Research On The Development Of Non-profit Private Universities And Colleges In China

For private higher education in many countries,the mainstream in the world is the non-profit higher education.In China,however,the non-profit private higher education institutes have been still small and weak since the reform and opening-up policy in 1978.Thus the attention and research on them are in great request.The research topic of the dissertation focuses on the development of non-profit private universities and colleges in China,from the perspective of organizational development,based on two aspects of external environment and organization.On the theory basis of organizational development,organization theory of universities and non-profit organizations,and with the method of historical approach,case study and comparative study,the dissertation selects research objects of different periods of development of non-profit private higher education universities and colleges in China and America,and researches on these higher education institutes9 external environment,situations,outcomes and problems,to explore the influences of external environment on the development of non-profit private higher education and the responses of these institutes to the changes of environment.Development experience and lessons are drawn out of the research as well as the suggestions and outlook.Then some conclusions can be obtained as follows:(1)The development of non-profit private universities and colleges means the development and changes during the process that university organizations acclimatize and coordinate themselves to external environment and their own organization.The non-profit private universities and colleges,characterized as non-profit organizations as well as university organizations,should positively response to the variation of external environment if they strive for sustainable development.(2)According to the organizational development theory,organization theory of university and non-profit organization' theory,the development of organizations is closely linked to the external environment,both of which influence each other.The non-profit private universities and colleges should take these two aspects into consideration.The environment factors include political,economic,social and cultural environment,and the environment impacts consist of legal environment,all levels of governments,external groups especially public and profit higher education institutes.The organization self should focus on university principle and objections,ineral governance,resources and teaching,fulfillment of research and social service functions.(3)In accordance with the definition of non-profit private universities and colleges,the dissertation researches on the development of 63 non-profit private universities in modern times of China(including 42 Chinese-own universities and 21 Christian universities)and 38 non-profit private universities in contemporary China,with case studies of Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Language Institute,Xiamen Huaxia University and Guizhou Forerunner College,The research finds out that the experience of these universities in China concerns the tradition of initiating private education with people's intelligence and resources,the formation of institutional environment and the generation of high quality(private,non-profit,independent and flexible).The main development problems mainly involve the hindrance of long-term existed traditional ideas,the predicament of deficient institutional supply and the dilemma of suspicion of organizational legitimacy.(4)The dissertation chooses the object of non-profit private universities and colleges in America as a comparison,analyzing nearly 400 years of the development and vicissitude of these institutes since 1636 when Harvard University was founded.The findings show that the influential charity for education tradition,the favourable institutional environment and the character of American style,constitute American development experience.Meanwhile,the historical lessons are displayed in the governance interruption,excessive marketization and erosion by profit organizations.(5)The research suggests the huge difference of external environment such as politics,economics,society,history and cultural tradition,mission and values,governance structures and organizational function fulfillment between China and America.The revolution of ideas is the initial step to environment improvement and the optimization of institutions is the guarantee of development.Against such background,China's non-profit private universities and colleges should actively influence,transform and create ideal environment,and confront issues of property right directly.As for the organization self,these institutes should ascertain organizational missions and values,improve governance structures,increase fund-raising ability and fully perform organizational functions,to break through the difficulty of organizational legitimacy as soon as possible.(6)On account of the time difference between profit and non-profit institutes'practices and recognition,the research divides the development process into three phrases,from establishment of concepts to establishment of institutions and to general approval by society.At present,China's non-profit private universities and colleges are during the period from concepts to institutions.It still takes a long time to achieve wide recognition by society.The research emphasizes that the characteristics of particular development stage could not be neglected when discussing the topic.Research has found that the key to the identification of non-profit private universities and colleges is the system improvement and implementation,the founders' standard regulations,the explicit public property rights and the practice of supervisory mechanism.(7)The research foresees a future when the external environment in China will be further improved,and the development capacity of these institutes will be strengthened.It requires attention,however,that the indistinct boundary of public and private universities could lead to the problems of "ationalization"of non-profit private institutions.Although the proportion of these institutes is small,the outlook for high-level private universities is promising due to their distinct developing values and significance.