A financial perspective: categories of higher education institutions

From a financial perspective, the criteria for category distinction of higher education institutions should be based on the ownership of institution property and income for recurrent expenditure. The development of modern higher education witnessed the period wherein higher education institutions have both private property and private payment for recurrent expenditure. The development also saw the period wherein all the institution properties were owned by the state and all the recurrent expenditure were paid by the government. Accordingly, universities could be divided into two categories of “public” and “private” institutions until the 1970s. However, things have been changing greatly over the past 20 years. Property ownership and payment for recurrent expenditure have been separated. The public institutions appeal to more and more individuals sharing recurrent expenditure, while private institutions ask for more and more public financial support. Therefore, some financially mixed institutions came into being and “three categories with sub-groups” has become a new phenomenon. __________ Translated from Peking University Education Review, 2004 (2)     

中国高校内部效率研究——基于范围经济的研究

Among the studies of the internal efficiency in higher education, most have focused on the scale of university (the economies of scale), but little on internal operating efficiency in higher education, especially on the combined efficiency of outputs (the economies of scope). There are few theoretical discussions or experimental research on whether teaching resources are complementary with research resources, or whether resources in undergraduate cultivation are shared with those in postgraduate training. In the background of the resource scarcity, it is significant to study the economies of scope in higher education to realize intensive development of higher education. Based on the multiproduct cost function and the data of universities attached to the Ministry of Education, this paper attempts to deal with the complementarities of resources used in undergraduate cultivation, postgraduate training and research to find that universities produce these outputs without sufficient resource sharing, the diseconomies of scope in postgraduate training is highest. As far as the quality of teaching and research are concerned, diseconomies of scope of the outputs are great. The main reasons are as follows: poor distribution of facilities, teachers and books, overlapping internal management systems, and the current postgraduate cultivation model. Therefore, relative departments should take internal resource sharing in higher education into account when making the administration policy of higher education. __________ Translated from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会科学 版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences)), 2007, (2): 81–91     

论高深知识与高等教育

Advanced knowledge is the basis for higher education, but less research on higher education deals with it. The essay elaborates on the major point in several ways: first, the practice-oriented higher education research tends to ignore advanced knowledge; secondly, higher education shall never turn a blind eye to advanced knowledge due to their close relation; thirdly, the paper presents a tentative discussion over the external and internal characteristics of advanced knowledge. The research on advanced knowledge can not only provide better support for the reform of higher education, but also has great significance in perfecting the present theoretical system of higher education. __________ Translated from Beijing Daxue Jiaoyu Pinglun 北京大学教育评论 (Peking University Education Review), 2006, (4): 2–8     

大众化背景下大学使命的重新审视

More attention should be paid to four issues during the massification of Chinese higher education: (1) how to understand the prime cause of the expansion of higher education; (2) how to reinforce liberal education; (3) how to balance the relationship between equality and excellence; and (4) how to harmonize the relationship between the university, the government and the market. All these are based on the orientation about the ultimate goal of universities. Modern universities must make students and the public understand that their ultimate mission is places where stratagems for profits and opportunities of employment are provided; rather, modern universities should inspire students’ rationalistic potencies, cultivate their ability to look upon the development of individuals, society and history from a long-term and all-around perspective. Translated from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会 科学版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences Edition)), 2006, (6): 13–20     

省级政府对高等教育财政支持力度的实证研究

省级政府对高等教育财政支持力度的不同是造成省际高等教育发展差异的原因之一。文章通过用菲利普和贾斯汀两人提出的分析美国州政府对高等教育财政支持力度的数学模型,对1999~2008年间我国省级政府给予高等教育的支持力度进行了实证研究。发现各省之间对高等教育的财政支持力度存在很大差距。高等教育事业的健康发展,既要以经济的发展为基础,又需要高等教育相关法律制度的完善。     

The changing role of the state vis-à-vis higher education in a global context

Since the 1980s, a series of reforms that aimed to reconstruct the relationships among the government, the university, and the student (consumer) have been initiated in the systems of higher education. In varying degrees, these systems of higher education were affected by market forces. Given this, the relationship between the state and higher education has also been changed significantly. The purpose of this paper is to view recent changes in higher education in the historic context of globalization. It attempts to trace the source of these changes and to depict, against a new background, the new role of the state vis-à-vis higher education. It also seeks to illuminate the rationale behind the changing role of the state. By using the experiences of selected countries as illustrations, this paper will discuss the salient features of the state’s role change in various contexts. __________ Translated from Beijing Daxue Jiaoyu Pinglun 北京大学教育评论 (Peking University Education Review), 2007, 5 (1): 138–149     

