Reflection on China’s higher vocational education entrance examination: lessons from the imperial examination in modern China

The higher vocational education entrance examination is crucial not only for improving China’s vocational education system but also for promoting economic development. Although China has placed an unprecedented emphasis on reforming the higher vocational education entrance examination in recent years, this reform is still fraught with many challenges. Very few studies have attempted to draw lessons from history for China’s current reform of the higher vocational education entrance examination. This study fills this gap by examining the connections between the imperial examination and China’s vocational education during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic period to shed light on China’s current reform of higher vocational education entrance examination. The institutional logics theory has provided useful tools for this study. Drawing lessons from the past, this study makes the following suggestions: (1) the need to transform a social environment dominated by academic and official oriented institutional logics into a one that is more influenced by the logics of craftsmanship spirit; (2) the need to readjust the examination content for the higher vocational education entrance examination; and (3) the need to establish a national unified higher vocational education entrance examination system to ensure students’ equity and fairness. This study calls for more research on the imperial examination to shed light on the reform of China’s contemporary higher vocational education entrance examination.