Generally speaking, a college of education refers to a province or city with the nature of normal education, which is an adult undergraduate college or a secondary college set up in an ordinary college.

Education colleges generally refer to adult undergraduate colleges in provinces and cities with normal nature or secondary colleges set up in ordinary colleges and universities. Independent education colleges are divided into three levels: provincial education colleges, local education colleges and county teachers' further education schools.

Except Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, all provinces, municipalities directly under the Central Government and autonomous regions have established provincial education colleges under the Provincial Education Department.

Expansive material:

Peking University Institute of Education: In 2000, the Institute of Higher Education Science, the Institute of Educational Economics and the Audio-visual Education Center (formerly the Audio-visual Education Group established by 1973) merged to form Peking University Institute of Education.