Zhao Tingting Li Guangping
Abstract: Since the reform and opening up, the discourse of higher education development policy in our country has experienced the evolution from "intension development" to "high-quality development", aiming at solving the practical problems in the reconstruction of higher education under the constraint of resources, the quality improvement after the expansion and the innovation development under the bottleneck of quality improvement in different stages。Entering a new stage of high-quality development, China's higher education development policy needs to be transformed and upgraded in terms of development focus, development methods, and development tasks。At present, we should focus on breaking the obstacles of institutional mechanisms, explore the small incision and in-depth reform model, and take the road of innovative development。
Key words: higher education development policy;Connotation development;Connotative development;High-quality development
Since the reform and opening up, the higher education of our country has embarked on the track of rapid development, and has become the largest higher education system in the world, playing a more and more important role in national construction。In the course of 45 years of development, China's higher education has been thinking and exploring the suitable development model, which is embodied in the national higher education development policy at the macro level。Therefore, a systematic review of the evolution of this policy is helpful to deeply understand the path and internal logic of China's higher education development, and also to better grasp the implications of today's high-quality development。Only by embedding high-quality development into the historical evolution of China's higher education can we understand the historical inevitability of this choice for China's higher education, and can we grasp its core essence and future trend more accurately。
First, the evolution of China's higher education development policy discourse
The higher education development policy solves the problem of how to develop higher education at the macro level, and its role is to guide and lead the overall development of higher education in the country。At different times, the development policy discourse of higher education in our country presents different characteristics, reflecting the macro-development thinking and the development path chosen at that time。This paper will take the relevant important policy texts since the reform and opening up as the starting point, systematically review this evolution process from the perspective of the evolution of policy discourse, and focus on analyzing the policy expressions of "conformal development" and "high-quality development"。
1.The evolution of policy discourse
Throughout the course of higher education development in China since the 45 years of reform and opening up, "connotation development", "intension development" and "high-quality development" are the key words of higher education development policy in our country。However, in addition to the above three keywords, "scale of higher education" is also a high-frequency word in the development policy of higher education, but in different periods, the verbs with "scale of higher education" are different, such as "expansion", "steady expansion", "moderate expansion", "stable development" and so on。After in-depth analysis, it is found that the "scale of higher education", "connotation development" and "connotation development" in the course of policy discourse evolution appear alternating dominant states, outlining the main line of China's higher education development policy。
After the ten years of "Cultural Revolution" disaster, our society is waiting for a lot of things to be done, and higher education is no exception. Therefore, at the beginning of reform and opening up, higher education mainly focuses on restoring development and expanding scale。1983年，It is pointed out in the Report on Accelerating the Development of higher Education approved by The State Council to the Ministry of Education and the State Planning Commission，"The cause of higher education must do everything possible to overcome difficulties and accelerate development"，In the process of expanding the scale of higher education，According to the needs of the country's four modernizations，Adjusting and reforming the internal structure of higher education"，This should be an earlier formulation of higher education development policy。The document also required "provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and departments of The State Council to put forward plans for expanding the scale of higher education from 1983 to 1985 in light of the actual situation of their regions and departments", which fully demonstrated the urgent need for the development of higher education in the country at that time。After ten years of great development, higher education has made great achievements in development, but some problems inevitably appear, forcing the government to start to think deeply about how to develop higher education。1993年，In the notice approved by The State Council to the State Education Commission "Opinions on Accelerating Reform and actively developing General Higher education"，First proposed "The development of higher education，We must adhere to the path of content-based development."，自此，"Content development" began to appear frequently in various policy documents，And continued until 1999 China's higher education enrollment expansion。Because the substantial growth of the scale of higher education is inconsistent with the basic idea of "connotation development", the government has not emphasized the "connotation development" of higher education in the past ten years, and the words "connotation development" rarely appear in the main policy documents。In 2007, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance issued the Opinions on the Implementation of the Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project in colleges and Universities, and the formulation of "Realizing the coordinated development of the scale, structure, quality and efficiency of higher education" re-emerged, which is the policy meaning of "connotation development"。In 2010, the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) issued by The State Council clearly proposed to "establish the educational development concept with the improvement of quality as the core and pay attention to the connotation development of education", and "connotation development" returned to the policy discourse system。2011年，时任中共中央总书记胡锦涛同志在庆祝清华大学建校100周年大会上的讲话中，首次提出了“内涵式发展道路”的概念，之后“内涵发展”“内涵式发展”成为我国高等教育发展的关键词。2017年，Report to 19th CPC National Congress calls for "high-quality development"，2021年，The 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of the 2035 Vision Goals propose the establishment of a "high-quality education system"，至此，China's higher education development has entered a new stage of high-quality development。
