A Study On The Development Positioning Of For-profit Institutions In The USA

As a kind of tertiary education,higher education plays a key role in the talent construction.The Ministry of Education and other five departments issued<The implementing rules for the classification of private schools to register>jointly in Dec.30^th2016,which indicates that for-profit private colleges will become a new type in the higher education system.In this case,it is necessary to learn from for-profit institutions in the USA.Since they possess the long history of development and keep enterprise vitality till now,all of which reflect the existence value of for-profit institutions in some extent.Judging from the historical perspective,the for-profit institutions in the US have different orientations.Strategic Education Inc.（SEI）was selected as a case for further explaining the development status and orientation of for-profit institutions in the US from three dimensions,including government policy,niche market and informal system.Policies from the federal and state government and the third-party certification from certificate authorities are the mainly external environment which the for-profit institutions shall be faced with.The niche market competition and management mode of SEI are with typical corporate characteristics.Besides,the company appreciates social responsibility,pays attention to the internal culture construction and external image building,all of them reflect the effectiveness of informal system.Therefore,the positioning of SEI is complex and will be affected by many factors.In contrast,the private colleges are in the transition period of classify registration in China,which is the initial stage of for-profit private colleges.Based on the analysis of SEI,we find the influence factors,especially the informal systems.However,the reticence of informal system makes it easy to be ignored.SEI advocate corporate mission and shape the corporation image,which are exactly the application of informal system.How to rely on the policies,education market,and other informal rules to build and develop the for-profit private colleges with Chinese characteristics,and how to ensure the impartial orientation,that are significant issues to be discussed in this paper.Several experiences and lessons are summarized through this study.The specific experiences are as follows:with scientific supervision,the government supports for-profit private colleges at the beginning and promotes with continuous policies.For-profit private colleges themselves should optimize the allocation of resources,align with niche market.Finally,attention shall be paid to informal system,since it will be better for further development.Still,some problems are exposed during the development of for-profit colleges in the US.To be specific,the government regulation is easily falling into a vicious circle of"grasping leads to death and loosening leads to chaos".Almost all for-profit institutions are pursuing for profit only,instead of fighting for cultivating people.