TCT Education of Disabilities, 2005 Vol. 4 (1)
Toward Building and Developing Applied Higher Education for the Disabled Persons
Qu Xueli
College of Special Education of Beijing Union University
In 2000, the College of Special Education of Beijing Union University was established and began to receive disabled students. During the five years from 2000 to 2004, the College saw a rapid development. So far, it has accumulated some experience in the provision of applied programs for the disabled persons, the training of disabled students for applied purposes and the practice of building an institute of applied higher education for the disabled. The College offers 5 four-year programs and 6 three-year programs, which include 8 programs enrolling blind/deaf students nationwide, covering the disciplines of education, medicine, fine art, music, gardening, electronic and computer. The College currently has over 700 students. With the disabled and non-disabled students under adult education programs included, the total number of students in the College has reached nearly 1000.
The College of Special Education has always stuck to the principle of building and developing applied higher education for the disabled, with a focus on the improvement of the educational quality. The College has trained a large number of qualified disabled students during the past few years.
I. Current situations of the higher education for the disabled in China and its orientation
Currently, the higher education for the disabled in China specifically refers to a special type of education for people with disability in sight, hearing or limbs. Such education can be classified into the following four basic categories:
Category One: Young disabled persons, the majority of whom are handicapped in limbs or slightly blind/deaf, are enrolled in common schools of higher learning, where they study along with students who are sound in mind and body;
Category Two: Common schools of higher learning establish colleges of special education to offer programs of special education. By adopting a system of separate exams and separate enrollment, such colleges/programs are intended exclusively for young students who are blind/deaf or have disability in limbs;
Category Three: A certain number of intermediate vocational schools offer three- year programs for the disabled in collaboration with institutions of adult higher education;
Category Four: Higher education programs for the disabled are offered through Self-teaching Exam Programs, TV universities (or Internet colleges), etc.
Among the above four categories, Category Two and Category Three are the main
types of special education for the disabled people in China. There are approximately
40 schools under these two categories, which have a total enrollment of about 3000
What should be the orientation of the above-mentioned special education?
Common higher education can be divided into three main types: academic type, teaching type and applied type. The applied-type education should be considered most suitable for the disabled persons. Therefore, considering the level of education of most disabled people and their technical capability, the applied higher education can serve to upgrade the disabled people's level of education more rapidly, thus enabling them to master the most-needed skills in order to improve their employment rate and to enhance their own self-confidence. Furthermore, the lack of ability in one aspect can help the disabled persons to acquire better capability in other aspects, such as designing and operational techniques, which will provide a foundation for them to receive training in applied higher education programs. The provision of applied higher education programs for the disabled people has made it possible for them to realize their wishes of making contributions to and creating values for the society and to realize their personal values as well.
II. Applied programs — First of all, applied programs for the disabled are programs provided in consideration of the physiological/psychological features of the disabled as well as the employment opportunities and vocational skills required by such job vacancies. Secondly, the curriculum of the applied programs should cover the applied knowledge and skills required for manufacturing, service, management, designing and other similar jobs. The knowledge and practical operational skills acquired by the students under such programs are in accordance with the requirement of the society:
this forms the biggest characteristic of such applied programs. Thirdly, the applied education should aim to train high-level talents who can handle technical application in different vocational positions.
The College's programs in art designing, advertisement designing, gardening, etc.
highlight the feature of practical application. The art designing program aims to enable the disabled students to acquire various practical operational skills in computerized graphic design, packing, font and sculpture design. Courses for technical application training are added to the curriculum, which mainly include: three compositions, graphic composition, graphic design, font design, metalworking, wood carving, knitting, clay sculpture, layout design, imaginary composition and commercial drawing, packing design, book design, symbol design, poster design, CAD design, photography and dark room techniques, etc. Meanwhile, more courses are offered for the training of practical skills of the disabled students. For this purpose, the College has built computerized graphic design labs, where the students can operate various tools and instruments for computer graphic design, design and produce all kinds of billboards and master the methods and techniques of design/production as required by their future occupations.
The College also offers a program of gardening with a focus on skill application. The
courses in gardening are incorporated with work in the fields, where the teachers and
the students can learn to master vocational knowledge and operational skills through
the practice of planting and cultivating. In this way the students can acquire both
professional knowledge and applied skills/techniques.
