Study On Professional Development Status Of University Presidents

The changing social situation alters people’s expectation since the reform and openingup，and the higher education reform has never stopped. School autonomy of Chinesepresidents continues to expand. Recognizing the status of the professional development ofUniversity Presidents is an inevitable proposition for the professional development ofUniversity Presidents.For a long time, the concept of Chinese principals’ professional development mostlyrestricted to primary and secondary education, and the professional development ofuniversity presidents hasn’t get universities and relevant departments’ attention. Universitypresidents are the soul of the university---as the highest executive official of the school,who have a decisive influence to the universities’ smooth running, reform and innovation.American higher education has been among the forefront in the world after a series oflong-term exploration and reform, and the professional development of Americanuniversity principal is becoming increasingly sophisticated. A number of outstandingprincipal emerged that we can learn.This paper selects72University Presidents of the Ministry of Education of thePeople’s Republic of China and26American University Presidents as the objects of study.Establishing the system of professional development dimension of university presidents.Individual characteristics，the educational background, occupational experience, selectionsystem, term of office and research achievement, leadership are included in the A system,and B system includes gender, age, professional title, political affiliation, nation, thehighest degree of university presidents, the respective disciplines of highest degree ofuniversity presidents, a single discipline or interdisciplinary background, whether haslearning experiences in currently employed school, whether has learning experience abroad,the nature of the university presidents who once worked for the previous unit, whether theuniversity presidents experience working in other colleges and universities, the nature ofthe positions university presidents once worked for, working experience abroad, theselection procedures, the selection standard, time and term of office, research achievement, the university ranking, management philosophy of university president, generaldevelopment situation of university. This paper looks into the professional level of theuniversity presidents from the empirical analysis, in order to clarify the status os theprofessional development of university presidents.