The Classification Mechanism Of Chinese Higher Education Institutions During The Transferring Period

The stratification of the ranks of Chinese institution of higher learning is a phenomenon that exists during the operating of the higher education system. Reasonable stratification and classification of the ranks are important to the healthy development of Chinese higher education. This paper adapts the stratification phenomenon as its subject to discuss the reasons and mechanism of such stratification.This paper adopts a historical and authentic method to research on this topic from an overall perspective. The paper is divided into four parts. The first part introduces the choosing of topic, research review home and abroad, research method and frame etc. The second part discusses the stratification, demonstration, structure and characteristics of the ranks of China's higher education and the demonstration. Meanwhile the author analyses the status of Chinese higher institutions in terms of six factors by employing statistics. The third part researches on the stratification from a synchronic and diachronic perspective and discusses factors such as government, market, society and institutions that may influence the rank stratification and generalizes the mechanism and mode of such rank stratification. The fourth part comments on the issue of the rank stratification involving its development, the construction of a harmonious rank stratification and regulation for the competition between higher institutions.We hold that the rank stratification in Chinese institution of higher education is demonstrated in the operating system, regional distribution, disciplinary structure and etc. The base for the rank stratification is classification and the mode is ranking and the development is dependent on the way how the stratification is evolved. As a whole, the ranking of universities has a pyramid structure. From another perspective, it has the dotting distribution taking north, middle and east as its latitude and the size of the city as the longitude referring to the disciplinary distribution according to comprehensiveness. The score a university gains in terms of comprehensiveness and respective index can reveal the reputation, academic resources, material resources and academic achievements and enrollment of a university.The mode of the stratification of the universities in present day China is the result of the control mechanism of the government interference and the competitive mechanism of market competition subsidized by the social evaluation and feedback among which the control mechanism of the government interference is the main core with the supporting of the market competition mechanism, social evaluation feedback and the initiative of universities. These factors interact and their functions may also change with the change of the rank stratification.