eLearning China: Higher Ed

An article titled, 'On The Brink of Revolution' in The Guardian discusses the changing competitive landscape for British higher education. From the article:

"...China can't build campuses fast enough to keep up, so the problems of student support and pedagogy of online learning will have to be solved..."

"...China, followed by India, is going into the higher education business in a big way - as teachers as well as learners. The competition is no longer against American or Australian universities but increasingly with Chinese universities seeking to attract overseas students.

Although the report, English Next, focused mainly on teaching English, it had major implications for higher education delivered in English. David Graddol, an applied linguist, said China, which has traditionally been a major source of international students, was repositioning itself as a net exporter of higher education, poaching students from its Asian neighbours, such as India, Japan and Korea. China, says Graddol, will soon be able to offer cheaper degrees that are taught in English and come with the added incentive of Mandarin, a language that is becoming increasingly important to the international business community.

Singapore and Malaysia are also establishing themselves as "education hubs", says Graddol. The number of international students heading to the UK is already declining. Last year, four out of five universities reported a drop. The number of Chinese students, the largest single source, was also found to have fallen at some institutions by as much as 50%.

"Most UK universities have seen a recent fall-off in international student numbers. These students are not coming back, it's a long-term trend," says Graddol. "The number of students going into China is increasing. More have been going into China than have been coming out," he adds..."

Some recent numbers out of China:

By iResearch
The Chinese online education market is still in its infancy as reported in the recent 2004 China Online Education Research Report, by iResearch, a Chinese IT online market research provider.

The report mentioned that the Chinese online education market is worth RMB 14.4 billion (US$1.7 billion). As e-learning becomes more recognized with the popularity of Internet, its market scale is estimated to escalate to RMB 29.6 billion (US$3.6 billion) by 2007.

By Analysys International
China's total market size of Internet services (mobile value-added services excluded) reached RMB18 billion in 2005, representing an increase of 41% from 12.8 billion in 2004, in its recently released report China Internet Market Report 2005-2006.

According to the report, Analysys International classifies Internet services into three business models: contents, marketing services and intermediate services. Contents and marketing services are the major income source of China's Internet services market.

Contents services, represented by Internet games, instant messaging services, B2C and online education, reached RMB10.5 billion in 2005, accounting for 58% of the market total. Typical service providers include Shanda, Netease, The9, New Oriental, China Education Online (EOL) and Tencent.

From CERNET-Blackboard
CERNET-Blackboard, a marketing agency of online educational technology Blackboard, reported Tuesday the number of Blackboard clients in China had grown to 96 at the end of 2005.

"We are excited about the achievement as it was made in only two years," said Jiang Aiping, CERNET-Blackboard marketing manager. Current Blackboard clients in China are mainly colleges and universities, including the prestigious Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University and Nanjing University.