First, improving the internal governance structure of colleges and universities has become the focus of higher education reform.
The course of China's reform and opening-up is the process of stimulating institutional vitality and promoting scientific development. In the field of higher education, macro decentralization and micro stimulation have always been the main theme of reform, aiming at stimulating the vitality of running schools. To this end, we will vigorously carry out the macro-management system reform of higher education, the internal management system reform of colleges and universities and the construction of modern university systems, and strive to modernize the governance system and governance capacity. In this process, the importance of improving the internal governance structure of colleges and universities is highlighted.
1. Where does the sword point after the "breakthrough progress" of system reform?
Since 1978, after more than 20 years of reform and exploration, the reform of China's higher education management system has made "breakthrough progress" at the turn of the century-breaking through the situation of compartmentalization and establishing a management system of "central and provincial management, with provincial governments as the mainstay". After that, due to the rapid growth of the scale of higher education, the focus of work shifted to improving quality.
Therefore, in the years from 265438 to the beginning of the 20th century, the relationship between the government and universities remained unchanged in the direction of reform. However, for the sake of improving quality and social stability, management measures have been strengthened, such as the implementation, inspection and evaluation of some projects, and the education authorities have even taken back some powers previously delegated. However, the reform of internal management system in colleges and universities is increasing, such as the reform of personnel system represented by Peking University and Sun Yat-sen University. However, because it is mainly aimed at teachers, there are praises and criticisms, and the implementation effect is discounted.
In those years, development became the main theme in fact, and gradually exposed the conflict between administrative power and academic power, academic evaluation deviated from quantitative orientation, and the lack of school conditions.
2. The construction of modern university system has gradually become a hot spot.
The modern university system involves the relationship between government, society and universities and the internal governance structure of schools. It not only covers the main contents of the original system reform, but also faces the main problems of later higher education. It sounded loud, so it quickly became a prominent school from the beginning, especially before and after the formulation of the educational planning outline. In a special article, the author discussed the similarities and differences between the reform of higher education system and the construction of modern university system, holding that the two reforms have the same purpose, similar content, the same reform path and related reform priorities, but the former is a government-led reform process under the planned economy, focusing on solving the problem of power concentration, while the latter is a self-construction process of schools under the market economy, focusing on standardizing the power structure and being bound by the government and the market. Therefore, the task of coordinating and standardizing the internal governance of middle schools in the construction of modern university system is more prominent.
The Outline of Education Planning mentions four aspects of modern university system construction-perfecting the governance structure, strengthening the construction of articles of association, expanding social cooperation and promoting professional evaluation, all of which involve the adjustment of the internal governance structure of universities. Perfecting the governance structure includes internal relations and external relations. In terms of foreign relations, the direction for schools to run schools independently according to law is clear, and the education authorities have recently made great efforts to change their functions and simplify administration and decentralization. At present, the social and economic transformation highlights the pressure of stable development, and improving the internal governance structure will be the focus of the next reform. Strengthening the constitution construction involves the mission, goal orientation, fact description, governance structure and operation mechanism of the university, and the internal structure and operation are the most important; Expanding social cooperation not only aims at the future direction of running a school, but also includes the response of the organization; Promoting professional evaluation is a way to exert external influence on the school, and it is also the requirement of the connotative development of the school. The above shows that in the follow-up work, the construction of internal governance structure has become the focus of modern university system construction.
3. Modernization of governance capacity has become the key to the success or failure of reform.
The theme of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee is "deepening reform in an all-round way", and the overall goal of the reform puts forward the requirement of "promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity". This is not only the core issue that the ruling party needs to care about, but also an important guarantee for the development of national health science. 20 14 The first part of the work points of the Ministry of Education is entitled "Deepening the comprehensive reform in the field of education and accelerating the modernization of educational governance capacity". In the second title, "Improving the internal governance structure of schools", it is proposed to "improve the modern school system of running schools according to law, independent management, democratic supervision and social participation, strengthen the construction of the articles of association of colleges and universities, and promote the reform of the internal management system of schools. Formulate and implement opinions on strengthening the construction of leading bodies in universities directly under the central government, formulate guiding opinions on the reform of personnel system in universities directly under the central government, promulgate regulations on academic committees in universities, and implement the provisions of staff congresses.
System is an incentive, and the improvement of innovation ability and the cultivation of innovative talents are related to institutional factors; System is also a kind of constraint, which is the norm and constraint of power. The internal governance structure of colleges and universities should effectively guarantee academic innovation and talent growth, and reflect the multi-objective requirements of external satisfaction to society, internal self-restraint, academic innovation and development, strategic management of colleges and universities, and participation of teachers and students. The governance model meets these requirements and realizes the modernization of governance capacity.
