Search

In 2017, China released its building list of First-class Universities and First-class Subjects (Double First classes), which should get great support for development for many years into the future. This paper examines the academic performance of eight universities that are currently listed as having First-class Subjects of economics, in international papers and domestic papers, and compares their academic performance with another eight non-listed universities. The comparison shows that in general only three listed universities have obvious advantages among the 16 sample universities, while four listed universities do not show advantages, with one of them unexpectedly lagging behind. In contrast, several non-listed universities perform obviously better among the sample universities. In addition, several other aspects of this Double First-class list are also found to be less objective, scientific, or rigorous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) education policy using a critical policy discourse approach. At the textual level, this paper focuses on policy framing by identifying how diagnostic (problem definition), prognostic (solutions), and motivational (rationales) framings are described in two foundational BRI education policy documents. Next, six additional policy documents are selected to construct a discursive totality to understand how framings are linked to and embedded within the broader discursive practice of policy documents. The interpretations of these framings are viewed through the lens of policy driver, lever, and value. Finally, a macro-sociological analysis aimed at explanatory and normative critique shows that BRI education is embedded in the discourses of national rejuvenation and China's aspirations to become a global leader of an alternative global governance and order. The paper ends with a discussion postulating that the BRI education policy's success depends on various shifting domestic and geopolitical factors, from the growth of the Chinese economy and ideological struggles among the world's major powers to grassroots reception or resistance to Chinese influence in BRI countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese higher education has been actively developed in recent decades as a major engine of national prosperity. This investment has spurred substantial and growing interest in understanding student and graduate outcomes. After discussing this policy context, the paper deploys an international lens to analyse evaluation mechanisms being used and developed in China. Specific initiatives are discussed to particularise each mechanism and to help link them with international developments. The paper's final section reviews China's apparent progress in this field and concludes by considering the growing role of technology in future policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incentivizing academic publications in internationally-indexed journals is a current topic of national debate especially in non-anglophone countries. To boost the dissemination of Chinese research results, the central government and higher education institutions had introduced various schemes to encourage international publications. However, a significant policy change took place when the Chinese government recently announced a break with SSCI supremacy conventions in research evaluation systems. Based on semi-structured interviews with five university managers and 30 academics in humanities and social sciences in five universities in China, this study examines the responses of both institution managers and individual scholars to the latest national guidelines. A qualitative analysis shows mixed attitudes among both HSS managers and individual academics towards the policy change: supportive but with doubts about the policy practicality as well as concerns about ensuing pressures to be generated by new evaluation systems. The findings suggest the policy change will not significantly affect HSS academics' pursuit of international publishing in a short term. It will, however, lead to some adjustments in the existing institutional evaluation regulations. The findings can contribute to the understanding of HE policy influence on academics as well as its potential implications for the global trend of anglicized academic publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of international students studying for a degree program in China was approaching a quarter of a million in 2017, roughly ten times that in 2003. China, a developing country, has become one of the biggest destinations for international student mobility (ISM). Thus, how it has managed to achieve this within only one and a half decades, what it plans to do with such a success, and what that means for the world remain open for interpretation. This increase is an economical grow which demonstrates the country's success in governance and generosity in international aid, while it is also a result of an internationalization policy of higher education which is viewed by central government as an arena for exercising soft power in world politics. It is difficult when trying to reach a persuasive conclusion without a comprehensive review of what happened in this period via a thorough examination of ISM data in a context of rapid policy change. This paper consists of four sections to identify the key driver(s) behind this sharp rise of student numbers from overseas. The first section is an introduction with a brief review of both theoretical and empirical aspects, followed by a short discussion on methodology. The second section is a review of key policy documents impacting on the development of ISM in modern China. The third section provides a general picture of ISM policy in China by analyzing official data. The final section reflects on the findings of the present study and concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of private higher education (PHE) in China has resulted from the increasing demand from the public for higher education, and the requirements of private businesses in the socialist market economy. This paper examines the development of the PHE in China since 1949, and in particular the commencement of the Opening-up and Reform Policy for the period 1978–2018. Drawing from national documents and transcripts of interviews with senior managers, the paper explores the challenges PHE currently faces and the policies which have addressed the challenges especially in the last 10 years. It is suggested to improve the role of the university constitution in governance practices of the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented that discusses issue articles on topics including the role of entrepreneurialism in higher education, the evolution of academic and intellectual freedom in Chinese universities, and the identity of a university as an organization.

