Figure 1
Policies Regarding
the Development of Archival
Education and Training within China
Zhang Zhaoyu, Suzhou University
¡@
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honored to have the opportunity to present here a paper on archival education and training within China. Now on behalf of Suzhou citizens, I'd like to extend our warm welcome to all the experts, scholars, professors and friends from abroad and across China. I hope that your stay in Suzhou will be a happy and unforgettable experience and my paper will arouse your interest.
As "original information" or "source information", archives are playing a more and more important role in our lives. Archival resources and their access policy will directly influence the development of information society.
Most nations have been aware of this. So developed countries and developing countries are now both actively working toward faster development of archival work. Such an effort is featured by the use of all kinds of resources, especially "human resources". Sufficient and high quality human resources are the key to successful archival undertaking.
Development of human resources relies heavily on education. Therefore the international archival community pays special attention to professional education and training. The International Council on Archives has been working on it since the 1950s' and established a "Professional Training and Education Committee" in 1979. In UNESCO there has been a special division on document book and archive work which has given priority to archival training and technical aids since the 1970s'. International symposiums on archival education and training have been held from time to time. Our conference is one of them. Education is and will always be a common interest to the international archival community.
Chinese Government has placed emphasis on archival education and training and increased investment in it since China's economic reform in 1980s'. In the past twenty years, China has achieved a lot in this field though we still have a long way to go. The following fact could help you to realize how far China has gone in archival education.
Before 1978, there was only one university that produced limited number of archivists in China; but today, China has almost 100,000 archival staff.
As a developing nation with a population of 1.3 billion whose average annual income is very low, and as a country with 5000 years of civilized history and abundant archival heritage, China has to face a lot of problems which other nations or regions have not met. On the one hand, we need a large number of specially trained persons to protect our archival heritage and to deal with records information proliferation; on the other hand, the low starting point of archival education programs in a traditional way.
Fortunately, we have found an effective way to manage our special situation and to meet our special needs. A series of policies for archival education and training have been made by Chinese Government and corresponding measures have been taken. These custom-designed policies and measures have worked out especially well in the past twenty years, and I think they may be of some reference value to other nations, especially to developing countries. This is why I have chosen to address this topic today.
Before we discuss further, I'd like to provide some basic data about Chinese
Archival staff. It can illuminate your understanding of China's archival
education policies.
The Increase of the Number of Full Time Archival Staff (1983-1997)
|
|
||
|
Figure 1
|
The Age Group of Full Time Archival Staff (1997)
 |
||
|
Figure 2
|
The Educational Level of Full Time Archival Staff
 |
||
|
Figure 3.1
|
 |
||
|
Figure 3.2
|
By comparing the figures of 1997 with that of 1996, we can see that the total education level is raised with time (peak advancement), see figure 3.3. Here, due to lack of accurate data, we can't draw the diagram of educational level of Archival staff who had been working before 1996, but we can still figure out the rising trend in terms of the overall educational level.
 |
||
|
Figure 3.3
|
Archival Education and Training Received by Full Time Archival Staff
 |
||
|
Figure 4.1
|
 |
||
|
Figure 4.2
|
 |
||
|
Figure 4.3
|
Conclusion Drawn from above Figures:
The Number of full time archival staff has multiplied rapidly by 5 in fifteen years (Figure 1).
Half of the archival staff are aged between 35 to 50. They should be given priority consideration for specialist archival education (Figure 2).
Limited by the educational resources available in our country, the educational level is relatively low, but the graph shows a reasonable "normal distribution" and the peaks are advancing from the "high school, secondary vocational school" to "university diploma" level (Figure 3).
Professional archival education of archival staff is far from ideal. In the 1980's, as the number of archival staff was doubled, archival education was only in its initial stage, only a small number of archival staff (not more than 50%) received some kinds of vocational education or training; Meanwhile, the short term on-the-job training (not more than 12 weeks) predominates over training programs. We can see from figure 4.1, 4.2 that the distribution chart coming down from left to right instead of presenting a normal distribution curve. But in 1997, even the number of full time archival staff was doubled than that in the 1980s', their professional quality was greatly improved with development of archival education. Obviously, we can see from Figure 4.3 that the percentage of educated or trained archival staff rose up to 60%, and at the same time, the educational level became higher. Apart from short-term training classes, noticeably, university diploma programs in archival training will become the major form of specialist archival education.
Remaining Problems
Because of the rapid increase of the number of Archival staff and the time-consuming nature of archival education programs, as well as many other factors, our Professional archival education now has two major problems urgently needing to be solved:
A large percentage of archival staff have not received any kind Professional education or training.
