Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T14:20:50.135Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lowering the Bar? Students with Disabilities in PRC Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2020

Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer*
Affiliation:
SOAS University of London. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the People's Republic of China, the 2015 (revised) Higher Education Law provides that citizens enjoy the right to receive higher education. That legal ideal, however, is not easy to implement in practice. One important issue in higher education is the extent to which in law and in practice the educational rights and interests of students with disabilities are realized. In anticipation of difficulties, the same law specifically requires Chinese higher education institutions to enrol disabled students who meet the relevant admission qualifications and it explicitly prohibits rejection on grounds of disability. Admission standards and processes, however, remain a problem, as do social attitudes to disability, and other difficulties persist in securing the rights and interests of disabled persons in higher education. The complications that arise remain significantly under researched and are not explicitly addressed in the Higher Education Law. Proposals for reform are not likely to succeed without substantial changes in societal and governmental attitudes.

摘要

摘要

在中国，虽然中华人民共和国2015年（经修订）的《高等教育法》赋予了公民享有接受高等教育的权利，但是这种法律理想在实践中并不容易实现。中国高等教育中一个重要问题是，在法律实践中，残疾学生的教育权利和利益在多大程度上得以实现。考虑到权利实现的困难，该法特别要求中国高校必须招收符合相关录取资格的残疾学生，并明确禁止高校以“残疾”为由拒绝录取学生。然而实践中，高校在录取标准和录取程序中仍对残疾人有各种歧视性规定，社会对残疾人的态度并不友好，残疾人在保护自身高等教育权益中仍旧困难重重。而出现这些困难和问题的原因，没有被深入研究和探讨过，对于实践中遇到的问题，《高等教育法》中也没有明确的相关规定。如果不对社会和政府态度进行重大改变，改革的建议就不可能成功。

Keywords

students with disabilitiessocial lawright to higher educationsocial protectiondiscriminationinclusive educationChina残疾学生社会法受高等教育权社会保护歧视包容性教育中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 244: Change, Contradiction and the State: Higher Education in Greater China , December 2020 , pp. 1078 - 1095
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bao, Wanping, and Li, Jinbo. 2016. “‘Gaodeng jiaoyu fa’ de zhiding, wanshan ji weilai mianxian” (The formulation, improvement and future trajectory of the Higher Education Law). Zhongguo gaodeng yanjiu 2016(6), 35–41.Google Scholar
Bodde, Derk. 1972–73. “Age, youth, and infirmity in the law of Ch'ing China.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 121(3), 437–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Haifeng. 2013. “Signal left, turn right: central rhetoric and local reform in China.” Political Research Quarterly 66(2), 292–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Wei. 2017. “Canji ren jiaoyu de guoji bijiao yanjiu – jianping ‘Zhonghua renmin gongheguo gaodeng jiaoyu tiaoli’” (An international comparison of education laws for persons with disabilities – focusing on the “Regulations on education for persons with disabilities”). Zhongguo teshu jiaoyu 2017(6), 8–12.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2013. As Long as They Let Us Stay in Class: Barriers to Education for Persons with Disabilities in China. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
Li, Zhanshu. 2020. “Report on the work of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,” 25 May, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/31/c_139102572.htm.Google Scholar
Liu, Chunling, and Wang, Haiping. 2017. “Yi zhuanye quxiang cu neizhan: ‘Canji ren jiaoyu tiaoli’ jiedu” (To promote inner development by [using a] professional orientation: an interpretation of the “Regulations on education for persons with disabilities”). Zhongguo teshu jiaoyu 2017(3), 3–6.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education. 2003. “Guanyu yinfa ‘Putong gaodeng xuexiao zhaosheng tijian gongzuo zhidao yijian’ de tongzhi” (Notice issued [on 3 March 2003] on “Guiding opinion on physical examinations in the recruitment of students in ordinary higher education institutions”), http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/moe_776/s3258/200303/t20030303_79883.html.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education and All-China Federation of Persons with Disabilities. 2017. “Jiaoyu bu, Zhongguo canji lian, yinfa ‘Canji ren canjia putong gaodeng xuexiao zhaosheng quanguo tongyi kaoshi guanli guiding’” (Circular of Ministry of Education and the All-China Federation of Persons with Disabilities on issuing the “Regulations on the administration of the National Uniform Examination for the admission of persons with disabilities to mainstream colleges”), 11 April, http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/moe_776/s3258/201704/t20170428_303388.html. Accessed 25 April 2019.Google Scholar
Palmer, Michael. 1999. “Protecting the rights and interests of the elderly: developments in the Family Law of the People's Republic of China, 1996–8.” In Bainham, Andrew (ed.), International Survey of Family Law: 1999. Dordrecht: Kluwer (for The International Society on Family Law), 95–107.Google Scholar
Palmer, Michael. 2007a. “Transforming family law in post-Deng China: marriage, divorce and reproduction.” The China Quarterly 191, 675–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Michael. 2007b. “On China's slow boat to women's rights: revisions to the Women's Protection Law, 2005.” International Journal of Human Rights 11(1–2), 151–177. Republished in Phil C.W. Chan (ed.). 2007. Equality in Asia-Pacific: Reality or a Contradiction in Terms? London: Routledge, 200–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Michael. 2010. “Rethinking children's rights and interests? Economic reform, social protection and legal culture in post-Mao China.” Journal of Comparative Law 5(2), 260–280. Republished in David Nelken (ed.). 2012. Using Legal Culture. London: Wildy, Simmonds and Hill, 251–277.Google Scholar
Peking University. 2018. “2018 nian Beijing daxue benke zhaosheng zhangcheng zhengshi fa” (2018 Peking University undergraduate admissions regulations officially released), http://pkunews.pku.edu.cn/xwzh/2018-06/13/content_303329.htm. Accessed 26 April 2019.Google Scholar
Renmin University Law School. 2015. “Renmin Law School and Harvard Project on disabilities co-host the international conference on disability rights,” http://www.law.ruc.edu.cn/eng/ShowArticle.asp. Accessed 25 April 2019.Google Scholar
Stacey, Judith. 1983. Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tsinghua University Admissions. 2018. “Qinghua daxue 2018 nian benke zhaosheng tijian biaozhun” (Tsinghua University 2018 undergraduate enrolment medical examination standards), http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/bzw/7539/2018/20180708174603255283164/20180708174603255283164_.html. Accessed 26 April 2019.Google Scholar
Wang, Jiaqin. 2018. “‘Canji ren jiaoyu tiaoli’ de xiuding: linian yu shidu wanshan” (The amendment of the “Regulations on education for persons with disabilities”: the innovation of ideas and perfection of the system). Renquan 2018(2), 36–43.Google Scholar
Yu, Xingzhong. 2014. “State legalism and the public/private divide in Chinese legal development.” Theoretical Inquiries in Law 15(1), 27–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhan, Zhongle. 2016. “Daxue zhili de zhongyao baozhang: jianping ‘Zhonghua renmin gongheguo gaodeng jiaoyu fa’ de xiugai he wanshan” (The important protection of university governance – a commentary on improvements to and amendments of the Higher Education Law of the PRC). Zhongguo gaojiao yanjiu 2016(6), 31–36.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yuexin, Rosen, Sandra, Li, Cheng and Li, Jongshan. 2018. “Inclusive higher education for students with disabilities in China: what do the university teachers think?” Higher Education Studies 8(4), 104–116.Google Scholar