The Equal Protection For The Right To Higher Education

Education is related to the country’s future and the fate of the nation, and the higher education is charged with the task to train high-level personnel. The right to education is a basic right of the citizens, which the state should provide equal guarantee for its citizens. This concept has been recognized by the international community. As a part of the right to education, the right to higher education has no exception. In China, however, the equal protection of the right to higher education is faced with many problems, doing serious harm to the equal right to higher education, even the rights to education. The problem of attending college entrance examination in other places is not a new one. Its essence is that the citizens can not achieve equal right to higher education. Until now, however, this issue has not yet been fundamentally solved. This dissertation starts from the analysis of related concepts, taking the lack of the right of attending college entrance examination in other places as an example to demonstrate the current situation of Chinese citizens’right of equality in the field of higher education. After analysing the cause of this problem, I propose some measures to address it.The first part of this dissertation analyses the conceptions related to the equal protection of the right to higher education as well as the principle of it. Higher education is one stage during the citizens’ education process, and the right to higher education is a part of the citizens’ right to education. When we discuss the equal right to higher education, this dissertation compares it with compulsory education in order to highlight the special meaning of the equal right to higher education. I am convinced that the equality of the right to higher education is the equality of the standard to college entrance. In the protection of citizens’ equal rights of higher education, we should follow the principle of legality and handle of the relationship between university autonomy and citizens’ equal protection of the right to higher education correctly.In the second part of this dissertation, I take the lack of the migrants’ right to attend trans-provincial college entrance examination as an example to discuss the current situation of the equal protection of the right to higher education. The unreasonable binding of the household registration system and the college entrance examination policy is a typical feature of China’s college entrance examination policy, which is an aspect of the failed equal protection of the right to higher education as well. This dissertation shows the ins and outs of the unreasonable binding of the household registration system and the college entrance examination policy. At the same time, according to Ronald M.Dworkin’s theory, the dissertation analyses the standard of college admission and its formulation, reflected by the absence of the right to attending trans-provincial college entrance examination. I am convinced that they are not conducive to the equal protection of the right to higher education.In the third part of this dissertation, I analyse the causes of the problem of the equal protection of the right to higher education. First, our education resource is deficient. Moreover, the allocation of the education resource is not balanced and most of the resource is in large cities and provinces. Second, in the field of Chinese higher education, there is a phenomenon of unreasonable protection of local interests, especially in the field of college admission. There is a complementary interests of colleges and universities and local government. Third, the laws and regulations on the equal protection of the right to higher education are not sound enough. Besides, the lack of enforcement of existing laws and regulations is a reason as well.In the fourth part of this dissertation, I analyse the counter-measures of the equal protection of the right to higher education. For China’s problems that we are faced with in the field of the equal protection of the right to higher education, I believe that three steps should be taken to cope with these problems. First of all, we should increase the investment in higher education, optimize the allocation of higher education resources according to the Educational Law of PRC and the Higher Education Law of PRC. Second, we should design the admissions scheme fairly. Enhancing the control of the central government and breaking the protection of higher education by local government ought to be effective measures. Third, enhancing the formulation and implementation of laws, regulations and policies relating to these problems is a vital solution as well. We could do the legislation for educational appropriations and entrance examination.