The Education Demand Of Open Universities In China's Counties

From the layout of current higher education in China, we can discover the fact that most of the universities in China are located in municipalities or cities of provincial capital. Most of the cites in counties, especially those regions which are economically agriculture-oriented, lack colleges or research & development institutions. Therefore the needs for higher education in rural areas are not met, and lots of young people are forced to leave their counties for jobs. Besides, the lack of human resources in counties and rural areas has a great disadvantage on the economical development. From this perspective, setting up resources of higher education in counties and rural areas is vital to the economical and social development. With the increasing number of people who finish secondary school education and with the increasing income of individual families, students are willing to attend universities. This as well demands for higher education in counties. As an educational product, open universities in counties have many aspects to be clarified and justified, e.g.what is the detailed requirement for age-group? What is the specification for higher education in counties? What is the possibility to setup an open university in rural areas? All these questions are the problems I try to research in this article.The successful experience of higher education in most countries in the world reveals the fact that the higher education has a great impetus for economical and social development in its country and region. The gap of education development results in the huge differences of the knowledge development among countries, which in turn would increase the gap of economical development even more. With the proliferation of higher education in many countries, the types of their higher education diverge, finally forming a hierarchy of higher education with multi-levels and multi-types. It not only meets up with the needs for higher education for different people, but also cultivates more talented people for the country. Borrowing the successful experiences in the field of higher education from other countries and regions, our country should set up institutions of higher education in county areas, therefore meeting the needs of near counties. Setting up open universities in counties is one of the viable paths. Jinyun County in Zhejiang Province is the main object investigated for it has good educational traditions, high entrance rate. And the families can afford higher education. Through the research and investigation from the students in high school, the author found when we clearly stated the open universities in counties the graduates from middle school had a great demand for this option. Almost forty percent of the students said they would choose to apply for open universities in counties if they did not have a better choice; while about twenty percent of the students stated they would take this chance if it would be cheap enough. Besides, the research shows there is a correlation between the needs for open universities and the family income of the student. The lower income the student's family has the more needs he has for open universities. Those students who ranked in the middle have more demand. The research reveals the location is not the primary factor, the major and the expenses are.The next step for higher education in China is to increase the entrance rate into universities, to increase the quality of universities and to develop muti-level Practical universities. Setting up open universities in counties would be great movement into the next step. The country should encourage stakeholders to set up colleges in counties, meeting the needs for higher education in nearby counties. The expenses of open universities can be amortized. These open universities should be flexible, should be targeted at promoting the local economics and should be providing conveniences for local students.