Research On Effect Of University Rankings To The Development Of Provincial Universities

There are many reasons why the university rankings are getting more and more popular.Firstly,the university rankings are the bridges between the universities and the university entrance examination candidates which can solve the information symmetry;secondly,the university rankings provide a means for the governments and the society to assess and supervise the quality of higher education,which is required due to people’s increasing demands for the superior higher education;thirdly,the university rankings provide an information channel for the policy makers it is not only under double top construction from the nation level but also at the critical time point of key universities’ construction or key subject construction or the double top construction from local level;finally,the university rankings provide a tool for the transparency of the higher education system,required by the society and times whose basic character is openness and transparency.On the whole,the booming of university rankings is the result of many factors,which is theoretically and practically reasonable and it has exerted an effect on the universities and stakeholders from many aspects and levels.The provincial universities,as“the tower feet” of “the tower structure” are also naturally influenced.The influence mechanism is: as an information system which provides the difference comparison,the university rankings virtually amplify the differences and solidify the rankings of the objects;the intensive approval by the society is the basis of the good social position and reputation,so the inequality of the social position and reputation will influence the recruitment,employment,teaching faculty,the obtainment of resources from the government and the society.Compared with the key universities which are subordinate to the Ministry of Education,the provincial universities have the born weaknesses,which have been differentiated and solidified to some extent.Therefore,it has brought about the deeper influence and a great challenge on the survival and development of the provincial universities.The main body of this thesis is mainly from four aspects.Considering that Wu Shulian’s comprehensive university rankings and CUAA comprehensive rankings have three characteristics: longest-duration,biggest-influence and most-complete-ranking objectives,the first chapter will analyze the evolution histories,the index systems,and the conceptions of the two rankings and explore the basis of the university rankings and why different ranking systems lead to different ranking results.The second chapter will analyze the mechanism how the university rankings influence the development of the provincial universities from the sociological perspective and verify it based on the related data and examples.The third chapter will figure out the relation between the university rankings and the quality of university students’ resources through quantitative analysis and analyze the process based on the results,because the main function of university rankings is to guide the university entrance examination candidates to choose from the universities and the quality of the students’ resources is the precondition of university development.The last chapter will put forward some suggestions about how to find a reasonable position for provincial universities and how to realize the connotative development according to the material impact on the provincial universities brought about by the university rankings.