This paper investigated project-based governance (PBG) in China's higher vocational education (HVE) with a main research question asking how PBG works in China's HVE. Using case study as a research strategy, the paper examines the application and effect of the PBG model on Chinese HVE within the analytical framework of PBG-based agency theory. Twenty-three faculty members from both administrative and academic departments in College Plateau (pseudonym) were recruited to participate in a person-to-person interviews. They were expected to share their observations and perspectives on the PBG model as applied to HVE. As supplementary materials, the Chinese government's policy documents and statistics, as well as institutional policy documents, were also looked at for a brief discussion of governance of China's HVE. The results showed that the PBG model has greatly challenged the traditional administrative, distribution and personnel systems, as well as the college-enterprise cooperation model, and academic performance of higher vocational colleges (HVCs). These changes have brought higher academic achievements and greater social resources to College Plateau. However, they have also caused many negative effects, such as homogeneity of organizations and the Matthew effect among HVCs.

This paper examines the implementation of Project 985 at Minzu University of China, an ethnic minority serving university in China. As a university established specifically for the education of ethnic minorities, the paper examines in what ways the implementation of a policy uniformly mandated to serve national higher education goals by China's Central government impacts the unique institutional philosophy and mission at one particular university. The paper focuses primarily on the ways in which the university's function to serve the needs of the nation's ethnic minority population has become diffused amid other priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) education policy using a critical policy discourse approach. At the textual level, this paper focuses on policy framing by identifying how diagnostic (problem definition), prognostic (solutions), and motivational (rationales) framings are described in two foundational BRI education policy documents. Next, six additional policy documents are selected to construct a discursive totality to understand how framings are linked to and embedded within the broader discursive practice of policy documents. The interpretations of these framings are viewed through the lens of policy driver, lever, and value. Finally, a macro-sociological analysis aimed at explanatory and normative critique shows that BRI education is embedded in the discourses of national rejuvenation and China's aspirations to become a global leader of an alternative global governance and order. The paper ends with a discussion postulating that the BRI education policy's success depends on various shifting domestic and geopolitical factors, from the growth of the Chinese economy and ideological struggles among the world's major powers to grassroots reception or resistance to Chinese influence in BRI countries.

The global drive for world-class universities is twinned with a radical movement to create research assessment indicators, and universities have never been pressured as much as today by global rankings. This paper aims to focus on how research assessment exercises have reconfigured the institutional missions of the university in terms of knowledge production, teaching, and service address, by comparing three top research-intensive universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Japan. It critically investigates how far and in what ways academics in the three systems have been pressured to respond to these exercises. The empirical findings show that all the three cases have been affected severely and that Hong Kong universities are the most internationalized and Mainland universities are the most productive in research outputs, as also evidenced in recent QS rankings. The paper argues that the global ranking regime has created a Double Bind for East Asian universities, and has brutally dominated their institutional reconfigurations. To turn the tide, the manipulated emphasis, flawed methodology, and unethical desirability of global university rankings and research assessment exercises should be avoided to help universities healthily and meaningfully focus on real missions to which they should commit themselves. Meanwhile, critical reflections and policy actions are particularly urgent on the indigenousness of knowledge exploration and production by higher education systems in East Asia and other post-colonial contexts. Furthermore, the paper anticipates that the importance of teaching and service will be revitalized in the new stage of East Asian universities, e.g., the Chinese University 3.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research excellence is one of the key missions of universities and an important engine for socio-economic development. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected academic research in many ways. This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the research performance of science and engineering faculty members in China's top research universities. It is found that the pandemic caused a decline in the numbers and quality of published articles, and the effects persisted over time. The negative effect of the pandemic on research excellence was more pronounced in the older faculty groups and departments of science. In addition, the pandemic has harmed international research collaborations among academics, which is likely to obstruct research excellence in the long run. In the end, this paper proposes several policy recommendations to reinvigorate universities' capacity for research innovation in the post-pandemic era.

