Beijing plans to relocate some universities from the capital to neighboring cities in the next five years as part of efforts to ease population pressure and promote regional integration.

In its newly released five-year educational plan (2016-2020), the city made it clear it would advance balanced development with Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, shifting out some of its current educational functions, and place a ban on the expansion of tertiary education or building and upgrading of ordinary colleges into higher level institutes.

An official from Beijing Municipal Education Commission said both the location and educational setup of the city's universities would be optimized, vowing to support full relocation of universities, establishing new campuses or opening cooperative programs in suburban areas, Tianjin or Hebei.

Current higher education zones in Liangxiang Township in Beijing's Fangshan District and Shahe Township in Changping District are expected to be further developed, including the hosting of labs and undergraduate education. Former campuses would mainly serve postgraduate education and research innovation.

The scale of vocational schools will also be controlled in Beijing, which aims to decrease the attraction of education among non-Beijing residents and ease pressures brought by transient populations.

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