China’s Elite Tertiary Education

During the past 25 years, China's elite higher education system has been systematically developed and supported by constructive projects, such as Project 211 & 985, C9 League, and the Double First-Class Plan. China's elite universities have also proliferated during this process, and some of them are already rated among the world's top universities. This article gives a general introduction to China's elite higher education projects. &nbsp

Super High Schools: Improving or Reducing the Educational Quality of High Schools in Different Provinces?

With the extremely high enrollment rate and the high rate of being admitted by Peking University and Tsinghua University, to some extent, Super High School is usually considered as the opportunity to realize the intergenerational social mobility upwards. However, it could cause serious damage to the ecology of the high schools’ education within the region, aggravating the exam-oriented education phenomenon in high school education, exacerbating the disadvantages of education inequity, etc., as a result, it has become a hot topic in all sectors of the society in recent years

Inverted U-Shaped Relationship between Physical Activity and Academic Achievement among Chinese Adolescents: On the Mediating Role of Physical and Mental Health

We aimed to clarify the relationship between Chinese adolescents’ physical activity and academic achievement, the mediating role of physical and mental health, and provide a scientific reference for the integration of sports and education. Based on baseline data from the China Education Panel Survey, we conducted a nationwide study of 12,960 adolescents. We used nonlinear models, mediation effect analysis, and other measurement methods. Three significant findings emerged: (1) adolescent physical activity duration and academic achievement showed an inverted U-shaped relationship. Moderate physical activity improves academic achievement. The inverted U-shaped inflection point is about 3.549 h/week; (2) physical activity among the male group has a stronger effect on promoting academic achievement, while the positive effect of physical activity among females is not significant. The difference in effectiveness between urban and rural youth groups is relatively small, but the inflection point of rural youth groups is higher, and (3) the level of physical and mental health effectively mediates the inverted U-shaped influence of youth physical activity on academic achievement. We recommend that governments and schools should implement physical activity appropriately and suggest the feasibility of using physical activity to narrow the growth gap between urban and rural youth

Gender disparities in science and engineering in Chinese universities

Gender disparities in science and engineering majors in Chinese universities have received increasing attention from researchers and educators in China in recent years. Using data from a national survey of college students who graduated in 2005, this study documents gender disparities in enrollment and academic performance in science and engineering majors, and explores gender disparities in initial employment experiences of science and engineering graduates. It finds that females lag far behind males in enrollment in science and engineering majors overall. However, females actually are more represented than males in some majors such as mathematics and chemistry though the reverse is true for other science and engineering majors. Also, in science and engineering majors, females perform better than males in both general course grades and in English competency tests. Male science and engineering graduates have a clear advantage over their female counterparts in initial employment after graduation: they have a high employment rate, a higher starting salary, and are more likely to be employed in such jobs as business management and technical specialist. The male advantage in employment rate and starting salary persists even after controlling for other factors.Gender inequality Science and engineering Higher education China

Spring land surface and subsurface temperature anomalies and subsequent downstream late spring-summer droughts/floods in North America and East Asia

Sea surface temperature (SST) variability has been shown to have predictive value for land precipitation, although SSTs are unable to fully predict intraseasonal to interannual hydrologic extremes. The possible remote effects of large-scale land surface temperature (LST) and subsurface temperature (SUBT) anomalies in geographical areas upstream and closer to the areas of drought/flood have largely been ignored. Here evidence from climate observations and model simulations addresses these effects. Evaluation of observational data using Maximum Covariance Analysis identifies significant correlations between springtime 2-m air temperature (T2 m) cold (warm) anomalies in both the western U.S. and the Tibetan Plateau and downstream drought (flood) events in late spring/summer. To support these observational findings, climate models are used in sensitivity studies, in which initial LST/SUBT anomaly is imposed to produce observed T2 m anomaly, to demonstrate a causal relationship for two important cases: between spring warm T2 m/LST/SUBT anomalies in western U.S. and the extraordinary 2015 flood in Southern Great Plains and adjacent regions and between spring cold T2 m/LST/SUBT anomalies in the Tibetan Plateau and the severe 2003 drought south of the Yangtze River region. The LST/SUBT downstream effects in North America are associated with a large-scale atmospheric stationary wave extending eastward from the LST/SUBT anomaly region. The effects of SST in these cases are also tested and compared with the LST/SUBT effects. These results suggest that consideration of LST/SUBT anomalies has the potential to add value to intraseasonal prediction of dry and wet conditions, especially extreme drought/flood events. The results suggest the importance of developing land data and models capable of preserving observed soil memory.This work was supported by the grants from U.S. National Science Foundation AGS-1346813, AGS-1419526, and AGS-1540518 (J. D. N.). This work is also supported by the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Climate Change, ChinaAGS-1346813AGS-1419526AGS-1540518 (J. D. N.

China Survey Report on High Schools' Online Learning Status During the Pandemic

Highlights We examined the results of a large-scale national survey of online secondary education in China. The online survey of 33,194 high school students and 5,667 teachers has provided comprehensive and representative data regarding the quality of online education and its implementation during the pandemic. Questionnaire surveys administered to students and teachers in different grades and comparative analysis of different cohorts revealed group heterogeneity of the online learning effect. The findings have elucidated the emergency teaching situation in China during the pandemic, yielding targeted suggestions for school education following the resumption of classes