Guide for School-running

1. What conditions are required to apply for running a cooperative school?

Answer: Welcome to run school in Shanghai! First you must have the right purpose of running a school; and it is necessary for you to have the well-managed organization, qualified administrative personnel and teachers, the suitable teaching sites, books, teaching apparatus, living facilities and, of course, enough funds and stable layout source. Besides, in the actual process, you will be asked to put in the application, the regulations of the cooperative institutes, report on feasibility, the verifying opinions of your co-partner's superior department, the cooperative letter of intent or agreement and the authentic certificate that proves you financial credit.

2. Is it possible for me to run a university?

Answer: You can cooperate to run any type of educational institutes except the compulsory education and the education with special stipulations by the government. So, of course, you can run a university. But what I want to suggest you is that according to our country's stipulations, the cooperative schools must be run by foreign juridical persons, individuals or international organizations and Chinese educational institutes with juridical qualifications or other social organizations and the schools recruit mainly Chinese citizens. In addition, whatever school you apply to run, of higher education, secondary education or training education, it should be admitted by the State Department after verified by Shanghai Government or the responsible department of the State Department. If you apply for running a kindergarten, you can directly ask the educational department of Shanghai Government for admission.

3. Can I recruit students and begin my school as soon as I get the instrument of ratification?

Answer: No. After getting the instrument of ratification, you have to go to the Shanghai educational administrative department to register and receive the license. The followings are required when registering: the application for registering and the instrument of ratification; the proving documents of the school's land and property; the certificate of the funds given by the relative department; the proving documents of the qualifications of the director and the headmaster; the leading organization of the school, members of the council and the establishment for the staff; the school's name, scale, educational system and the departments. After registering and receiving the license, your school gains the qualification as a juridical person and can overtake the responsibility of running a school. Now you can recruit students according to the government's stipulations.

4. Now my school has just formally found. Then I have to raise funds. I can expect that there will be many things for me to do. Can you give me some advice?

Answer: There're some points you should pay attention to in the process of running the school. For example, the cooperative institutes with juridical qualifications should set up councils, the one without juridical qualifications should set up united managing organizations; In these organizations, the members representing your Chinese partner are supposed to be more than one second of the total; The school's headmaster or the leading principal must be a Chinese citizen residing in China and admitted by the examining and approving department. The school can engage full-time or part-time teachers, foreign teachers and administrative personnel. The procedure can be handled referring to the relative rules of the Chinese public schools of the same kind and grade. You are allowed to issue the records of formal schooling if you engage in this aspect of education; if not, you can also issue the certificates proving the complete of the course or the qualification certificates admitted by the public. In the process of raising funds, the tuition fee and the funds or facilities raised in the name of the school, must be used as the expenses of the school or to develop the school.

5. Oh! I believe there will be a brand-new Clinton cooperative school in the pearl of orient-Shanghai in the near future. But it will be better if my school can recruit foreign students.

Answer: Never mind. You can run a school for foreign personnel's children. Such schools can recruit foreign personnel's children having the residence certificate, but cannot recruit Chinese citizens' children in China.

6. That's great! Then what conditions are required to run a school for foreign personnel's children?

Answer: The expenses of the school should be raised by the applicants; the school is not allowed to engage in any industry and commerce, and other mercenary items; and it is necessary to have social demand, corresponding scale of the students' source and enough school-running funds and stable source of outlay. In the process of application, you will be asked to put in an application form including: the purpose to run school, recruiting scale, recruiting area and school-running scale; the regulations of the school; the proving documents of the applicants; the list of the headmaster, members of directorate and their qualification certificates; the school's facilities, funds, teaching sites, the source of the expenses and their proving documents; the source of the teachers. And please pay attention that such schools can only engage in education not higher than secondary education.

7. How much freedom do I have to set the course of the school?

Answer: Your school is free to determine the course setting, teaching materials and the teaching plans. Our government encourages and supports your school to offer Chinese courses and Chinese culture courses to make the students better understand Chinese culture. In addition, your school should put the list of the staff and students and the teaching materials to the local educational administrative department on record, and your school also has the obligation to receive the supervision and examining of the local educational administrative department.

8. If my plan is supported by my American colleges and intend to apply, what help can SEAIE provide us?

Answer: Our Association has much experience in deputizing to apply for the cooperative schools and schools for foreign personnel's children, and in the actual operation the rate of success is fairly high. In general, we will first offer you some information about the process of application and the relative law; Then we will provide our feasibility analysis and consulting opinion on your way of school-running, cooperative partners, school scale, routine work, teaching and so on; At last we will make a contract with you for deputizing the application and carry out the application according to the contract. The contract will list out the necessary documents and data, general timetable and the relative laws. In the whole process we will keep contact with you to inform you in time. Of course, we will receive some fees for deputizing, but the amount won't be too big. I wonder if I have explained to you clearly and if you are satisfactory. I really hope that everything will be going on smoothly with you!