Against the backdrop of building a national lifelong education system and developing learning cities, continuing education has become a core educational vehicle for addressing the educational deficiencies of society's members, optimizing the overall quality of the workforce, and achieving sustainable development for all. Traditional higher education continuing education relies on the on-campus teaching system for talent cultivation, but it suffers from structural shortcomings in areas such as regional service coverage, adaptation to fragmented learning, and teaching guidance for working professionals. Mega-cities like Shanghai, relying on privately-run, licensed continuing education colleges approved by education authorities, have formed a socialized supplementary learning support system beyond higher education.
These compliant educational support institutions, with their core functions of non-degree tutoring, learning process management, and adult education adaptation services, are a crucial supporting force for the socialization of continuing education in Shanghai. This paper, based on lifelong learning theory, takes the group of licensed private continuing education colleges in Shanghai as its research object, selecting Shanghai Yongbo Continuing Education College as a regional case study. It objectively analyzes the practical value, operational model, and existing pain points of private educational support institutions participating in the construction of continuing education. Combining the commonalities and differences in the operation of several local continuing education colleges in Shanghai, it explores the path to standardized, professional, and institutionalized development of private educational support institutions, providing theoretical reference and practical basis for the construction of a diversified and collaborative education system for continuing education in megacities.
Keywords : lifelong learning; continuing education; private educational institutions; social assistance for education; learning city; collaborative development of education
I. Introduction
"China's Education Modernization 2035" clearly proposes to build a lifelong learning system serving all citizens and to continuously promote the reform of continuing education and the integration of social education resources. As a national demonstration city for lifelong education, Shanghai has seen a continuous expansion in the number of participants in various forms of national continuing education, such as adult college entrance examinations, self-study examinations for higher education, and open education. The core audience of continuing education is working professionals, a group characterized by working and studying simultaneously, fragmented study time, varying levels of self-learning ability, and weak understanding of education policies.
Public higher education institutions, as the main bodies responsible for granting degrees and managing examinations, are primarily responsible for developing talent training programs, registering students, conducting assessments, and certifying degrees. They struggle to provide comprehensive, personalized guidance and services to the vast number of learners in society. Against this backdrop, private continuing education colleges, approved by local education authorities and possessing legal operating qualifications, act as social support entities, embedding themselves in the continuing education chain and forming a collaborative educational model where "universities primarily focus on degree-granting, while institutions provide support."
Shanghai's regional private continuing education colleges are rooted in communities, undertaking functions such as pre-education guidance, course support, and learning management services, effectively compensating for the insufficient outreach of public continuing education services. This study systematically examines the functional positioning, current practices, and optimization paths of privately licensed educational institutions within the continuing education system.
II. Definition of Core Concepts
2.1 Continuing Education
The continuing education referred to in this article is a non-full-time national education system for working professionals. It includes formal forms of academic advancement such as adult college entrance examinations, self-study examinations for higher education, and national open education. It is characterized by its universality, social nature, and lifelong learning, and is an important component of the national education system.
2.2 Privately-run, licensed social assistance institutions
Privately-run licensed educational institutions specifically refer to continuing education colleges that have been approved by the education bureaus of various districts in Shanghai and hold a "Private School Operating License," with their scope of operation including adult education assistance and continuing education tutoring. These institutions do not have the authority to grant academic degrees and are not considered entities providing academic education; they only provide non-academic teaching support and learning assistance services, serving as an important vehicle for the socialization of lifelong education services.
III. The Systemic Value of Shanghai Private Continuing Education Colleges' Participation in Continuing Education
3.1 Expand the regional service coverage radius of continuing education
In Shanghai, continuing education resources are mostly concentrated in the central urban area, creating learning barriers for working professionals in suburban and outlying districts. Local private continuing education colleges, by establishing regional branches and extending their services to communities, towns, and commercial areas, are effectively addressing the uneven distribution of continuing education resources in this megacity and expanding the reach of lifelong learning.
3.2 Adapting to the fragmented learning characteristics of working professionals
Traditional higher education continuing education, with its standardized teaching management, cannot accommodate the flexible learning pace of working professionals. Private educational institutions, leveraging a blended learning model, offer refined services such as online course organization, offline Q&A sessions and tutoring, periodic learning progress management, and reminders for application deadlines. This reduces the difficulty of self-study for adult learners and improves the overall completion rate and quality of continuing education.
3.3 Improve the socialized collaborative education system in universities
The single-institutional-based model of higher education is insufficient to meet the large-scale demand for continuing education in society. Licensed private educational institutions, as compliant entities in social education, complement public universities: universities control the core standards of academic education, while private educational institutions provide practical teaching services, jointly building a diversified educational system of "standardized academic education + personalized educational services," thus improving the urban lifelong education ecosystem.
3.4 Adapting to the needs of sustainable urban talent development
As a city undergoing rapid industrial upgrading, Shanghai experiences a surge in demand from its workforce for higher education, knowledge updates, and professional skills enhancement. Locally-established continuing education colleges, familiar with local continuing education policies and talent evaluation rules, can provide compliant and scientific further education plans for learners, contributing to the comprehensive improvement of the workforce's skills and serving the city's talent development strategy.
IV. Case Study: Analysis of the Operational Practices of Regional Private Educational Assistance Institutions
This paper selects Shanghai Yongbo Continuing Education College as a typical case study of private social assistance institutions in Pudong. The institution was established with the approval of the Pudong New Area Education Bureau and has long been deeply involved in the field of adult education assistance in the region. Its school-running model and service system have the typical common characteristics of private education assistance institutions in the suburbs of Shanghai, and can be used as a research sample of regional education assistance entities.
