Hebei province's education authorities reported, on May 6, that they have approved three new colleges for independent academy, this year: the Hebei University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which offers five undergraduate majors and three areas of specialization, in the city of Shijiazhuang, Hebei’s capital; Zhangjiakou College, a successor to Zhangjiakou Education College, which has five undergraduate majors, and 39 areas of specialization, in Zhangjiakou; and Bohai Polytechnic Vocational College. with seven majors, in the city of Cangzhou.

The vocational college allows for a reduction or exemption of tuition if the applicant has a high university entrance exam score. The traditional Chinese medicine university is the only independent school out of 33 in this field in Hebei. It opened in 1958 as a part of Hebei Medical University, then became independent this year. Plans call for it to teach traditional Chinese medicine to 6,000 people, annually, by 2020, at which time the number of majors will increase to 10 and cover pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical engineering.

Of the 6,000 students, 700 will get master's degrees, with 300 coming from overseas, 4,500 undergrads, and the rest junior college students.