Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators
Regular Institutions of Higher Learning refer to
educational establishments set up according to the government evaluation and
approval procedures, enrolling graduates from senior secondary schools and
providing higher education courses and training for senior professionals. They
include full-time universities, colleges, high professional schools, high
professional vocational schools and others.
Universities and colleges are mainly
providing undergraduate courses; those high professional schools and high
professional vocational schools are mainly providing professional trainings;
and others refer to educational establishments, which are responsible for
enrolling students but not covered in the total number of schools, including:
branch schools of universities and colleges, and universities and colleges that
have been proved and prepared to construct.
Institutions of Higher Learning for Adults refer to
educational establishments, set up in line with relevant rules approved by the
government, enrolling staff and workers with senior secondary school or
equivalent education, and providing higher education courses in many forms of
correspondence, spare time, or full time for adults. Professionals thus trained
receive a qualification equivalent to graduates studying regular courses at
regular universities, colleges and professional colleges. Institutions of
higher learning for adults include schools of high education for staff and
workers, schools of high education for peasants, colleges for management
cadres, pedagogical colleges, independent correspondence colleges, Radio and TV
universities and other educational establishments. Other educational
establishments are responsible for enrolling adult students but not covered in
the number of schools.
Enrollment Rate of Primary School Age
Children refers to the proportion of school age children enrolled at
schools to the total number of school age children both in and outside schools
(including retarded children, but excluding blind, deaf and mute children). The
formula is:
Enrollment Rate of Primary School-age
Children = (Total Primary School-age Children at Schools)/(
Government Appropriation for Education refers to
state budgetary fund for education, taxes and fees collected by governments at
all levels that are used for education purpose, education fund for
enterprise-run schools, income from school-run enterprises, work-study programme and social services that are used for education
purpose.
Budgetary Fund for Education refers to
education fund that is planned to allocate to various schools and education
institutions by central and local financial departments at various levels
within the reference year, which is within the state budgetary expenditure,
including: appropriate funds for education, science and research, capital
construction and others.
Scientific and Technological Activities
(S&T Activities) refer to organized activities which are
closely related with the creation, development, dissemination and application
of the scientific and technical knowledge in the fields of natural sciences,
agricultural science, medical science, engineering and technological science,
humanities and social sciences (referred to as scientific and technological
fields). S&T activities can be classified in to 3 categories: research and
development (R&D) activities, application of R&D results, and related
S&T services. This statistical definition is made by UNICHIEF for
scientific and technological activities to meet the need of carrying out
statistical work in this field for its member countries in particular those
developing countries.
Personnel Engaged in S&T Activities refer to
personnel directly engaged in S&T activities, in the management of S&T
activities, and in providing direct service to S&T activities, who spend
over 10% of the total working hours in a year in S&T activities. (1)
Personnel directly engaged in S&T activities include researchers,
engineers, technicians and other related personnel engaged in S&T
activities in independent-accounting R&D institutions, institutions of
higher learning, and in research institutes, laboratories, technology
development centers and central experiment workshops under enterprises and
institutions. Also included are people working in S&T research project
teams, professional and technical personnel working in S&T information
archiving institutes, and graduate students working on the design of their
thesis. (2) Personnel engaged in the management of S&T activities and in
providing direct service to S&T activities include senior management people
responsible for S&T activities in independent-accounting R&D
institutions, S&T information archiving institutes, institutions of higher learning, and in enterprises and institutions where S&T
activities are undertaken. Also included are people responsible for the
planning, administration, personnel management, financial management, logistics
supply, equipment maintenance, information and library management that are
related with S&T activities. People providing indirect services are
excluded, such as security, medical service, drivers, plumbers, cleaners and
those providing catering and related service. This indicator reflects the size
of personnel engaged in S&T activities.
Scientists and Engineers refer to
persons engaged in S&T activities who have
obtained titles of senior and middle level professional positions, and those
without such position but have completed university or higher education. This
indicator reflects the quality of personnel engaged in S&T activities.
Research and Development (R&D) refers
to systematic and creative activities in the field of science and technology
aiming at increasing the knowledge and using the knowledge for new application.
R&D includes 3 categories of activities: basic research, applied research
and experiments and development. The scale and intensity of R&D are widely
used internationally to reflect the strength of S&T and the core competitiveness
of a country in the world.
Basic Research refers to empirical
or theoretical research aiming at obtaining new knowledge on the fundamental
principles of phenomena of observable facts to reveal the nature and law of
movement of objects and to acquire new discoveries or new theories. Basic
research takes no specific or designated application as the aim of the
research. Results of basic research are mainly released or disseminated in the
form of scientific papers or monographs. This indicator reflects the original innovation
capacity of knowledge.
Applied Research refers to creative
research aiming at obtaining new knowledge on a specific objective or target.
Purpose of the applied research is to identify the possible use of results from
basic research, or to explore new (fundamental) methods or new approaches.
Results of applied research are expressed in the form of scientific papers,
monographs, fundamental models or invention patents. This indicator reflects
the exploration of ways to apply the results of basic research.
Experiments and Development refer to
systematic activities aiming at using the knowledge from basic and applied
researches or from practical experience to develop new products, materials and
equipment, to establish new production process, systems and services, or to
make substantial improvement on the existing products, process or services.
