A Study On Grassroots Academic Organization Reform Of Research University

The reform of grassroots academic organization is not only an important topic in the field of higher education research,but also a core element in the development of research universities.Since the popularization of higher education,the scale of university has been expanded,the functions of university have been extended and the status of university has been strengthened.With the transformation of knowledge production mode and the rise of post-college science,the traditional structure of grassroots academic organizations in research universities faces new challenges.The disciplines are gradually becoming integrated,and the production of new knowledge is no longer confined to the internal disciplines,but also occurs in the gaps between the existing disciplines,resulting in the interaction process of different disciplines.In essence,if people seriously explore projects that are dominated by government,enterprise,or a team of scientists to solve major problems facing humality,they will find that the boundaries between disciplines are becoming increasingly blurred.There are so many examples of this,such as research acivities on major issues in the field of environment,economy,health,and communications are increasingly requiring collaborative efforts from experts from different disciplines.In these integrated research areas,interdisciplinary collaboration has been seen as a default consensus.However,as for research universities,the biggest danger is to think about today's phenomenon with yesterday's logic.Instead,People need to update the existing way of thinking,step out of the thinking inertia,and then gradually step out of the dilemma of path-dependent.Based on this background,people began to examine tihe existing organizational structure of the university,and pointed the criticism to the traditional grassroots academic organizations built on the discipline system.Opponents believe that the grassroots academic organization model that on the discipline system leads to the fragmentation of knowledge.If the university continues to maintain the traditional organizational structure and model,or continue to carry out academic work in the form of discipline specialization,it will likely hinder the development of science,and weaken the extent to which universities contribute to society.From the trend of academic development in the world,the rise of interdisciplinary research and the establishment of interdisciplinary organizations are quietly instigating the traditional organizational structure of universities,and the organizations based on disciplines are already undergoing transformation or restructuring.Many research universities have weakened the power of the department and established independent interdisciplinary research institutions within the academic organization system.In United States,after World War?,most of the research universities reshaped the nature and mission of the department.a number of interdisciplinary organizations were set up under the traditional organization system,even the concept of university building space design was innovated,all theses actions are aiming to break the boundry of discipline,and realizing the effective use of academic resources.and they have finally formed an organizational model of "traditional academic structure" with "interdisciplinary organizational structure",which could achieve mutual improvement,mutual achievements,and mutual development.As for Chinese research universities,the development of grassroots academic organizations has gone through the period of the department model of the Europe and America,the teaching and research office(group)model of the Soviet Union,and then to the diversified model of imitation and self-exploration.By the development of almost a century,remarkable historical achievements have been achieved,and has formed a basic mode of 'teaching managed by school and department,research managed by institute and laboratory','independent innovative scientific research organization',and'the combination of production,learning and research'.However,due to the strength of the discipline-based organization and the conservativeness of discipline culture in Chinese research universtities,the grassroots academic organizations of research universities and the operation of the academic activities are still confined within the disciplinary system.On one hand,the disorder of the establishment and management of grassroots academic organizations makes Chinese research universities full of"shadow" units which only stay in the text;on the other hand,the expansion and specialization of grassroots academic organizations has led to the phenomenon of"Balkanization" in Chinese research university organization.At the same time,the traditionally formed,highly differentiated knowledge,disciplines,and professions that have been strengthened by the matching system design,evaluation system,curriculum,personnel training,faculty,and degree awards makes our research universities face extraordinary difficulties and challenges as well as constraints and restriction when it comes to the reform of grassroots academic organization.In addition,with the advancement of "double world-class" construction,more and more research universities have established strong discipline construction plans,but at the same time they have also created strong academic power to force academic society to be discrete.The risk should not be neglected or even should not be underestimated.Based on the examination and consideration of the above problems,this study takes the university grassroots academic organization as the logical starting point and the transformation of the knowledge production mode as the research perspective,combs the knowledge logic of the university grassroots academic organization reform,and analyzes the transformation of the knowledge production mode in the United States,also the reform of grassroots academic organizations in research universities and the problems and dilemmas faced by grassroots academic organizations in research universities in China in the era of knowledge production mode II.Finally,this paper proposed some reform proposals for grassroots academic organizations.The main findings of this study are as follows,after World War ?,research universities in America have implemented grassroots academic organization reforms,including reshaping the nature and mission of the department;conducting interdisciplinary research,creating interdisciplinary organizations;and innovating university building spaces.The concept of design,etc.The grassroots academic organizations of research universities in China present several typical problems,including the differentiation and illusion of grassroots academic organizations;the stubbornness and conservativeness of discipline-based organizations;and the lack and deficiency of interdisciplinary organizations.It is suggested that Chinese research universities need to open the boundaries of organizations and do the followings:rationally treat the creation of new institutions and seek the optimization of organizational structure;focus on interdisciplinary organizations,build bridges for cooperation of different schools and departments;pay attention to the design and improvement of the system and ensure the effectiveness of the discipline cooperationn;create an interdisciplinary cultural atmosphere which could encourage interdisciplinary and integration.