The Study Of China’s Continuing Education Policy Change Under The Theory Of Multiple Streams

Since the late 1970s, as a supplement to traditional education in various development stages, continuing education in China has been developing for more than thirty years and has played a prominent role in replenishing high education resources in specific time. With the arrival of 21st century, the acceleration of the popular process of high education in China and technological and conceptual innovation arising from globalization of education lead to an urgent condition where the present continuing education in China is confronted with the transition from degree education to continuous education after university.Through the carding of the change process of China’s continuing education and the analysis of the difficulties in the transition of continuing education guided by the theory of Multiple Streams, the paper will take College of Continuing Studies in Fudan University as example to discuss measures and means taken by institutions for higher learning during the transitional period. In the end, related policy suggestions for perfecting China’s continuing education system and creating an environment of life-long learning based on this theoretical framework will be summarized.First and foremost, there is an elaborate retrospect of China’s continuing education development, especially the relevant policies of different periods. The status quo of continuing education in China is presented by a large amount of data and the reasons for the necessity and urgency of the transition of continuing education is manifested. Priority is attached to the fact that transition is both the indispensable direction guided by the internal education ideological trend and the requirement of the vicissitudes of its external environment.Secondly, under the framework of multi-streams model, the paper probes into the constraints for the transition of China’s continuing education through three origins: problem, policy and politics. At the same time, College of continuing education in Fudan University, as one of the institutes for continuing education, will be taken as an example to discuss how this three institutes deal with this three streams and successfully open the "window of policy" for continuing education transition.In the end, from an overall point of view, the paper delineates some suggestions for facilitating the continuing education transition based on the multi-streams theory, which include finding out the problem stream, enriching the policy stream and creating political stream appropriate for the sustainable development of continuing education. All in all, the ideal aim is to elevate continuing education in China to a healthy and robust level.