Universities reconsider admission after disruption
The Cultural Revolution severely disrupted higher education. Competitive entrance examinations stopped, and recommendation-based admission later selected worker-peasant-soldier students. Teaching, staffing and specialist training required restoration. In 1977 educational discussions returned recruitment and academic study to policy priorities, with Deng Xiaoping supporting examinations. Officials addressed assessment, curricula and timing. Working and sent-down young people regained hopes of university study, while institutions prepared to admit students through a different selection process.
The winter examinations bring varied candidates
About 5.7 million people sat province-organized examinations in winter 1977, and roughly 270,000 gained admission. Candidates included school leavers, workers, farmers and sent-down youths with different ages and experience. Many borrowed textbooks and studied between work shifts or farm tasks. Families helped obtain materials. University classrooms brought together people whose schooling had ended in different years, creating substantial differences in preparation and life experience within the same academic cohorts.
Professional education enters the reform workforce
Students admitted in 1977 and 1978 later worked in education, research, administration and industry. Universities revised curricula, graduate training and staffing. More households organized study around examinations, although regional resources continued shaping opportunity. Admissions subsequently changed further. Academic achievement again became a central recruitment criterion, connecting university training with professional work. Return to study, relocation and new careers made the restoration a lasting part of many families’ accounts of their lives.