On my visit to Shanghai Xingjian College, its president proudly told me that Xingjian is perhaps the only college in the city that opens to the local community. Every Saturday, nearby residents can enter the campus without an ID, and they are free to enjoy the school's facilities.

Many come to the library to read books, surf the internet and try out online learning tools developed by domestic software companies – all for free. The campus also has a children's playground, where I saw local residents brought their kids to play. The president of the college told me that many of the families were migrant workers.

It reminded me of an American community college, where vocational education, adult education, job training, baby courses and online classes are offered to the whole community. Similarly, Xingjian College also aims to develop into a real open campus to serve its community.

However, China still faces great obstacles in building community colleges like those in the U.S., three of which have become great "walls" impeding the progress of community education.

The first wall separates the college and the community. For all of Xingjian College's noble intentions, it is only open to local residents on Saturdays. Opening up further will require more funds, and the school currently has no budget for public services.

Shanghai's municipal government last year outlined a new education plan to optimize resources and provide citizens with learning opportunities throughout their lives. The plan called for the construction of 18 community colleges at district and town levels and 3,000 standardized study centers in villages. But as the government focuses on building new campuses, can it spot the readymade establishments as an important base for developing community education?

It must be noted that China's vocational colleges are generally facing declining student enrollment. In a few years, these resources could be wasted if they do not adapt to a new role. At this juncture, these vocational schools should open to the public and develop their community education programs. This would not only benefit local residents, it could also financially reinvigorate the colleges with new tuitions and investments from the government and the public.

The second wall blocks schools from each other. China currently lacks reliable ways for sharing education resources and establishing a common accreditation system among colleges. In the U.S., community colleges are two-year colleges, and their low tuition combined with school credits transferrable to four-year universities make them extremely appealing to high school graduates. Many four-year universities have even agreed to automatically admit students who completed their community college studies and received a minimum required GPA.

On the other hand, few Chinese universities accept course credits earned from other schools. Students completing two-year studies at vocational colleges could only enter specified universities after taking certain exams. Upon graduating from the universities, their diplomas are specially marked as belonging to transfer students.

The third wall divides education into impassable bits. At the moment, community college and study center credits are not accepted in the greater society. Worse, credits earned in vocational education, adult education, network education and professional trainings are not recognized by four-year universities.

What we really need is for four-year universities to accept school credits earned in what people consider "lower tiers" of education. The reason why community colleges in the U.S. have thrived is that there is no such wall between educational institutes. Community colleges are a viable option for students, as they could transfer to top universities after two years instead of having to aim for them right out of high school.

Some may think that the quality of education in vocational schools, adult education and community colleges is too low to be accepted by four-year universities. Consider instead that, after breaking down the wall segmenting education, people would surely turn their attention on the education quality in all higher education institutions. Therefore, vocational colleges and community colleges in China will have to step up just like their counterparts in the U.S.

To break down these walls, China must continue its education reforms in the ways students enroll into colleges and transfer between them. It is time for vocational colleges to exercise autonomous enrollment methods based on self-applications and registrations. From there, we should implement an accreditation system for course credits between different categories of higher education such as community colleges and four-year universities.

This post was first published in Chinese and translated by Li Shen.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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