Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T02:08:43.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modernizing China's Tertiary Education Sector: Enhanced Autonomy or Governance in the Shadow of Hierarchy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2019

Hu Jian  and
Frank Mols
Hu Jian*
Affiliation:
Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics
Frank Mols
Affiliation:
University of Queensland. Email: [email protected].
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Chinese government has acknowledged that in order to turn Chinese universities into world class institutions, it will have to grant them a greater degree of autonomy. However, the reforms that have been introduced to achieve this goal run counter to a long tradition of central government oversight. The question now presenting itself is how much actual control government has devolved to universities. The qualitative evidence presented in this paper, obtained through interviews with university presidents and Party secretaries, not only confirms that, as one might expect, Chinese universities continue to operate “in the shadow of hierarchy,” but also and more importantly that formal efforts to devolve authority are being rendered ineffective by informal pressures and control mechanisms. Discussion reflects on the state of play in Chinese public administration studies, and urges public policy researchers examining devolution in China to account for both formal reforms and everyday “lived experiences.”

摘要

中国政府认识到要创建世界一流大学需要给大学授予一定程度自主权, 但是为实现这一目标的改革与中国传统的政府治理模式背道而驰, 这里呈现的问题是政府到底授予大学多大的自主权？本论文采访了目前在职的中国大学校长和党委书记, 基于这些质性数据我们判定中国大学不但仍然行驶在统治阶级的阴影下, 而且更为重要的是即使形式上政府有授权也被实际上大学行政层面非正式的压力和控制机制所抵消。最后讨论反思了中国公共治理研究目前的状态, 同时我们鼓励目前中国公共政策的研究者研究中国政府给管辖机构授权时要把正式的改革和相关行政官员每天鲜活的治理活动都考虑进去。