Hong Kong has tried to develop itself as a regional education hub for a decade. However, the policy is being criticized because Hong Kong has neither diversified its student population ethnically and culturally nor expanded its share in the global higher education market. This paper explores this context to examine the significance of the education hub concept in the development of higher education in Hong Kong. Based on an analysis of the concept of education hub the paper argues that the purposes of building an education hub need to be defined. It also argues that an instrumentalist interpretation of internationalization of higher education is not enough to understand the importance of the education hub notion to the higher education development in the city. An idealistic and educational approach in this respect is a relevant idea for the prospect of Hong Kong as an education hub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, China released its building list of First-class Universities and First-class Subjects (Double First classes), which should get great support for development for many years into the future. This paper examines the academic performance of eight universities that are currently listed as having First-class Subjects of economics, in international papers and domestic papers, and compares their academic performance with another eight non-listed universities. The comparison shows that in general only three listed universities have obvious advantages among the 16 sample universities, while four listed universities do not show advantages, with one of them unexpectedly lagging behind. In contrast, several non-listed universities perform obviously better among the sample universities. In addition, several other aspects of this Double First-class list are also found to be less objective, scientific, or rigorous.

Since the launch of the double world-class (DWC) project in 2015, China has entered into a new stage of building world-class universities. What makes China give up the existing projects for a new one? Towards the end of its first five-year cycle, has the version 2.0 of building world-class universities in China achieved the desired results? This study tries to answer these questions by giving an explanation about the relevant policies and an overview of changes brought by the DWC project. Based on the data and documents released by the Chinese government, selected universities and some international organizations as well as an extensive literature review, we find that this new project has been functioning effectively and has achieved remarkable preliminary success. However, there still remain problems such as vicious competition among institutions and unhealthy academic utilitarianism due to the heavy competitive pressure. Meanwhile, the project takes a selective concentration approach that sacrifices the majority to benefit the minority, which may exacerbate the already imbalanced development of China's higher education system and hinder its overall development in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the teaching quality of higher education, the Chinese government has been striving to strengthen teaching accountability in universities. This qualitative study investigates the effects of the current teaching accountability mechanisms on academics at two universities. This study finds a gap between the goal of accountability and the felt responsibilities of academics due to the institutional contexts and the one-size-fits-all characters of external accountability. Along with this, the felt responsibilities of academics are affected by their self-identities and moral and normative responsibilities. Finally, the role responsibilities of academics are closely related to their felt responsibility and largely contribute to improving the effectiveness of teaching accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modernization of central China may highly affect the overall well-off society in China. Meanwhile, higher education plays a prominent role in determining the competitiveness of a country or region. Hence, how to bring the promotional role of higher education in economic growth of central China into play has become a focus for the government and the academia. Under this circumstance, this paper develops a comprehensive index of education and then employs the panel data model to investigate the influence of both higher education scale and quality on economic growth in the six provinces of central China from 2003 to 2014. The empirical results show that the contribution of higher education to comprehensive education level in the six provinces was all <1% within the sample period, and its contribution to economic growth was <5%, far lower than that of basic education to economic growth. Moreover, in general, higher education scale exerts significant positive effect on economic growth in central China while the effect of higher education quality appears insignificant. In addition, technological innovation plays a remarkably positive role in economic growth of all the six provinces in central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, no empirical study has focused on understanding the evolution process of China's college admission policies and clarifying its hidden evolution logic. Based on the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), this study determines different advocacy coalitions and their belief systems during the evolution process of independent enrollment policy, as well as various driving forces that affect the process. The social network analysis methods are adopted to delineate alliance structures formed by actors with different policy beliefs in the policy subsystems which change over time. This study chooses news reports included in the China National knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) database as the data source, and identifies 328 related news reports to be coded in the analysis. This article not only provides the evolution logic of independent enrollment policy, but also bridges the research gap and therefore enriches the broad literature on the application of Advocacy Coalition Framework in Eastern countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used the provincial panel data on policy adoption rate of university-affiliated think tanks in China from 2005 to 2017 and built a