gaokao
The gaokao is the very competitive national exam that every Chinese student with a high school degree, willing to access the university, needs to pass^[ Socio-Economic Development in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, p.189]
# Minority bonus points (Affirmative Action)
Enrolment of Uyghur and other minority students in universities is subject to preferential policies that favour the minorities as compared with Han Chinese in terms of admission quotas and minimum scores required in the National Higher Education Entrance Examination(gaokao).^[A wide range of factors determines the required Entrance Examination scores for minorities. These factors vary annually and concern the student’s home region, ethnicity, courses of study followed in high school, preferred program of study ininstitution of higher education, and admission quota set annually by the central authorities.] The Han Chinese increasingly resent these policies,^[Benson(2004), p.208; Grose(2008), p.123.] and a public debate is emerging about ending what many Han see as a system of reverse discrimination against the majority.^[See Brophy(2013), passim.]^[Uyghur Texts in Context: Life in Shinjang Documented from Public Spaces, p. 39]