run” and “Measures to Enforce the
Appraisal of the Educational Levels at Which Higher Industrial
Institutions are Run” (State Education Commission, cited in Zhou Yuliang
1986, 461).

In December, the State Education Commission held another meeting, on the
reform of teaching work in comprehensive universities. There, it was
decided to conduct tests of teaching evaluation at Nanjing University,
Fudan University, Wuhan University, East China Normal University and
Beijing Normal University. In May 1986, the State Education Commission
entrusted East China Normal University with convening a working
conference on the evaluation of specialities and courses in higher
education. At this meeting, universities proposed various programs and
standard systems of evaluating the quality of teaching, based on their
own experiences and pilot programs. This led to the collectively drawn
up document “Comprehensive Standard System of Appraisal for the Quality
of Courses” (Zhou Yuliang 1986, 461-462).

* * * * *

The quotes in this text is from the MA Thesis "The Chinese National Top
Level Courses Project: Using Open Educational Resources to Promote
Quality in Undergraduate Teaching" by Stian Håklev, University of
Toronto 2010.

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