Research On The Institutional Accreditation Promotes The Formation Of The Diversified Development Mechanism Of Colleges And Universities In The United States

Quality is the lifeline of the development of higher education.Accreditation born in the United States is regarded as the fourth important method of quality assurance in the history of higher education development and plays an important role in the assurance and promotion of the quality of higher education.Since 1895,institutional accreditation has been developed for more than a hundred years,which not only ensures the benchmark quality of American higher education,but also promotes the realization of the diversification of colleges and universities.The stone of other mountains can be used to attack jade.Facing the demand of the development and change of the evaluation system of higher education in our country and the serious problems of homogenization of the development of colleges and universities,this paper systematically teases out,reviews,and sums up the development history of the institutional accreditation system in the United States and explore the logic of the interaction between the institutional accreditation system and the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities,which is a fundamental work with theoretical value and practical significance.The study uses quantitative methods and qualitative methods,focusing on the problem of "how to promote the diversification of colleges and universities on premise of assuring the benchmark quality of higher education through institution accreditation in the United States,and try to explore its internal mechanism".Based on the literature method,the research teases out the background and changing stage of the institutional accreditation system in the United States and excavates the traditional factors of the diversified development of colleges and universities.Considering the commonness of regional accreditation agencies in the United States,the study selects Middle States Commission on Higher Education(MSCHE)as a case study to conduct field research at the 2018 MSCHE Accreditation Annual Meeting,which provides a wealth of first-hand materials for the study.By using the methods of questionnaire and interview,the researcher looks for the workers of accreditation agency and the personnel of colleges and universities in order to analyze the causes of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities from the first perspective and try to clarify the internal relationship between the institutional accreditation system and the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities.According to the results of literature research and empirical research,the paper attempts to analyze the connotation,elements,characteristics and value functions of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities.Based on the new institutional economics theory,the educational evaluation theory and the core competence theory,the questionnaire data and interview materials are brought into the theoretical framework analysis,and the logical relationship between the system and the mechanism is explained,which provides a theoretical explanation for the formation,operation and evolution of the diversified development mechanism in colleges and universities.Finally,according to the results of in-depth interviews,the study locks out the problems and contradictions behind the relatively mature mechanism in the United States,and probes into them in depth,so as to provide some directions and thoughts for perfecting the evaluation system of higher education in China in the future.The results show that: the first,the diversity of higher education system is the historical tradition of higher education in the United States.In the process of the evolution of institutional accreditation system,the region of accreditation,the heterogeneity of colleges and universities and other traditional factors provide a historical soil for the formation of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities.Second,the institutional accreditation system is the basis and power source of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities.Third,the formation process of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities is a process of the game and gradual transformation between formal rules and informal rules within the institutional accreditation system.Fourth,the operating mode of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities is based on the coupling of multiple factors under the institutional accreditation system,and is the innovative result of realizing the institutional change and getting rid of the path dependence.In a word,the institutional accreditation system promotes the formation and operation of the diversified development mechanism of colleges and universities in the dynamic development through the interaction of its historical conditions,functions,structures and other elements.