fixed effects model to explore the impact of the policy adoption rate of university-affiliated think tanks on China's economic growth. The results indicated that China's university-affiliated think tanks developed rapidly and the quality of policy advice improved significantly, but obvious regional imbalance existed. The policy adoption rate of university-affiliated think tanks can significantly affect China's economic growth. The impact was significant in the eastern developed region and western underdeveloped region but not in the moderately developed region in central China. The impact was significant in both the southern developed region and northern underdeveloped region, while the impact in the south was more significant than this in the north. Besides, the policy adoption rate of university-affiliated think tanks had obvious time effect on China's economic growth. As time went by, the effect became stronger, which was significant in eastern and central China but not in the western region. The enhancement of effect was significant in both the southern and northern regions, while the enhancement in the south was higher than this in the north. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging studies on university stratification have often attributed the developmental gaps between universities to the popularization of new public management in contexts where market mechanisms prevail in higher education governance. However, less attention has been paid to how state powers continue to mediate university stratification alongside market influence. Embracing the competitive emphasis of new public management, the Chinese state has launched a new world-class university scheme, the Double World-class (DWC) Project, replacing the past one, Project 985/211. Tracing the continuities and changes from Project 985/211 to the DWC Project, this study examines the mechanisms and outcomes of China's university stratification at two levels. Firstly, the DWC Project has reproduced and reinforced the overall stratified landscape of China's universities. The state-designated hierarchy of elite and non-elite universities is reproduced in a more complex form of market-based stratification through what we propose as a "lock-in cycle" mechanism. Secondly, the DWC Project is nonetheless reshuffling the internal stratification of elite universities in three aspects: privileged identities are becoming volatile, which catalyzes inter-university competition financed by local governments; the distinction between central and local universities is collapsing when stratification becomes increasingly discipline-based; and the rising market-based stratification is challenging the state-designated hierarchy and the lock-in cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the idea of tribes and territories, as an example of a theory developed and applied within higher education research of relevance to higher education policy. It traces the origins and meaning of the term, reviews its application by higher education researchers and discusses the issues it raises and the critiques it has attracted. It is concluded that while, like all theoretical frameworks, tribes and territories has strengths and weaknesses, it remains of use for thinking about academics, disciplines, their relations and associated policy areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing a survey conducted in 2016 by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, this study explores the effects of parenthood on the likelihood of the scientist's first application for the Young Investigator Grant Program administered by the National Science Foundation of China. The analysis indicates that having a child negatively affects scientists' probability of application. However, this parenthood effect varies by scientist's gender and child's age. While women scientists are more adversely affected by having a young child, men scientists are more adversely affected by having an older child. These gendered parenthood effects are moderated by changes in government policy. Both theoretical and policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustaining China's rapid economic growth in the future will come to depend in large part on the quantity and quality of the human resources it can mobilize. The paper considers the prospects for higher education financing, and highlights the importance of improving equity in access to higher education as a precondition for a sustainable expansion in the higher education sector. The paper aims to throw light on two key questions: What are the links existing between current financing arrangements and equity in access to higher education? What kind of financing arrangements could ensure increasing access to higher education?Higher Education Policy (2009) 22, 191–207. doi:10.1057/hep.2008.27 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy experimentation (PE) has been regarded as an integral element in defining China's reform capability. However, few studies have investigated the processes of PE in China's education reforms, as well as the policy conditions required for PE's successful initiation, implementation, and inclusion into the policy process. Through an empirically informed case study featuring university graduate assignment and employment reform, engaged with extensive documentary evidence and semi-structured interviews, the study argues that PE allows a temporary breakthrough from the existing policy constraints to generate contextualized novel policy options, but its large-scale diffusion and inclusion into the policy process have to proceed according to the institutional environment, corresponding to the broader social, economic, and cultural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implementation of Project 985 at Minzu University of China, an ethnic minority serving university in China. As a university established specifically for the education of ethnic minorities, the paper examines in what ways the implementation of a policy uniformly mandated to serve national higher education goals by China's Central government impacts the unique institutional philosophy and mission at one particular university. The paper focuses primarily on the ways in which the university's function to serve the needs of the nation's ethnic minority population has become diffused amid other priorities.

