The Ministry of Education ("MOE") has recently enacted and issued the Decision on Revising and Abolishing Some Rules to Streamline Administration, Bring the People More Convenience and Upgrade Services (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek public comments by April 21, 2019.
The Draft for Comment proposes revisions to some articles in four sets of rules that involve relevant certification items, and scraps another four sets of rules that are obviously inappropriate for the needs of economic and social development and of education reform and development. Among others, the Draft for Comment removes "Item (4) the certification on capital verification (if any assets or funds have been invested)" of Article 37 of the Implementing Measures for the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Sino-Foreign Cooperative Operation of Educational Institutions, and renumbers previous "Item (5) the property donation agreement and relevant supporting documents (if any donation is made)" to be "Item (4)" with the content unchanged. Moreover, the Draft for Comment clearly states that, where a foreign educational institution has established a Sino-foreign cooperative educational institution or carried out a Sino-foreign cooperative educational program in China, the approval authority shall examine the school-running level and the quality of education involved in the institution or program it has operated, under the internal work mechanism.