Study On The Internal System Of Public Universities In China From The Perspective Of Governance Theory

Under the background of accelerating the construction of higher education and promoting the construction of "world-class universities and first-class disciplines",establishment of a modern university system is not only an important construction task,but requires urgent reformation and thus become a hot topic for government,society and university both in theory and practice.After decades of reform and exploration,the current university system with Chinese characteristics has initially shown a systematic picture.Externally,the government has gradually decentralized universities' autonomy rights in the transformation of functions,while internally,colleges and universities continue to implement in-depth reformation of governance structure under the leadership of the government.With gradual improvement of the external environment,the key to establish a “double first-class” Chinese university is to further stimulate the internal driving force.However,due to the long-standing inertial logic and behavior,enhancement of the motive for construction of the internal university system has not received sufficient attention.As a result,the motivation to improve the internal system is relatively inadequate.Apparently,it is even more important to build the internal system than the external system.From above,it is only by optimizing construction of both external and internal system of the university can we possibly build a modern university with Chinese characteristics.The current research adopted the method combining theoretical analyses,survey,comparative and historical investigation to study the internal governance system of public universities in China based on the governance theory and organization theory.Following the questions "what is the internal system structure of public universities in China,what are the factors influencing the system construction,and how to optimize the internal governance system from the perspective of governance”,this paper firstly reviewed the theoretical model of construction of the internal system in universities from the perspective of governance,clarified the concept and boundary of the internal system,the governance concept defined in this paper,and the relationship between its governance philosophy,governance subject,power operation,organization,system security and other elements,and established a clear theoretical analysis framework,laying a theoretical basis for the research.This paper accurately grasped the development process of the internal governance system of public universities in China,and deeply analyzed the historical context of four stages(germination period,exploration period,growth period and perfective period)of China's modern university since its inception.Also,the paper carefully analyzed the impact factors that influence the internal governance system of the universities in China,which gave a clear understanding of the formation of the internal governance system of the universities in China from the perspective of history.On this basis,this paper explored the internal governance system of public universities in China on three dimensions including the power operating system(political power,administrative power,academic power,and democratic supervisory power),organizational framework(the Party system,administrative system and academic organization system),and the security system(including school statutes and regulations)following the clue of the system structure,and revealed features and practical dilemma.By realizing the essence of the construction of the internal system of universities in China can we further analyze the factors that restrict the improvement of the internal system from multiple in-depth level perspectives.Learning from the university internal governance systems from the United States,Britain,Germany,France and Japan,we found out their common features,extracted different internal governance models,and then provided references for optimizing the internal governance system of the universities in China.Finally,to achieve good governance of a university,the paper started from the ideas promoted by the governance theory such as multi-subject governance,the interaction between the power balance,and the legalization of governance,combined the research bases from history to the present,from theory to practice,from home to abroad,from results to problems,and then proposed some countermeasures and suggestions to optimize the internal governance system of the public universities in China.It is the foundation to achieve harmonious governance by plural subjects;it is the core of a successful internal governance system to have an internal power balance;it is the key to deepen the reformation of the internal governance structure;and it is the guarantee to promote legalization of the university governance rules.The contribution of the current research is reflected in the following aspects.The first one is the advancement of the research purpose and perspective.Although similar research existed,most of them mainly dealt with the university's internal power operation,the internal governance structure,or only research on the school statutes and regulations.As a result,the university internal governance system was studied from a single dimension or two dimensions,which was incomplete and might deviate the nature of university internal system.The current research focused on three dimensions including the power operation,organizational structure,and the internal governance system,emphasized the organic coupling relationship between them and presented the university internal governance structure more deeply and systematically by comprehensive studies from dynamic and static,visible and invisible perspectives.The second is a new attempt of research by combining the governance theory and organization theory.The governance theory was derived from the enterprise governance to improve management efficiency.The organization theory was intended to make the universities to follow its own academic attributes and avoid deviation from the direction of the university development.University governance is only meaningful when the development of university academic organization is ensured.The third is the new exploration of the "in" and "out" of research ideas.The paper studied the internal governance system of the university,but not limited to the internal governance system.In practice,it is necessary to insist on the combination of optimizing the external system mainly directed by the government and the internal system by the university.The university should not put all hope on the government to promote its internal system revolution.Instead,the university needs to be more active to meet the requirement of the goals of modern university system construction,and continuously improve its own governance system.