Second, improve the internal governance structure of colleges and universities to improve the importance of the reasons
There are two main reasons for the importance of improving the internal governance structure: first, the node of reform is here, and it is difficult to move forward without a breakthrough. For example, our reform direction is clear and there are many good ideas, but many problems have not been tackled for a long time; Second, its correlation with other reforms is on the rise, influencing and restricting each other, such as the development of university characteristics, the implementation of the right to run schools independently and the cultivation of innovative and entrepreneurial talents. Therefore, improving the internal governance structure of colleges and universities has become the core content of promoting the modernization of higher education governance capacity. Further elaborated as follows:
1. Perfecting the internal governance structure is an important basis for expanding the autonomy of running a university.
Reform and opening up should not only stimulate the vitality of development, but more importantly, build an institutional environment and governance structure to ensure vitality and achieve sustainable scientific development. The reform of higher education has a clear intention to promote scientific development from expanding the autonomy of running schools, to establishing a legal person system in colleges and universities, to building a modern university system, and to promoting the modernization of governance capacity at present. However, our goal has not been achieved. In the past, every goal and every idea were beautifully expounded, but there was a lack of specific governance structure design. The goal can't be transformed into a system in time, it can't be operated, and it can only be reduced to an empty slogan. For example, 1993 Outline of Education Reform and Development in China, 1995 Education Law and 1998 Higher Education Law are still out of date. To exaggerate, if it had been realized at that time, it might not have established a modern university system and improved the governance ability of colleges and universities. This may be the deep-water area and the crucial period of reform, which has both the problem of improper exercise of administrative power and the problem of colleges and universities going astray after gaining more independent school space.
It should be said that after years of reform and exploration, we have formed some understanding of the general laws of the university system. The problem lies in the unscientific governance structure, and good ideas cannot be guaranteed by the governance structure. For example, the recurring problems such as the cycle of decentralization and power collection, academic rent-seeking, scholars chasing official positions, over-administrative schools, and the phenomenon that officials and scholars take all the food, may be caused by cognition in the early stage, but entirely by the governance structure in the later stage. This is not conducive to academic development and innovation, and innovation needs system to ensure. Perfecting the internal governance structure of colleges and universities has become the focus of attention, which is due to the needs of talent training and academic innovation, rather than modernization for the sake of system and modernization.
Therefore, it is necessary to improve the internal governance structure of colleges and universities and expand the autonomy of running schools. The autonomy of running a school must be guaranteed and restrained by a standardized governance structure. Every school can effectively exercise its autonomy in running schools and assume corresponding responsibilities by managing schools according to laws and regulations. Only when colleges and universities have the autonomy of self-development and appropriate self-restraint mechanism, and can adapt to and promote social development, can they truly realize the scientific development of the school.
2. To improve the internal governance structure, we should focus on ensuring the essential connotation of education.
Transformation is a difficult problem in today's world development. For example, China is changing its development mode, its economy is facing structural adjustment, and education is turning to connotative development with improving quality as its core. After the financial crisis, developed countries also began to change from post-industrial society to re-industrial society. Development does not forget the essence and turns into scientific development. For example, the purpose of our country's development is for the prosperity of the Chinese nation and the well-being of the people, and the development of education is for the growth of people and the needs of society.
The main obstacle to the transformation of development mode is ideology, because in our development culture, expansionary and extensional development is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and real development such as feeling that the venue is big and the building is high is called development. In the field of education, we all know that blind promotion, running for money, taking papers as the center and taking everything from government to study are not connotative development, but in reality, such development has gained tangible benefits. The development desire does not conform to the rules of the game, which has caused the destruction of innovative culture.
Connotative development is to develop according to the essential attributes of things, and perfecting the governance structure is to ensure that those who adhere to connotative development will not suffer through systems and principles. If you want to do your job well, you can't work outside of poetry. The connotation development of education needs: 2. Teachers have no distractions and devote themselves to academic education; Administrative discipline and due diligence, improve efficiency and grasp the direction; The school faces the society, meets the demand and improves the quality. You can't want everything, and everything will go astray. "All-in-one" is the taboo of connotation development, and characteristics are the result of connotation development.
The foundation of school system construction is for people, specifically to improve quality and promote innovation. Therefore, the internal governance structure must first be able to ensure and promote the healthy growth of students, and must follow the laws of education for system design and work arrangement to ensure that teaching becomes the regular central work of the school. The construction of disciplines, specialties and courses should follow the social needs and the law of human development, the evaluation and assessment system should be oriented to connotation development and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and the administration should do a good job in serving and educating people. Secondly, focus on ensuring teachers' professional development, and strive to build a mechanism for teachers to indulge in academic work. Give up the way of promoting cadres and reusing talents, put an end to the phenomenon of abusing power to learn, let first-class talents grow within the academic framework, and establish a "double ladder" development path of academics and administration.
3. To improve the internal governance structure, we should strive to promote the modernization of school governance capacity.