Keywords

Chinatertiary education reformgovernancemetagovernance中国高等教育改革治理元治理
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 239 , September 2019 , pp. 702 - 727
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altbach, Philip. G. 2001. “Academic freedom: international realities and challenges.” Higher Education 41(1), 205–219.Google Scholar
Bell, Stephen, and Hindmoor, Andrew. 2009. Rethinking Governance: The Centrality of the State in Modern Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511814617Google Scholar
Bevir, Mark, Rhodes, Rod A.W. and Weller, Patrick. 2003. “Traditions of governance: interpreting the changing role of the public sector.” Public Administration 81(1), 1–17.Google Scholar
Bie, Dunrong, and Feng, Zhaozhao. 2011. “Lun daxue quanli jiegou gaige – guanyu ‘qu xingzhenghua’ de sikao” (On de-administration and reformation of the university power structure in China). Qinghua daxue jiaoyu yanjiu 32(6), 22–27.Google Scholar
Bok, Derek C. 1970. Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social Responsibilities of the Modern University. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Brehm, Sharon S., and Brehm, Jack W.. 2013. Psychological Reactance: A Theory of Freedom and Control. Cambridge MA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
CCCPC (Central Committee of the Communist Party of China). 1985. “Zhonggong zhongyang guanyu jiaoyu tizhi gaige de jueding” (Decision by the CCCPC on the reform of the education system), http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/moe_177/tnull_2482.html. Accessed 14 July 2015.Google Scholar
CCCPC. 1996. “Zhongguo gongchandang putong gaodeng xuexiao jiceng zuzhi gongzuo tiaoli” (Regulations of the Communist Party of China on the work of grassroot organizations in colleges and universities), http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/64162/71380/71387/71589/5527096.html. Accessed 10 October 2016.Google Scholar
CCCPC and State Council. 1993. “Zhongguo jiaoyu gaige he fazhan gangyao” (Outline for reform and development of education in China), http://www.moe.edu.cn/jyb_sjzl/moe_177/tnull_2484.html. Accessed 14 July 2015.Google Scholar
CCCPC Organization Department and MoE (Ministry of Education). 2017. “Zhonggong zhongyang zuzhi bu jiaoyu bu guanyu yinfa ‘gaodeng xuexiao lingdao renyuan guanli zhanxing banfa’ de tongzhi” (Notice regarding “The interim measures of the administration of leaders of higher education institutions”), http://www.moe.edu.cn/jyb_xwfb/s6319/zb_2017n/2017_zb02/17zb02_wj/201701/t20170123_295615.html. Accessed 1 March 2017.Google Scholar
Chen, Hefan. 2010. “Jiaoshou zizhi: daxue zhili de guanjian tupo dian” (Professor autonomy: key breakthrough point for administration of university). Research in Educational Development 13, 68–73.Google Scholar
Corbin, Juliet, and Strauss, Anselm. 2008. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.10.4135/9781452230153Google Scholar
Deci, Edward L., Koestner, Richard and Ryan, Richard M.. 1999. “A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation.” Psychological Bulletin 125(6), 627–668.10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., and Powell, Walter W.. 1983. “The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.” American Sociological Review 48(2), 147–160.10.2307/2095101Google Scholar
Festinger, Leon. 1962. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayhoe, Ruth, Li, Jun, Lin, Jing and Zha, Qiang. 2012. Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the Move to Mass Higher Education. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
He, Qinglian. 2002. “Academic freedom in China.” Academe 88(3), 26–28.10.2307/40252159Google Scholar
Héritier, Adrienne, and Lehmkuhl, Dirk. 2008. “The shadow of hierarchy and new modes of governance.” Journal of Public Policy 28(1), 1–17.10.1017/S0143814X08000755Google Scholar
Hysing, Erik. 2009. “From government to governance? A comparison of environmental governing in Swedish forestry and transport.” Governance 22(4), 647–672.10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01457.xGoogle Scholar
Jaspers, Karl. 1959. The Idea of the University. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Jessop, Bob. 1997. “The governance of complexity and the complexity of governance: preliminary remarks on some problems and limits of economic guidance.” In Amin, Ash and Hausner, Jerzy (eds.), Beyond Market and Hierarchy: Interactive Governance and Social Complexity. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 95–128.Google Scholar
Koch, Philippe. 2013. “Overestimating the shift from government to governance: evidence from Swiss metropolitan areas.” Governance 26(3), 397–423.10.1111/j.1468-0491.2012.01600.xGoogle Scholar
Kostka, Genia, and Nahm, Jonas. 2017. “Central–local relations: recentralization and environmental governance in China.” The China Quarterly 231, 567–582.10.1017/S0305741017001011Google Scholar
Krippendorff, Klaus, and Bock, Mary A.. 2008. The Content Analysis Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Law, Wing-Wah. 1995. “The role of the state in higher education reform: mainland China and Taiwan.” Comparative Education Review 39(3), 322–355.Google Scholar
Li, Lixu. 2004. “China's higher education reform 1998–2003: a summary.” Asia Pacific Education Review 5(1), 14–22.Google Scholar
