An Analysis Of Policy-making Systems About Modern University

In china, the management system of the present university established during the period of planned economy is facing great challenges from the characteristic of university itself, market economy, knowledge economy and the popularity of higher education. With the further development of the system reform about higher education and the great enlargement of the decision-marking power to run a school in colleges and universities, a university's strategic choices and decisions will have a great influence on its further growth. Thus, a study on its policy-making system will unavoidably become a very important aspect of the university's management.In order to study the policy-making system about modern university further, its own characteristics and features should be firstly taken into account. As an analytic framework, "the Third Sector" theory is not only a conclusion to some organizations, but also a new tool to develop a new idea and recognition towards the society and to solve the problems of the social development. From the angle of the third sector, modern university holds the privilege of self-government with non-profit and non-government; the unity of the scientific organization and the loose combination, the academic and social, the formal and informal to couple hardness with softness.In view of a university's structure, the policy-making system about modern university refers to a recognized and obeyed basic pattern about the policy-making which has been formed after a long-term practice of an university or management group and meanwhile is a highly comprehensive summary to certain elements about the structure, procedure, principle and means of the policy-making. The policy-making structure in a university comprises the center of policy-making, information inquiry and control system chinch are not only independent but also related with each other. The policy-making procedure comprises seven steps which are the fruitfulness to set goals, the analysis and identification to problems, limited factors, information, plan, decision and implementation. Qualitative, quantitative and behavioral analytic methods are the ways of the policy-making in a university. A university's policy-making must follow the principle of science and value. The scientific principle should contain the principles of the adequate information, feasibility, systematic analysis, group's decision-making and time-efficiency, and the value principle are those of the superiority to the public interests, the priority to the social value and the realization of the profit-makers, will.Nowadays, in China the system of the president in charge of a university that is under the Party Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the grass-roots level in a university has been carried out in the policy-marking system in today's university. Because of the traditional management and some policies and laws and regulations concerned, there are some obvious disadvantages in the policy-making, such as, some decision-makers are lacking management knowledge and quality; policy-making system is not perfect; there are more micro-policy-making while less strategic planning; policy-making mechanism is incomplete without the wide-ranging democracy, and there is not any reasonable structure within the policy-making system. The key point to establish the policy-making system in Chinese university is to perfect its internal management system and to establish and strengthen the policy-making mechanism. As far as the policy-making, its principle and procedure are concerned, it is quite necessary to clearly separate the responsibility of the Party Committee from that of the president to establish a cooperative mechanism between the Party Committee and the administrating management under the guidance of the strict rules and regulations. As to reviewing and inquiry system, it is very essential to set up its relevant deliberative body to solve big problems under the guidance of several standing committees served as the advisory body to attract and encourage much more teachers to participate the university's management. With regard to the command and execution, it is also very important to establish a harmonious relationship between the functional departments and colleges with the clear distinction of their duties and their more free decision-making powers. As a result, the traditional management pattern will be converted from the direct control to frequent examining, supervising, cooperating and offering good services. With respect to the supervision and feedback, it is quite imperative to establish an excellent supervision and feedback mechanism to bring the duties of the teaches representatives, the academic committee and the other standing committees into pull play.In order to make the scientific decision for China's university, some phenomena to fully put the administrative power into policy making management in the past should be changed to bring the academic power of the policy management into full play, then the goal to make clear the characteristic of the policy-making and improve the quality of the deciding-makers in Chinese university can be surely realized.