Governance Reforms of Higher Education in China

1. Governance Reforms of Higher Education in China Mei Li Institute of Higher Education East China Normal University @ 10th International Workshop on Higher Education Reform 2-4 Oct 2013 University of Ljubljana

2. Outline • Higher Education Development and Changes • Governance and management reforms • Autonomy and Accountability • A Case Study: ECNU • Concluding remarks

3. Higher Educaton Development

4. Background • History: legacy of imperial examination system(605-1905), civil servant selection mechanism • Modern University borrowed from western countries since the late of 19th century • Centralized governance, political power penetrates all sectors • Public HEIs dominate the system

6. Development of education system

7. Differentiation Diversifying the system according to: The nature of the students: regular and adult education; Ownership: private and public Status: key (elite) universities and others, 985 or 211 institutions and others Discipline: comprehensive, science & t, …

8. Project 211 & project 985 • Project 211 • Time: Launched in 1995，18.86 B Yuan(1996-2000), 18.86 B Yuan (2001-2006), 10 B Yuan 2007-2011 • Goal: building up 100 high quality HEIs and key disciplines for the 21 century Project 985 • Time: Launched in May 1998 • Goal: Aimed at developing 10 to 12 world-class universities, plus a number of renowned high-level research institutions; • Investment: 1.8 B Yuan PU, 1.2 Fudan, Shanghai Jiaotong

9. Disparity: eastern and western regions

10. 211 and 985 Universities are mostly concentrated in the largest cities Beijing: 21(8) Shanghai: 9(4) Wuhan: 7(2) Nanjing: 6(2) Xi An: 4(3)

11. Gross Enrolment Ratio and Enrolment, 1978-2008

12. 23%

13. Enrolment by degree level1999-2008

14. Governance and Management • Governance structure reforms at Macro Level • Decentralization of administrative structure • Structural reorganization of HEIs • Diversifying financial sources for mass higher education

15. Governance structure before reforms by the early 1990s

16. Governance structure After reforms in 1990s

17. Governance reforms • In the 1950s-1970s, the central (national) government assumed the responsibility for formulating higher education policies, allocating resources, exercising administrative controls, employing teaching and research staff, developing curriculum, choosing textbooks, recruiting students and assigning jobs to university graduates.

18. Governance and Financial Reform(1970-Present)

19. Decentralization of higher education governance • Enhance the role of provincial government in supervising and supporting the higher education institutions, implementing the coordination of administration between central and provincial governments. • Further clarify the relationship between governments and institutions, enlarging the autonomy of higher education institutions to guarantee their independence as the legal and economic entities.

20. Structural Reorganization：4 models • Joint Construction（共建）：Provincial authorities are invited to participate in the sponsorship and management of centrally controlled institution. By 1999, 200 institutions were involved. • Jurisdiction Transference(转制)：Transferring affiliation signified a complete change from central ownership to provincial ownership. By 2002, 250 had been transferred from central ministries to local administration. • Institutional Amalgamation(合并) ：Mergers among HEIs are intended to consolidate small institutions into comprehensive universities. By 2002, 597 higher education institutions had been involved in mergers, resulting in 267 new institutions. • Institutional Cooperation(合作)：This model can denote various kinds of cooperation between institutions of different jurisdictions and types, on a voluntary basis, with their financial resources remaining unchanged.

21. Major Achievements • A Large and Comprehensive system established, Largest system worldwide • Enter the stage of Mass higher education • Gradual Improvement on governance and regulations • emerging Market-oriented mechanism for management • Multiple-channel of financial sources: governments, clients, enterprises etc

22. Autonomy（Ordorika, 2003） Autonomy: self-governance, the power of a university to govern itself without outside control • appointive autonomy includes the hiring, promotion, and dismissal of professors, deans, rectors, and administrative personnel; • academic autonomy includes career choice policies, curriculum and course selection, establishment of degree requirements, and academic freedom; • financial autonomy focuses on university budgets and financial accountability.

