On April 20,2022, the 34th Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress amended and adopted the Vocational Education Law. The revision clarified the definition of vocational education, emphasizing that vocational schools must not only impart knowledge but also train students' practical skills. The revised law stipulates that vocational education should prioritize industry-education integration and school-enterprise collaboration. This partnership enables resource sharing and complementary advantages between schools and enterprises, creating a "win-win" model. However, the legal recognition of such collaborations has allowed some unqualified enterprises to exploit the "school-enterprise cooperation" label to sign joint education agreements with schools for profit. This raises questions: How should these agreements be legally classified? And if disputes arise during joint education programs, can rights claims be made based on the validity of the contracts?

case share

Source: China Judgments Online, Case No. (2020) Su 01 Min Zhong 480

In 2015, N Technician College and T Company (which lacked educational training qualifications) signed a joint education agreement to establish a virtual internet college and collaborate on talent development. The agreement stipulated that N Technician College would handle general education, while both parties would jointly provide specialized foundational instruction. T Company was responsible for designing admission guidelines, implementing enrollment plans, managing admissions, and delivering skill training to students. T Company would also collect skill development fees. When T Company's annual enrollment reached 300 students, N Technician College would provide a one-time subsidy of 1,000 yuan per student within 10 working days after completing the registration process.

After the agreement was signed, Company T deployed staff to recruit students and hire teachers for instruction. Later, due to Company T's failure to pay salaries and social security contributions for teaching staff, some employees filed complaints. N Technician College covered the related expenses on their behalf. As the settlement of fees under the joint education agreement between N Technician College and Company T became contentious, the college filed a lawsuit, seeking to terminate the agreement and claim compensation for various losses from Company T.

N Technician College's lawsuit was based on the premise of a valid contract, asserting that the joint education agreement constituted a form of school-enterprise cooperation. Both the first and second instance courts ruled the agreement invalid, citing T Company's lack of educational training qualifications and its inability to serve as a legitimate entity for public joint education programs, as it violated mandatory national laws.

Author's view

Article 40 of the Vocational Education Law and Article 7 of the Measures for Promoting the Cooperation between Vocational Schools and Enterprises only give a general description of the ways and contents of the integration of industry and education and the cooperation between schools and enterprises.

Articles 2 and 3 of Article 33 in the Vocational Education Law stipulate that vocational schools must obtain prior administrative approval to acquire operational qualifications. This demonstrates that administrative approval is a prerequisite for obtaining educational rights. If enterprises lacking proper qualifications could bypass the cumbersome approval process through school-enterprise partnerships and thereby indirectly obtain educational rights, the legal pre-approval procedures for establishing vocational schools would become meaningless.

The right to operate educational institutions must be held by entities with proper qualifications. A key manifestation of this right lies in enrollment, tuition collection, and faculty allocation. In the aforementioned case, Company T, lacking the necessary qualifications for education and training, participated in enrollment, fee collection, and teaching management through a joint operation arrangement. This violated the mandatory provisions of Article 33 of the Vocational Education Law, rendering the joint operation agreement with N Technician College invalid.

Legal Link

Article 33 and 40 of the Vocational Education Law

Article 2 and 7 of the Measures for Promoting the Cooperation between Vocational Schools and Enterprises