2.The policy expression of "connotative development"
From the perspective of the evolution of policy discourse, both "connotation development" and "intension development" are the top-level policy design of how our country's higher education develops from the macro level based on the deep reflection on the problems existing in the development of higher education at that time after a period of expansion of the scale of higher education in our country。From this point of view, the two are in the same vein, and there is only a word difference in the formulation。The author consulted the major higher education policy documents since the reform and opening up, and found that there was no distinction between "connotation development" and "connotative development" in the policy texts. For the convenience of discussion, this paper uses "connotative development" uniformly.。However, due to the "connotative development" and "connotative development" mentioned in the policy texts before and after 1999, respectively,，There are some differences in the background, the practical problems and the policy connotation，因此，This article is bounded by the year 1999，The proposed "connotative development" is divided into the first stage and the second stage。Table 1 summarizes the expression of "connotative development" in key policy documents。
The policy formulation of the first stage of "connotative development" has the following three characteristics。第一，The expression of "connotative development" has experienced a gradually clear and clear process of policy connotation change，From "pay attention to the quality of personnel training，Focus on the overall effectiveness of education，"Focusing on reform and expanding the connotation" gradually evolved into "the scale is more appropriate.，More reasonable structure，The quality and efficiency have been significantly improved."，Then it was further refined into "coordinated development of scale, structure, quality and efficiency".。Second, "connotative development" is defined as a development path, highlighting the operability of this policy。Because it not only points out the elements that higher education should focus on in the development process and the relationship between the elements, but also provides the basic principles for dealing with the relationship between the elements, so it can be followed as a development path。Thirdly, proposing "connotative development" does not negate the development of the scale of higher education, but requires the scale development to be more moderate and coordinated, which is fundamentally different from the extension development with scale expansion as the main way。
The policy formulation of the second stage of "connotative development" has the following two characteristics。第一，Compared to the first stage，The elements of the higher education system concerned by the "connotative development" proposed in the second stage have undergone great changes，From the four elements of "scale, structure, quality and efficiency" to the five elements of "scale, structure, characteristics, innovation and quality"，"Efficiency" is no longer the focus，And added "characteristic" and "innovation" two elements。第二，The "connotative development" proposed in the first stage emphasizes the coordinated development of various elements，However, the relationship between the elements in the "connotative development" proposed in the second stage has changed obviously，Clearly put forward "quality improvement is the core"，Put "quality" at the forefront of all elements of the higher education system，Highlights the importance of "quality"。
3."High-quality development" policy statement
In October 2017, in response to the problems of excessive growth, unreasonable structure and low production capacity in China's economic development, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China officially proposed that "China's economy has shifted from the stage of high-speed growth to the stage of high-quality development", and the concept of "high-quality development" appeared in government documents for the first time。After that, the expression of "high-quality development" gradually expanded from the economic field to the overall social development of our country。In October 2020, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "China has shifted to a stage of high-quality development", and reform and innovation are the key to "high-quality development"。For the development of education, the report of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Party proposed for the first time to establish a "high-quality education system".。The 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035 to be issued in 2021，This paper discusses how to establish a high-quality education system from five aspects: "promoting the equalization of basic public education", "enhancing the adaptability of vocational and technical education", "improving the quality of higher education", "building a team of high-quality professional teachers" and "deepening education reform"，其中，"Improving the quality of higher education" is carried out from the aspects of promoting the comprehensive reform of colleges and universities, building first-class universities and first-class disciplines, building high-quality undergraduate education, and improving the quality of graduate education。In the context of the overall development of education, talent and science and technology, the report of the Party's 20th National Congress proposed to "accelerate the construction of a high-quality education system".。
From the above review of policy texts, it can be seen that the policy connotation of "high-quality development" of higher education has the following three characteristics。First, different from "connotative development" as a development path, the policy text does not have a clear explanation of the connotation of "high-quality development" in education (higher education), but there is a detailed elaboration on how to build a "high-quality education system"。This feature may be understood in this way: "high-quality development" is not a specific development path, but a new stage of development, so the path to achieve "high-quality development" will change with the different environment and problems faced by higher education。Second, "high-quality development" for education requirements is to establish a "high-quality education system", obviously, the construction of "education system" ideas and "conformal development" elements of the development of ideas have a great difference, the former more emphasis on the development of the system, integrity and comprehensiveness。Third, the "high quality" in "high-quality development" is not the same as the "quality" element in "connotative development"。As some scholars have said, "quality" in "high quality" refers to the quality of development, reflecting a level of development, and does not refer to the quality of personnel training and other specific levels。
