A Study Of Institutional Obstacles For The Development Of Chinese Higher Techical And Vocational Colleges

Higher technical and vocational colleges are important components of the Chinese higher education system, and they are also the primary force in the process of the popularization and the massification of Chinese higher education. However, their current situation fails to match the role they should play in Chinese higher education development because they are hampered by a series of institutional obstacles. This study utilized the method of literature analysis and case-based strategy to investigate in depth the institutional factors hindering the development of Chinese vocational and technical colleges. The findings are:1) Under the context that the entire system of Chinese higher education is challenged by the overall shortage of the government financing, higher technical and vocational colleges do not obtain sufficient financial support from the government. Additionally, the governmental investment in higher education fails to distribute equally between vocational colleges and general undergraduate institutions. These are because the subject responsible for the development of higher vocational education is transferred from high-level government to low-level government, and because the market mechanism has been introduced into higher vocational education system to acquire financial fund. The results are the loss of central government financial support, the surge of tuition fees in higher vocational institutions, the loss of students, the increasing risk of their function and the blind upgrade of the colleges.2) The examination content and the enrollment system of the current national university entrance examination and student enrollment institution are not conducive for vocational colleges to select students. To enhance the vitality of student enrollment system, higher technical and vocational colleges in recent years carried out a series of reforms. These reforms prompt us to seriously consider the method and strategy of the reform.3) The current hierarchical mechanism in higher education is dominated by the government. This stratification institution based on college classification is low-rational and highly fractured among the layers. It results in the role vagueness of the college, lack of institutional support for development, limitation of inter-college competition and irrational pursuit for institution promotion.Therefore, some measures have to be adopted to overcome the referred institutional obstacles: 1) the government should increase its investment in higher vocational colleges, 2) the unreasonable governmental investment distribution between general colleges and vocational colleges should be changed, 3)the reform of the student enrollment institution of higher vocational colleges should be further promoted, 4) appropriate means and strategies should be used in the reform of student enrollment system, 5)the government should make its educational decision and plan in a more rational way, 6)the communication mechanism between higher undergraduate education system and higher vocational education system should be created, 7) a reasonable, healthy competition institution should be established for all kinds of higher education institutions.