(Adopted at the 4th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 9th National People's Congress on August 29, 1998 and promulgated by Order No.7 of the President of the People's Republic of China on August 29, 1998)

Contents

　　Chapter I General Provisions

　　Chapter II Basic System of Higher Education

　　Chapter III Establishment of Institutions of Higher Learning

　　Chapter IV Organization and Activities of Institutions of Higher Learning

　　Chapter V Teachers and Other Educational Workers of Institutions of Higher Learning

　　Chapter VI Students of Institutions of Higher Learning

　　Chapter VII Guarantee for Input and Conditions of Higher Education

　　Chapter VIII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Provisions

　　Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution and the Education Law for the purposes of developing the cause of higher education, implementing the strategy of reinvigorating the country through science and education and promoting the building of socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization.

　　Article 2 This Law shall be applicable to engagement in activities of higher education within the territory of the People's Republic of China.

　　Higher education referred to in this Law means education imparted on the basis of completion of senior secondary school education.

　　Article 3 The state adheres to the development of the cause of socialist higher education with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping's Theory as guidance following the basic principles defined by the Constitution.

　　Article 4 Higher education must implement the educational policy of the state, serve socialist modernization, integrate itself with production and labor to train those educated to be builders and successors of the socialist cause with all-round development of morality, intelligence and physique.

　　Article 5 The task of higher education is to train senior specialized talents with innovative spirit and practical capability, develop science, technology and culture and promote socialist modernization.

　　Article 6 The state formulates higher education development planning, establishes institutions of higher learning and adopts various forms to actively develop the cause of higher education in accordance with the requirements of economic construction and social development.

　　The state encourages such social forces as enterprises, institutions, societies and other social organizations and citizens in the establishment of institutions of higher learning, participation in and rendering support for the reform and development of the cause of higher education in accordance with law.

　　Article 7 The state presses ahead the reform of the higher education system and the reform of higher education teaching, optimizes the structure of and resources allocation for higher education, improve the quality and performance of higher education in the light of the actual conditions of different types and different tiers of institutions of higher learning and in accordance with the requirements of socialist modernization and development of the socialist market economy.