Comparative Study On Higher Education Strategic Planning In Developed Countries At The Beginning Of The21^st Century

Entering the21st century, higher education in major developed countries has become more universal. Higher education system correspondently involves more types in diverse levels based on its huge scale, reflected in the development of higher education towards complication and variety in different countries all over the world.On the other side, higher education and social economic growth have become more interdependent. The strategic planning in this regard has received world-wide government attention as a way for promoting the macro management of higher education. Developed countries have adopted national strategic planning in education one after another. The thesis focuses on strategic planning in education and adopts such methods as documentary research, comparative study and summarization to study the latest development and overall trend of higher education strategic planning in U.S, U.K, Germany, Japan and other major developed countries. The thesis also analyses the relations of education planning with education development and tries to find out the inner laws to enhance the scientificity and effectiveness of education planning and management. Conclusion through research is made as follows: governments of developed countries, despite of different types and scales of management systems in higher education, all devotes more efforts in its management and planning with clearer targets and stronger steps. Proceeding from the whole situation and towards the future, education strategic planning has become an effective way for as well as conscious action by countries of different state systems in the world. It can be seen from various versions of higher education planning in different countries that in developed countries, priority is given to equal access to education, better education quality, rational allocation of education resources and education internationalization with the core of education quality promotion. In comparison with China and many other developing countries, which boast with the expansion of higher education scales, developed countries more stress the contents and results higher education brings about. Macro management of higher education in these countries moves towards scientization, democratization and legalization for strategic planning in this aspect. The trend can be seen in research, formulation, implementation and other stages in the whole planning period, specifically the higher degree of professionalization with more transparency in research, increasing diversity of decision-makers, authorized legal forces of decisions in text version and so on.