A Study On The Governance Structure Of Application-Oriented Universities In Anhui Province

It's of great significance to improve the governance structure and capacity of universities in the reform and development of Chinese higher education.In The National Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan(2010—2020),it's proposed to improve the modern universities system of Chinese characteristics and the governance structure.Application-oriented university is a new type which has been put forward and built by China in recent years.In 2015 the nation issued Guidance on Converting Parts of Local Colleges and Universities to Applied Ones,officially guiding local colleges and universities to the transformation and development of applied ones from the national level.Applied local colleges and universities consist of a large part of newly-established undergraduate universities since 1999 and a small part of local ones with long history,mainly serving the local(regional)social and economic development and cultivating applied talents.Because of the short history and poor governance,it is not only an important theoretical problem but an urgent practical problem on how to establish a new governance structure adapting to the characteristics and mission of applied universities.The research of this paper is to provide some references for the improvement of the governance structure and capacity of application-oriented universities so as to promote its theoretical research on governance structure.Anhui province earlier proposed and developed application-oriented universities and Applied University Union of Anhui Province was established in 2008,which has held seven annual meeting so far and in which members developed together with distinctive features.A good example is especially represented by Hefei University,which exerts certain influence on the domestic construction of applied universities by forming Anhui Phenomenon and Hefei Model.At present there are 20 universities in Applied University Union of Anhui Province,13 public colleges and universities being included.In 2011,the Ministry of Education issued The Interim Measures of the Formulation of University Statutes,which clearly states the provisions of university governance structure in the formulation of regulations.For instance,the provisions of article tenth points that "articles should be in accordance with the university's reality and development needs when university designs its internal governance structure and organization framework,set up the clear responsibility between the university and its internal organs,between the different management levels and systems,and establish management procedures and rules." The party and government institutions and the institutions of deliberation set up in universities are the entities of the governance structure and function display.The research on the governance structure of applied university in Anhui province is taking the 13 public applied universities as the research object by investigating these articles on the regulations of university governance structure and its internal organs and deliberative institutions,supplemented by some necessary consultations,questionnaires and interviews etc.By social investigation and comparison,it first analyzes the present situation and problems of the university governance structure from the common point of view;and then clarifies the new requirements on the governance structure of application-oriented universities from the point of its specialty;the third step is to investigate the present situation of the governance structure of applied universities in Anhui province and analyzes the existing problems and its causes;finally,combining theory and practice,it puts forward countermeasures to systematically improve the applied universities governance structure on the basis of building the governance structure and functional model of applied university.This paper mainly falls into the following three aspects:First,this paper analyzes the characteristics of applied universities,and puts forward its new requirements for governance structures to achieve their goals.It briefly introduces the types of applied universities to clarify its positioning;and then it analyzes the characteristics of applied universities to puts forward new requirements for effective governance of applied universities,such as strengthening the cooperation and communication with the local government,establishing the platform for the development of enterprises,stimulating the initiative and creativity of subordinate colleges,and respecting teachers and students' suggestions and advice,etc..Second,it investigates the governance structure of 13 applied universities in Anhui Province,and analyzes the problems of the governance structure and its causes.The overall positioning of the applied universities in Anhui province is clear,and the University Charter has a comprehensive regulation of governance structure.But according to the new requirements for the governance of applied universities,there are still some problems existing in the university governance structure,mainly including the following aspects:the characteristics of the governance structure that adapt to the applied orientation are not prominent;the interests mechanism of cooperative governance structure in university enterprise that integrates production with education is not clear;the implementation of application-oriented personnel training organization is not in place.And the reasons are as follows:the history of applied universities is not long;constraints exist in the management system of higher education;and there is contradiction between the university and the nature of university enterprise.Third,it puts forward a model on how to build the new university governance structure so as to improve or rebuild the strategies on the governance structure of applied universities in Anhui from the perspective of system theory.This paper starts with the relationship between the structural elements,the status of elements and the elements of the governance structure of applied universities,analyzing the function of it and constructing the model of the governance structure of applied universities.According to the model,it systemically puts forward countermeasures on how to improve the governance structure of application-oriented universities from the perspective of ideological understanding,external and internal structure,function optimization and the view of applied university by combining with the reality.They are as follows:improving the understanding of applied universities,optimizing the governance environment and policy system in applied university,improving or reconstructing the internal governance structure in applied university,integrating and developing the function of governance structure in applied university,establishing correct outlook on applied university.Improvement of governance structure of applied university is a systematic project,which needs to start from the external and internal governance structure on the basis of the accurate and profound understanding of characteristics of it and special requirements of its governance.On the one hand,it's necessary to optimize the social environment of the applied university governance,so as to get more understanding and approval of applied education,provide policy support for applied universities,and give the university more civil rights;on the other hand,under the current framework of leading by Party committee and charging by principal,it's advisable to improve or reconstruct internal governance structure,establish high quality decision system with internal and external experts participating in,and improve the security mechanism of power operation.The innovation of this paper and characteristics are as follows:first,it's a new topic,timely paying attention to such important issue as construction of governance structure in the development and the transformation of applied universities;second,the theory is innovative,constructing applied university governance structure and function model from the angle of system theory and put forward the corresponding countermeasures to improve or reconstruct applied university;third,it's innovative in the use of new materials,exploring the governance structure through the study of university statutes and institutions etc.