To promote the modernization of university governance, it is necessary to adhere to the rule of law, strengthen the construction of articles of association, and realize the separation of democratic management and management, with the ultimate goal of ensuring quality and innovation. Therefore, we should not forget the great significance of school system construction when we are doing specific reform exploration, and we need to design the governance structure pragmatically when we talk about the importance of the system.
In terms of the school's own operation, it is necessary to change from running schools mainly according to the instructions, instructions and projects of superiors in the past to running schools independently for the society according to law under the guidance of national policies, and establish a scientific assessment and incentive mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the rules of procedure and decision-making procedures of the school, implement the functions and powers of the party Committee and the president according to law, and set up scientific and effective management departments and departments. Give full play to the important role of academic committees in discipline construction, academic evaluation and academic development, increase teachers' participation in management, and realize teaching and learning. Strengthen the construction of staff congresses and student congresses, and give play to the role of mass organizations. In the relationship between universities and other stakeholders, we should also explore ways for social interest groups to participate in governance.
Colleges and universities need to build a culture conducive to innovation, and some institutional innovation models at home and abroad need to be carefully summarized, such as peer review system, academic visiting lecture system, interdisciplinary research center, Industry-University-Research combination model, internationalization of higher education, and the same paradigm of science. It can be seen that innovation is the result of interaction among problems, communication, collision, inspiration, logic and paradigm. A good governance structure can foster an innovative cultural atmosphere, and we need to establish this institutional thing.
Thirdly, a strategic framework is needed to improve the internal governance structure of colleges and universities.
It should be pointed out that after more than 60 years of exploration after the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's colleges and universities have formed a set of unique internal governance structures, which have been continuously reformed and improved in recent years, and this governance structure has basically adapted to the needs of social and economic development. However, with the all-round transformation of society and the needs of the transformation and development of higher education itself, the original governance structure can not meet the needs more and more, and some problems have emerged. In the future, it is necessary to adjust and improve the internal governance structure of colleges and universities and realize the modernization of governance capacity, which requires a strategic framework.
1. The realistic basis of the internal governance structure of China University
We are not starting from scratch to modernize the governance capacity of higher education and improve the internal governance structure of colleges and universities. At least we have the following three foundations.
The first is the governance structure that supports the normal operation of colleges and universities. For example, the legal person system of colleges and universities facing the society and running schools independently according to law, the principal responsibility system under the leadership of party committees, the academic Committee system, the faculty congress, the academic structure of departments, and the administrative structure of functional offices. , including inter-agency operating procedures, some of which have been tested by years of practice and proved to be effective. What we need to do is to improve, to carry forward our advantages and overcome our shortcomings, not to reinvent ourselves, but to reform rather than revolution.
Second, the governance link that is currently being reformed and improved. For example, the functions and powers of Party committees and presidents should be implemented, the rules of procedure and decision-making procedures should be improved, the methods of selecting and appointing university presidents should be improved, the articles of association of academic committees should be promulgated, and the construction of articles of association, councils, professors' associations, staff congresses and student congresses should be strengthened. These all need to be piloted, improved and institutionalized, and attention should be paid to absorbing successful experiences.
Third, the present situation and experience of foreign university governance structure. For decades, reform and opening up has been the basic national policy of our country, and the academic circles have a deep understanding and research on foreign universities. In terms of internal governance, the characteristics of different countries, the functions of the board of directors, the Council and the school Committee, the composition and operation of the Council and professors, the selection and responsibility of principals, and the structure of academic institutions such as departments and colleges. It is worth thinking about and learning from.
2. What problems need to be solved to improve the internal governance structure?
After the long-term exploration of higher education system reform and modern university system construction, the problems faced by perfecting the internal governance structure of colleges and universities are clear, but how to solve them is not clear. For example, the main reform directions include rationalizing the internal leadership decision-making system in colleges and universities, promoting the effective exercise of teachers' academic power, reforming academic evaluation methods, exploring diversified governance models, giving play to the role of associations, and strengthening the construction of articles of association. Further specific induction, the problem is concentrated in three categories:
The first is the issue of power relations. Such as academic power and administrative power, the division of responsibilities between secretaries and principals, the boundary of functions and powers between universities and secondary colleges, and the rights of teachers, employees and students. This kind of problem seems easy to solve, but in fact it is particularly difficult. The key is that the power boundary is difficult to define, often intertwined, and there are interests disputes. The only way to solve the problem is to make the responsibility boundary as clear as possible, or even artificially stipulate it.
The second issue is administrative efficiency. Such as rules of procedure, decision-making procedures, work operations, post responsibilities, etc. , including stakeholder participation in governance. The key to solving such problems is discipline, fairness, justice and supervision, and avoiding all interests and shirking responsibility.
