A Research Into Market Orientation Strategy For Private-owned Vocational Colleges In Early Mass Higher Education

After years of enrollment expansion, our country's higher education has stepped into early mass higher education period in 2002, which sees a boom in higher vocational education as well as private-owned universities and colleges. However, at present more than 200 private-owned colleges are restrained in the level of vocational colleges by the policy from the Ministry of Education in 2004, and faces intense competition against thousands of their counterparts nationwide. Most of these vocational colleges are lack of effective strategies and reluctant to this settlement. The lack of characteristics prevents these private-owned higher vocational colleges from sustainable development. But the research focusing on the issue of market orientation strategy for private-owned vocational colleges is insufficient now.The first part begins with the research into market orientation theories of private-owned vocational colleges. It develops some related market orientation theories of vocational colleges and private-owned colleges into a clear concept of what market orientation of private-owned vocational colleges is. Then it develops different sorts of orientation definitions into a two-layered orientation theory of private-owned vocational colleges. Finally it analyzes the bases of market orientation along with the value and defects of several typical characteristic orientation trends.The second part surveys a kind of orientation strategy and characteristics of private-owned vocational colleges. The author hereby interviewed a president and a dean of Wuxi K College to summarize the college's decision-making mode and orientation strategy. In regard to certain defects of the decision-making mode, the author claims that a more open decision-making mode be established so as to offer more scientific guidance to market orientation. With the help of the theory of English for Specific Purposes, the author thus establishes a two-layered orientation decision-making mode based on specialty construction for private-owned vocational colleges after referring to three main decision-making modes of colleges.The third part serves as a case study of market orientation strategy for private-owned vocational colleges. The two-layered orientation decision-making mode mentioned above forms the base of the further case study of Wuxi K College. The writer takes the two-specialist major of Applied English + Logistics Management as an example to illustrate the market orientation strategy and characteristics of Wuxi K College. The college tries to cultivate compound technicians who are also good at specific English by means of two-specialist. But this strategy was frustrated by the policy from the Ministry of Education in 2007, which banned the mode of two-specialist. Therefore, Wuxi K College has to adjust its two-specialist majors to directional specialist majors so as to carry on with its previous orientation strategy and characteristics.