Sustaining China's rapid economic growth in the future will come to depend in large part on the quantity and quality of the human resources it can mobilize. The paper considers the prospects for higher education financing, and highlights the importance of improving equity in access to higher education as a precondition for a sustainable expansion in the higher education sector. The paper aims to throw light on two key questions: What are the links existing between current financing arrangements and equity in access to higher education? What kind of financing arrangements could ensure increasing access to higher education? (Contains 4 tables and 2 notes.)

This paper presents the findings of a national survey of student satisfaction with undergraduate teaching in a sample of universities and colleges in China. The results show that while a high proportion of academic staff participates in undergraduate teaching, levels of student satisfaction are low. The lowest levels of student satisfaction are found in research-intensive universities. The study concludes that the main causes of this situation are: a shortage of well-qualified academic staff; the pressure on academic staff to focus their time on research output; policies and practices that emphasize research-orientation in the evaluation of academic staff performance; and poor support for teaching in terms of both support staff and teaching facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a case study of Tsinghua University, one of China's most influential universities, which has special national significance and strong political ties to the state. Recalling three chapters in the past century of Tsinghua's history, this paper gives an interpretive understanding of how the intertwined relationship between academia and officialdom has acted as a double-edged sword in shaping the University's autonomy. It shows an interesting interplay between the university and the state, revealing the mechanisms of the state's control over the university, and the strategies adopted by the university to gain relative freedom. The article concludes by explaining how, in the context of China, an individual university can contend with the state's power to strive for its own autonomy.Higher Education Policy (2007) 20, 121–144. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300149 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has launched several national academic excellence initiatives since the 1990s, aimed at creating world-class universities. These projects contributed to the achievements of Chinese universities over the past decades and deeply influenced the field of Chinese higher education. This study focuses on the most recent Double World-Class (DWC) project and assesses the impacts of this project on the diversification of leading Chinese universities. Drawing on institutional organization theories, we analyzed how institutions set their goals for the DWC project in development plans. Findings demonstrate that on the one hand, the DWC project reinforced universities' resource dependence on the government, which lead to universities adopting similar structures and practices. On the other hand, facing the intensified competition with domestic peers for the limited slots in the DWC project, Chinese universities differentiated their goals and orientations as they seek to highlight their competitive advantages. Findings highlight both the benefits and challenges brought by the strong nation-state policies in the pursuit of world-class universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concentrates on the three phases of China's de facto higher education quasi-decentralization since 1949 and center-local relations during each of the phases. The three phases are: (1) the phase of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when provincial-level control was enhanced; (2) the phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when "independent colleges" and people-run institutions were established; and (3) the present phase which is ongoing since the mid-2000s, when elite Sino-foreign joint institutions (e.g., NYU Shanghai) and young elite research institutions (e.g., ShanghaiTech and Westlake University) were approved. To investigate the diversification and proliferation of higher education institutions in each phase, a theoretical framework has been constructed based on Zheng's (De facto federalism in China: reforms and dynamics of central-local relations, World Scientific, Singapore, 2007) argument of China's de facto federalism. As macro-level contexts, China's principal philosophies of higher education development and the interrelations between China's higher education system and the outside world during each phase have been briefly reviewed. It suggests that local governments and higher education institutions in China may attempt to play more active roles in promoting de jure higher education decentralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of international students studying in Chinese universities has expanded rapidly in recent years, and this expansion is undergirded by a public diplomacy rationale. However, there is a lack of research which seeks to understand how graduates of Chinese universities may be contributing to Chinese foreign policy goals in specific contexts. This article presents a case study which explores the experiences of international study, resulting attitudinal changes, and post-graduation trajectories of a group of Ugandan graduates from Chinese universities. The findings underscore issues with the assumptions around how international higher education provision contributes to public diplomacy. The evidence from the case study highlights the previously neglected relevance of students' agency and decision-making to the process of soft power accumulation. The participants in this study expressed ambivalence towards study experiences and Chinese foreign policy, but still chose to engage with China post-graduation, as doing so represented an opportunity to leverage knowledge of