Research On Relation Between Scale And Benefit In Shandong Colleges

Great changes have taken place in Chinese higher education since 1978 when the College Entrance Examination has been restored. The number of Chinese higher education enrollment for undergraduates and specialists has increased 24 times from 856,000 in 1978 to 21,447,000 in 2009 (not including 5,480,000 undergraduates and specialists for adult), and the number of those in Shandong Province has increased 41 times from 38,390 in 1978 to 1,593,000 in 2009. The large-scale enrollment of Chinese higher education has greatly promoted social progress and development of productive forces, while it has, also brought some problems, such as the serious shortage of educational resources, and the growing amount of debt. Besides, phenomena as the confusion within the administration, staffing, and the worsening benefits emerged as the result of continuous size expansion of universities and colleges. Those problems, such as whether there exists diseconomy in the scale of universities and colleges, what are specific reasons for that, and how to improve their efficiency are worthy of studying. Taking into account the status quo of universities and colleges in Shandong Province, this paper, using the specific data gathered from more than 110 provincial universities and colleges in Shandong Province in 2008, carries out an analysis of their scale and efficiency. It verifies that diseconomy in scale has emerged in some universities and colleges in Shandong Province and analyzes the reasons for that, which is of great significance for promoting the management of colleges and universities in Shandong Province.In recent years, scholars at home and abroad do more researches on the scale benefit of colleges and universities than on the micro-causes of their formation, especially less on the empirical analysis of affecting factors. Generally speaking, those scholars use "U Average Cost Curve" as the main model when studying schools' scale benefit, and the ideal model of which is a quadratic equation. Using the method of U model, linear model, logarithm model, reciprocal model, composite models and power model, this paper carries out a regression analysis on the various factors affecting scale benefit. Regression analysis shows that, there exists a linear relationship between the development expenditures, the basic expenditures, and the scale of the school; there exist no economies of scale or diseconomies of scale; there exists the quadratic curve model in the relationship between personnel expenditures and school scale. The analysis of the internal structure of the school staff shows that, there exists the direct proportion relationship between the number of dedicated teachers and the school scale and there exist no economies of scale and diseconomies of scale; there exists the quadratic curve model in the relationship between the number of staff (not including teachers and retired staff) and the school scale. The number of students in the range of 13,000-15,000 is the most appropriate for schools'scale. When the number of students is less than 13,000, with the number of students increased, the ratio of personnel expenditures and the increase of staff will decrease; when the number of students is more than 15,000, with the number of students increased, the ratio of personnel expenditures and the increase of staff will increase also.This paper is divided into six parts. The first part is introduction, which describes the background, the significance, the main contents, the structure, the innovations and also the researches for improvement in the future. The second part is literature review, which focuses on the researches at home and abroad about schools'scale benefit. The third part is the status of the scale of higher education in Shandong Province, which analyzes the situation of the development of schools'scale, and also the affecting factors. The fourth part is empirical analysis, which focuses on the gross expenditure, the proportion of all expenditure of gross expenditure, development expenditure, basic expenditure and personnel expenditure. Analysis shows that, the personnel expenditure is the main factor leading to the economies or diseconomies of school scale in Shandong Province. On this basis it further analyzes the personnel expenditure from such three aspects as the on-using personnel expenditure, the dedicated teachers expenditure, and the administrative personnel and supplementary teaching personnel expenditure. The above analysis shows that in personnel expenditure, the administrative personnel and supplementary teaching personnel expenditure is the root cause of the formation of scale benefit of personnel expenditure. The fifth part is the empirical analysis from the aspect of personnel structure, which further verifies that the non-dedicated teachers is the root cause of the formation of schools'scale. The sixth part is conclusions and recommendations.Innovations of this paper lie in:(1) Through the analysis of data gathered from more than 100 colleges and universities in Shandong Province, the paper verifies that there do exist scale benefit in these colleges and universities, and it also establishes a mathematical model according to the factors affecting scale benefit. (2) When establishing the mathematical model, besides linear model and quadratic curve model, this paper also uses reciprocal model, the logarithm model, the power model, and the composite model simultaneously to carry out the fitting analysis, aiming at selecting the best on the basis of comparative analysis of multiple models. (3) This paper analyzes the schools'scale benefit in Shandong Province not only from the amount of expenditure, but also from the staff structure.Admittedly, empirical researches in this paper is insubstantial in some degree, those will consequently serve as the direction, the stimulus and also the start-point for further study in the future.