The Research Of The Government’s Role In The Development Of American Public Universities

Public universities are inevitably influenced by political factors as public university is an important approach to realize government’s political and social objects,in addition that government is a key external main body which provides resources to accelerate the development of public universities. During the development of California public universities, by means of financial assistance, legislative supervision and coordination management, both the federal and state government adjust their role definition constantly to promote public university performance on talent cultivation,scientific research and social services. University of California Berkeley(UC Berkeley)is an outstanding representative of California public universities with the federal and state government play important roles on its way to excellence as well as advanced educational concept. Start from the historical evolution of government’s role, this research takes UC Berkeley as a case and focuses on the government’s positive effects on its talent cultivation, scientific research and social services. Based on the contents,this paper is divided into five parts.The first part presents the historical evolution of government’s role in the development of California public universities. During the course, periodic changes of federal and local government’s roles emerged: Subsidized by the federal government initially, California public universities were governed and financed by state government later; thanks to the stable appropriation from state government, California public universities expanded dramatically. In the state of mass higher education, to expand educational opportunities and control the higher educational cost, the state government made plans to coordinate and balance the public universities’ development;while in the age of higher education marketization, the state governmental slashed founding forCalifornia public universities and strengthened accountability.The second part takes UC Berkeley as a case and state the guarantees for talent cultivation of UC Berkeley provides by governments. Legal guarantees, material guarantees and organizational guarantees are included. Specifically, the federal and state laws describe the goals of talent cultivation;the state government established general appropriation mechanism for UC Berkeley and supervise the use of funds;along with federal government, the state government also set up student aid mechanism.Furthermore, coordination organizations are set up by state government to coordinate the talent cultivation of different kinds of public universities.The third part discussed the government’s effects on advancing UC Berkeley’s scientific research. Both the federal and state government fund the scientific research in UC Berkeley, while the federal government plays a greater role in advancing scientific research in UC Berkeley mainly through three ways: signing scientific research contract with UC Berkeley;authorizing UC Berkeley the management of national laboratory and provides financial aids for graduates.The fourth part studies the government’s role of stimulating UC Berkeley’s social service. Under the federal law, UC Berkeley formed the idea of social service. With the help of state government, UC Berkeley implemented various kinds of social service practices. What’s more, to expand service object, the federal government passed a series of laws to stimulate UC Berkeley’s technical transfer and with the motivation of federal law, UC Berkeley innovated social service concept: not only serves directly the development of regional economy but also serves the development of the whole world.Based on the analysis and summarization of contents above and according to the reality of our country, the fifth part tries to draw a conclusion: the responsibilities of government is clarified clearly; coordinate organization is an important buffer of public university governance; market mechanism is an effective medium with which government can play a better role; benefit maximization is a key concept of government.