A Comparative Study Of Chinese And British University Student Affairs

Student affairs as an important part of higher education, occupies an indispensable position in the higher education all over the world. It has made a positive contribution in the fields of personnel training, research and innovation, social services, cultural heritage and development in the universities and colleges. In China, student affairs management is facing a series of new situations and problems as the deepening of the reform of higher education, the increase in the number of students, and new ideological and behavioral characteristics of college students. British university student affairs developed unique integrated features with clear concepts, standardized systems and high degree of specialization through the transitional process of higher education phases from elite to popularization. Thus, learning from the experiences and practices of the British university student affairs by comparison is propitious to promote the scientific processes of Chinese university student affairs, and adapt to the changes and development of mass higher education better and faster.There are seven chapters in this dissertation.Chapter1. Interpret and analyze the significant meaning of this topic, research status both in Britain and China, basic concepts, research methods and framework. There is no systematic study on the comparison of Chinese and British university student affairs up till the present. Domestic papers related to British college student affairs are concentrated in the thoughts and feelings of visiting the UK’s universities, so, the theoretical study still remains at the general level. British study of our university student affairs is nearly blank. This study attempts to explore a set of effective models of student affairs which will be suited to Chinese college’s characteristics by analyzing and comparing the two countries’advantages and disadvantages of university student affairs, thus, promote the process of popularization and internationalization of Chinese higher education. Chapter2. Analyze the real and theoretical basis of university student affairs both in China and Britain, and explore the political, economic, cultural and higher education institutional backgrounds which have significant impact on the status quo of the two countries’university student affairs. Present the development of theoretical basis of the two countries college student affairs, and interpret the theories from a philosophical perspective. British college student affairs management’s theoretical philosophy and practical application are based on solid and abundant scientific theory research and exploration, and have distinctive characteristics of practicality and maneuverability. Chinese university student affairs has some unique features because of the distinctive nature of the socialist with a strong support of Marxist philosophy, but we still do not have the true sense of the theoretical system of student work, not to mention the formation of disciplines.Chapter3. Contrast the similarities and differences between Chinese and British college student affairs management’s objectives and responsibilities. We can find that the main purpose of university student work in China is ideological and political education, management and services, but the main aim of college student affairs in Britain is to provide services for students. Therefore, bilateral college student affairs have some differences in their duties, and it is not difficult to tell that British student affairs administration with sound service system is worth to study.Chapter4. Compare the ways and means of the two countries’university to conduct their student work by materialistic dialectical methodology. Some traditional ways, such as publicity, played a huge role in Chinese university student work before. How to further improve the effect and efficiency of our student work by learning from the UK’s experience is the main topic of this chapter.Chapter5. Study the internal and external mechanism’characteristics of the Chinese and British universities student affairs using application of organizational structure theories and models, and explore the possibility of further improving our working mechanism. Compare the two countries’supervision teams with the philosophy of management, especially in the fields of selection, appraisal and development system of student affairs staff, thus, explore the professional, expert development path and career improvement of Chinese college counselors.Chapter6. Explore the system which to protect student affairs and evaluation system within and outside of university both in China and Britain with integrated pedagogy and law knowledge. In the protection part, we have to admit that the UK’s colleges have distinctive characteristics of high degree of autonomy and legalization; on the contrary, we are quite weak in this regard by now. In the evaluation part, there are big differences between the two countries in the fields of evaluation subjects, methods, and impact, etc. Learning the good points of British universities’practices has great meaning for us to promote legal, systematic, and scientific of our student work.Chapter7. Synthesize the basic characteristics of British College student affairs, and review the status of our student work on this basis. Put forward some suggestions and conceptions of promoting Chinese university student affairs management reform and development on the basis of our traditional advantages.