A Study On International Exchange And Cooperation Of Chinese Higher Vocational And Technical Institutes

In the past 3 decades, with rapid development and great achievement of higher education, Chinese higher vocational and technical education (CHVTE), which began from short-term vocational institutes in coastal central cities in 1980, has become a very important part of Chinese mass higher education. From its birth, CHVTE with second-mover advantage has been keeping pace with Chinese reform and open process. Due to the task of providing high-skilled talents at the production line for the industry community, the developmental pattern of export-oriented economy has speeded up international exchange and cooperation between CHVTE and the international vocational and technical education. Education service trade rising around the world has put new energy to the international exchange and cooperation. Meanwhile, with the development of the size and quality, more and more Chinese higher vocational and technical institutes (CHVTI) are clearly aware of the function of international exchange and cooperation in talent cultivation and institute development. International exchange and cooperation has been playing an important role in the development of CHVTE. But it doesn't attract the enough attention and systematic research from the theoretical field. So it is necessary to conclude the history of international exchange and cooperation of CHVTI since the reform and opening policies, to draw on the successful experience internationally, to make clear the current situation of international exchange and cooperation of CHVTI, and then to put forward the operational countermeasures.This dissertation focuses on the research of the international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI and explores it step by step following the route of "Review-International Comparison-Existing Condition Analysis-Case Study-Countermeasure".From a historical perspective, the dissertation reviews and summarizes the CHVTI'international exchange and cooperation developmental process which is divided into three stages in the past 3 decades, and finally concludes its characteristics and experience. Five aspects promoting the development of CHVTI are discussed. They are resources utilization, unique development, actual strength building, reform of inner management mechanism, specialty construction and major reform. The dissertation discusses about the theoretic issues of international exchange and cooperation, and points out the current theoretical framework in international strategy planning, internationalization strategy and internationalization developmental route from the institutional level, which provides the theoretical foundation and analytical framework for later case study. The dynamical mechanism is discussed from three dimensions including government, society and CHVTI. Government is regarded as the most important power driving the international exchange and cooperation of CHVTI. In this chapter, focuses are put on the following four angles, the reform and opening policies, developmental strategy of export-oriented economy, soft power promoting, technology introducing and foreign capital utilization. The influencing factors are analyzed from seven aspects.The dissertation comprehensively introduces the function of international exchange and cooperation in the developmental process of higher vocational and technical education in America, Singapore, India and Taiwan. The current methods of promoting international exchange and cooperation in these countries and regions are also described. By means of analyzing experience and inspiration gained from these countries and regions, the dissertation is also helpful to provide a useful reference and experience in the level of operational strategy.Based on the questionnaires and deep interviews, this dissertation gives the whole picture of present situation of international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI. It presents statistics about structural establishment in CHVTI which is in charge of international exchange and cooperation. The statistics also shows forms, influencing factors, meanings, evaluation, future prospect of international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI. Meanwhile, the survey also presents the situation of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools. The statistics tells us that leader's notion, policies and regulations are the most influencing factors from inside and outside separately. The interviews show us that the style of leaders could be described as the following, creative style, adaptive style, shadowing style and unrealistic comparative style. This dissertation, based on collecting and classifying the rich practice at different levels and in different fields of CHVTI, concludes the main achievements, existing problems and developmental trend. On top of these, it summarizes the five stages which consist of initial starting, exchange, engagement, cooperation, dominance, their typical behaviors as well as aims of current international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI.The dissertation selects three institutes as the studied cases. They are Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shanghai Institute of Health Sciences and Sichuan Pivot Point College. Although three institutes are located in different areas with different economical structures, characters, majors and resources, they all have accumulated very typical practice and rich experience. By applying the theoretical framework, institutional international development strategy, internationalization strategies, internationalization route are compared and analyzed separately. The keys to three successful cases are leader's role, continuing development of international program, win-win cooperative base and the reallocating resources. These commonness and individuality provide the theoretical and practical reference for other CHVTI which are in different developmental stages with different resources both inside and outside in order to help them make the rational judgment and wise selection.Finally, in order to advance effectively the international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI, a series of countermeasures are put forward concerning the aspects of the government, institutes and the linkage mechanism. For government, its key role is to provide system support, solve the obstacles in organizational system which are extremely inconsistent with international conventions and have impeded the smooth international exchange and cooperation and most importantly, provide the financial, policy support and quality assurance. For CHVTI, it is vitally important to enhance their inner dynamics to promote the cooperative capability with more emphasis on their organizational development strategy, international exchange and cooperation direction, suitable route based on the exiting situation, measures integrated all resources and integration international exchange and cooperation in the overall work of institutes. For linkage mechanism, the key role is to enhance the effectiveness of international exchange and cooperation in CHVTI by promoting interaction among different areas, institute alliances, nongovernmental organizations, institutes and authorities.