Liu Hui; Li Jun (1989)

The authors highlight some key points on the importance of comparative postgraduate education in Mainland China and comparative perspectives. Firstly, primary and secondary education are the foundations of tertiary education, whilst tertiary one forms the basis for postgraduate education. An illumination of teaching developmental regulations of national schooling systems can help the scrutiny of postgraduate education in a comparative perspective. Secondly, a university degree has an intimate relationship with higher education (esp. postgraduate education) and the study provides a simultaneous depiction of university degree systems, postgraduate education and their correlations. Thirdly, from an international viewpoint, the development and formation of postgraduate education and university degree systems are the special results of contingent socio-historical forces. So a cross-national comparison of those forces and other social factors for the development and formation of postgraduate education provides greater insights into the case of Mainland China. Fourthly, current development and conditions of postgraduate education and university degree systems meet international standards. A penetrating cross-national comparison helps the reader to understand the current functioning and characteristics of postgraduate education and the university degree system in Mainland China.

Chapters 1-18 provide detailed single-country accounts of schooling systems, organizational structure of university degree systems and historical development, conditions,  and leadership and managerial systems of postgraduate education in Mainland China, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, former Soviet Union, South Korea, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, former West and East Germany, Sweden, Austria, Philippines, Italy and Brazil

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