The archival education level of all archival staff does not present a satisfactory normal distribution curve.
Obviously, it is never easy for China to have developed its archival education and training to such an extent as outlined above. Since the situation is not yet fulfilling by now, we have to sum up our experience, analyze problems, and make plans for the future.
Before explaining policies for Chinese archival education, I will briefly describe the status quo of our system for archival education within China.
The current archival education program could be classified into following categories:
Current Archival Education System within China
Pre-employment education (ordinary degree education)
* Tertiary archival education
Postgraduate (M.A., Ph. D., bi-bachelar)
Undergraduate
University diploma
* Second archival education
Secondary vocational school
High school (vocational orientated)
In-service education (adult education)
* In-service degree education
Correspondence education
Radio & T V education
Self-educational examination system
* Professional certificate program
* On-the-job training
* Continued education (renew, enrich, supplement professional knowledge)
Pre-employment education: also called ordinary degree education. It distinguishes from in-service education in the following aspects: 1. It is an all-day education program, 2. The students are limited to the graduates from middle or high school that are admitted on the basis of a common entrance examination held by Chinese Government. At present, 27 universities, 20 secondary vocational schools, 7 high schools have archival programs. They enroll 2158 undergraduate students, 1230 university diploma students, and 4636 secondary vocational or high school students.In-service education: usually called in-post education" or "adult education". They are the education programs for employed persons. Correspondence education, Radio & TV education and self-educational examination system are the basic form of in-service degree education. Our Professional certificate program is a degree-equivalent in-service education (It will be discussed in detail later). Currently, we have 36 adult colleges or universities offering archival education programs.
From the 1980's onwards, the number of Chinese archivists doubled every three years. This is a starting speed of growth (the figure would be even higher, and the expansion rate even faster, if part time archivists were included). As a result of these social demands China's education of archival personnel faced severe pressure, and the number of archivist educational institutions increased rapidly during the 1980's. Within the short years the number of ordinary colleges offering courses in Archival studies increased by 39 times, and the annual number of graduate students roses to 2000 (figure 1).
 |
||
|
Figure 6
|
This rapid expansion is clearly at odds with the accepted norms for educational expansion. The major problems at that time were a shortage of qualified teachers and poor educational quality. An ordinary institute of higher learning should aim to produce an above average person with a rational structure of knowledge, solid grounding in their specializing and a good all-round intellectual, physical and moral development. Although the needs outlined above produced a breakthrough in the number of tertiary students, quality was unwittingly sacrificed as a result.
By the end of the 80's, academics started to put forward requests to control and contract the educational scope of ordinary archival education, and to carry out education on the basis of in-post education and training. These requests met with a positive response from the government, and the state department in charge of education carried out an evaluation and general revision of ordinary archival education. As a result the educational scope and student enrollment was controlled and contracted during the 1990's.
In fact the basic starting point for limiting and contracting education was not a question of educational quality, but a strategic revision of how to produce qualified archivists. In the face of a social demand to rapidly expand the archivist workforce, there were two different policies, which could be adopted for archival education.
Policy one: "A Replacement Policy", this would rely on graduates from colleges to augment and replace existing personnel, by making the development of "pre-employment education" a key area. In this way our country's archival profession could jump to a higher standard.
Policy two: an "Improvement Strategy". This would provide the staff with on the job training and in-work education, by making the development of "in-post education" a key area. In this way the overall level of the archival profession could be gradually raised.
On the basis of objective analysis of the issues involved, the Chinese Government selected an "improvement policy" based on "on-the-job training". The reasons for choosing this policy were as follows:
Reason 1: It was impossible for pre-employment education to solve the existing problems in a short period by the late 80's, Chinese ordinary archival education had expanded at an extraordinary rate with almost 2000 graduates every year. This was no small amount, but when compared with the tens of thousands of archivists in China, and the hundreds of thousands of part-time archivists, it was a drop in the ocean. At this rate, simply to replace all full-time archivists in China would take half a century, which was clearly not a realistic option. Moreover, the fact was that at this time only 4% of our country's population had received higher education. Within the archival profession, over half the workforce had never received any professional training in archival work at all (see Figure 4.1 and 4.2.), and it would thus be unrealistic for the government to fix their aim too high. The urgent issue was to address the deficiencies in specialist knowledge among the workforce. Ordinary archival education was a necessity, but this couldn't be an overnight solution to the problem of finding sufficient qualified archival staff.
