The "985 Project": Implementing Efficiency And Factors

Around the twenty first century, governments from lots of different countries in the world established plans on major construction of higher education respectively, which aims to set up some top-ranking universities, high level research universities and academic subjects; and to increases the international competition level of national or regional higher education as well. On the January 13th, 1999, Ministry of Education of the PRC issued"the plan for the revitalization of the 21st century of Education", which indicated the"985 Project"had started up formally. During the first decade of"985 Project", that is first and second phases, the universities under this project have achieved prominent success in plenty of aspects, like the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, the forming of technological innovative capabilities, the service on national economic and social development, and the reform on self-institutional operation, etc. However, the undressed problems are still receiving much attention, including the un-sound administrative operation mechanisms, low-efficient capital allocation and application, imperfect supervisory mechanisms and un-ensured efficiency & quality of the international exchange programs, etc. Based on these shortages above, this paper makes empirical analysis on the resource allocative efficiency of higher education, the productive efficiency of Chinese universities, the operation efficiency of GSJT program, and explores the key elements affect the"985 Project"operation efficiency and performance.Firstly, this paper clearly elaborates the connotation of resource allocation and productive efficiency of the higher education. And based on that, generally introduces the proceeding information about the"985 Project", containing especially the construction of scientific technology innovation platforms and social science innovation centers in the second phase of"985 Project", and the operation situation of the ongoing GSJT program. Then, it takes all-around comparative analysis on the startup, implementing, and existing problems and reform experience of"Brain Korea 21 Project","Japanese21st Century Center of Excellence Program"and"German Universities Excellence Initiative". Aimed at the main problems emerged in the first and second phases of"985 Project", and learning from the instructive international experience, the paper aims to point out a feasible direction for this ongoing project.Secondly, from the economic angle, it examines the resource allocation efficiency of"985 Project", and uses a shift-share analysis to decompose research and teaching productivity growth of universities under"985 project"or not during 2001-2007 into within, between, and covariance three components. The result finds that not only on the scale but also in many aspects of the productive efficiency, especially the obtaining of nation educational expenditure input and government R&D fund, the universities under the"985 Project"always exceed the universities which are not under it but belonging to the Ministry of Education. Though, the university self-productivity growth is the headstream of the development of the higher education sector, we still can not ignore enhancing the fund allocation efficiency which can also advance the whole productive efficiency. At present, though the research resource allocation of Chinese higher education is shifting to a viable direction, we still can not realize the research productive efficiency maximum by allocating fund reasonably.Thirdly, after reviewing the theory basis and current development of the university productive efficiency, the paper infers research and instructions production equations of higher education, and afterward estimates the parameters of the equation by OLS regression and fixed effects models. The study indicates, comparing to other faculties, young faculties have made more promoting contribution to the increase of the university research productive efficiency. Meanwhile, the PHD candidates from the universities under the"985 Project"have higher significant effect on the paper production than the one not under it. For the fund which supports the instruction of master program, the universities under"985 Project"primarily relies on R&D fund, but the universities not under the"985 Project"on the national education expenditure input. Obviously, in the process of master cultivation, the universities under the"985 Project"are more interested in the mechanism mainly focusing on the scientific research, and supplemented by curriculum instruction.Fourthly, this paper carries through an in-depth empirical analysis on the operating situation and implementing efficiency of GSJT program which is a significant important international cooperating program under the"985 Project". For the key phase of this program, students choosing school abroad, we built a demand and supply model and use a unique data set on Chinese visiting students in the US, investigate some non-traditional determinants, such as social networks/connections, on the number of Chinese students hosted in American universities. Applying truncated, OLS, and GLS estimation, we find that social networks/connections have a strong positive and significant effect given the potentially larger cost in searching for information in a foreign country. Such connections become even more important in the context of studying abroad, especially become the essential factor influencing the implementing efficiency of GSJT program, and should be given adequate regards and correct guidance in the future.Lastly, the paper puts forward the policy suggestions on building efficient management system, constructing scientific technology innovation platforms and social science innovation centers, and enstrengthing international cooperation, to enhance the performance of"985 Project"and summarizes all of the chapters.