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Following China's 1999 decision to expand its higher education sector, the number of universities and colleges, including privately funded higher education institutions (minban gaoxiao 民办高校), has mushroomed.1 Private higher education institutions (HEIs hereafter) are regarded as an important supplement to public higher education institutions in China, particularly as public institutions often have higher admission thresholds than those which are privately funded, and so private HEIs can offer higher education for students who otherwise might not be able to attend university. Private HEIs typically charge much higher tuition fees than do public institutions; however, they are often deemed to be substandard and too profit-orientated, with poor quality teaching, unreasonable fees and other charges.
In a real sense, students in such institutions can be regarded as “consumers” of educational services and products. Students who fail to receive the educational services promised in advertisements may feel deceived by the provider, as would any normal consumer. However, in the student–university relationship, students are not just consumers – they are also subject to administration and regulation by the university. In the Chinese context, therefore, student–university disputes are often regarded as administrative disputes that should be handled in-house by administrative bodies through such processes as administrative review or lawsuits in the people's courts’ administrative chambers. Most such disputes tend to concern the alleged wrongdoings of students rather than the misconduct of a university. Students’ financial interests – especially tuition fees – are not properly protected under such an administrative regime. Thus, there is an important need for a more protective approach, particularly as the fees and other charges borne by students form a crucial source of funding for private HEIs. In this context, it is important to question whether there is value in seeing students in private HEIs as consumers to be protected rather than as administrative subjects to be managed, and whether mainland China's consumer laws might better help to protect students’ rights and interests.
To answer these linked questions, this paper first examines the marketization process of higher education in China, the problems facing private HEIs, and the potential for regarding students as consumers. It then analyses three court cases brought by students against their minban 民办 (“private” universities). Finally, the paper reflects on the judicial...