On The Practice Of Social Service Function Of Chinese Research Universities

On May 4th, 1998, President Jiang Zemin, at the Celebration Meeting for the Centennial of Peking University, declared that our country should build up a number of the world's first-class universities to achieve the modernization. Then, the Ministry of Education was determined to mainly support a part of the domestic universities to become the world's first-class universities. That was called 985 Project for short. In geographical distribution, the 34 key universities of 985 Project demonstrate one character, that is, serving for the economy and the education for each region. Besides, the overall strength of these universities is close to the standards of the research universities. Therefore, our country, marked by the implementation of 985 Project, officially launched the construction of the research universities and opened the prelude of building up the world's first-class universities.Research universities are considered to be one of the most important associations in modern society. Compared with the common universities, research universities are the spire of the Pyramid and play an important role in developing the science and promoting the transformation of the science and technology. Its function goes beyond traditional teaching and research, coming into indispensable relation with society and economy. Meeting the needs of the society has become the tertiary function of this university. The status quo of research universities'this function exerts an important impact on a country's innovation and its sustainable development. Therefore, many developed countries highlight the status of the research universities'construction and consider how to build up the world's first-class research universities. In recent years, our government gradually realizes the importance of the research university in improving the international competitive power. Therefore, the desire of establishing the research universities has become stronger and stronger. Under the circumstances of building a well-off society, how to construct the research university in China and develop its function of meeting the needs of the society has become the focus of our government and the higher education circle. Under the circumstance of our research universities'construction, this paper mainly analyses the problems and shortcomings of our research universities in carrying out the social service and puts forward the strategies to enhance the social service. This research offers a certain theoretical value and practical significance to the construction of our research universities.This paper is composed of six parts: As a preface, the first part explains the significance of the present study and defines some of its basic concepts. It also sums up the existing studies on the present subject. The methodology has also been presented. The first chapter investigates the development and evolution of social service of universities and considers this as the starting point and basis of our research. The second chapter analyses background of the times of Chinese research universities'social service function. The third chapter introduces the current developmental conditions of Chinese research universities'social service function. It analyses the main forms of social service function. The fourth chapter, from the aspects of research universities and the society, carries out an analysis about the principal problems and their influencing factors during the development of Chinese research universities'social service function. According to problems of Chinese research universities'social service function, the fifth chapter proposes some innovative ideas and countermeasures on the notions, the system, the service platform and the functions.