Shenzhen is striving to develop a fair, internationalized, and sustaining national education system and life-long learning system, and also stepping up the development of social sciences to provide strong intellectual support for the city's growth.

Invigorating the City through Education

Shenzhen has built up a multi-level education system comprising elementary education, higher education, vocational education and adult education over the past 26 yeas. In August 2004, Shenzhen became the province's first powerhouse city in terms of education. The elementary education is basically balanced and has reached a high level. The city has also provided compulsory education for people with no hukou (permanent residence registration) through multiple channels.

In 2006, the school attendance rate of children aged 3-6 reached 98 percent while the attendance rate of nine-year compulsory education reached 100 percent. The proportion of students entering college through the National College Entrance Examinations was 92 percent, reaching the level of developed countries.

Elementary Education

There were 1,407 schools at different levels in the city by the end of 2006, an increase of 27 over the previous year. The number of graduates totaled 232,500, the number of newly enrolled students reached 297,600, and the number of school attendants amounted to 1,105,200. The city's 758 kindergartens enrolled 152,300 children while the 357 primary schools had 564,900 students.

Higher Education

Shenzhen's higher education has developed rapidly. It has 11 institutes of higher learning, and the University Town has attracted 48 universities to settle down there. In 2006, the city enrolled 17,900 new college students, pushing the total enrollments to 51,200 students.

Shenzhen University

Shenzhen University, a full-time comprehensive university funded by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, was founded in 1983 and started to enroll students the very same year. Situated on the picturesque Shenzhen Bay, the university covers an area of 1.44 square kilometers and boasts a library collection of 2.59 million volumes of books. In 2004, it started a joint program with Huazhong University of Science and Technology to offer Ph.D. degrees. Eighteen local State-owned enterprises are members of its board of directors. Its 13 colleges provide 48 undergraduate programs covering economics, law, literature, engineering and arts. Now the university has a teaching and research faculty of more than 1,100, one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, six academicians employed by two academies, and 37 tutors in the Ph.D. program. In 2006, there were 20,000 full-time undergraduates, 1,600 graduate students, and more than 400 foreign students.

University Town
Since the western campus of the University Town was put into use in 2003, famous universities, such as Qinghua University, Beijing University and Harbin Institute of Technology, have established graduate schools there, enrolling nearly 2,000 full-time graduates.

Southern University of Science and Technology

The preparation work for establishing the Southern University of Science and Technology will begin in 2007.
 
Vocational Education
Shenzhen's higher vocational education has shown rapid growth. Currently, there are three vocational colleges, which boast about 20,000 students, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the city's university and college students.

Shenzhen Poletechnic

Shenzhen Polytechnic is a full-time college providing programs to train highly skilled technicians and management talent. It has 15,528 full-time students as well as more than 1,600 part-time students for adult education. More than 11,740 students have graduated from the college over the past 12 years. The employment rate of its graduates over the past few years has been kept at over 95 percent.

Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology

Funded by the Shenzhen Municipal Government, the Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology was established in 2002. It is a full-time vocational college focusing on electronic information and computer sciences to cater to the development of the city's pillar industries.

Xin'an College
Located on Liyuan Road in Nanshan District, the college has the support of the Nanshan District Government and focuses on training technicians and management workers for the high-tech sector.

Guangdong Jianhua Vocational College

Located in Gongming Township in Bao'an District, the college was founded by democratic parties and Shenzhen Wanghai Yikang Industrial Development Co. Ltd. It offers majors in translation and foreign-related corporate management.

Shenzhen Institute of Technology

Supported by the Shenzhen Municipal Labor Bureau, the institute carries out vocational qualification education and has been chosen as a school for experimenting vocational qualification education and adult education.

International Schools

Shenzhen has five international schools, which include Shekou International School, Shenzhen (Nanshan) Concord College of Sino-Canada, the French school at the Daya Bay, QSI International School, and Shenzhen Oriental English College. It also has three schools for children of Hong Kong people and one school for children of Taiwan people.

Social Science

The city's social science organizations mainly include the Shenzhen Academy of Social Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Party School and China Development Institute (China?Shenzhen), which launch research networks and conduct active academic symposiums and exchange activities.