Chinese language and culture in the Ugandan labour market. This also highlights the how students' agentic decision-making is related to global geopolitical competition, and the nature of the bilateral relations between host and sending nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching, the Chinese government has been implementing a scheme of institutional accountability in a bid to ensure the adequacy of university quality assurance measures. This study employed a qualitative method to explore the responses of administrative personnel and the perceptions of academics at a local comprehensive university, which has recently experienced a new round of external review mechanisms. Through in-depth interviews conducted with 23 staff members from four units, we found the university had adopted flexible strategies to respond to the external pressures. The reasons can be categorized under five 'C's: the Cause of the institutional review, the Constituents for the university and academics, accountability Control measures, the Content of the external review and the Context of this particular university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the evolution of China's education policy transmission system and analyzes its influencing factors. Data were collected from 5793 policy documents issued by the Chinese central government from 1978 to 2013. Using policy document bibliometrics and social network analysis, we studied the "citing-cited" policy reference relationship to undertake an in-depth characterization of the different stages of education policy and reform since China's economic reform and opening up in 1978. We determined changing trends in the education policy transmission system through using an environment-actors-institutions framework to uncover the factors behind such trends. Results showed that China's education policy transmission system has experienced a rapid expansion in the last few decades, and that characteristics are distinct from onetime period to another. Central governance ideologies had a relatively strong impact on the popular themes and topics of education policy in different stages. Meanwhile, the policy-issuing institutions played a significant role in the effectiveness of a certain policy measure. Additionally, the supervisory institution was an important factor that affected the degree of centrality in the evolving education policy network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the twenty-first century, transnational education (TNE) has been closely related to the concept of capacity building. Although empirical evidence of the impact of TNE on capacity building in host countries is largely missing, a handful of studies have revealed that TNE has a limited impact on local higher education. This study attempts to discover reasons for this limited impact, finding that TNE's academic weakness and isolation from local faculties and programmes impede knowledge transfer and organizational learning. As a result, TNE is at the edge of the local higher education system and exerts a marginal impact on host countries' capacity building. To prevent TNE from being 'a mere imported capacity with no impact on the local system' (OECD and the World Bank in Cross-border tertiary education: a way towards capacity development. OECD, Paris, 2007, 12), TNE urgently needs to establish its own brand instead of living on partner universities' brand effect. Moreover, communication between TNE and local higher education needs to be facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between China's soft power and the international branch campuses (IBCs) established overseas by Chinese universities, and to identify which aspect of China's soft power has the greatest impact on these campuses. We adopted a qualitative research design that involved interviews with managers, faculty and staff at three Chinese international branch campuses in Laos, Malaysia and Thailand. Our findings suggest that China is leveraging its existing soft power to assist or promote its education export, and China's soft power is returning to South East Asia. Although each of the three IBCs contributes to disseminating China's soft power to a certain extent, their effort is still quite limited. The aspect of China's soft power that has the greatest influence on the Chinese IBCs is the necessity of the Chinese language, as well as Chinese cultural history and heritage. Another important factor is the economic power of China, albeit a type of hard power. It is China's rapid economic development that is driving students' desire to take courses delivered in Chinese, and to learn the Chinese language at these branch campuses. The study's findings have implications for policy makers, educators and researchers with an interest in IBCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a survey of faculty members from 30 public universities in China, this study examines the influence of the world-class university (WCU) project on faculty member’s scientific productivity under the perspectives of globalization and national demands. In general, the results support the globalization dimension of the WCU project in China. The WCU project exhibits a positive effect on international publications, but has no significant impact on domestic publications and technology transfer. In addition, it is found that a high level of WCU funding is associated with more patents, while a low level of WCU funding has no influence on patents. The study also explores the indirect effects of the WCU project. It is found that the WCU project has enhanced the effect of non-government research funding on academic publications. Moreover, the WCU institutions put emphasis on attracting talents from abroad, but there is no evidence that researchers from abroad are more productive than domestic researchers in science and engineering fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s when transnational institutions and programmes (TNIPs) proliferated in China, they have been closely related to the capacity building of