Online Degree Programs

Online degree programs is ChinaEdu’s core business segment, contributing approximately 80% of our total revenue. We are the largest service provider to online degree programs in China in terms of both the number of higher education institutions and the number of student enrollments.

The Company currently has 19 long-term contracts that generally vary from 10 to 50 years in length.  ChinaEdu also performs recruiting services for 21 universities through nationwide learning center network. All of our universities are well-known top public universities in China. Unlike in some countries, public universities hold the top status over private universities in China. A degree received from a well recognized public university is generally preferred over a degree from a private university or college. In addition, we also have collaborative alliance partnerships with two provincial radio and television universities. The following map shows the footprint of our university partnerships.

Enrollment for 2011 spring semester online degree programs was approximately 159,000 revenue students. For our university partners, we provide courseware development, technology platform development, enrollment services, student support services and finance operations. The universities provide sponsorship for the online college and grant the educational degrees. We are the market leader in providing total solutions for online education.

We currently offer associate and bachelor degrees in a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to, accounting, marketing, finance, business administration, international business, law, civil engineering, education, computer science, literature, project management, marketing and administrative management. Typically an associate degree can be completed in 2 to 3 years and a bachelor degree would require another 2 to 3 years.

For the 19 universities with which we have long-term partnerships, we receive service fees equal to an agreed portion of tuition collected by the university from students in their online degree programs. Eight of these university partnerships are structured as collaborative alliance partnerships, two are Radio and TV University collaborative alliances, four are long term contractual service agreements and three are technology platform agreements (five are awaiting approval from MOE to begin their online degree programs). We have a majority interest in each of these collaborative alliances and consolidate and pay out minority interest for these subsidiaries in our financial statements. For two of the universities, we share approximately 50% of the tuition and expenses, and hence approximately 50% of the profit through long-term exclusive contractual agreements. For the remaining two universities, we receive a fixed portion of the tuition collected and only bear the ongoing technology platform maintenance expenses incurred by us.

BACK TO TOP