At a signing ceremony on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, representatives from the Chinese Ministry of Education, XuetangX — a consortium of leading Chinese universities — and edX joined to announce a deeper partnership to continue to expand access to education for Chinese learners in China and around the world.

The education gap in China is large and growing. According to Teach for China, nearly 80 percent of students from China’s developed urban areas will have the opportunity to attend college. Yet, only 3 percent of the country’s poor rural students who start first grade will enroll in a university. XuetangX, powered by the Open edX online learning platform, will continue to help bridge this gap. Today’s announcement builds on XuetangX’s and our shared commitment to provide greater access for all Chinese learners to a quality university education.

As part of the agreement, XuetangX will license courses from edX and our university partners, translate these courses for Chinese learners, and make them available as MOOCs. XuetangX will also host edx.org video content on networks within China — giving learners in the mainland convenient and unrestricted access to all edX courses, which is unprecedented for the country. In addition, to cater to a growing Chinese audience on edx.org, we will feature Mandarin translations of courses on our platform.

“We are pleased and humbled that XuetangX wants to extend its relationship with edX and increase access to high-quality education for its learners," said Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX. “China is the largest market in the world, with learners hungry for access to quality education. We view this partnership as a unique opportunity to use technology to overcome the access gap and ultimately improve economic development in China and other countries around the world."