the local higher education system. The government encourages local higher educational institutions (HEIs) to import educational resources from overseas partners and to innovatively transplant the partners’ good practices into local programmes. The study reported here uses Shanghai as an example to explore the teaching and learning process of TNIPs in China. TNIPs are found to respond mainly to market demands rather than to the governmental intention of capacity building. When making efforts to fulfil the needs of students, TNIPs sacrifice the construction of their academic ability and therefore are unable to serve as examples for local HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research-policy-practice nexus is a long-standing issue in higher education research (HER). Although closer linkages and greater relevance have been repeatedly suggested to improve the impact of HER on policy and practice, sophisticated theorization with contextual sensitivity is underdeveloped to renew the discussion in the non-western contexts. As the Chinese higher education system has become the largest in student number, its HER field is worthy of study, particularly regarding its impact on policy and practice. In comparison with the European model and the American model (Scott, 1999), the Chinese model of the research-policy-practice nexus is characterized by strong institutional basis, a strong practice orientation at the macro- and meso-levels, support from and legitimacy by the state, and program orientations for scholars and administrators. Those features have supported rich interactions through actors, activities and reifications in the Chinese higher education context to connect the research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College Enrolment Expansion policies have been implemented in China since 1999. Unfortunately, numbers of qualified teachers and the amount of educational funds input have not caught up with the pace of student intake. Even the curricula taught in colleges are outdated and work practice programmes are inefficient. As a result, new college graduates cannot meet the requirements of firms they wish to work for. Many graduates work in unskilled job positions with low pay. They are called the 'Ant tribe'. We estimate that the accumulative number of persons in 'Ant tribes' had exceeded 3 million by 2010, and the corresponding cost to China's annual GDP was over 0.22% in respect of effective labour input. Improvement in quality should take priority during the expansion of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses an external higher education quality assessment scheme in China, namely, the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education (QAUE) scheme. Case studies were conducted in three Chinese universities with different statuses. Analysis shows that the evaluated institutions responded to the external requirements of the QAUE actively, but the actual effects of the QAUE on university operations were not as high as expected. The empirical study of the QAUE indicates that quality assessments can trigger university change as an external force, but genuine change can only occur when it is integrated with internal motivation and capacities for change. The external and internal forces involved in the process are detailed. The analysis also shows that there is limited impetus for quality assessment as an external force driving university change. This is determined by the functional mechanism of quality assessment per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer of 2013, the number of Chinese university graduates who did not know where to go after graduation reached an unprecedented 2 million. These graduates are not illegible to claim any benefits from social insurance schemes that based on formal employment. When away from home, neither do they have access to other supplementary benefits based on household registration status (hukou) financed and provided by the local governments of host cities. To address the issue of massive unemployment among graduates, the Chinese government has introduced a range of policy measures with an emphasis on 'flexible employment', an umbrella for several types of atypical jobs, while leaving the basic structure of social protection intact. This study reviews the development of the Chinese graduate employment policy with emphasis on the changes in the forefront of massive unemployment among graduates. By evaluating the effectiveness of policy measures, this study argues for a thorough reform of the higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects upon three seminal articles published in Higher Education Policy (HEP) on academic freedom and university autonomy. The reflections indicate that HEP research contributes to a sophisticated and systematic understanding of the complexity of academic freedom, addressing both the original theoretical issues and burning current issues in policy and practice, as well as in legislation. In particular, HEP has gone beyond academic circles and reached a broad readership, making a real difference to policy development to safeguard academic freedom. For broader comparative reflection, an epistemological dimension has been added to the HEP understanding and analysis of the concept of academic freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects upon three seminal articles published in "Higher Education Policy" ("HEP") on academic freedom and university autonomy. The reflections indicate that "HEP" research contributes to a sophisticated and systematic understanding of the complexity of academic freedom, addressing both the original theoretical issues and burning current issues in policy and practice, as well as in legislation. In particular, "HEP" has gone beyond academic circles and reached a broad readership, making a real difference to policy development to safeguard academic freedom. For broader comparative reflection, an epistemological dimension has been added to the "HEP" understanding and analysis of the concept of academic freedom.

