Research On The Functions Of The Higher Education Under The County-level Government Based On The Ecological Views

Along with the demand of the economic and social development, the higher education in China is developing rapidly, with the regional layout moving towards the districts and cities, even to the county-level cities. Under the construction of new-type urbanization promoted vigorously by the state, how the higher education is laid out in the county and serves the construction of the new-type urbanization is a real project. As for whether the country regions run the university or not and whether the university shall be run by the county-level government or not, the effect made by around 10 universities run by the county has presented the practical response. The focus of this paper is on how the county-level government runs the regular higher education well. With the function of the higher education run by the county-level government as the breakthrough point, the paper made a thorough research with Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu with typical significance, where the first county-run university was established, as an individual case, under the ecological views and with ecological principles and governance theory. The whole paper is structured by ecological adaption, coevolution, ecological misbalance and harmonious symbiosis, and combined with the development of higher education in Zhangjiagang City, and proposes discussions on the following sections concerning the county-level government implementing the functions of the higher education:Section One concerns the introduction, relevant concepts and theoretical basis. Based on the literature, the county-level government, county-run higher education and the functions of the government towards the higher education are defined, and the principles of ecology and governance theory are introduced, which are the two theoretical tools the paper applies.Section Two concerns the occurrence of the county-level government running the higher education. With the views of habitat, by means of the theory on ecological system, ecological niche and ecological factor, it analyzed the specific ecological factors of how the county-level government sponsored the higher education and induces the characteristics of the adaptability and selection of the function by the higher education by the county-level government.Sections Three concerns the change of the functions of the higher education by the county-level government. In view of coevolution, based on recalling the development of higher education in Zhangjiagang City, and by means of evolution, succession and other theories, it analyzed the succession of the role adaption and role succession played by the county-level government in the development of higher education, and further analyzed the specific functions and the change of the adaption of functions offered by the county-level government in the development of higher education.Section Four concerns the problems and reasons in implementing the functions of the higher education by the county-level government. With view of ecological misbalance, by means of the theory of systematic balance in ecology, food chain, nutrition grade and others, and with reference to the ideal state of the county-run university, it concluded that the main problems in implementing the functions of higher education by the county-level government are:Functional Offside in the government’s interference in the university’s internal management, Functional Dislocation between the social demand and the government’s preference and Functional Omission between the communication with the government authorities and the sponsor and support. The reasons are that the role of the government is defined ambiguously, regulation overweighs service and functional organization is in short.Section Five concerns counter-measures and suggestions towards how the county-level government implements the function of the higher education. With view of harmonious symbiosis, based on the future of developing the county-run higher education and by means of the theory of symbiosis and governance, it proposed that the county-level government, in implementing the function of the higher education in the future, shall strengthen the top-down design, multiple supplies, the combination between supervision and service, establishment of communication and coordination, implementation of contract management with the university and so on.With the research done as in the paper, the author concludes that the county-level government can run the higher education well only by forming the philosophy of ecological adaption, coevolution and harmonious symbiosis and by adopting the governing methods from mono-management to multi-management.