Results of experiment and development activities are embodied in patents,
exclusive technology, and monotype of new products or equipment. In social
sciences, experiment and development activities refer to the process of
converting the knowledge from basic or applied researches into feasible programmes (including conduct of demonstration projects for
assessment and evaluation). There are no experiment and development activities
in the science of humanities. This indicator reflects the capability of
transferring the results of S&T into technique and products, which is the
materialized measurement of S&T pushing forward the economic and social
development.
R&D Personnel refer to
persons engaged in research, management and supporting activities of R&D,
including persons in the project teams, persons engaged in the management of
S&T activities of enterprises and supporting staff providing direct service
to the research projects. This indicator reflects the size of personnel engaged
in R&D activities with independent intellectual property.
Full-time Equivalent of R&D Personnel refers
to the sum of the full-time persons and the full-time equivalent of part-time
persons converted by workload. For instance, if there are 2 full-time persons
and 3 part-time workers (20%, 30% and 70% of working hours respectively on
R&D activities), the full-time equivalent is
2+0.2+0.3+0.7=3.2 person-years. This is an internationally comparable indicator
of input of personnel in S&T activities.
Professional and Technical Personnel refer to
persons engaged in professional and technical work or in the management of
professional and technical activities, i.e., people with professional or
technical positions who are engaged in professional and technical work or in
the management of professional and technical activities, and people without
professional or technical positions but are working on professional or
technical posts. They include professionals and technicians working in 17
categories of technical occupations including engineering, agriculture,
scientific researches, medical service, teaching, economic research and
application, accounting, statistics, translation, libraries, archives, cultural
and museum service, journalism and publication, lawyers, notarization service,
radio and television broadcasting, handicraft and fine arts, sports, performing
art, and political workers in enterprises. This indicator reflects the
condition of human resources in S&T.
Funding for S&T Activities refers
to funds obtained from various sources for S&T activities, including
government funds, self-raised funds by enterprises, self-raised funds by
institutions, loans from financial institutions, foreign funds and other funds.
This indicator reflects the efforts made by various social economic entities in
promoting the development of S&T.
Government Funds refer to funds
obtained from government agencies at all levels to be used for S&T
activities, including fund for scientific undertakings, 3 kinds of fund for
S&T activities, fund for capital construction for scientific researches,
science fund, funds from education expenditures by education departments for
S&T activities, and extra-budget fund from government agencies for S&T
activities.
Self-raised Funds by Enterprises refers
to self-raised funds by enterprises from their own expenditure or from other
enterprises and funds received by universities or research institutions from
enterprises for scientific research or technical development projects. Excluded
in this category are funds from government agencies, financial institutions or
from foreign institutions.
Loans from Financial Institutions refer to
loans from various financial institutions for S&T activities.
Internal Expenditures on S&T activities refer to
the actual expenditures on S&T activities during the reference year,
including service fees, expenditure on research activities, expenditure on
research management, purchase or construction of fixed assets not included in
the investment for capital construction, expenditure on capital construction
for scientific researches, and other expenditures on S&T activities. Not
included are expenditure on production activities, repayment of loans and
transfer expenditure. This indicator reflects the real accomplishment of input
in S&T.
Service Fees refer to direct or
indirect payment, in cash or in kind, made to personnel engaged in S&T
activities as remuneration and other fees. They include, in various forms,
salaries, subsidies, bonus, benefits, retirement pension, stipend, etc. This
indicator reflects the improvement of treatment toward S&T personnel.
Purchase or Construction of Fixed Assets refers
to the fixed assets purchased or constructed using funds other than the investment
in capital construction, and the actual expenditure on capital construction for
scientific researches. In other words, it is the sum of the actual expenditure
on fixed assets and the accomplished investment in capital construction for
scientific researches. Fixed assets refer to main materials and equipment,
literatures and documents in libraries, materials for experiments, specimen,
instruments, furniture, buildings and constructions that can be used for a long
time without changing the form and shape of those articles or constructions.
This indictor reflects the input in improving the condition of S&T and the
means of scientific research.
New Products refer to new
products produced with new technology and new design, or products that
represent noticeable improvement in terms of structure, material, or production
process so as to improve significantly the character or function of the older
versions. They include new products certified by relevant government agencies
within the period of certification, as well as new products designed and
produced by enterprises within a year without certification by government
agencies. This indictor reflects the direct contribution of S&T output to
economic growth.
Patent is an abbreviation
for the patent right and refers to the exclusive right of ownership by the
inventors or designers for the creation or inventions, given from the patent
offices after due process of assessment and approval in accordance with the
Patent Law. Patents are granted for inventions, utility models and designs.
This indicator reflects the achievements of S&T and design with independent
intellectual property.
Inventions refer to the new
technical proposals to the products or methods or their modifications. This is
universal core indicator reflecting the technologies with independent
intellectual property.
Utility Models refer to the
practical and new technical proposals on the shape and structure of the product
or the combination of both. This indicator reflects the condition of technological
results with certain technical content.
Designs refer to the aesthetics and industrially applicable new
designs for the shape, pattern and color of the product, or their combinations.
This indicator reflects the appearance design achievements with independent
intellectual property.