An evaluation of the teaching quality in China's higher education institutions will be conducted every five years, said Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji hereTuesday while unveiling China's first higher education teaching evaluation center.

A system for the annual release of data on teaching was also instituted Tuesday.

Rather than ranking universities, the evaluation aims to publicize the "teaching process," said Zhou.

Education departments will join hands with industry associations to evaluate professional education at the universities, said Zhou, adding that the mechanism combining professional evaluation, certification and certificate granting will ensure quality education.

The evaluation center will produce evaluation reports with one of four grades: excellent, good, qualified and unqualified, Zhou said.

The center will use some traditional appraisal methods, such as measuring graduate employment rate, and will review data on teaching status submitted by each university and overrule any fraudulent data.

Liu Fengtai, director of the center, said that with this large-scale, recurring evaluation practice, China will establish institutionalized evaluation systems to upgrade China's education level.

Apart from improved assessment, the evaluation center also distinguishes itself in terms of capital and evaluation standard, said Wu Qidi, Chinese vice minister of education. A special fund will be set up to pay for the evaluation process, he noted.

Evaluations of key universities will involve foreign experts, he said.

It is learned that this is the first time China has set up a specialized education evaluation center, although the assessment on the teaching of higher institutions was initiated in 1994.

By the end of 2003, the Chinese Ministry of Education had conducted evaluations on 296 universities, with 16 graded excellent and 192 qualified.