The third is the issue of positive incentives. This kind of problem is related to quality and innovation, and involves evaluation methods and mechanisms. It is highly technical and cannot be handled simply. The focus of attention is to make the educational staff have a sense of accomplishment, so that every post has a sense of accomplishment, and the work should be meticulous and targeted.
3. The focus of the current strategic framework of internal governance in colleges and universities
To promote the modernization of university governance capacity, it is necessary to jump out of the existing governance structure and the current focus and carry out a strategic framework. The framework is based on the identity characteristics of university scholars and the external responsibility characteristics of universities, which need to be considered in a unified way. At present, the focus is to fully reflect the isomorphic characteristics of scholars without deviating from the characteristics of external responsibility. Only in this way can we better realize academic innovation and better meet the social functions of universities.
First, face up to the phenomenon of "split personality" in universities. Modern universities have become a divided whole. They need to be relatively independent, become people's spiritual homes, academic halls and social ideal habitats, connect with society, and realize social goals, national strategies, regional development and students' demands for further studies. In fact, both teachers and intellectuals are like this, and the conflict between ideal and reality has always existed. Therefore, the governance of colleges and universities should strive to meet these two-way needs.
Second, focus on building a new model of scholar isomorphism. At the beginning of the university, it was a guild-style scholar, which is actually the true face of the so-called "professor running the school". With the expansion of the scale and function of universities, professors encounter difficulties in running schools, which we now call professors running schools. The so-called academic power is actually the embodiment of the same characteristics of scholars. The practice in Britain is that universities set up academic councils, departments, colleges, college committees and other academic institutions, which are responsible for arranging or implementing all academic affairs and activities such as teaching and scientific research, and form a power balance pattern in which the development decision-making mechanism based on the Council and the administrative executive mechanism under the responsibility of the president are independent and interrelated. Academic Council is the highest academic authority of a university, which enjoys all the power to formulate academic policies of the university, and is the only institution that directly deals with various departments. At present, the Ministry of Education has promulgated the regulations of academic committees in colleges and universities, and how to form a teacher-led academic governance mechanism at the school level has become the key. At the faculty level, a professor's conference can be set up as the decision-making body for major affairs of the faculty, that is, to lower the management level of scholars and truly build a realistic model at the grassroots level.
Third, limit academic administrative posts. At present, the administrative leaders of universities often hold the title of professor, which is problematic and will undermine the sanctity and professionalism of academics, because their real job is management rather than academics. Of course, the level of leaders is generally higher. In the past, they may be full-time academic personnel, but their responsibilities have changed since they took up management work. Only those positions closely related to academic work can retain the titles of relevant personnel, such as university president, vice president in charge of scientific research and teaching, educational director, scientific research director, dean, academic vice president and so on. As a result, most of the staff above the post in colleges and universities no longer have academic titles. They are administrative personnel, and the assessment is management ability and performance, starting with leadership. Academic administrative posts, leaders no longer enjoy administrative treatment after leaving office.
Fourth, explore the realization mechanism of "the leadership of the party Committee and the responsibility of the principal" in a down-to-earth manner, and specify the responsibilities of the party Committee and the principal. The responsibility of the party Committee needs to be implemented. First, the leadership and decision-making power on major issues, such as determining the direction of running a school, leading ideological and political work and moral education work, formulating and amending articles of association, examining and approving annual budget and final accounts, formulating strategic plans for organizational development, taking the lead in selecting principals, and jointly deciding internal organizations and their responsible persons with principals. The second is to coordinate major relations, such as organizing and coordinating councils, coordinating mass organizations such as academic committees, professors' associations and faculty congresses, and giving play to the functions of contacting society and the masses and supervising administration. The third is party work. In this way, let the party Committee become the strategic leader of the university, the intimate person of the masses and the supervisor of the administration; The principal is the executor and the chief executive. According to the principle of separation of party and government, the principal is independently responsible for the operation of the school administrative system on the basis of major decisions made by the party Committee. The headmaster is solely responsible for matters that do not need to be considered and decided by the party Committee meeting, and reports to the party Committee regularly.
Fifth, reform the process of producing university presidents. Characteristic development is a new requirement for colleges and universities in the period of popularization of higher education. Therefore, the university president's idea of running a school needs to match the mission of the university he serves, and the president needs to be responsible for the development of the specific university. On the premise of safety, order and objectivity, with the support of the school authorities, the principal selection mechanism should be reformed. In order to reduce future work conflicts, the party secretary can take the lead in selecting principals, and then the competent organization department will examine and approve them. However, once the principal is appointed, the post responsibilities of the secretary and principal will be defined and bound by the company's articles of association. Vice-presidents are cabinet-based, nominated by the principal, reviewed by the Party committee and appointed by superiors, and are not restricted by administrative level. Once the principal leaves office, the vice-principal also leaves office and takes over according to the procedure.