A Study On The Governance Structure Of The Polytechnics In UK

The creation of polytechnics was a result of the guidance and intervention of the government in UK.It was also a major reform of higher education system.The Polytechnics were vocational institutions in public sector higher education.As their main function was to train skilled workers to meet the economic development,they were closely related to industry.Unlike the universities,the Polytechnics were local authority institutions which based on a specific community.They were open institutions which inherited the tradition of the advanced further education.This paper aims to explore the governance structure of the polytechnic,and what it can provide for the establishment of China's higher education governance system?The great development of British higher education after the Second World War and the emphasis to technology education of the British government constituted the background.The 1966 White Paper-a plan for polytechnics and other colleges directly contributed to the founding of the polytechnics.The paper takes the governance structure of polytechnic as the research object.At first,the reasons of choosing the theme include the establishment of the polytechnic,the reference from the governance structure of the polytechnic,and the research interest of the individual;The significance of the research contains two aspects: Theoretical and practical significance;The literature reviews is made up of five elements: The history,management system,policies,school-running characteristics of the Polytechnics and the governance structure of university in UK;There are several definitions of core concept,and they are governance,management,governance of university and governance structure of university;The methods of research are literature research,historical research and comparison research;The idea of research is to divide the governance structure of the polytechnic into external and internal governance structures.The former includes funding institutions,the relationship between government and the polytechnics;The latter contains the governing body,the academic committee and principal.The principal is mainly responsible for the organization,management rules and regulations within the polytechnics?The principal also had great power in the use,deployment and distribution of existing educational resources(real estate,teachers,funds,etc.).Based on the above research,we can summarize the governance characteristics of the polytechnics as follows: the separation of academic and financial power;the weakening of local authorities;the strengthening of the central government;and the enhanced influence of the market power.The formation of these characteristics are related to the guidance of government policies and the background of social and economic development.There are evaluations of the polytechnics.I believe that the unique governance structure of polytechnics promotes the formation of the “double-contracting" governance structure of British universities,and help student representatives successfully participate in university governance;There are also some shortcomings.For instance,the external forces intervene too much,the power of the academic committee is weak.The evaluations can help us find the objective development laws and understand historical value of the polytechnics.