BEIJING - Chinese higher learning institutions will face a continuous student shortage, according to a report by Chinese education portal www.eol.cn on Wednesday.

According to the 2014 Report on Investigation of the Gaokao (college entrance exam) enrollment, the number of Gaokao candidates rebounded this year to 9.39 million following a five-consecutive-year slip.

However, the population reaching the age requirement for the Gaokao will shrink to an expected ebb around the year 2020, and even afterwards, the Gaokao candidate population will never reach the previous plateau level, the report said.

Therefore, Chinese higher learning institutions will inevitably face competition for students, reversing the decades-long trend of students jostling for admission spots, the report said.

Though student numbers are decreasing, the percentage of students admitted to colleges is on the rise. In 2013, the share reached a record high of 76 percent.

In the central province of Henan, where the number of Gaokao candidates is among the highest across the nation, the admission rate has soared from 42 percent to 78.2 percent in five years.

Under such circumstances, schools that are not up to standard will face a survival crisis, the report said.

The country's national college entrance examination, the world's largest, is seen by many parents as an important way of changing their children's fate.