(Yicai) Oct. 8 -- China has made significant progress in its education level over the years, with its higher education enrollment rate surpassing 60 percent last year compared with an illiteracy rate of 80 percent when the country was founded in 1949.

The post-secondary education enrollment rate in China topped 60.2 percent in 2023, up from 30 percent in 2012 and 0.26 percent in 1949, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

China initiated the expansion of university enrollments in the 1990s and established the "Double First-Class Construction," a higher education development and sponsorship scheme, in 2015, boosting the higher education enrollment rate.

The average number of higher education students per 100,000 people surged to 3,510 in 2022 from 326 in 1990. The total number of enrolled graduate students soared to 1.3 million last year from 1,785 in 1952.

Universities have also become the sources of cutting-edge technological research and disruptive innovation, undertaking over 60 percent of China's basic research and major scientific tasks, hosting 60 percent of the national key laboratories, and receiving more than 60 percent of national science and technology awards.

Meanwhile, the number of students in the compulsory education stage jumped to 160 million last year from 25.22 million in 1949, with the gross enrollment rate for senior high school surging to 92 percent from 1.1 percent.

The number of Chinese students studying abroad increased to 700,000 in 2019 from 860 in 1978, while the number of international students coming to China rose to 490,000 in 2018 from 1,236 in 1978.

The national education expenditure soared to CNY6.1 trillion (USD864 billion) in 2022 from CNY187.8 billion (USD26.6 billion) in 1995. In 2012, the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure exceeded 4 percent of the gross domestic product for the first time, remaining above that percentage for 11 consecutive years.

With changes in China's population structure, the allocation of educational resources also faces challenges. The number of those enrolling in higher education will likely continue increasing until 2032, while there was a record high of primary school students last year.

The Ministry of Education will expand the supply of school places in regions with a net inflow of school-age population, improve the conditions and management levels of boarding schools, and promote the coordinated allocation and rotation of educational personnel within regions, said Vice Minister Wang Guangyan. It will also use educational digitization to facilitate the widespread sharing of quality academic resources, Wang added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev