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Lowering the Bar? Students with Disabilities in PRC Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2020

Michael Palmer
Michael Palmer*
Affiliation:
SOAS University of London. Email: mp@soas.ac.uk.
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Abstract

In the People's Republic of China, the 2015 (revised) Higher Education Law provides that citizens enjoy the right to receive higher education. That legal ideal, however, is not easy to implement in practice. One important issue in higher education is the extent to which in law and in practice the educational rights and interests of students with disabilities are realized. In anticipation of difficulties, the same law specifically requires Chinese higher education institutions to enrol disabled students who meet the relevant admission qualifications and it explicitly prohibits rejection on grounds of disability. Admission standards and processes, however, remain a problem, as do social attitudes to disability, and other difficulties persist in securing the rights and interests of disabled persons in higher education. The complications that arise remain significantly under researched and are not explicitly addressed in the Higher Education Law. Proposals for reform are not likely to succeed without substantial changes in societal and governmental attitudes.

摘要

摘要

在中国，虽然中华人民共和国2015年（经修订）的《高等教育法》赋予了公民享有接受高等教育的权利，但是这种法律理想在实践中并不容易实现。中国高等教育中一个重要问题是，在法律实践中，残疾学生的教育权利和利益在多大程度上得以实现。考虑到权利实现的困难，该法特别要求中国高校必须招收符合相关录取资格的残疾学生，并明确禁止高校以“残疾”为由拒绝录取学生。然而实践中，高校在录取标准和录取程序中仍对残疾人有各种歧视性规定，社会对残疾人的态度并不友好，残疾人在保护自身高等教育权益中仍旧困难重重。而出现这些困难和问题的原因，没有被深入研究和探讨过，对于实践中遇到的问题，《高等教育法》中也没有明确的相关规定。如果不对社会和政府态度进行重大改变，改革的建议就不可能成功。

Keywords

students with disabilitiessocial lawright to higher educationsocial protectiondiscriminationinclusive educationChina残疾学生社会法受高等教育权社会保护歧视包容性教育中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 244: Change, Contradiction and the State: Higher Education in Greater China , December 2020 , pp. 1078 - 1095
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

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