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.