A Critical Review of Quality Assessment Systems for Private Universities in Mainland China

1.     Introduction

Private undergraduate institutions in China, commonly referred to as private regular undergraduate colleges, constitute an essential part of the nation's higher education system. These institutions are established by enterprises, social organizations, or individual citizens using non-governmental funding sources, and they offer educational programs at vocational, undergraduate, and graduate levels. This category includes both independent private higher education institutions and independent colleges (The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, 2021a; 2021b).

As of June 2024, mainland China hosts 799 private colleges and universities, representing 27.6% of all regular higher education institutions. Among these, 410 are private undergraduate institutions. Hebei Province leads with the highest number (35), followed by Jiangsu (28), Shandong (21), Liaoning (20), Zhejiang (19), Hubei (18), Shaanxi (17), Hunan (14), Anhui (13), and Guangdong (13).

The quality development of private undergraduate colleges holds significant importance for China's education system, impacting both institutional sustainability and national educational advancement (Zhu & Song, 2011). Academic research on evaluation systems for these institutions has evolved from focusing on quality assurance to embracing comprehensive quality development frameworks (Xiao & Chen, 2004).

2.     Evolution of Private Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation within the National Framework‌

The assessment of private undergraduate education has been an integral part of China's development of the higher education evaluation system. Under the national private undergraduate teaching evaluation framework, this evolutionary process can be categorized into four distinct phases:

The evaluation of national private undergraduate education has long been integral to the development of the undergraduate education evaluation system, and its development process can be divided into four key stages: initiation, start-up, improvement, and upgrading.

2.1 The Historical Development of China's Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation System (1980-1990)

The establishment of China's national undergraduate teaching evaluation system can be traced back to the 1985 pilot assessment in higher engineering education. During this initial phase, private undergraduate institutions had not yet emerged in mainland China.

The regulatory framework took shape in 1990 when the former State Education Commission promulgated the "Interim Provisions on the Evaluation of Higher Education Institutions," establishing China's first comprehensive policy framework for assessing higher education quality. By 1994, the National Education Commission had begun implementing systematic undergraduate teaching evaluations nationwide.

A parallel development occurred in 1994 when Huanghe University of Science and Technology (established in 1984) became mainland China's first private institution authorized to offer junior college diploma programs following the implementation of the Reform and Opening-up policy. This milestone represented the formal inclusion of private higher education (at the junior college level) into China's national education system. However, due to the scarcity of private institutions during this period, they were not initially incorporated into the undergraduate teaching evaluation pilot programs.

2.2 The establishment of the national undergraduate teaching evaluation system (2000-2010)

In 2000, Huanghe University of Science and Technology was further approved to implement undergraduate education, becoming the only private ordinary undergraduate university in the Chinese Mainland at that time. In 2002, the Ministry of Education implemented a reform of the evaluation system, integrating the existing systems of qualified evaluation (for newly established undergraduate colleges), excellent evaluation (for key construction universities), and random level evaluation (for intermediate-level universities) (Gu, 2012). In 2004, the Ministry of Education passed the "Undergraduate Teaching Level Evaluation Plan for Ordinary Higher Education Institutions," which focused on the three-dimensional alignment of "school positioning and social needs," "talent cultivation goals and implementation effectiveness," and "resource input and quality output” (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2004). The evaluation conclusions were refined into four levels: excellent, good, qualified, and unqualified. It advocated that universities should base themselves on regional development reality, give full play to comparative advantages, condense their educational characteristics, and construct differentiated development paths, marking the standardization of evaluation standards (Ministry of Education, 2004). The establishment of the Higher Education Teaching Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education in the same year marked the formation of a normalized evaluation mechanism. From 2003 to 2008, the "five-year round" evaluation of the teaching work level of ordinary colleges and universities marked the first large-scale evaluation practice in the Chinese Mainland and initiated efforts to incorporate private colleges and universities into the unified evaluation system. Among the 592 undergraduate universities evaluated, only two private undergraduate universities, Sanjiang College (2007) and Huanghe University of Science and Technology (2008) were included and became the first batch of private universities to pass the national undergraduate teaching evaluation.