Reason 2: in-post training would be effective in stabilizing the archival profession. Those who take part in in-post education and training have already had a corresponding professional position, and their motivation to study stems from professional needs. Their study purpose was thus very clear. Most of the cost of their education and training would be borne by their unit they work in, and this would, to a certain extent, limit their moving to another profession. In addition to this, the work experience and professional pride made less likely that persons already in post would give up their chosen profession. By comparison, the low pay and benefits received by archival staff meant that there was a high drop-out rate among educated archivists. According to statistics only 40% of graduates from Suzhou University who majored in Archival Studies actually work on archival profession.
Reason 3: The "improvement policy" reduces education costs and raises educational effectiveness. In-post education is targeted to actual needs, closely related to actual practice, and lays stress on practicality. It can cover a wide number of topics, is flexible in format and demands shorter study period. The educational efficiency of this method is far higher than that of alternatives. The fact that it can start from a low level and requires limited funds is especially well suited to China.
Having made a clear strategic decision to adopt "in-post education as the key area", the archival profession within our country implements a series of effective concrete measures.
Measure 1: Comprehensive development of on-the-job training for archival staff.
On-the-job training refers to training undergone by employee, based on the needs of his/her post. This kind of training is based on bridging the gap between the trainee's present working ability and the present and future requirements of the job he/she works.
On-the-job training is different from in-service certificate studies in that it is highly targeted, is of short duration, practical, and skill-based.
Comprehensive on-the-job training started in China in the early 1990's. At that time the State Archive Administration of China put forward the guideline of "in service education based on on-the-job training" at a symposium on education held at Anshan City. In the same year a document entitled, "Opinions regarding the development of on-the-job training for archival staff" s issued. The Administration demanded that, by the end of 1995, all in-post employees should have received at least one course of training (Training courses would run consecutively so that all staff would eventually have a turn).
The document set out a system for examining trainees and issuing certificates. A course pass certificate for on-the-job training was proof of qualifications for accepting a new post.
Even though, the on-the-job training scheme can not achieve all the desired aims, it still produces enormous achievements. According to statistics, of all those who receive some kind of professional archival education each year, some 30,000 persons are awarded on-the-job training course pass certificates, which account for 40% of the total.
Measure 2: Establishing national and provincial level "archives education and training centers".
In order to promote the development of adult education among archivists, in April 1988, the Chinese Government set up an Archives Education and Training Center, under the auspices of SAAC. The function of this organization is to systematically undertake in-service archivists education and training. The establishing of this center symbolizes new stage in the development of in-service archival education in this country. The positive significance of the establishment of the Archives Education Center is that the Chinese Government is now treating archives in-service education as an important function. By splitting up executive and education functions, in-service archival education is no longer solely dependent on adult education at colleges but has its own, specialized, independent and later, a developed and systematized educational structure. After its founding, the Archives Education Center develops multi-layered, multi-form and multi-faceted education and training. In an average year 1000 persons receive training and the Center quickly becomes the base for advanced studies in China's archive departments, as well as for archive department educators.
With the success of the National Archives Education Center, the Archive Bureau in each province (or autonomous region or independent municipality) successively established its own Archives Education Center to meet requirements. In this way a two-tier system of national and provincial training centers was established. The national and provincial archives education and training centers cooperate with each other within their own sphere of responsibility. The former is mainly aimed at training directors of provincial archives bureaus, Party Central Committee or state organization archives offices. The latter is concentrated on training archives cadres within the local province. Events proved that the establishment of the archive education and training centers is a major contribution to in-service education of archives staff within our country.
Measure 3: Using Radio and TV to develop archival education.
In the late 70's, China had established radio and television broadcasts to foster adult education. This form of "long-distance" education has the advantages of requiring small investment, covering a wide area, and quickly producing effective results.
By 1985, the Chinese "Open University" had reached a comparatively mature stage of development and already formed an extremely extensive network system. In this year, the SAAC, in cooperation with the Central Open University, established an Open University archivist diploma course. In 28 provinces nearly 33000 people registered for this course. By 1988 over 6000 people had taken 3 years of in-service studies, completed the requisite courses, passed a rigorous exam, and graduated with university diplomas credentials. In the same year the second Open University Archives Course admitted applications, with around 6000 new students registering. By 1991, another 3000 plus new university diploma level students graduated.
In addition to the certificate education above, our country also used TV and radio broadcasts to promote non-certificate continued education in archival work. For instance, in 1986, the Chinese Logic and Language Correspondence University, in cooperation with Central TV Station, provided a series of "Television Lectures on Record and Archive Management". In 1992, the National Archive Education and Training Center and the Central Open University, provided " Course of Continued Television Education Lectures for Archival Staff", which was watched 4000 viewers.
