From a financial perspective, the criteria for category distinction of higher education institutions should be based on the ownership of institution property and income for recurrent expenditure. The development of modern higher education witnessed the period wherein higher education institutions have both private property and private payment for recurrent expenditure. The development also saw the period wherein all the institution properties were owned by the state and all the recurrent expenditure were paid by the government. Accordingly, universities could be divided into two categories of public  and private  institutions until the 1970s. However, things have been changing greatly over the past 20 years. Property ownership and payment for recurrent expenditure have been separated. The public institutions appeal to more and more individuals sharing recurrent expenditure, while private institutions ask for more and more public financial support. Therefore, some financially mixed institutions came into being and three categories with sub-groups  has become a new phenomenon.

The Cold War affected the Sino-US educational exchange between 1949 and 1990. During those years, preparation for educational exchanges, personal contact and cross-government relations characterized the three periods of the exchanges. However, even though the relationship had developed very fast, it was by no means smooth sailing. These exchanges served as a political barometer and also acted as a conduit between the two when diplomatic relations were non-existent. It eased the tension when the relationship between the two countries had problems. The 40 years of exchanges were a win-win situation for both sides and one of the valuable cultural legacies that came out of the Cold War era.

Basic education is not only an essential means for eliminating stratification and differences in society but also one of the main reasons for the enlargement of the gap between the rich and the poor. Because it faces pressure in the context of globalization, a balanced development of basic education would be a good way to relieve this pressure. This paper summarizes the international experience of balanced development of basic education in five aspects: policies and laws, educational funds, teacher resources, disadvantaged groups and conditions for running a school. On the basis of these, the authors put forward relevant suggestions concerning the balanced development of basic education in China.

There is an evident bi-directional causality relationship between education investment and economic growth based on an analysis of statistics from 1952 to 2003 released by the State Statistics Bureau. A generalized difference regression model is set up to investigate the relationship between the two. Studies show that the rate of contribution of education investment to economic growth was 24.4 percent from 1952 to 2003. Further examination indicates that after the market-oriented economy restructuring, this rate increased by a wide margin of 7 percent, from 22.8 percent to 29.7 percent.

According to records from 2002, there will be a continuous increase in the number of classes, full-time teachers and teaching staff in urban primary and junior secondary schools during the period 2005 2020. At the same time, the demand for classes and teachers of non-compulsory education will decrease yearly. It is estimated that the budgetary funds for urban primary, junior secondary, senior secondary education and even higher education will increase by 8%, 8.7%, 15.2% and 9%, respectively each year.

Within the sphere of contemporary social sciences, the terms modernity,  post-modernity  and globalization  have penetrated, as the core concepts, into various fields of social sciences in a logical way. In constituting the concept of modernity,  sociology of education develops the educational theory, as sociological theory does, into a grand narrative  and foundationalist  theory; the contribution of post-modernity is pluralism and self-examination in an attempt to transcend modernity. Globalization, a kind of expanded modernity, makes education sociologists broaden their perspective from single and traditional nationality,  society  and nation  to an international society and even to the global society, which has broken through the research paradigm of modernity with ethnocentrism, anthropocentrism and Euro-centrism. These changes have required urgent constitution of the conceptions and theoretical frameworks of sociology of education to be applied on a global level.

Discipline affects students  rights and interests greatly. If there is no scientific and efficient system to standardize it, the disciplinary rights of students will be easily abused, which will not only infringe on students  rights and interests but also give rise to campus disputes. The problems of the disciplinary system in Chinese primary and middle schools are as follows: disciplinary actions lack a legal basis; the disciplinary system is not standardized; disciplinary enforcement infringes on students  other legal rights; and the mechanism for the supervision of discipline is imperfect. The status and modes of discipline should be made clear in the legislation to make the school disciplinary system detailed and specific, the disciplinary enforcement equitable and reasonable, and the procedure of the disciplinary enforcement justifiable, and also ensure that students  other legal rights are protected.

Foreign language teaching has been playing a dominant role in China s curriculum reform, especially in the present globalization of Chinese society and economy. However, the insufficient research into foreign language teaching and blindly adopting western theory demand China learn from its own experience and also develop western foreign language teaching theories that innovate and promote its education system and research.

The development of the computer along with the widespread use of the Internet has rapidly promoted Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) as a very important communication media, which can be used widely and effectively in foreign language teaching and learning. This essay tries to explore the advantages of CMC as well as its proposed application, beginning with the introduction of some concepts related to CMC. From the research history, the rationale of using CMC in foreign language learning is summarised. The context of an EAP course is introduced and some suggestions on using CMC in this course are proposed.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) covers educational trade services. Hence, all the regulations of the GATS have to be followed in the international trade of educational services. Having acceded to the WTO, China is starting to fulfill the rights and obligations as a member by completely respecting international trade, services and intellectual property laws. At the same time, it is also starting to fulfill some of the commitments it made in the GATS, such as expanding activities on trade in educational services. Comprehending the fundamental regulations and China s commitments is significant towards promoting China s international trade in educational services.

Social donation is a means for individuals, government organizations, and non-government organizations (NGOs) to provide public products and services for society. Seeking social donation is vital in the improvement of the university. This paper probes into the relationship between social donation and university development by comparing social donation levels and practices in China with those in the U.S. The main reasons why social donations in Chinese universities are relatively low are as follows: (1) independent NGOs have not been formed; (2) the system and mechanism of social donation are not perfect, and (3) many restricting factors of social culture still exist in China.

In order to better understand the relationship between educational psychology research and educational reform, this essay reviews the development of educational psychology studies in the last 20 years in China. The study shows that: (1) Rapid development has been made in the areas of establishing discipline systems; (2) Research fields have been expanded and research directions have been localized; (3) The theoretical basis for quality education has been derived from education psychology studies; (4) The psychological foundation for curriculum reform and instruction has been implemented, and (5) China has committed to serve and expand current educational practices.