2.3 National Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation Classification Improvement (2008-2021)

The second round of undergraduate teaching evaluation, initiated in 2008, comprehensively assessed all 40 private undergraduate institutions in Mainland China at that time. Later, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (2011) introduced the "Opinions on Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions," establishing a "Five-in-One" evaluation framework and advocating for "implementing classified institutional evaluation of higher education institutions to enhance their distinctive characteristics." While the classified guidance approach for private colleges has gained official approval, its implementation remains in the exploratory phase. Several private universities, including Zhejiang Shuren University (2011) and Xijing University (2017), have successfully undergone this classification evaluation.

The evaluation standards were further standardized through supporting documents issued in 2012, namely the "Implementation Measures for the Qualification Evaluation of Undergraduate Teaching Work in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions" and the "Index System for the Qualification Evaluation of Undergraduate Teaching Work in Ordinary Higher Education Institutions." These documents helped establish the framework for a new round of evaluation plans. Subsequently, Xijing University (2017), Sanjiang University (2018), and Huanghe University of Science and Technology (2018) have all successfully passed the Ministry of Education's undergraduate teaching work audit and evaluation.

2.4 National Undergraduate Teaching Evaluation: Optimization and Upgrading (2021-Present)

Since 2008, private undergraduate institutions have been fully integrated into China's national teaching evaluation system. This evolution demonstrates significant progress in both evaluation scope (from single to multiple dimensions) and operational methodology (from extensive to refined approaches).

The 2021-2025 evaluation cycle, outlined in the "Implementation Plan for Undergraduate Education and Teaching Review and Evaluation," introduces substantial reforms to address previous limitations. Key innovations include a classification framework, evaluation methodology, and strategic development (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2021a; Yu, 2023). The enhanced classification framework introduces specialized indicators for private institutions, including the first-time incorporation of "Party-building guidance" as a political evaluation criterion, along with characteristic observation points covering funding allocation and industry-education integration. The evaluation methodology implements value-added assessment focused on student growth and employment outcomes, while governance modernization emphasizes collaborative mechanisms among boards, academic committees, and faculty councils. Strategic development aspects include medium- to long-term planning for private higher education, with precise institutional positioning and identification of advantages. Technological integration features big data applications for real-time monitoring of 18 core indicators, quality culture incorporation into leadership assessment systems, and pilot programs for credit system and academy system reforms. The 2025 implementation of this comprehensive framework marks a new era of quality-driven development in China's higher education assessment system. The 2025 implementation of this enhanced evaluation framework marks a new era of quality-driven development in China's higher education assessment system.

3. Current situation of classification evaluation of private undergraduate colleges

3.1 Types of evaluation for private undergraduate colleges

After decades of unremitting efforts, private undergraduate colleges have begun to take shape. All sectors of society unanimously agree to conduct evaluations of private undergraduate colleges, but opinions vary on the elements to be evaluated (i.e., which aspects to assess). In terms of external assessment, providers are mostly government education regulatory departments and third-party institutions commissioned by the Ministry of Education. According to the evaluation content, it can be roughly divided into: evaluating the quality of education (such as the quality evaluation of private undergraduate education conducted by the Higher Education Teaching Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education), evaluating undergraduate education (such as the evaluation of undergraduate teaching level in ordinary colleges and universities), evaluating undergraduate degree awarding (such as the "Degree Authorization Point Qualification Evaluation Method" (Degree [2020] No. 25) issued by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and the Ministry of Education)(The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, 2022), evaluating scientific research competitiveness (such as the 2013-2016 Scientific Research Competitiveness Evaluation Report of Private Undergraduate Colleges and Universities issued by the China Private Higher Education Research Institute of Zhejiang Shuren University, and the Scientific Research Competitiveness Evaluation of Private Undergraduate Colleges and Universities in Shaanxi Province), and ranking of subject majors (such as ABC) Professional rankings, comprehensive rankings (such as the ABC version of China's private university rankings), alumni association rankings, high-quality development systems for private undergraduate institutions (Xu, Wang, Feng, 2009), evaluation systems for applied private undergraduate education, and so on.

The current evaluation of domestic private undergraduate colleges is divided into national evaluation, local evaluation (including provincial and municipal evaluations), and self-evaluation, based on the scope of the evaluation. At the national level, there is currently no specialized category for evaluating private undergraduate institutions. Instead, like public undergraduate institutions, they are included in the undergraduate education and teaching review and evaluation system of ordinary higher education institutions ("two categories and four types"). Divided by the leading party of evaluation: internal evaluation/self-evaluation system, external evaluation (national evaluation, local evaluation, third-party evaluation). Currently, private undergraduate colleges are undergoing a critical period of transformation, transitioning from scale expansion to the development of their identity. The evolution of their evaluation system reflects the improvement in the governance capacity of private higher education in China (Table 1).

