Study On The Autonomy Of Running A University

As an important managerial ideology in higher education, the autonomy in running a university advocates changing university's subordinate status to the government, making university a real autonomous legal entity in the society. Based on the ideology of running a university independently, the value of the autonomy of running a university lies in its academic freedom and university self-government. The ideology enjoyed a long history in the western countries; however, in our country this ideology has a history no more than 100 years. Ever since 1980s, the concept of autonomy in running a university had been put forward and entered its prime time. Implementation and broadening this autonomy have a far reaching significance to the following aspects such as: improving the relations between government and universities; informing the macro management of higher education; promoting the vitality of universities and improving the quality of talented-personnel cultivation. In the first place, an analysis of the significance of the autonomy was conducted from the following aspects: the definition the autonomy, its legal character, and its social value. Moreover, based on the changes and comparison of the autonomies in both eastern and western countries, it is easy to find that the guarantee of certain autonomy in running a university is one of the worldwide goals in the reform of higher education, no matter it is a university with autonomous tradition or it is a conservative university. The autonomy should be protected and strengthened by legal means and should be implemented in accordance with their own situations. Besides, after the analysis to the current situation and existing problems in the present autonomy in running a university in our country, the paper revealed that the causes of lacking sufficient and necessary vitality lie in the seldom accordance to the available laws and seldom implementation of the available rights. Last but not least, based on reestablishment of the relations between government and universities and legal guarantee, the paper put forward that both the government and institutions of higher education have to take the chief responsibility and the key factor in the implementation of such rights lies in the powerful backing of laws and the proper handling of the relations between government and universities.