An analysis of reform in administrative system of Chinese higher education

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the administrative system of higher education then was characterized as “centralized”, “Tiao and Kuai” were segmented (some higher education institutions were directly administered by provincial governments, and some were affiliated to the relative administrative departments of the state) and higher education institutions (HEIs) were government-run. The reform in the administrative system of higher education launched in the 1980s broke down the segmentation of “Tiao and Kuai”, and changed it into a new administrative system emphasizing the role of the provincial governments (“Kuai-oriented mode”). Thus, HEIs gained more autonomy and tremendous changes have taken place in the relation between HEIs and the government. However, weakening the government’s administrative control over HEIs and readjusting government-HEIs relations are still the main concerns in reforming the administrative system of Chinese higher education. __________ Translated from Journal of Nanjing Normal University (Social Science), 2005 (4)     

教育体制改革中的中国高等学校法律地位变迁

During the past twenty years, higher education institutions in China have gained enormous rights due to both the streamlining of administration and the decentralization of the government. Their legal status has hence changed dramatically. However, the expansion of their rights has also brought about the possibility of higher education institutions profiting by pursuing development. The influence of the market has begun to permeate higher education institutions, and this change has shown some characteristics of induced institutional changes. Accordingly, higher education institutions should be regulated from the perspective of public law, so as to ensure their public nature. __________ Translated by LI Yancheng from Beijing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 北京师范大学学报 (社会科学版) (Journal of Beijing Normal University (Social Sciences)), 2007, (2): 5–16     

The political economy of higher education in the era of neoliberal globalization: Latin America in comparative perspective

During the last two decades, Latin American universities have experienced intense pressure to abandon the main principles established in the 1918 Córdoba Reform (i.e., autonomy and autarchy). While funding for public higher education has declined, they are pressured to relinquish a large portion of institutional autonomy in order to accommodate to market demands and to a new set of control strategies emanating from the state.We argue that current changes in Latin American higher education cannot be examined in isolation from larger political and economic changes in the region, which in turn are related to the dynamics of globalization. After the decline of socialist and welfare-state models, neoliberal regimes have become hegemonic in many parts of the world. In most countries, changes in financial arrangements, coupled with accountability mechanisms, have forced universities to reconsider their social missions, academic priorities and organizational structures. Concerns about equity, accessibility, autonomy or the contribution of higher education to social transformation, which were prevalent during previous decades, have been overshadowed by concerns about excellence, efficiency, expenditures and rates of return. The notion that higher education is primarily a citizens right and a social investment – which has been taken for granted for many decades – is being seriously challenged by a neoliberal agenda that places extreme faith in the market.Though we focus on the international dimension of university change, it is important to note that global trends are promoted, resisted and negotiated differently in each national context and in each individual institution. In the emerging knowledge-based society, the polarization between North and South is expected to increase even further if the scientific and technological gaps are not narrowed. Latin American universities have a crucial role to play in this regard. The paper is organized in two parts. The first describes the context of university change, focusing on issues of globalization and neoliberalism. The second examines the main features of university restructuring in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on Latin America.     

On the bankruptcy of private higher education institutions in China

In recent years, closing down private higher education institutions (HEIs) has become a serious problem in China. It seems that doubt is cast on the rationality of private HEIs and severe competition contributes a lot to their development. Many problems in the process of self-development are caused by both internal and external factors. From the perspective of sustainable development and the healthy development of students, priority should be given to the evolution of an idea to provide a positive environment for the development of private HEIs. This paper is an effort to deal with the statement that higher education in China is a seller's market and aims to do an objective estimate of the development space for private HEIs. In addition, it shows a clear understanding of establishing the prediction system for relevant issues of private higher education to guarantee the sound development of private HEIs. Translated from Gaodeng Jiaoyu Yanjiu 高等教育研究 (Journal of Higher Education), 2006, (5): 46–53