Radio and TV education can cover a large audience, and effectively solves the problem within China of a shortage of well-qualified teachers. It is extremely effective at alleviating the pressure of demand for more qualified archivists within our country, and has had an extremely important function in archival education within China. For the detailed operation of archival courses offered by the Chinese Open University, we can refer to the relevant materials.
Measure 4: Establishing a high level archival studies exam for self study students.
An exam system for self study students is a method of higher education with distinctively Chinese characteristics. Facing the rising tide of demand for education within society, but hampered by limited educational resources, the Chinese Government began to adopt this form of open education in the 1980's. The self-study educational method involves a fixed study plan as its framework, with self-study as its basis, assisted study as an supplementary aid, and a national exam as its core. Under the strict supervision of the state and provincial education bureaus, an organized structure of self-study examinations reaches into every level and area of the country. This structure involves an organic, multifaceted system, with appointed schools in charge of examinations and designated assisted study units. The self-study system also operates according to a set of strict, unified regulations.
The archival study is one of the first 8 subjects added to the self-study curriculum. At present archival self-study plans have been set up 15 provinces (autonomous regions or independent municipalities).
The characteristics of open enrollment and flexibility, inherent in the self-study examination plan, are particularly suited to the extensive and complex situation with regard to in-post training for archival staff. It is effective in solving work/study contradictions, and participants are highly motivated. Although the final number of graduates is limited, from an objective viewpoint, it has made an enormous contribution to the work of in-post-archival education in our country, and has become a major form of certificate in-service education. To take Jiangsu Province as an example, since the establishment of the archival self-study exam in 1988, a total of 40000 students have been taken part in the exam, and 560 students have received certificates.
Measure 5: Increase the archival adult education functions of ordinary colleges.
In order to utilize educational resources rationally, the prospectus and curriculum of all higher education institutes in China is subject to strict state regulations. In the late 70's and early 80's, the first few years after the revival of the university entrance exams, the curriculum of all higher education institutes was based on all day, pre-employment education. With great social development, the state carried out a revision of the curriculum of education institutions, higher education is divided into two sectors: ordinary all-day pre-employment education, and adult education. The main forms of higher adult education were certificate correspondence course, degree equivalent professional certificate education, and short-term non-degree advanced vocational studies.
In order to strengthen higher archival adult education, SAAC and the relevant higher institutes cooperated positively to organize archival staff in-post training. For instance, from 1986 onwards, the SAAC commissioned Suzhou University to provide 5 archival staff vocational training classes, and 4 archival professional certificate classes, which trained over 2000 in-post staffs. During this same period, under the direct leadership of SAAC, the Chinese People's University, Suzhou University and other higher institutes successively established 3 year advanced level correspondence courses in archival studies. The Total number of students enrolled in tertiary institutes advanced level correspondence courses in archival studies. The total number of students enrolled in tertiary institute advanced level correspondence courses in archival studies throughout the country increased year by year, gradually forming a major form of in-post archival staff education.
For more detailed information in the operation of advanced level correspondence courses in archival studies, we can refer to the appropriate reference materials.
2. Using "targeted education" as a model.
In speaking of educational principle, we sometimes say that, educational output = number of receiving education x scope of education received. This is simply a theoretical formula, but from it we can derive two simple conclusions:
(1) Equivalent educational investments may produce different educational results (i.e. Output).
(2) For the same educational investment, there is inverse relationship between student numbers and educational scope.
Therefore, under the pre-condition of limited educational resources, we must make a choice: either place our emphasis on the numbers receiving education or to place it on the scope of the education received. In order words, do we seek quantity or quality? The aim of our selection should be the greatest overall educational result. The basis for the selection in this case is social demand for qualified personnel.
As figure 4 clearly demonstrates, a considerable proportion of those engaged in archival work in our country has never received any professional education or training. Even today, this proportion is over 41%, which is an extremely worrying phenomenon. Addressing this existing problem is the most pressing task for archival education in China. Therefore, the immediate task is to utilize limited educational resources to bring the most basic professional training to this group as quickly as possible. Clearly, as far as China is concerned, raising the "quantity" side of the education is more important than raising the "quality" side. As figure 7 illustrates, our task is to move the group in the extreme left-hand column into the right-hand column, as speedily as possible.
Based on the above analysis, our country's archival profession adopted the following "targeted education" measures.
Measure 1: Setting our job descriptions, and developing training targeted at specific posts.
This paper has already discussed on-the-job training. From the 1990's onwards, on-the-job training has become a major form of archival vocational education within the archivist profession, with highly significant results.
Here I would like to outline the "targeted" aspect of "on-the-job training". Embarking upon on-the-job training immediately raises the closely related issue of defining "job descriptions". Having carried out far reaching research and review of this matter, the relevant departments have set up job description for each post.