Second, the practical logic of China's higher education development policy evolution
The evolution of China's higher education development policy is not the result of artificial regulation, but is determined by the practice of higher education development。After in-depth analysis, it is found that the policies of higher education development at different stages are put forward for the urgent problems and key problems in the development practice of higher education in our country at that time, reflecting the distinct practical guidance。Therefore, analyzing the practice logic of higher education development policy evolution helps us to understand the policy connotation more accurately and grasp the internal law of higher education development in our country。
1.The first stage proposed by "conformal development" focuses on the reconstruction of higher education under the constraint of resources
After the reform and opening up, higher education in our country entered the right track again and opened a new stage of development。In order to quickly change the situation of the shortage of talents after the "Cultural Revolution", in the ten years after the reform and opening up, China's higher education takes scale expansion and system reconstruction as the main development path, which is embodied in the following three aspects。First, rapidly expand the scale of higher education。The number of undergraduate and junior college students in ordinary colleges and universities increased from 85 in 1978.60,000 people increased to 195 in 1987.The total number of undergraduate and junior college graduates reached 2.7 million, equivalent to the total number of graduates in the first 30 years since the founding of New China。At the same time, the number of regular colleges and universities has increased rapidly, increasing by nearly 78% in a decade。Second, focus on building a higher education structure system that meets the needs of social development。In terms of hierarchical structure, the graduate education system was restored and rebuilt, and the number of graduate students graduated from 1978 to 1987 was 80,000, four times the total of the first 30 years since the founding of New China, and a large number of high-level professional talents were trained for the society。From the perspective of discipline structure, it has established a discipline system including 11 categories, vigorously developed finance, economics, political science and law and other disciplines that were seriously affected during the "Cultural Revolution", and actively adjusted and optimized the professional structure, alleviating the problem of shortage of related talents。Third, the contradiction between development and investment has further intensified, and the shortage of school resources has become prominent。The average cost per student of higher education in China in 1988 was 0 compared to that in 1981.49 times, and per capita GDP is 2.76 times, the former growth rate is much lower than the latter。According to statistics，Some universities are short of equipment，The rate of laboratory courses is low，In 40% of local universities, the rate of experimental courses is less than 90%，Twenty percent of schools are below 80 percent，And the situation is getting worse，By 1994, more than 70% of institutions of higher learning could not meet the standard of teaching and scientific research equipment per student。The shortage of educational resources is the inevitable result of the scale expansion of higher education far exceeding the rate of funding investment。
In the ten years after the reform and opening up, the development of higher education in China has basically completed the reconstruction task, but the development in this period is mainly extensive, so it has brought problems such as excessive growth in scale, low efficiency of running schools, shortage of resources and low quality of running schools。"Connotative development" is put forward in this context, its internal reasons are mainly in two aspects。First, resources constraints are the situation that the development of the higher education of our country has to face for a long time, this is the reality that the higher education itself can not change, so "intension development" is both helpless and inevitable choice。"In 1995, the proportion of China's total fiscal expenditure on education in the gross national product was about 2.46%, of which the proportion of fiscal higher education funding in the gross national product is about 0.43% (estimated), below the international average。The education fund of the whole society is generally seriously insufficient, and the average education fund at all levels is far from meeting the demand。At that time, the top priority of education work was to basically popularize nine-year compulsory education and basically eliminate illiteracy among young and middle-aged people, "to achieve the 'two bases', it needs to invest a lot of material and financial resources, so it is impossible to invest more material and financial resources to develop higher education."。In this case, if higher education still takes the road of scale expansion, the existing problems will be increasingly aggravated, which will seriously affect the development of higher education。Second, the efficiency of running a school in our country is low, and the expansion of the scale of higher education is mainly accomplished by building new institutions of higher education, so there is still a lot of room for exploiting the potential of colleges and universities。According to statistics, between 1977 and 1988, more than 670 institutions of higher learning were added in China, and 114 were added in 1985 alone, which is equivalent to an additional university every three days。Zhou Yuanqing, deputy director of the State Education Commission at that time, pointed out，"Our efficiency is still relatively low，The average school size is small"，According to statistics，In 1992, the average number of students was around 1,800，More than 100 have fewer than 1,000 students，There are dozens of schools with less than 300 students, If in accordance with "such a school benefit，The development of China's higher education is hopeless."。
Under the condition of overall resource constraint and low efficiency of university running, higher education can only tap internal potential if it wants to develop, and the basic logic of "conformal development" lies in this。Among them, improving the efficiency of running a school is fundamental. Only when the efficiency of running a school is improved, can the bottleneck problem of resource shortage be solved and the material basis and resource conditions for further development of higher education be obtained。The key is to steadily expand the scale and optimize the structure, which is the core demand of social development for higher education at that time. It is necessary to match the development of higher education with the speed of social development, and consider the structural adaptation of development。Improving the quality is the goal, because the ultimate goal is to improve the quality of higher education, whether it is to improve the efficiency of running a school, or to expand the scale and optimize the structure。
