IX. Education, Science and Technology

In 2008, the post-graduate education enrollment was 1.283 million students with 446 thousand new students and 345 thousand graduates. The general tertiary education enrollment was 20.210 million students with 6.077 million new students and 5.120 million graduates. Vocational secondary schools of various types had 20.563 million enrolled students, including 8.100 million new entrants, and 5.706 million graduates. Senior secondary schools had 24.763 million enrolled students, including 8.370 million new entrants, and 8.361 million graduates. Students enrolled in junior secondary schools totaled 55.742 million, including 18.562 million new entrants, and 18.629 million graduates. The country had a primary education enrollment of 103.315 million students, including 16.957 million new entrants, and 18.650 million graduates. There were 417 thousand students enrolled in special education schools, with 62 thousand new entrants. Kindergartens accommodated 24.750 million children.

The amount of expenditures on research and development activities (R&D) was worth 457.0 billion yuan in 2008, up 23.2 percent over 2007, accounting for 1.52 percent of GDP. Of this total, 20.0 billion yuan was appropriated for fundamental research programs. A total number of 922 projects under the National Key Technology Research and Development Program and 1,205 projects under the Hi-tech Research and Development Program (the 863 Program) were implemented. The year 2008 saw the establishment of 7 new national engineering research centers and 51 national engineering laboratories. The number of state validated enterprise technical centers reached 575 by the end of the year. The technical centers at the provincial level numbered 4,886. Some 828 thousand patent applications were accepted from home and abroad, of which 717 thousand were domestic applications, accounting for 86.6 percent of the total. A total number of 290 thousand patent applications for new inventions were accepted, of which 195 thousand were from domestic applicants or 67.1 percent of the total. A total of 412 thousand patents were authorized in 2008, of which 352 thousand were domestic patents, accounting for 85.5 percent of the total. A total of 94 thousand patents for new inventions were authorized, of which 47 thousand were domestic ones, accounting for 49.7 percent. Till the end of year 2008, the number of patents in force was 1.195 million, of which 925 thousand patents were domestic ones, accounting for 77.4 percent; the number of patents in force for inventions was 337 thousand, of which 128 thousand was domestic ones, accounting for 37.9 percent. A total of 226 thousand technology transfer contracts were signed, representing 266.5 billion yuan in value, up 19.7 percent over the previous year. The year 2008 saw 11 times of successful launch of satellites and Shenzhou-7 manned spacecraft was launched successfully.

By the end of 2008, there were altogether 24,300 laboratories for product inspection, including 376 national inspection centers. There were 170 organizations for product certification and management system certification, which accumulatively certified products in 38 thousand enterprises. A total of 3,701 authorized measurement institutions enforced compulsory inspection on 41.90 million measurement instruments in the year. A total of 6,373 national standards were developed or revised in the year, including 2,714 new standards. There were 1,314 seismological monitor stations and 31 seismological remote monitor network stations. The numbers of oceanic observation stations were 67 and oceanic monitor spots reached 9,200. Mapping departments published 1,834 maps and 309 mapping books.