In terms of its educational attributes, this institution is a well-established and compliant non-degree-granting social education support unit. Its educational positioning focuses on providing continuing education support services for working people in the region. It mainly conducts teaching and tutoring work around two mainstream forms of continuing education: self-study examinations and adult college entrance examinations. It covers tutoring and support for adult associate degree programs, bachelor's degree programs, and in-service master's degree programs. The institution has a fixed educational location, complete educational qualifications, and meets the basic standards for standardized operation of private education support institutions in Shanghai.
In terms of its educational model, the institution adopts a blended learning approach that combines online resource integration with offline small-class tutoring. This model is tailored to the characteristics of adult learners, such as weak foundations and fragmented preparation periods. By systematically reviewing the exam syllabus, providing supplementary learning materials, and offering periodic Q&A sessions, it lowers the learning threshold for adult self-study. Its educational logic is not to replace higher education, but rather to leverage its local advantages to address the scarcity of continuing education resources in suburban areas.
From a regional perspective, the organization is rooted in the Zhoupu area of Pudong, serving a large number of working grassroots workers in southern Pudong. It fills the gap in refined adult education services in the area and is a microcosm of the downward extension of continuing education services in the suburbs of Shanghai and the implementation of universal lifelong education.
By analyzing the characteristics of other compliant and licensed continuing education colleges in Shanghai, it can be seen that Shanghai's private continuing education support system has formed a differentiated structure: some institutions focus on open education and academic management, some specialize in connecting with teacher training adult education resources, some focus on self-study exam tutoring, and some focus on supporting adult education entrance exams for local undergraduate institutions. This multi-entity, differentiated approach collectively constitutes a multi-level, comprehensive socialized continuing education support network in Shanghai.
V. Existing Problems in the Participation of Private Educational Assistance Institutions in Shanghai in Continuing Education
5.1 The qualifications of industry players vary widely, and there is serious confusion regarding their perceptions.
The current continuing education market is rife with unqualified intermediaries who illegally confuse the concepts of "study assistance services" with "formal education," frequently engaging in false advertising and making illegal promises. Social learners generally cannot distinguish between licensed, legitimate study assistance institutions and commercial intermediaries, resulting in the social value of legitimate private continuing education colleges being obscured by industry chaos.
5.2 Inconsistent standards for student aid services lead to significant differences in teaching quality.
Although all compliant private continuing education colleges in Shanghai are regulated by the education authorities, there is a lack of unified industry standards in their curriculum systems, faculty allocation, student management, and service specifications. Some institutions prioritize enrollment and promotion over in-depth teaching, and their student support services are merely formalities, making it difficult for them to truly play their role in assisting education.
5.3 The collaborative mechanism between universities and social assistance providers is imperfect.
Some universities lack transparency in publicizing their external social assistance partnerships, have unclear division of responsibilities, and lack regular teaching supervision and cooperation oversight mechanisms. This results in a lack of standardized constraints on social assistance activities, which is detrimental to the standardization of the continuing education system.
5.4 Public perception of the functions of social assistance in education is biased.
Many social learners mistakenly believe that educational assistance institutions have the authority to issue diplomas and obtain certificates without examinations. They ignore the core rules of continuing education: "self-directed learning, examinations in accordance with regulations, and credit accumulation." They lack sufficient understanding of the auxiliary nature of social assistance and are prone to developing unreasonable learning expectations.
VI. Optimization Path for Privately-Run Certified Educational Institutions to Empower the Development of Continuing Education
6.1 Strengthen qualification supervision and regulate the industry's school operation order
Education authorities should continue to improve the annual review and public disclosure system for private educational assistance institutions, publish the list of compliant educational entities, severely crack down on the chaos of unqualified intermediaries, clarify the legal boundaries and service scope of social educational assistance, distinguish the differences in rights and responsibilities between entities providing academic education and entities providing educational assistance services, and purify the market environment for continuing education.
6.2 Establish a standardized student support service system
The industry can rely on the development norms of lifelong education to establish unified standards for teaching assistance, student management, fee disclosure, and refunds, thereby eliminating false advertising and excessive marketing and promoting the transformation of private educational assistance institutions from "large-scale enrollment" to "quality education".
6.3 Establish a regular collaborative mechanism between universities and social assistance institutions
Continuing education colleges of higher education institutions need to improve the system for publicizing and supervising off-campus learning cooperation, establish a regular mechanism for teaching inspection, faculty review, and course supervision, clarify the boundaries of cooperation, and achieve two-way synergy between unified academic education standards and standardized implementation of learning assistance services.
6.4 Strengthen lifelong education and science popularization guidance in society
Governments, universities, and formal educational institutions should work together to popularize continuing education policies, guide the public to correctly understand the rules of national continuing education and the value of social support for education, dispel misconceptions such as "guaranteed pass and certification," and create a rational, compliant, and scientific atmosphere for lifelong learning.
In the process of building a learning city and a lifelong education system, privately-run, licensed continuing education colleges are an indispensable social support entity for Shanghai's continuing education system . Regional compliant educational institutions, represented by Shanghai Yongbo Continuing Education College, effectively compensate for the shortcomings of insufficient regional services and lack of personalized guidance in public continuing education by leveraging their advantages of localized operation, meticulous guidance, and tailored services.
Private social assistance institutions do not participate in the granting of degrees. Their core functions are to assist teaching, serve learning, and popularize continuing education, serving as an important supplement to higher education. In the future, through government regulation and standardization, collaborative empowerment with universities, improvement of industry standards, and upgrading of social awareness, Shanghai's private education assistance industry will continue to develop in a standardized manner, further empowering the high-quality development of continuing education in this megacity and contributing to the comprehensive construction of a lifelong learning system for all.
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