China New Higher Education Group Limited Focusing on High-quality Development Continuously, Talent Cultivation and High-quality Employment Achieved Fruitful Results
EQS Newswire / 25/04/2024 / 09:00 UTC+8China New Higher Education Group Limited
Focusing on High-quality Development Continuously,
Talent Cultivation and High-quality Employment Achieved Fruitful Results
(April 25, 2024 - Hong Kong) A leading higher vocational education Group, China New Higher Education Group Limited (“New Higher Education Group”, collectively called the “Group” together with its affiliated companies, stock code: 2001.HK) is pleased to announce the interim results for the six months ended February 29, 2024.
The Group adheres to the path of high-quality development, with the mission of “enabling every student to achieve career success and happiness in life” and the vision of “building the most student-oriented university”. In the past six months, the Group and its affiliated schools seized the “Frontline", who are the direct contact with students, as the most critical aspect, and implemented the "enhancing frontline” action to improve the quality of educational services and optimize and upgrade management, receiving praise from teachers and students and recognition from government authorities. Meanwhile, the Group's results continued to grow steadily. For the six months ended February 29, 2024, the Group's principal revenue increased by 13.8% to RMB 1.31 billion period-on-period, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 10.6% period-on-period to RMB 432 million. The Group maintains payment of its cash dividend for this financial year, which is expected to be on an annual basis, with the dividend payout ratio maintained at 50%.
Continuously deepening the reform of education and teaching, and further enhancing the strength of operating schools
The Group continues to increase investment in high-quality teaching and improves its high-quality capability of operating schools in terms of teaching staff, teaching facilities, teaching classes, program structure, and integration of industry and education. In the Period, the faculty costs increased by 10.5% period-on-period, the number of "dual-teacher" teachers increased by 19%, and the number of "double-high" teachers increased by 25%. The Group carried out the special action of "exploring enterprises, expanding job opportunities, enquiring needs and reforming teaching" and conducted satisfaction surveys of employers, covering 279 majors and 1,756 faculty and staff, collected feedback from students, alumni, and companies and listened to market voices, promoted curriculum reform and teaching reform, and promoted students learning effectiveness. Students won many awards in competitions. Among the 32 nationally recognized competitions, our students won 13 top prizes, a year-on-year increase of 30%; the number of students who passed the cutoff score of the postgraduate entrance examination increased by 31.5% compared with the last year.
The Group continues to optimize the layout of disciplines and majors. The Group has added 7 new undergraduate majors that are urgently needed for national strategies and local regional development. Among them, the major of dentistry, to be offered by Central China School, only 5 institutions nationwide have been approved in 2024 to offer it, with Central China School being the only private institution. The Group added 31 provincial first-class undergraduate courses, of which 7 curriculums have stood out from the provincial competition and been approved to participate in the evaluation of national first-class courses. Eight schools continued to deepen the exploration and practice of the integration of industry and education, established strategic partnerships with 1,156 well-known enterprises, and built 54 modern industrial colleges, more than 210 employment classes for famous enterprises and elite classes, and 1,118 off-campus training bases to cultivate high-quality talents and achieve efficient interaction with regional economic and social development.
Increasing investment in employment and promoting high-quality employment steadily
The Group insists that "high-quality employment is the foundation of a school" and takes multiple measures to promote employment: The Group deepens employment services for graduates to build a high-quality employment team, focuses on supporting the frontline staff to carry out employment publicity, campus recruitment, and other events, and invited lecturers from well-known companies to provide graduates with 185 trainings on interview skills, resume improvement, workplace etiquette to improve employment competitiveness. The Group built three employment and entrepreneurship centers in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region ("Three Centers") to lead high-quality employment for graduates, explored 1,600 famous companies and 18,000 job positions, and cooperated with Huawei, Geely Automobile, and the General Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army (“301 Hospital”) and others. Driven by the Group's "Three Centers", 6,041 graduates of the Class of 2023 were employed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, an increase of 31.3%, of which the number of high-quality employed graduates increased by 73.56%. In the last three years, the number of students working in the above regions has exceeded 17,000.
The employment rate and the proportion of high-quality employment continue to increase. As of December 31, 2023, the final employment rate of 2023 graduates was 96.97%, and the proportion of graduates with high-quality employment reached 27.76%, an increase of 5.8% from the same period last year, of which the number of graduates employed in the Fortune Global 500, China's Top 100, and A-share listed companies increased by 88.06%. The satisfaction of graduates towards the quality of employment has continued to increase, and employers’ recognition of graduates from the Group’s schools has further lifted. 1 out of every 10 graduates from the Northeast school was employed by Fortune 500 companies; 1 out of every 3 graduates from the Gansu school was employed by central enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and Fortune Global 500 companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec, and State Grid. "Excellent employment" has become a famous business card of the Group.