Table 1: Evaluation Types of Private Undergraduate Colleges

3.2 National policies guide the evaluation practice of private undergraduate colleges

China's private higher education sector is undergoing significant reforms in quality assurance under the Implementation Regulations of the Law on the Promotion of Private Education. The government has prioritized establishing a comprehensive quality monitoring framework featuring two key components: an enhanced classification evaluation system and a digital quality monitoring platform. These mechanisms ensure private universities maintain fundamental educational standards while adapting to the ongoing classified management reforms.

The classification evaluation system serves dual purposes: it fulfills legal requirements for standardized management while facilitating institutional development through the "equal emphasis on support and regulation" policy framework. Research indicates private institutions face growing pains in balancing rapid expansion with quality enhancement. The 2017 Quality Report of Private Undergraduate Education in China highlighted the critical need for systemic standard improvements (Higher Education Teaching Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education, 2017). Subsequent policy documents, including the 2019-2020 Work Points and Education Supervision Reform Opinions, introduced risk warning mechanisms, annual inspection indices, and third-party evaluation systems (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2019;Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2020).

Scholars emphasize that effective evaluation must integrate government oversight, social supervision, and institutional autonomy (Lou, 2020), particularly in key areas like institutional positioning, talent development, and governance (Zhong, 2022). The 2021-2025 Undergraduate Education Teaching Audit and Evaluation Implementation Plan marked a turning point toward quality-first development (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2021a). This shift gained further momentum when the 20th CPC National Congress incorporated private education into China's education power strategy (The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, 2022).

The 2025 audit evaluation framework introduces a differentiated indicator system comprising seven primary metrics and 40 specific observation points, with an emphasis on practical teaching innovation and industry-academia collaboration. Key quantitative measures include practical teaching expenditure ratios and the proportion of dual-qualified faculty. The current "national leadership-institutional subjectivity-diverse participation" model creates a virtuous "evaluation-feedback-improvement" cycle through dynamic assessment and quality culture development. Graduate tracking and other monitoring methods are transforming private universities from passive compliance to proactive quality enhancement.

3.3 Provincial Evaluation Focused on Private Undergraduate College Inspections

It should be noted that independent evaluation systems for private undergraduate institutions, operating separately from those for public institutions, currently only exist in select provincial-level regions with well-developed private higher education sectors. A prime example is Beijing's annual inspection and assessment index system for private higher education institutions.

The evolution of Beijing's evaluation system demonstrates progressive refinement:

In 2012 (March 15), the Beijing Municipal Education Commission established an initial framework with seven inspection categories (A and B tables) covering institutional basics, academic programs, financial status, and fund utilization (Beijing Municipal Education Commission, 2012).

A significant development occurred in 2022 (January 24) with the trial implementation of a comprehensive index system featuring six primary indicators (including Party building, institutional conditions, and financial management), 29 secondary indicators, and 45 tertiary indicators (Beijing Municipal Education Commission, 2022).

The system underwent substantial streamlining in 2024 (March 6), when multiple municipal agencies jointly revised the framework to 5 primary indicators, 17 secondary indicators, and 29 tertiary indicators, focusing on core operational aspects (Beijing Municipal Education Commission, 2024).

This progressive refinement of evaluation metrics reflects Beijing's commitment to developing a robust quality assurance mechanism for private higher education institutions.

3.4 Third-party evaluation active

In recent years, private higher education in China has experienced rapid development, and third-party evaluation agencies have established a specialized evaluation system for private undergraduate colleges. These evaluation systems provide essential references for the distinctive development and differentiated competition of private universities through a diversified set of indicators.

In terms of the leading evaluation institutions, after 34 years of continuous improvement (1991-2025), Wushulian China University Evaluation has established a dual-track evaluation model that encompasses core dimensions, including talent cultivation and scientific research. The main list of private universities in the soft sciences focuses on examining the overall level of education and research strength, with special attention to the transformation of educational resources and achievements (hhh198709, n.d.). The ABC China Private University Ranking (2025) employs a "three-dimensional nine index" model, focusing on the classification and ranking of characteristic fields (medicine, language, art, and business). The evaluation of language colleges has been enhanced with additional indicators for the development of programs in minority languages.

