Study On The Operation Mechanism Of Academic Committee Of Chinese Universities

Against the backdrop of knowledge-based economy, the higher education in China enjoys vigorous development,The number of colleges and universities is more and more,but the quality of education have not been upgraded,compared with elite in stitutions in Western countries,in our country many scientific research fields are lack of competitiveness, the academic level needs to be improved. However, there are few schools of world class. The fact that lacks competition in various fields of scientific research highlights that China is a “large country of education” rather than a “great power of education”. There is a general assumption that academic rigor, as the essential attribute of schools of higher learning, serves as the decisive factor restricting the development of colleges and universities. At the current stage, the schools of higher learning are confronted with unprotected academic authority, unrealized academic freedom, thus restricting the academic development. The Academic Committee is positioned as the highest academic institution,has not received adequate attention and failed to give full play to its due functions in the actual operation as the result of the generalization of administrative power in institutions of higher learning and unsound system. Therefore, it is an important subject in the process of advancing university development to reform the operation mechanism of the academic committee in institutions of higher learning and ensure the manifestation of academic authority.This paper first offers a definition of the object of research, pointing out that the research into the operation mechanism of academic committee places too much emphasis on the insight into the organizational structure, operation system and operational procedure. At the meantime, it also indicates that the academic committee in the institutions of higher learning, which is intimately related to the development of modern universities, could fulfill its function of advancing the academic development of universities, improving their governance structure and deepening the reform of internal management system. Besides the functions of consultation, deliberation and evaluation, it is also possessed of the the function of decision-making, which determines the authority of the academic committee. This paper also analyzes the operational body, operational system and operational procedure included by the academic committee, putting forward that a scientific operation mechanism should encompass reasonable decision-making mechanism, evaluation mechanism and supervisory mechanism.Then, this paper offers an analysis of the current operation situation of the academic committees in some of the institutions of higher learning in China from four perspectives, namely, the system specification, organizational structure, activity procedures and supervision and guarantee. Many issues have been found in the operational mechanism, which are manifested by the unprotected academic authority of academic committee, the failure of independently giving play to the decision-making functions, unscientific evaluation standards, nonstandard deliberation and unsound supervision and guarantee system.The university councils in America, with sound and well-developed operational mechanism, are characterized by clear functions and powers, perfect system,improved internal organizational structure and standardized operational procedures. By drawing upon their experience and taking into account the realistic situation in the universities in China, this paper puts forward the approach for the reform of the operational mechanism in the academic committees in China. The measures of properly handling the relationship with party and government organs, guaranteeing the effective exertion of guarantee authority, standardizing the deliberation and decision-making procedures and enhancing the supervision and guarantee system aim at establishing an academic governance system featuring the academic committee as the highest academic institution so as to return to the “academic standard”, realize the modernization of higher education and turn China into a “great power of education”.