Carrying out the "Enhance Frontline" action, significantly improving the satisfaction of students and teachers
The Group paid great importance to the experience of students and teachers, and the proportion of students with high satisfaction reached 84%, an increase of 12ppt. In the new academic year, the Group comprehensively improved the students’ and teachers’ experience into the "Enhance Frontline", and students’ and teachers’ satisfaction continued to increase. The schools of the Group continue to create a series of brand "Peak Experience" activities, integrating intangible cultural heritage and folk custom elements, and students' popularity increased by 14%. It attracted more than 100 mainstream media reports such as CCTV, Xinhuanet and People's Daily Online, and the cumulative exposure exceeded 100 million times. The Group continues to carry out experiential activities such as "I Do Practical Things for Students and Teachers" and "Principal's Reception Day", and encourages and supports students and teachers to participate in campus construction. For example, the Guizhou school publicly solicited opinions from students and teachers on the naming of the new student apartment, attracting 2,005 students and teachers to participate in the vote. The Group continues to explore new asset operation models and directly cooperates with domestic first and second-tier brands to attract well-known brands such as Haidilao and McDonald's to enter the campus. By investing RMB 281 million, the Group strives to create a first-class educational environment, such as upgrading and renovating teaching facilities such as libraries and teaching buildings, greening and beautifying the campus environment, enriching student apartments, gymnasiums and other life service scenarios, and comprehensively promoting the visual experience.
Cultivating brand advantages and continuing to optimize student structure
The brand effect is highlighted, while the rankings of the eight schools have improved significantly. For example, Yunnan School, an undergraduate institution of the Group, ranked 10th in the country and 2nd among similar colleges in the province in "2024 China Private University Rankings (Class III) by the Alumni Association"; Luoyang School, avocational college, ranked 27th in the country and 1st among similar colleges in the province in "2024 China Higher Vocational College Rankings (Class II) by the Alumni Association".
The student structure is further optimized. The proportion of undergraduate students in the total number of new students increased by 2ppt, and the proportion of undergraduate students in the total number of enrolled students has increased by 3.4ppt. On this basis, the first-time enrollment admission rate of each school increased by 22.2% year-on-year, the overall utilization rate increased by 9.8% year-on-year, and the minimum admission scores of several schools far exceeded the provincial control line.
Firmly promoting the integration of ESG into the Group’s strategy, and the S&P CSA Rating ranks at the top of the industry
The Group's ESG rating ranks at the top of the industry. In February 2024, the Group received an ESG score of 36 from Standard & Poor’s, ranking 7th in the world and 1st in China in its industry; the Group received an ESG score of 17.6 from Sustainalytics, with a risk rating of low risk. The ESG efforts of the Group and its schools have also been recognized by government departments and the capital market. Yunnan School, Guizhou School and Central China School were selected as "Water-saving Schools"; the Group was awarded the "Best ESG Disclosure Award" in the 8th Zhitong Finance Listed Companies Awards 2023.
The Group actively fulfilled its social responsibilities and practiced educational assistance. In 2023, the Group has subsidized a total of 4,427 impoverished students and exempted the tuition fees of 3,121 students. The amount of subsidy was more than RMB 3 million, and public welfare donations amounted to more than RMB 1 million. The Group continued to undertake training of teachers in key support counties for rural revitalization of the China Association for Promoting Democracy’s "One Heart - Rainbow Action" and "Spring Rain Action", and trained teachers for 27 rural support centers in Yunnan, Guizhou, and other regions.
Insisting on being a long-term runner in the higher vocational education industry, and creating value sustainably and steadily
Looking ahead to the future, the Group will continue to deeply promote the "three sustainability": Continuing to increase investment to create and provide education opportunities with high-quality teaching, high-quality employment and high-quality experience for students of all our schools; Using ESG as a guide and fulfilling ESG concepts to create value in a sustained and steady manner, integrating financial indicators such as stable performance growth, steady investment returns, abundant cash flow, and stable dividends with ESG, thereby realizing long-term benefits and sustainable development, and achieving a win-win situation for both investors and the Group in the long run; Building the most “student-oriented” university to cultivate high-quality applied and technical talents who have comprehensive development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor skills to meet the needs of local economic and social development, so as to assist in the strengthening of a strong country of education and create greater values for the society.
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** About China New Higher Education Group Limited (2001.HK): **
China New Higher Education Group Limited is a leading higher vocational education Group focusing on higher vocational education for 25 years. The Group focuses on providing high-quality higher vocational education in various fields and is committed to cultivating high-quality applied and technical talents for the country, helping students obtain high-level employability and achieve a wonderful life. As a leader of high-quality employment, the schools of the Group have been awarded the “Top 50 National Employment” by the Ministry of Education, and the implementation rates of graduation destinations for four consecutive years have been more than 95%. The Group's educational network has covered multiple provinces and regions, including Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, and Guangxi.
For more information, please visit the Group’s website: https://www.xingaojiao.com
25/04/2024 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS News.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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