Zhejiang Shuren University's China Private Higher Education Research Institute, in collaboration with multiple professional research institutions, has released a series of significant research results since 2013, including the "Research Report on the Evaluation of Research Competitiveness of Independent Colleges in China" and other reports (2013-2016) (Zhejiang Shuren University, 2025). The institution's pioneering "Research Ecology Index" evaluation system has made Xijing University a notable example, with its performance ranking as the top researcher for six consecutive years (Zhejiang Shuren University China Private Higher Education Research Institute, 2016). Among them, the research report on the application for a master's degree in Chinese private undergraduate colleges has had a profound impact on the academic community and policy-making.

The current evaluation of private universities mainly focuses on four core areas: educational level and resources (faculty structure, discipline construction, etc.), quality of talent cultivation (key indicators such as employment rate and enrollment rate), research transformation, and social service capabilities (such as high-tech enterprise incubation), and depth of industry education integration (number of school-enterprise cooperation platforms, coverage of practical courses, etc.). Each evaluation agency will make new adjustments in 2025: Soft Science has added the "Industry Education Integration Index" and increased the weight of school-enterprise cooperation to 15%; ABC ranking focuses on comprehensive evaluation of independent private universities; Alumni association ranking refines college classification; The ranking of Wushulian maintains dual core evaluation dimensions of talent cultivation and scientific research.

In the context of the policies of "modernization of higher education" and "high-quality development" in the new era, it is imperative to improve the evaluation system of private undergraduate colleges (Xu & Qin, 2024). According to the requirements of the "Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Education Country (2024-2035)", private universities are accelerating their strategic transformation from scale expansion to quality improvement through a combination of policy guidance and independent reform (The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China., 2021b; Qin, 2025;). By integrating national audit and evaluation, third-party evaluation, and self-evaluation of universities, a scientific quality evaluation system will be established, which will effectively promote the connotative development of private higher education and have significant theoretical and practical value.

4.     Evaluation method

The high-quality development evaluation system for private undergraduate colleges is a multidimensional and comprehensive evaluation system designed to objectively and comprehensively reflect the development status and potential for improvement of higher education institutions (Xu, Wang, Feng, 2009). Through scientific and reasonable evaluation methods and result application mechanisms, private undergraduate colleges can continuously improve their educational level and quality, contributing to the modernization of China's higher education. The basic evaluation methods include: ① Combining quantitative evaluation with qualitative evaluation - using a combination of quantitative indicators (such as teacher-student ratio, number of scientific research achievements, etc.) and qualitative descriptions (such as explaining the school's educational philosophy, campus culture, etc. in the overall report) to comprehensively and objectively reflect the development status of the school. ②Combining internal and external evaluations - encouraging schools to establish self-evaluation mechanisms, conduct regular internal audits, and continuously improve; At the same time, third-party evaluation agencies are introduced for external evaluation to ensure the objectivity and impartiality of the evaluation results. ③ Combining dynamic evaluation with static evaluation - not only focusing on the current development status of the school but also emphasizing the evaluation of the school's development trends and potential. Through dynamic monitoring and comparative analysis, it provides a scientific basis for the school's future development.

5.     Evaluate Applications

The application of evaluation results from private undergraduate colleges is primarily reflected in the following four aspects: systematic optimization of the evaluation process, feedback on evaluation results, policy regulation function, information disclosure, and social participation.

5.1 Systematic optimization of the evaluation process

Establish a full cycle management process of "evaluation feedback rectification review," generate exclusive diagnostic reports for private colleges through quantitative indicator analysis (such as faculty structure, employment quality, research conversion rate, etc.), and combine the problems presented in the evaluation (such as the degree of characterization of evaluation indicators for evaluation details, the applicability of evaluation indicators, the scientific discussion of evaluation methods, and the improvement of evaluation reliability and validity), continuously improve and optimize in practice, and establish an observable, testable, verifiable, and sustainable regular evaluation system for private undergraduate colleges.

5.2 Feedback on evaluation results

The evaluation results will serve as a crucial basis for providing feedback to various private undergraduate colleges, enabling them to accurately identify shortcomings and deficiencies in their school operations and formulate targeted improvement plans to promote ongoing improvements in education and teaching quality.

