Higher Education Qualification Certificates in China
What is qualification level?
Qualification level refers to a person's experiences of acquiring scientific and cultural education or training at educational institutions. Students attain corresponding qualification levels depending on the levels of the school or training they have attended. Higher education qualification certificates(abbreviated as HEQC in the following), also known as diplomas of qualifications or graduation diplomas, are state-recognized evidences of their holders having received higher education.
In accordance with the provisions of the Law of China Higher Education, higher education implements not only qualification system, but also degree system. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, on June 4, 1950 Ministry of Education developed Interim Measures of Issuing Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Institutions, and establish a system of HEQC. Degree system came into effect in 1981.
In China's national educational system today, HEQC are conferred on graduates of the following four levels of courses of studies: vocational training, undergraduate, master and doctor; In terms of series of HEQC, they cover these six courses: vocational training, undergraduate, second bachelor's, diplomas of researcher's classes(which no longer exist now), master's and doctor's; China's HEQC have three categories: for graduates of regular higher education, adult higher education and self-taught higher education examinations students; In terms of the length of courses, a vocational training is two or three years, undergraduate is four years (or for medicine five), master's two-and-a-half or three, and doctor's three to five.
Qualified regular, adult and private institutions of higher education that have had the approval of relevant national educational administrative authorities confer HEQC. Provincial Self-taught Higher Education Examinations Committees and their associate colleges jointly confer self-taught graduation certificates.
Until 1993, HEQC had been printed by conferring institutions themselves. Those for adults (from 1993) and those for regular higher learning students (from 1994) were printed by the Ministry of Education. In 2000, the Ministry established an electronic registration system for regular HEQC, no longer printing them for nationwide use. Then, individual institutions printed and conferred them and were obliged to report their conferment to the national educational administrative authorities for the purpose of electronic registration and online inquiry. Since 2001, all HEQC in the country have been electronically registered.
What are academic degrees?
Since 1981, at the same time when the HEQC system was implemented, an academic degree system was also launched. Academic degrees are academic titles that indicate that the conferees' education and academic qualifications have attained specific levels. China's academic degrees are the bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees.
Graduation diplomas and degree certificates: their associations and differences
When a college or university student or a postgraduate has graduated, they are conferred upon degree certificates as well as graduation diplomas. As there are no degrees available for vocational training courses, their graduates get only graduation diplomas, not degree certificates. Academic degree certificates are different from diplomas. You can apply for degrees. Degree certificate holders do not necessarily have graduation diplomas, i.e., they may not be have been conferred on a diploma, while graduation diploma holders are not necessarily qualified for a degree certificate. As far as their content is concerned, the degree certificate and the diploma are very much the same.