Li, Meng. 2003. “Ruhe gaige daxue – Beijing daxue renshi gaige cao'an luoji de jidian yanjiu” (How to reform universities: a study on the logic of the personnel reform of Peking University.” Academics in China 5, 45–64.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1989. Rediscovering Institutionalism: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Marinetto, Mike. 2003. “Governing beyond the centre: a critique of the Anglo-Governance School.” Political Studies 51(3), 592–608.Google Scholar
Meyer, Heinz-Dieter, and Rowan, Brian. 2006. The New Institutionalism in Education. Albany, NY: Sunny Press.Google Scholar
Miao, Yi. 2015. “Analysis on problems of de-administration in institutes of higher education in China.” In Proceedings of the 2017 7th International Conference on Education and Management. doi: https://doi.org/10.2991/icelaic-14.2014.36.Google Scholar
MoE (Ministry of Education). 2014. “Gaodeng xuexiao xueshu weiyuanhui guicheng” (Regulations for academic committee of higher education institutions), http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s7964/201402/xxgk_163994.html. Accessed 10 October 2016.Google Scholar
MoE and NGLU (National General Labour Union). 2012. “Xuexiao jiao zhigong daibiao dahui guiding” (Regulations of the conference of representatives of employees of higher education institutions), http://www.gov.cn/flfg/2012-01/09/content_2040254.htm. Accessed 10 March 2016.Google Scholar
Mok, Ka-Ho. 2005. “Globalization and educational restructuring: university merging and changing governance in China.” Higher Education 50(1), 57–88.10.1007/s10734-004-6347-zGoogle Scholar
Mok, Ka-Ho. 2009. “The growing importance of the privateness in education: challenges for higher education governance in China.” Compare 39(1), 35–49.10.1080/03057920801951851Google Scholar
Mok, Ka-Ho (ed.). 2013. Centralization and Decentralization: Educational Reforms and Changing Governance in Chinese Societies (13). Dordrecht: Springer Science & Business Media.Google Scholar
NPC. 1998. Higher Education Law of the PRC, http://www.china.org.cn/english/education/184667.htm. Accessed 29 January 2019.Google Scholar
Pepper, Suzanne. 2000. Radicalism and Education Reform in 20th-century China: The Search for an Ideal Development Model. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pierre, Jon, and Peters, Guy B.. 2000. Governance, Politics and the State (Political Analysis). New York: St Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Rod A.W. 1996. “The new governance: governing without government.” Political Studies 44(4), 652–667.10.1111/j.1467-9248.1996.tb01747.xGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, Rod A.W. 2002. “Putting people back into networks.” Australian Journal of Political Science 37(3), 399–416.10.1080/1036114021000026337Google Scholar
Roberts, Carl W. (ed.). 1997. Text Analysis for the Social Sciences: Methods for Drawing Inferences from Texts and Transcripts. Mahawh, NJ: Lawrence.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Eva, and Torfing, Jacob. 2009. “Making governance networks effective and democratic through metagovernance.” Public Administration 87(2), 234–258.10.1111/j.1467-9299.2009.01753.xGoogle Scholar
Su, Tsai-Tsu, Walker, Richard M. and Xue, Lan. 2013. “Reform and transition in public administration theory and practice in Greater China.” Public Administration 91(2), 253–260.10.1111/padm.12030Google Scholar
Tan, Zheng-hang, and Yin, Shan-Shan. 2013. “Lun gaoxiao neibu zhili jiegou fei xingzhenghua de falü zhili lujing” (On the path of governance by law for de-administration of the internal governance structure in public colleges and universities). Higher Education of Sciences 110(4), 28–32.Google Scholar
Van de Graaff, John H., Clark, Burton R., Furth, Dorotea, Goldschmidt, Dietrich and Wheeler, Donald F.. 1978. Academic Power: Patterns of Authority in Seven National Systems of Higher Education. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Wang, Bao Xi, and Tao, Kou-Hong. 2016. “Gongli daxue neibu zhili jiegou fenxi ji yu dui 10 suo gaoxiao guanlizhi de diaocha” (An analysis of the internal governance structure in public universities based on investigation of administrators in 10 universities). Journal of Higher Education Management 10(3), 42–46.Google Scholar
Wang, Min, Zhou, Dechun, Qi, Xiaojuan, Zou, Xiaohong and Luo, Huajun. 2015. “Study on de-administration in higher vocational colleges in China.” Cross-Cultural Communication 11(8), 1–4.Google Scholar
Weber, Robert P. 1990. Basic Content Analysis (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.10.4135/9781412983488Google Scholar
Wu, Xun, He, Yan-Ling and Sun, Milan Tung-Wen. 2013. “Public administration research in mainland China and Taiwan: an assessment of journal publications, 1998–2008.” Public Administration 91(2), 261–280.10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01978.xGoogle Scholar
Yang, Dali L. 2004. “Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition and the Politics of Governance in China.” Palo-Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Rui, Vidovich, Lesley and Currie, Jan. 2007. “Dancing in a cage: changing autonomy in Chinese higher education.” Higher Education 54(4), 575–592.Google Scholar