They then developed targeted training covering multiple posts and multiple levels; in which the job descriptions act as evidence for laying down the training plan and the overall academic framework. This kind of "targeted training" both ensured the necessary training quality, and greatly raised the effectiveness of training work, thereby increasing the number of persons who receive education.
Perhaps, given trend within the international archival profession of unifying record management and archive administration , and the growing consensus that training curriculum maintain a balance between modern record record management and historical archive management, it might appear that the academic content of the above "targeted on-the-job training" is clearly too narrow. In this respect, I think, our country's "targeted on the job training" does have several deficiencies, such as a lack of system, a narrow field of knowledge, and an enabling to meet the demands of a change in post among those receiving such training. However, given the proportion of those engaged in archive work within China who have never received any professional training, the positive impact of this method greatly outweighs its limitations. As regards to high-level professional archival education, we should of course give consideration to providing the student with a rational structure of knowledge, including the balanced approach proposed by the international archival community. This point is already being put into practice in university education in archival studies within China.
Measure 2: Set up and implement a system involving an "archival specialist certificate".
"Professional certificate" education is also characteristically a Chinese educational model. There are two aspects to this targeted practice: the designated nature of the recipient of the education, and the targeted nature of the content of the education received.
As Figure 7 shows, following the large-scale development of targeted in-post training, there was a significant change in the pattern of professional training received by archivists. The distribution curve is seen in the relevant graph.
This kind of dual peaked distribution is certainly an improvement on Figure 4, however, it is not ideal, as the further development of the archival profession requires a larger number of middle and higher level qualified staff (i.e. those who have received tertiary vocational or university education). In accordance with the "improvement strategy" discussed above, these staff should ideally come from the ranks of those archive staff who have a fairly extensive practical work experience, and who either have or have not already received some on-the-job Training. In other words, the "improvement" shown in Figure 8, should take place, leading to a more reasonable distribution of professional archival education within the profession.
The Archival professional Certificate" education form is indeed based on this thinking. Those receiving this education are specially restricted to in-post archivist cadres who are aged over 35 years (sometimes relaxed to 30), have worked as an archivist for over 5 years, and who have an senior middle school education background. There were two considerations behind the decision to limit the intake to those over 35.
- As Figure 2 shows, over half of those engaged in archival work fall into this age bracket and they should make up the main body of those receiving in-service education.
- Staff determined on the basis of this age and educational level, unlike their younger counterparts, have no opportunity to attain degree level professional education. Moreover, their age and work experience effectively defines their professional horizons, making it extremely unlikely that they would move to a new career. Therefore if such educational work is targeted at the above group, providing them with a systematized professional education, then the overall quality of the stable archival workforce will be raised. In this way double result can be achieved with half effort.
As the educational recipient is limited in the above ways, the teaching content of the archival professional certificate course differs from that of on-the-job training, and of ordinary degree education. According to regulations, an archival professional certificate is an "intermediate certificate" lying between a "course completion certificate" (issued after a normal training course) and a "graduation certificate" (issued after a degree course). This certificate demonstrates that the holder, having passed examination in the specialist field of archival work has reached vocational college or university diploma level, but only in a specialized field. In other words, it is only in the field of archival work that the holder's educational level is considered to be at university or vocational college level. f the person engages in another field, then his (her) certificate has no validity. From this we can see, that archival professional certificate education is the same as post-specific on-the-job training, discussed earlier, in that, it is specialized, archival, directional education although targeted at a broader area than just the post the student presently holds. The academic content strengthens the systematized nature of the specialist knowledge imparted. However, it is unlike degree course education, which emphasizes the systematic propagation of specialist knowledge. The latter places greater stress on education to lay down cultural and intellectual foundations, and relevant knowledge, making it more suited to future changes in the employment market.
Clearly, this kind of directional, specialist, targeted education, is far more frugal with educational resources than ordinary degree course education. From the point of view of teaching time, a university diploma level professional certificate involves 8 courses and around 800 hours of study, whilst the equivalent ordinary university diploma course would require over 1200 classroom hours. Of course, this saving is only possible if each student already has work experience of their specialty, and can bring into play their previous vocational college or university level education. The special restrictions on the archival professional certificate education are made to realize this goal.
The above is a review and analysis of the history and present nature of archival training and education in China. My intention is to provide foreign colleagues with some materials to help them grasp the framework, policies and existing problems, concerning the development of archival education within China. Due to lack of materials, and my own shortcoming, there are many aspects that should be studied further. I welcome any comments or questions prompted by the text, from my distinguished colleagues in this field.
Thanks.