In recent decades, the revolutionary expansion of Chinese universities has emerged as one of the most significant phenomena in the worldwide transformation of higher education. Since 2003, China has become a country with the largest national higher education system in the world, with nearly 31 million students in 2010. What have students' experiences been in the expansion? And how do they reflect students' background characteristics? These are questions of increasing concern in recent years. With an analytical framework adapted from Martin Trow's theory of higher education expansion, this study aims at examining students' perspectives on China's move from elite to mass higher education, based on a nationwide survey conducted in 2007. The findings of this study show that China's expansion policy has brought significant changes to its higher education system, as experienced by students. With some critical reflection on how to adapt and modify internationally used analytical frameworks and how to create new indicators for comparative study in a particular context, this paper suggests several policy choices that would help the worldwide massification of higher education move towards a more balanced and open direction in the future.

Higher education in China is currently undergoing a process of re-orientation. This paper focuses specifically on the development of transnational higher education (TNHE) in China over the last decade, as well as its implications for university governance. Major features of TNHE programmes in China will be explored, and a corresponding typology will be presented. We argue that in the face of the fast expanding activities of TNHE, the common irregularities in programme operation, and the less effective and efficient mechanism of quality assurance, may well be the major challenges for university governance in China. Structural reform in university governance is desirable, particularly in terms of empowering the non-public sector in Chinese higher education and of separating the role of the Party from academic administration.

Academic corruption in China's higher education institutions has become a serious issue in the last decade. This paper provides a critical discussion of the Chinese Ministry of Education's policy developments aimed to strengthen academic ethics and control academic corruption. It suggests that while the reactions of policy-makers to the apparent deterioration of academic ethics have been cautious and relatively slow, they are headed in the right direction. A comparative study of the policy documents demonstrates that significant progress has been made, and that the policy has undergone a change from what Anderson (1979) and Prunty (1984) described as "symbolic" to "material." Meanwhile, findings generated by qualitative interviews provide some insights into real-world academic corruption in China and indicate the complexity of the problem. Finally, some policy interventions are suggested that might be effective in reducing academic corruption.

This paper presents the findings of a national survey of student satisfaction with undergraduate teaching in a sample of universities and colleges in China. The results show that while a high proportion of academic staff participates in undergraduate teaching, levels of student satisfaction are low. The lowest levels of student satisfaction are found in research-intensive universities. The study concludes that the main causes of this situation are: a shortage of well-qualified academic staff; the pressure on academic staff to focus their time on research output; policies and practices that emphasize research-orientation in the evaluation of academic staff performance; and poor support for teaching in terms of both support staff and teaching facilities.

This article is a case study of Tsinghua University, one of China's most influential universities, which has special national significance and strong political ties to the state. Recalling three chapters in the past century of Tsinghua's history, this paper gives an interpretive understanding of how the intertwined relationship between academia and officialdom has acted as a double-edged sword in shaping the University's autonomy. It shows an interesting interplay between the university and the state, revealing the mechanisms of the state's control over the university, and the strategies adopted by the university to gain relative freedom. The article concludes by explaining how, in the context of China, an individual university can contend with the state's power to strive for its own autonomy.

On the basis of discussing the notion of virtual human resources and its structure, this paper analyzes the necessity of building up virtual university teaching staff and proposes a model for the structural makeup of virtual university teaching staff.