The Ministry of Education ("MOE") has recently distributed the Circular on Cancelling a Batch of Certification Items (the "Circular").
The Circular expressly states that 10 certification items as specified in such departmental rules as the Administrative Provisions on Intellectual Property Protection for Institutions of Higher Learning and the Implementing Measures of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Sino-Foreign Cooperative Operation of Educational Institutions, and 12 certification items as specified in some other departmental normative documents, are cancelled. Besides, the Circular notes that graduates of institutions of higher learning will no longer be required to provide proof for announcements they have made on newspapers for their lost or destroyed academic certificates or diplomas when they file applications for the corresponding certification; primary and middle school students will no longer be required to provide proof for their student status when they transfer to new schools or enter schools at a higher level, and instead, the student status will be verified and checked by schools on the unified electronic platform. Moreover, the certification issued by the department of civil affairs of the county, town or subdistrict where the homeplace of a college student sits to attest to the financial conditions of his or her family, which should be furnished in the past when he or she applies for aid funds, will be superseded by the applicant's written commitment.