On Academic Organizations In Universities In View Of The Discipline

Academic organizations in universities such as academic departments, colleges and schools, are important for the survival and development of universities, which are the essential structures in a university. Discipline is the basic unit of universities and the special component of higher education, allowing higher education to differ from other systems. Academic organizations are the formal organizations of knowledge on the basis of the discipline. As formal organizations, in the process of development of schools, academic departments and other academic organizations, how could the discipline exert impacts on the formation, structure and functions of those academic organizations?.The dissertation is attempting to deal with three issues. Firstly, what are the complicated relations between the forms of academic organizations and the development of the discipline, and how to build these academic organizations, according to disciplines, majors or other basic units? Secondly, how does the discipline influence the structural design of academic organizations, and how to design their structures based on the influence? Thirdly, how does the discipline influence the functions of teaching and research in universities, and how to coordinate the functions of teaching and research according to the influence?The thesis composed of five chapters: The introduction discusses the significance of carrying out research in academic organizations of universities, reviews the correlated research progress and the corresponding issues in existence, presents the conceptual frame work of the dissertation, as well as demonstrates the practicability and necessity of the research from the perspective of the discipline. In chapter one, the concept of the discipline is defined, which is the relatively independent system of knowledge. There is a complex relation between the nature of the discipline and the production of knowledge. On the basis of the classifies of disciplines, it is pointed out that two-fold logics guild the survival and development of the discipline, which are intrinsic logic concerning knowledge and extrinsic one involved in external realities. On the basis of illustrating discipline as the basic units of university organization, the thesis analyses disciplinary traits of academic organizations of universities. It is also discussed which impacts and functions of discipline forms are exerted on academic organizations of universities in respects of disciplinary forms, disciplinary legitimation and disciplinary differences.In chapter two, three and four, the thesis specifically explores how the discipline influences the survival and development of academic organizations of universities as an independent variable from three aspects, which can be clarified as disciplinary legitimation restricting the structural design of academic organizations, and disciplinary differences affecting functions of academic organizations. Based on the analysis in the former chapters, some suggestions and countermeasures are presented in chapter five, such as setting up suitable criteria in the establishment of colleges and schools, building the flexible academic organizations, breaking barriers among disciplinary institutionalizations, promoting disciplinary interrelatedness and amalgamation, expanding the requirements of majors and optimizing cultivation of students, respecting disciplinary differences and setting up reasonable mechanism in academic evaluation.The chief points of the dissertation are summarized. First, the differentiation and synthesis of discipline as well as its formation consist of the major conditions of forming the academic organizations of universities. Discipline formation builds up the knowledge foundation for forming academic organizations, and the international transplanting also influence their forming as the external factor. Second, disciplinary institutionalization is the core reflection of disciplinary legitimation, and the foundation of the complex and flexible academic structures. Third, disciplinary differences are included of the difference of academic knowledge and the social functions. The disciplinary differences are the vital reasons of the differences of teaching and research in universities in different disciplinary contexts.