Confronting the Global and the Local – A Case Study of Chinese Higher Education

While most national systems ofhigher education are confronting seeminglyconvergent global pressures, specific nationalor local issues still mark the distinctfeatures of each system. Hence, highereducation, in places, has been enmeshed in thetensions between national issues and globalpressures. In China, both the global influencesand internal issues have become the majordriving forces for current higher educationreforms. This paper explores the specifictensions between global pressures and nationalissues with respect to Chinese higher educationin which political, economic and traditionaldimensions are focused.