Toward Building and Developing Applied Higher Education for the Disabled Persons
III. Training of applied talents The applied talents are the high-level technical and managerial personnel working on the frontline of production, business operation, management and service. This type of personnel is the most needed in China. The talents can be generally classified into two types, ie. academic talents and applied talents. With regard to the higher education for the disabled, in consideration of the physiological handicap of the disabled people, the higher education for the disabled should be oriented toward training applied talents — except for the few top-notched who study in common schools of higher learning. To fulfill this purpose, the training of applied vocational skills must be further reinforced. In terms of the task and function of the job, the applied talents can then be classified into three types, namely, engineering personnel, technical personnel and skill-type personnel. The goal of higher education for the disabled should be the training of technical personnel, whose mission is to implement, on the frontline of production, the engineering design, planning and decision (in a broad sense) formulated by the engineering-type personnel in order to transform such factors into material products, hence bringing benefits directly to the society. Technical personnel differ from skill-type personnel in that the former work mainly in the fields of technical application and often take a leading/organizational responsibility in the course, whilst the latter will usually rely on manual operational skills in their work. Take the acupuncture program for the blind as an example.
Whether it will train massagers or massage doctors will serve to manifest the difference between technical personnel and skill-type personnel. Massagers may know a little — or nothing at all — about medicine. They can take a job after a few months of training — short of acquiring a capability to make diagnosis and treatment on diseases. In contrast, the TCM Massage Program aims to train massage doctors, who can not only perform medicinal massage but also have the ability to diagnose and treat certain orthopedic diseases as well as some diseases in the fields of internal medicine, pediatrics and gynecology. This is a definition of the goal for the applied higher education for the disabled.
Efforts should be made to cultivate disabled students into applied talents. Speaking of the mode of talent training, the aim should be to cultivate the disabled students' technical capabilities and to strengthen their application and creative ability. Reforms should be brought into the courses and contents of the programs for the disabled students in order to meet the students' demand for acquiring professional skills as well as career developmental skills. Meanwhile, the general rule of higher education for the blind/deaf students should be further studied. We should make efforts to fulfill the integration of the disabled and the non-disabled students. The teaching methodology with an incorporation of the disabled and the non-disabled should be adopted to train high-level professionals working in the field of special education and top-notched disabled students.
IV. Building applied-type schools of higher learning for the disabled
Since its establishment, the College of Special Education has always upheld the
principle of innovation and creation and has formed its own characteristics and
advantages. Through the promotion of an integration of teaching, applied research and
rehabilitation of the disabled people, the College has been turned into a school of
applied higher education for the disabled students.
— employing teachers experienced both in teaching and application;
— organizing various kinds of community activities; arranging young volunteer service for the community; providing free medical service for the community;
— cultivating a sound campus culture through the integration of the disabled and the non-disabled in both study and everyday life, thus preparing the disabled people well for their future incorporation into the society;
— organizing the students' participation in skill competitions of the disabled held at Beijing and national levels;
— teaching the disabled students how to improve their own psychological character and social adaptation;
— cultivating the students' technical and literary skills as required by the society.
During the past few years, graduates from this College have been very popular with the employers. Their employment rate has been steadily rising — it is particularly the case with the blind students, whose employment rate has reached 100%.
The College has a broad and close link with the special/common educational resources in Beijing, which has provided us not only with a source of students and a research base, but also with a base for the study, internship, practice and employment for our students. This is an advantage not available in similar colleges anywhere else.
Furthermore, the College is located in the Chinese capital of Beijing, possessing advantages in geographical terms and having access to abundant trainer resources. The majority of state-level special education scholars and experts are working in Beijing, while Beijing Union University itself provides abundant professional resources.
In recent years, the College has built a close cooperative relationship with China Disabled Persons' Federation and the Disabled Persons' Federations at the provincial level. Through the existing links with overseas schools of special education and institutions of rehabilitation for the disabled, the College has sent trainers and administrative personnel to those organizations for theoretical study and exchange of practical experience as well. The College and China Disabled Persons' Federation have jointly established China's first technical institution of hearing and verbal rehabilitation.
The College has undertaken several substantive programs of cooperation and exchange
with institutions in the United States, Korea and Japan. As the College has an ever
growing space for international cooperation, we should seize the opportunity to develop
our strength by making use of outside resources. Meanwhile, we have invited overseas
experts in the field of special education to give lectures in the College. We also hold
academic seminars in the College. So far, several scholars and experts in education for
the mentally retarded have come from the United States and Taiwan for academic
visits to the College. Some well-known experts in research on the supported
employment of the mentally retarded have given lectures on the issue of employment
of the retarded and on the latest development in the relevant concept and practice. The
College has built a close link with international experts. We aim to further strengthen
the link with the outside world in the fields of cooperative teaching programs and
rehabilitation and research projects. We shall also discuss on new potential modes of
cooperation. With the government input as the mainstream resources, we shall make
Toward Building and Developing Applied Higher Education for the Disabled Persons