5.3 Policy regulation function

The education administrative department can formulate relevant policies based on the evaluation data, and the government and education regulatory departments can adjust the policy orientation such as dynamic financial support and professional setting approval according to the evaluation results, providing differentiated resource support for the development of colleges and universities, guiding and supporting the high-quality development of private undergraduate colleges and universities, and promoting the optimization and upgrading of the ecology of private higher education.

5.4 Information Disclosure and Social Participation

By establishing a system for publicizing evaluation results, we not only safeguard the public's right to know to strengthen social supervision but also build a platform for dialogue between universities and various sectors of society, enhance society's understanding and trust in private undergraduate institutions, promote positive interaction between schools and society, and form a positive development pattern of "promoting construction through evaluation and promoting linkage through evaluation."

6.     Structural dilemma in the evaluation of private undergraduate institutions in China

China has implemented a "two types and four dimensions" review and evaluation plan for undergraduate teaching in ordinary undergraduate institutions, distinguishing between application-oriented and characteristic-oriented institutions. The evaluation is conducted through public participation and evaluation, reflecting sub-items such as quality assurance, governance mechanisms, and resource adaptation across various dimensions and indicators. It cannot be ignored that the current independent evaluation system for private undergraduate programs only exists at the provincial level (such as the annual inspection and assessment index system for private higher education institutions in Beijing). Due to limitations in authority and resources, various evaluation systems for private undergraduate colleges independently developed by research teams have focused more on objective structural difficulties, such as evaluation positioning deviation (unable to demonstrate characteristic advantages), insufficient adaptability of evaluation standard system (limited promotion and radiation of indicators), and single evaluation subject (mostly self-evaluation advocated by private schools), while exploring evaluation principles, evaluation methods, evaluation paths, evaluation operations, evaluation indicators, and evaluation feedback. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a classification evaluation system for private undergraduate colleges with local characteristics through systematic measures such as top-level system improvement, standard system innovation, and evaluation mechanism improvement.

6.1 Doubts about the scientificity and applicability of the evaluation index system

In the development of the evaluation system, it is likely to encounter the dilemma of collective representation versus personalized representation in private undergraduate colleges. Due to limited consultation, there is a lack of sufficient specialized indicators and selectable observation points that can reflect the educational advantages and characteristics of private sister colleges, such as industrial resource integration, satisfaction with market-oriented education services, and modern governance resilience indicators. The design of evaluation indicators lacks sufficient consideration for the collective growth and personalized development of private undergraduate colleges. The advantages and growth potential of various private undergraduate colleges cannot be qualitatively evaluated through the same set of private evaluations, and the evaluation index system lacks persuasiveness and recognition (Lv & Cui, 2025).

6.2 Communication between Research Team and Evaluation Team

Due to limitations in authority, resources, and funding, and to avoid suspicion of athletes serving as referees, the evaluation system for private undergraduate institutions developed by the research team is often questioned: (1) limited vision and experience and a lack of understanding of the work of private undergraduate institutions, especially evaluation work; (2) The selection mechanism for the evaluation expert pool is not perfect enough, and in the future, it should attract more government regulatory agencies, top experts in academia, senior observers in the industry, and international organizations (NGOs) to participate. Therefore, it is impossible to further improve in research, testing, trial, feedback, demonstration, revision, and promotion. ‌

Authors: Xuan Zhao is a research assistant at the Non-governmental Higher Education Institute of China, Zhejiang Shuren University, focusing on private higher education research. Chaocheng Zhou, Dean of the School of Public Administration at Zhejiang Shuren University, specializes in educational management and research on private higher education. Xuqing Xu, the former president of the Non-governmental Higher Education Institute of China, Zhejiang Shuren University, and the former president of Zhejiang Shuren University, primarily focused on research in private higher education.

Author Contributions: All authors contributed to this research.

Funding: This research is funded by the Key Project of Zhejiang Private Education Association in 2024 "Research on the Role of Private Education Institutions in the Construction of Future Community Education Scenarios" (Project No. ZMX2024A003), the Planning Project of China Private Education Association in 2024 (School Development Category) "Construction of High-Quality Development Evaluation System for Private Undergraduate Colleges" (Project Approval No. CANFZG24016), and The 2023 project of China Private Higher Education Research Institute of Zhejiang Shuren University "Research on Evaluation and Accreditation of Overseas Private Universities" (Project No. 20230206).

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent Statement/Ethics Approval: Not applicable.

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted Technologies: This study has not used any generative AI tools or technologies in the preparation of this manuscript.