Institutional Analysis On Discipline Construction In The Local College And University In Western China

Discipline construction is the core of higher institutions'development, and it is also concerned by both theoretical research and practice. With the guidance of national key programs construction system, the national discipline construction system in higher education institutions has been established and improved gradually, and especially propelled by the evaluation on key disciplines. The construction of key disciplines began with the adjustment of departments and colleges in China in 1950s and has further developed during the three evaluation processes on key disciplines since 1986, which suggest that it is not only an inevitable choice for the development of disciplines to construct key disciplines, but also a result of the design of discipline construction system. In the practice of discipline construction, the regular and systematic evaluation criteria and the social reputation of the review on key disciplines, the particular influence of key disciplines construction on talents cultivation, scientific research and social service, and the legitimatised construction mechanism endowed by government, all make key disciplines construction system the general reference frame for the disciplines construction system. Undoubtedly, the criteria and requirements of key disciplines construction does not necessarily fit for all the higher education institutions, but generally speaking, among the higher education institutions, the discipline construction is still based upon the criteria and pattern of the key disciplines construction. Therefore, the discipline construction in different higher education institutions tends to be similar and tends to develop in certain pattern, which not only becomes a system barrier of discipline construction, but also becomes the fundamental reason of the problem that existed in the discipline construction of the higher education institutions in western China.The reason why the key disciplines construction pattern is mocked by local college and university in China lies in the following aspects: in terms of institutional analysis, on the one hand, the path dependence in system changes reduced the cost of discipline construction system; on the other hand, the mimetic mechanism strengthens the value orientation of discipline construction. At the same time, the gathering of good-quality resources and the promotion of social reputation that resulted from the key disciplines construction urged and attracted the local college and university to imitate the pattern of key disciplines construction, to clarify, realize and improve the discipline construction system. It is necessary to borrow, learn and even imitate the key disciplines construction system at the initial stage of discipline construction for the local college and university. However, without proper discipline location and ignoring the real situation, dependent imitation will probably become an obstacle for the discipline construction. For the local college and university in Western China, due to the lack of finance and talents, and weak foundation, mere imitation is harmful, for it cannot help shape the institutions'featured disciplines and advantages, and even make the institutions lose their direction and goal of discipline construction that is featured with Western region and culture.The gap between the local college and university in Eastern China and Western China resulted from the different institutional environments, including interior environment and exterior environment of discipline construction, both of which have influences on the discipline construction. Compared with the local college and university in Eastern China, the interior environments of the local college and university in Western China such as discipline setting, institutions'size, level, outlay and some other conditions are comparatively weaker. Meanwhile, the local college and university in Western China are surrounded with special exterior environments, for example, the special policy environment, special economic environment and special culture environment. Affected by the change of central power distribution and the local educational department, the local college and university in Western China, on the one hand, can obtain supply from central China government, on the other hand, are under the direct management of local government, which result in ambiguous boundary between the subjects that provide the institutions or system for the local college and university and drifting goals, also lead to a fall between the"intended institution supply"and"actual institution supply"from central China government to help construct disciplines in the local college and university in Western China, and therefore produces an imbalance between the demand and supply of institutions. Meanwhile, due to the influence of informal institution in the system transformation, and the decentralization of group interests, in terms of the discipline construction in higher education institutions, the cultural conflict increased and the goal of institution demand becomes out of focus.Several suggestions are provided to solve the problems for the discipline construction of local college and university in Western China. First, policy support from central China government is necessary to create a good policy environment for the discipline construction in the higher education institutions located in Western China. Second, based on the characteristics of the industry structure adjustment and the social development need, the local college and university in Western China should try to break the boundaries between different disciplines and properly integrate the disciplines, to meet the economic and social development need in Western China. Finally, the local college and university in Western China need take full advantage of the cultural feature of Western China——"nationality", further cultivate the abundant and deep culture in Western China, be open to different culture from outside, and develop featured and distinct disciplines with advantages to some extent. As a conclusion, it is a rational and inevitable choice for the discipline construction of the local college and university in Western China to change concepts, locate themselves properly, aim at the local region, and emphasize their own distinct features.