Studies On The Operation Mode Of The Elite College Of Undergraduates In Chinese Universities On The Basis Of Multi-case Analysis

Regardless of the nationality or field, elites have always been the pillars of a society, playing a leading role in promoting the development and progress of the society. The consequence would be unbearable if a society lost or failed to cultivate elite groups. However, cultivating elites has been the most important social function and historical mission of universities, and a significant symbol of measuring the quality of running universities. Thus, how to nurture elites remains the permanent theme of university reforms. Particularly, it has become a national strategic issue in the current Chinese universities. A case in point is the "Qian Xuesen's question" - why can't the Chinese universities cultivate outstanding talents as always?Against this backdrop since the implementation of the reform and opening-up a great many Chinese universities have set up a kind of special organizations at the undergraduate stage to carry out the pilot reforms of cultivating elites. Nevertheless, with the advent of mass higher education, these organizations have gradually been upgraded as colleges, thus becoming an important component for cultivating undergraduate talents. Here these organizations are entitled "the elite college of undergraduates", whose practice has a far-reaching impact on the elite education of the Chinese universities.As an explorative organization, the elite college of undergraduates is a special organization that springs up during the process of the undergraduates'teaching reform and is oriented towards cultivating undergraduate elites. Different from the conventional educational organization which is divided by disciplines and majors, it has gradually formed its unique organizational targets, structures, power and advantages. In short, the elite college of undergraduates has shaped its own "operation mode" in its development.Case study applies to the research on the issues related to the elite college of undergraduates. Through the description of five pairs of relations in the process of running the elite college of undergraduates, namely, the conventional and the modern, the administrative and the academic, the formal and the substantial, the partial and the whole, the visible and the invisible, a single-case analysis report on five different modes of cultivating elites is formed. The five modes analyzed and summarized are as follows: "mixed mode" of Zhukezhen College of Zhejiang University, "general educational mode" of Fudan College of Fudan Univerisy, "the discipline mode" of Kuangyaming College of Nanjing University, "free educational mode" of Yuanpei College of Peking University, and "active practice mode" of Qiming College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Each university's elite college of undergraduates has developed its unique "operation mode".Cross-case analysis reports are made on the basis of the single-case analysis. As an explorative organization, the elite college of undergraduates is aimed at cultivating elites which meet the demands of the society through exploring new modes of cultivating undergraduates. It is an interdisciplinary and cross-department organization of educational administration, the organizational structure of which differs from the educational organizations which are divided by disciplines and majors. Its organizational power comes from the power mode focused on administrative power and assisted by academic power.Through analysis and summary of the operation mode of each elite college of undergraduates, three core elements are followed when the elite colleges of undergraduates are running. First, the conventional mode of major education is broken. The concept of cultivating talents shifts from "major-oriented" to "students-oriented". Through changing teaching methods, granting students freedom of making choice, new modes of different characteristics to cultivate talents are explored. Second, academic advantages are accumulated. By relying on powerful administration and focusing on the advantageous academic resources of each university, coupled with academic forces, both a visible and an invisible academic atmosphere is created, laying academic foundation for making the undergraduate elites stand out. Third, ongoing transforms are carried out incrementally. Supported by the tradition of running universities and disciplinary advantages, explorations and practice are made regionally. Based on the historical experience, in-depth teaching reforms are carried out in terms of individualized talents cultivation while organizational transforms are being pushed ahead with.Though legal, purposeful and consistent with law to some extent, the establishment and operation of elite college of undergraduates are still confronted with two problems. One is the organizational autonomy of the elite college of undergraduates. The other is the individualized cultivation of elites. All these make it necessary to consolidate the privilege of elite colleges of undergraduates in terms of institutional design. In this way, the special zone of instrucitonal reform can be made special in a real sense.The learner-oriented and in-depth instrucitonal reforms of undergraduates are carried out at the same time.