Study On The Development Of Alumni Associations Of Chinese Universities

With the great expansion of independent right in running universities, competition inacquiring resources for running universities is becoming fiercer. Alumni, a valuable resource,are attached great importance by universities. Universities are closely interrelated withalumni. As potential resources, alumni are endowed with an eternal spirit by universitieswhile alumni association is the product of relations between universities and alumni. Alumniassociation is a voluntary social group organized by alumni on the basis of graduatedrelations and common goals, which plays an important role in connecting universities andalumni. Alumni associations of American universities, with a long history, have formed arelatively standardized and mature operating mechanism, gaining wide recognition fromalumni, universities and the society. Comparatively, due to some historical reasons, Chinesealumni associations are still in the exploratory stage of development with a low speed, facingmany problems and challenges.Firstly, from the perspective of social capital theory, this study discusses three elementsinfluencing the development of alumni association which are trust, social network, norms ofreciprocity and meanwhile it introduces the experience of the development of Americanuniversity alumni association. Secondly, on the basis of collecting exiting documents, thisstudy sorts out the development history of university alumni association of our country andanalyzes the situation of its property, features, driving force and current development.Thirdly, taking the alumni association of University Z as the example, this study analyzes itscurrent development situation through intensive interviews with core staffs, some alumniand participatory observation to related activities. Moreover, this study summaries somemain problems in its current development, such as the one-sided mind, low credibility,limited social network, unsound organization mechanism, lack of the norms for reciprocityand service activities with obvious utilitarian purposes. Simultaneously, this study also discusses the reasons of those problems from both macroscopic and microcosmic views.Finally, combining with social capital theory and the experience of the American universityalumni associations’ development, this study gives suggestions on the development ofuniversity alumni association in our country. University Alumni Association should manageto get the registration in civil affairs departments in appropriate time, obtaining legal statusas social organizations; reinforcing the organization, expanding social networks; innovatingworking mechanism, strengthening the norms of reciprocity; enhancing awareness of thealumni and fostering alumni culture.