23. Accountability • Both decentralisation and marketisation have been accompanied by a push for enhanced performance that is monitored by Governments • The national Government has established a legal infrastructure for regulating the operation of colleges and universities and developed an accreditation and quality control system for higher education institutions • Tensions may often be generated when increased autonomy of universities is accompanied by introducing new, centralised accountability mechanisms

24. Policy documents steering reforms

25. The 1998 Higher Education Law Legitimate University Autonomy in 7 areas: • Admission • Curricula, department • Staffing • Income-generation and financial distribution • International exchange and cooperation • Teaching, research, social services • Restructure and reorganization the internal governance

26. What domains the central government still control • Appointment of presidents and party secretaries • Political and ideological education of students • Awards of doctoral degrees • Evaluations of programs and HEIs • Regulations on maximum tuition fees HEIs could charge • Funding national HEIs, allocate funds differently • Student loans and grants for all HEIs

27. A Case StudyEast China Normal University

28. A National Normal University • Established in Shanghai in 1951 • Listed as a “211” institution in 1996 • Joined the elite club of “985” project in 2006 • Comprehensive U with humanities in the lead • Joint-construction of Shanghai municipal government and central government since the late 1990s

29. Research Questions • What changes happened on university governance since the promulgation of Higher Education Law? • What effects of autonomy in academic, financial affairs, human resources, and governance and management at institutional level?

30. Research Methods Mixed methods, Descriptive, case study • Documents at national and institutional levels-text and discourse analysis • Interviews-insights interpretation and analysis • Questionnaire survey-percentages • Observation: researchers as the insiders of the system and institution

31. Growth of total investment in ECNU

32. Diversifying Financial Sources

33. Perceptions of policy-makers at institutional level Competition to be included in elite club of project “985” • “after ECNU entered the list of “985” universities in 2006, it is endowed with a good opportunity. One of the very important reasons is that our “mother”—the Ministry of Education, and our “stepmother”—Shanghai Municipal Government are very rich, which makes things much easier. We also get so strong support from the Municipal Government that during the five to six years ECNU has received unprecedented help from the Ministry of Education and Shanghai government, especially on the event of becoming a “985” university. “（UPM3）

34. Perceptions of academics and support staff

35. Areas have changed after reform

36. Effects of increased autonomy on academic areas

37. Effects on autonomy and accountability

38. State’scontrol and intervention University’s self-governance Model A: Autonomy and Independence of University(Pan 2004)

39. State’s policy UniversitySelf-mastery Model B: Dependence and Self-mastery of the university (Pan 2004)

40. Areas under state’s control andintervention Areas under University freedom from external control Model C: Semi-independence of university (Pan 2004)

41. Changing relationship between government and University in China • Transform from Model B to Model C: from self-mastery to semi-independence • From state control model to state supervision model • Government changes from direct management to macro-governance • The University enjoys more autonomy and responsibilities on internal management and academic affairs

42. Implication of decentralization and marketization • Through implementing a series of policies of decentralisation and marketisation, the Chinese Government initiated fundamental changes in the orientation, financing, management and curriculum of higher education • The adoption of these policies reflects an attempt to make use of market forces and new initiatives from the non-state sectors to mobilise more educational resources.

43. Tensions and Problems • Growth in accountability to stakeholders external to universities at the expense of internal, professionally-based forms of accountability • With managerial and market forms of accountability, arguably the government has gained power through repositioning itself as ‘market manager’, steering via different mechanisms than in the past, but steering very strongly, on the assumption that it will serve ‘the national interest’.

44. Conclusion • University autonomy is never an absolute concept • Paradox of Centralized decentralization • Increasing autonomy while universities also had to accept greater accountability • The main mechanisms for control and accountability include institutionalizing evaluation system and categorizing HEIs, financial mechanisms • Strong interdependence of the university and government