Internationalization And Organizational Variability:an Nvestigation Into The Universities With Characteristics Of Agriculture In Shandong Province

With the largest population among countries, China must rely on agriculture and its development. The report to the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China reiterates that the rural areas should be the priority for national infrastructure construction and social development. However, the agriculture is confronted with some striking issues, such as farmland reduction, water resource shortage, and serious environmental pollution. The only way to the solution of these problems are to prioritize structure of the agriculture industry, to advance agricultural technologies, to develop ecological agriculture, and in a word, to march on the path of agricultural modernization. The science and technology is vital to the technological progress and modernization of agriculture, while the improvement of science and technology relies on education and improved human capital. The universities with characteristics of agriculture are the leading force in educating talents for agriculture, taking diverse tasks of agricultural technology innovations and providing service to agricultural development. Therefore, the research on the development of the universities with characteristics of agriculture is of vital significance, especially those located in Shandong Province, one of the largest agriculture and aquaculture industrial base in China.With China’s entry into the WTO, China’s agriculture industry competes internationally on an extensive basis. On this basis and drawing on the advanced agricultural technologies of other countries, China will develop and create new technologies to push forward agricultural modernization and secure a favorable standing in international competition. It is vital for the universities with characteristics of agriculture to train agricultural professionals, who turn out to have abundant knowledge of agriculture, international vision, good understanding of international rules, and abilities to participate in the international competition.Faced with the striking challenges, the universities with characteristics of agriculture need to focus on how to follow the international trends in educational development and how to promoteinternational cooperation and exchanges in all respects.Firstly, this research focuses on educational internationalization,systematically elaborates on and summarizes the theories ofinternationalization in higher education, including its definition,connotation, features and motivation, and so on.Secondly, the successful experience and practices in theinternationalization of higher education is introduced, with a focus on thehigher education of the United States, Australia and the European Union.Thirdly, it summarizes and analyzes the status quo and existingchallenges in the internationalization of higher education in China, andFourthly, this research, based on the collected evaluative indicatorsof the internationalization of higher education, designs a set of evaluationcriteria that involves three class indicators and item values, and by thesecriteria scores, evaluates the internationalization of the five relevantuniversities in Shandong Province, which are Ocean University of China,Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong University of Technology,Qingdao Agricultural University and Linyi University. Meanwhile, with acombination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, it analyzesthe advantages and disadvantages of the five universities respectively andcollectively, and in the end, leads to future policy-making and improvementon internationalization. The program design, criteria and evaluation, andthe quantitative analysis are all original.Fifthly, based on the theory of variable system model, it creates a setof questionnaires for estimating the system problems and variables of theorganizational system for international exchanges of the above-mentionedfive universities, resulting in evaluation and qualitative analysis. Both the questionnaires and evaluation on the organizations are original.Finally, this paper presents solutions for accelerating the process ofinternationalization of the relevant universities in Shandong Province.Thefirst is to enhance the system variables, and the second is to promotestandardized management and services. The third requires a scenario planningfor the internationalization of universities. Finally, this paper stressesthe priorities of the internationalization in these five universities andbrings forth the strategies for building professional faculty, enhancing topdisciplines, attracting international students, increasing Chinesereform, and so on.The roadmap of this research is as follows: literature review, surveyand questionnaire design, on-the-spot interview and investigation, data andfile collection, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis andcomparative analysis, problem analysis and suggestions for solutions.