Military Institutional Education

Under the unified leadership of the CMC, the PLA institutional education is managed at two levels: by the general headquarters/departments and by the military area commands (Navy, Air Force or Second Artillery Force). The four general headquarters/departments provide overall guidance for all PLA educational institutions, and the General Staff Headquarters administers military education. The development goal of military educational institutions is to establish and improve a new school system with distinct military features to shift priority from education of officer candidates for academic credentials to pre-assignment education. The new system takes pre-assignment educational institutions as the main form, and makes a distinction between these two types of education. The PLA has 67 military educational institutions, which are divided into two types: those for academic credentials and those for pre-assignment education. The former offers undergraduate education for pre-commission officers and graduate education for officers. The latter consists of elementary, intermediate and advanced level institutions and NCO schools, and offers pre-assignment training and rotational training for active-duty officers and NCOs. Some pre-assignment educational institutions also offer graduate courses in military science. At the same time, 112 regular institutions of higher learning in China undertake the task of training defense students, thus gradually increasing the number of military officers trained in civilian educational institutions.

The PLA endeavors to improve the overall performance of military educational institutions through focused and coordinated development. It has launched a project for establishing key military colleges and schools in the 11th Five-Year Plan period. It continues to focus efforts on building a number of institutions and research centers for disciplines and specialties that are important in building an informationized military and winning informationized wars. A new round of reform in teaching is underway to improve the training target models for officers in different fields and at different levels, and to develop new programs and curricula for the training of military personnel. The PLA is also improving the information network for military training, and has built more virtual laboratories, digital libraries and digital campuses to provide distance learning and online teaching and training. In graduate education, the focus is shifted from academic-oriented to practice-oriented, from emphasis on quantity to emphasis on quality, and from a relatively closed-door approach to a more open and diversified approach. The PLA now has 41 educational institutions authorized to award doctor's degrees and 60 to award master's degrees.

Management System of Military Cadres

In 2005, the PLA began to reform the evaluation, selection and appointment system for military cadres, and to institute a system to evaluate commanding officers. It conducts both evaluation and examination in selecting leading officers at the level of deputy regimental commanders for combat troops. It has improved the regulations on reserve cadres, and works to establish a long-term mechanism to select and train outstanding young cadres. In March 2006, with the approval of the CMC, the four general headquarters/departments jointly promulgated the Provisions of the PLA on Rewarding Technical Experts, which gives awards and allowances to military technical experts.

In June 2005, the State Council and the CMC promulgated the Regulations of the PLA on Contract Civilians, deciding to introduce a system of employing contract civilians to fill some support posts in the military, so that active-duty officers, who are limited in number, mainly take up command and combat posts. The regulations contain specific provisions on the nature and status of contract civilians, the procedures of their employment, and the coordination of the civil and military authorities' relevant policies. In 2006, the PLA started the employment of contract civilians.

Officers and noncommissioned officers transferred to civilian work are resettled in one of the following two ways: state-planned job assignment, and finding jobs by themselves. The State Council has an office for overseeing the nationwide resettlement of such officers. The provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government) have corresponding offices for resettling such officers in their respective administrative areas. The General Political Department is in charge of PLA-wide transfer of officers and NCOs to civilian work, and Party committees and political organs at and above the regiment level are responsible for transferring officers to civilian work in their own units. The provincial military commands (garrison commands at the same level) are responsible for turning over PLA officers and NCOs transferred to civilian work in their respective provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central Government. In 2005, the state and the PLA began to deepen the reform and adjustment of the policies on resettling officers and noncommissioned officers transferred to civilian work.