Research On Connotative Development Of Local Universities

Since the resumption of the National College Entrance Examination in 1977,especially after more than 40 years of reform and opening up,higher education in China has developed vigorously and has achieved remarkable results: the scale of talent cultivation has been continuously expanded,the stratification of schools has become more diversified,the level of scientific research and innovation has been constantly improved,and the capacity to support and serve economic and social development has been significantly strengthened.Especially since 1999,higher education in China,local undergraduate colleges and universities(referred to as local universities)in particular,has realized the rapid expansion by increasing the number of students and expanding the scale of extensional development.This model played a positive role at that time.At present,China has become the largest country worldwide in higher education,and is constantly striving to become a power country in higher education.Local universities in China have become a large part of the colleges and universities all over the country,the number of which exceeds 60%of that of ordinary colleges and universities.These local universities undertake the important missions of the times such as talents cultivation,social services and cultural inheritance,and have become the backbone of local economic and social development.However,as higher education in China further develops,due to inadequate policy support and lack of top-level design,the development of local universities has shown a trend of high homogenization.Repeated construction,the lack of focus on education investment,and the model of seeking large-scale development have caused many local universities to fail to form their own schoolrunning characteristics,leading to the situations of low-quality,low-output,and low-efficiency.Many problems,puzzles and bottlenecks in development remain to be solved and the traditional pattern of extensional development of local universities needs to be changed urgently.In October 2015,the State Council issued the Overall Plan for Coordinating and Promoting the Construction of First-Class Universities and First-Class Disciplines in the World,officially kicking off the construction of “Double FirstClass” in universities across the country.The construction of “Double First-Class”is a major measure to promote the connotative development of higher education in the new era,and it is also a major opportunity for local universities to change and overtake.The connotative development of local universities is the key force for the modernization of the education system.How can local universities seize the opportunity in the construction of “Double First-Class”? What is the primary task of the connotative development of local universities? What are the major points,key points,focus and core of the connotative development of local universities?Offering good answers to these questions has positive reference and great significance for the high-quality development of local universities.The present study primarily involves the following parts,which are the introduction,the logical starting point of the connotative development of local universities,the current situation of the connotative development of local universities,the re-examination of the cognition of connotative development of local universities,the reconstruction of the content of the connotative development of local universities,the method integration of the connotative development of local universities,and the supportive conditions of the connotative development of local universities.Adopting the research method of combining analyses of macro cases and micro cases,the present study selects some local universities in China as the research subjects,taking Shandong University of Technology,Shandong Normal University,Jiangsu University and other local universities as cases to be studied.By means of literature review,comparative study,case study and other research methods,the present study explores the main content of the connotative development of the local universities in the following aspects:The logical starting point of the connotative development of local universities is analyzed.This section defines the denotation and connotation of local universities,and summarizes the main content of the connotative development of local universities.In addition,the necessity and importance of the connotative development of local universities and the basis for the connotative development of local universities were sorted out from four aspects: the transformation of talent notions,the innovation of national strategies,the innovative thinking of school running,and the improvement of school positioning in the hope to specify the main direction and important way of the connotative development of local universities.The actual situation of the connotative development of local universities is sorted out and analyzed by taking the local universities in Shandong Province as examples to make a horizontal comparison with the local universities in developed provinces or those with higher development levels.Local universities in China have evolved from the extensional development stage to the connotative development stage,from the scale-expansion-oriented advancement to the quality-oriented governance.The general public has also placed more expectations on the development of local universities and the social responsibilities they undertake,expecting local universities to have innovative and rapid development in scientific research,talent cultivation,social services,cultural inheritance and other modern university functions.However,in the process of transformation,many local universities have been affected by various factors such as historical inertial thinking,causing the notion of governance to fail to keep up with the pace of the development of the times for the transformation of the connotative development of local universities,thus encountering many difficulties and perplexities,which are reflected in poor policy or system support or insufficient decentralization of education administrative departments,constraints of traditional management systems and mechanisms,the lagging governance notions,insufficient investment funds in education,the lack of competent teachers,and the weak cultural appeal and attractiveness of the local universities.All these problems have severely restricted the connotative development of local universities.After clarifying the main circumstances that local universities are confronting in the process of the connotative development,we need to start from many aspects to solve timely and gradually these prolonged problems that confine the development of local universities.And with the gradual enhancement of autonomy,local universities also urgently need to make comparisons with those in developed provinces and those with higher development levels in terms of school goals,talent cultivation,discipline construction and development,and the ability to serve the development in local societies.The common laws of high-level development are generalized,their own weaknesses are reflected,and then the advantages and conditions of school running are re-examined with the combination of local needs in economic development,so as to re-position local universities.Based on the accurate positioning,we will seek solutions and effective countermeasures for a series of problems we are facing,and try to highlight the universities' characteristics and core competitiveness in terms of scale and layout,talent cultivation,and development visions.Therefore,this part mainly clarifies the main practical problems in the process of connotative development of local universities in terms of the external as well as internal factors,in order to make sure about the following routes and countermeasures of connotative development of local universities.The proper state and probable routes of the connotative development of local universities are explored in the light of target positioning,content reconstruction,methods integration,the support of various development conditions and improvement of evaluation.The primary task of local universities is to cultivate outstanding talents for the local society and economic development.Therefore,to adapt to the new demands of the development of the times and the new demands of local economic development,local universities need to re-determine the talent concept of the connotative development and the new requirements of serving the local society,by which the ambitious development goals of the universities can be re-planned and the individualized characteristics in line with their own reality can be established by combining the accumulation of their own culture with disciplinary characteristics,so as to promote the rapid development and characteristic development of local universities.Based on the re-assigned development goals,the author tries to explore the re-construction of the connotative development of the universities,in terms of the following aspects: the development visions and the construction of new curriculum system,the practice of advanced teaching models,the inspiration and guide of the innovation and entrepreneurship of teachers and students,the construction of competent teacher teams,and re-shaping of the appeal of learning.In the process of the exploration,by integrating the improvement of scientific research and the enhancement of teaching quality,by connecting the internal needs of school development and the demands of social development for education,and by simultaneous promoting and guiding,and exploring the combination of new paths and imitating successful models,more external supportive conditions for the connotative development can be promoted.The local universities should actively strive for the effective connection between policy support and development practices,strengthen the coordination between hardware facilities and softwares,realize the positive transformation of government management to government services and support,and promote the beneficent interaction between their development and the local social and economic development.Local universities should also realize the common improvement of their own and local social and economic constructions,gradually enhance the attractiveness of local students,and gradually promote the international reputation and their participation in international cultural exchanges.In addition to the support of external conditions,the connotative development of local universities also urgently needs to formulate scientifically feasible education quality standards and monitoring and evaluation systems with local characteristics.Meanwhile,the local universities should benchmark the evaluation paradigm of first-class universities in the world and local typical universities,thereby improving and promoting the reform process and making great headway.Due to the lack of more in-depth thinking and other factors,such issues as the internationalization of local universities,governance system,modernization of governance capabilities,and the guarantee of school conditions are not covered in this dissertation,and remain to be studied in the future research.