Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Measures for the Administration of Sino-foreign Cooperation in Vocational Education

Promulgated: July 26 2006
Effective: October 1 2006
Applicability: The term "Sino-foreign cooperative vocational institutes" refers to educational institutes for public welfare purposes that are jointly established by Chinese and foreign cooperative educational operators and that mainly enrol Chinese citizens for vocational training (Article 2).
  The establishment of cooperative vocational institutes or projects by educational institutes from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region or Taiwan and mainland educational institutes shall, mutatis mutandis, be handled in accordance with these Measures, unless otherwise provided by the state (Article 57).
  Measures for the administration of Sino-foreign cooperative commercial vocational institutes registered with the administration for industry and commerce shall be handled in accordance with the provisions of the State Council (Article 58).
Foreign educational institutes, or other organizations or individuals may not independently establish vocational institutes in China that mainly target Chinese citizens (Article 59).

Main contents: The establishment of a Sino-foreign cooperative vocational institute requires: (1) the capacity to train at least 200 students at the same time; and (2) fixed assets of at least Rmb500,000, registered capital of at least Rmb500,000 and a stable source of finance (Article 16). Sino-foreign cooperative vocational institutes and projects may not engage in profit-making business activities (Article 41).
Related legislation: PRC Regulations for Sino-foreign Cooperation in Running Schools, Mar 1 2003, CLP 2003 No.5 p.32