On The Reconstruction Of Government-HEL Relation In The Context Of Building A Leading Nation Of Higher Education

Based on the analysis of abundant domestic and overseas documents, as well as the historical, comparative and documentary research methods, the paper attempts to make a comparatively comprehensive, systematic and concentrated study about the reconstruction of government-HEI relation and its function in the context of building a leading nation of higher education. This paper mainly focuses on the evolution of the government-HEI relation, the currently existent problems in this field and the relevant solutions, with the purpose of constructing a reasonable and scientific government-HEI relation to develop China to be a leading nation of higher education at an early date. Due to the lack of space, this paper mainly makes researches about the reconstruction of the relation between the government and the public universities and colleges, not including the private higher education, although the private colleges have made enormous contribution to the development of our higher education.Therefore, to start with, this paper advocates that reconstructing the government-HEI relation is essential for the development of building a leading nation of higher education, makes the literature review on domestic and external research dynamic of the government-HEI relation, and points out the deficiencies of the previous researches and the necessity of applying the governance theory as the guiding framework. Then, on the basis of historical review and comparative analysis, the paper introduces the formation of the governance theory, its content and key arguments, and analyses the appropriateness of applying the governance theory for the research of the government-HEI relation in the field of higher education in China. After the general introduction of the governance theory, the paper illustrates the transformation of the government-HEI relation in the context of higher education development in China, summarizes the interaction between the government and the HEI at different times and their features in terms of the administrative, economic and legal relations respectively.Then, this paper makes rational analysis on the currently existent problems in the government-HEI relation in China, as well as the various sources for the predicament. Nowadays, in terms of the administrative, economic and legal relations respectively, there exist the problems like the strong tendency of government-center and administrative power, unreasonable pattern of the resource distribution of higher education, and the ambiguous relation of rights and obligations between the government and the HEIs, which have hindered the sound development of government-HEI relation. Therefore, we need to attach importance to the various factors like the political origin of HEIs, the highly centralized government in planned economy mechanism, the official rank standard in cultural heritage, and the hysteretic construction of higher education institutions.To reconstruct the government-HEI relation in the context of building a leading nation of higher education, this paper also investigates the historical changes and the development tendency of the government-HEI relation of the world higher education powers such as the United States, France and Japan, probes into the universal law for the changes and development of the government-HEI relation, analyses the institutional environment which may influence the patterns of it, and discusses the future pluralistic governance patterns. In addition, with the combination of the comparative research about the domestic and western development of the government-HEI relation, the paper emphasizes the inner relationship between the reconstruction of the government-HEI relation and the development of higher education power, and the prominent functions of the former, especially in terms of fully implementing the HEIs’school-running autonomy, cultivating the innovative talents and building an innovative nation, establishing the world-class universities, as well as founding the modern university system. What’s more, the paper also illustrates the essential factors for the reconstruction of the government-HEI relation, like the guiding ideology, path choice and institutional guarantee, and points out the necessity of establishing the "de-administration" administrative relation which emphasizes more on supervision and regulation, the economic relation with the most optimum distribution of higher education resources, as well as the legal relation with distinct responsibility, power and right. In order to achieve this ideal condition, we need to set up the social participation system, higher education intermediary organization system, new-channel higher education funds collection system, fair higher education funds distribution system, higher education accountability system, and the higher education tribunal system.Eventually, based on all the research work, the paper comes to a series of conclusions. To be more specific, academic freedom, university autonomy and university management by professors has always been the quintessence for the governance of the colleges and universities in the World Higher Education Powers; the governance theory is applicable to guild certain practice in Chinese higher education management; in terms of the administrative, economic and legal relations respectively, there exist the problems like the strong tendency of government-center and administrative power, unreasonable pattern of the resource distribution of higher education, and the ambiguous relation of rights and obligations between the government and the HEIs; the predicament of the current government-HEI relation originates from the factors like the political origin of HEIs, the highly centralized government in planned economy mechanism, the official rank standard in cultural heritage, and the hysteretic construction of higher education institutions; the prominent functions of reconstructing the government-HEI relation include the aspects of fully implementing the HEIs’school-running autonomy, cultivating the innovative talents and building an innovative nation, establishing the world-class universities, as well as founding the modern university system; building a leading nation of higher education requires the application of the governance theory as the guiding ideology to reconstruct the government-HEI relation; the reconstruction of the government-HEI relation requires the establishment of the "de-administration" administrative relation which emphasizes more on supervision and regulation, the economic relation with the most optimum distribution of higher education resources, as well as the legal relation with distinct responsibility, power and right; the reconstruction of government-HEI relation requires the clarification of the rights and responsibilities for the central government, provincial government, and the public universities and colleges; in terms of the institutional guarantee, we need to set up the social participation system, higher education intermediary organization system, new-channel higher education funds collection system, fair higher education funds distribution system, higher education accountability system, and the higher education tribunal system.The paper combines the reconstruction of the government-HEI relation with the development of Higher Education Power, and explores the guiding ideology, ideal conditions, path choice and institutional guarantee of the former. Meanwhile, it also uses the administrative, economic and legal relations as the principal line throughout the while paper, and makes comparative study about the institutional transition of the government-HEI relations in the world higher education powers like the USA, France and Japan, which are also quite innovative when compared with other essays and help to discuss the concentration of this paper in a more profound way.