2.The second stage proposed by "connotative development" : focus on solving the problem of quality improvement after scale expansion
After the expansion of college enrollment in 1999, higher education broke away from the previous connotative development road and stepped into another decade of extended development stage。It was not until the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) was released in 2010 that "connotative development" in the field of education returned to the policy discourse。From 2000 to 2008, the number of colleges and universities increased by more than 1200.By 2010, the total number of students in higher education had reached 31.05 million, more than three times that of 1998。Although a decade of expansion of the scale of higher education has brought many problems, the most prominent one is the quality of higher education, which is mainly reflected in the following two aspects。
First, the rapid expansion of the scale of higher education has exacerbated the shortage of resources and led to a decline in the quality of higher education。From 1999 to 2010, the gross enrollment rate of higher education in China increased by 16%, and the number of college students in general higher education increased by 4%.4倍。Although the fiscal education funds of ordinary institutions of higher learning maintained a steady upward trend during this period, the proportion of fiscal funds decreased year by year from 61% in 1999 to 45% in 2005 and rose to 56% in 2008.。At the same time, the average student expenditure showed a downward trend, in 1999, the average student budget expenditure in China's general higher education was 8915 yuan, and since then, even in 2008, it has not returned to the level of 1999。It can be seen that the growth rate of higher education funding is far behind the speed of college enrollment expansion。At the same time, due to the great difference in local financial conditions, "the average allocation of college students in some cities and cities fails to meet the national standard, and some colleges and universities are nearly half the difference.。Many local colleges and universities have a large funding gap for infrastructure construction and professional teaching facilities and equipment."。Moreover, not only the shortage of funds and hardware conditions is serious, but also the problem of insufficient quantity and low quality of teachers is more prominent, "Although teachers have increased, but the teacher-student ratio has repeatedly reached a new low;At the same time, new teachers lack rich teaching experience and sufficient awareness of teaching and educating people, which affects the quality of teaching."。From 2011 to 2014, "more than 90% of the newly built undergraduate colleges and universities met the requirements of the basic education conditions to restrict enrollment, but less than 30% of the colleges and universities met the qualified requirements."。
Second, the phenomenon of the convergence of higher education is serious, which greatly affects the overall quality and level of higher education。Due to the rapid expansion of the scale and the intensification of competition among colleges and universities, a large number of local colleges and universities in our country have blindly promoted and expanded without a clear understanding of their own school-running positioning, coupled with the homogenization of resource allocation in the policy, the convergence phenomenon of Chinese colleges and universities is becoming increasingly serious。This phenomenon is manifested in three aspects: First, the convergence of the positioning of various colleges and universities。Some studies have found that nearly 80% of the 65 sample newly built undergraduate colleges and universities hope to become "teaching and research universities" or "comprehensive universities", and the main energy of these colleges and universities is to improve the level of education and apply for the right to grant doctoral and master's degrees。The second is the convergence of professional Settings among institutions。Some studies have found that many colleges and universities tend to set up low-cost, popular majors, in more than 200 sample colleges and universities, more than half of the colleges and universities set up computer science and technology, English, Chinese language and literature and other majors, the problem of low-level repeated professional Settings is prominent, the training of talents can not meet the needs of social development。Third, it is manifested in the weakening of the characteristics of industry colleges and universities。Since the 1990s, due to the reform of the management system of higher education, the subordination of some industrial colleges and universities has changed, which has objectively caused the interruption of the links between industrial colleges and industries, and its school-running characteristics have been greatly affected. Many industrial colleges and universities have embarked on the road of comprehensive development。According to statistics, "From 1994 to 2012, the number of general undergraduate colleges and universities covering 8 to 12 disciplines increased from 40 to 457, an increase of more than 10 times, accounting for the proportion of the total number of schools increased from 7% to 40%."。For universities with more prominent characteristics of specialization and industry, a large number of different disciplines and majors are added in a short period of time, which inevitably leads to insufficient construction of the connotation of the newly added disciplines and the blind pursuit of low-cost and popular majors。According to statistics, "In 2013, 93.Five percent of undergraduate colleges set up management ", and 87 percent of schools set up literature majors.5%。In contrast, in 2013, "the number of college graduates reached 6.99 million, and the employment difficulties of college students were prominent.。Local surveys show that many enterprises are having difficulty finding the large number of applied technology talents they need。The main problem is not the number of talent training, but the mismatch between talent supply and demand in talent training specifications."。
It can be seen that in the second stage proposed by "connotative development", the situation faced by the development of higher education and the problems to be solved are completely different from the first stage。Although the shortage of higher education resources still exists, with the slowing growth rate of higher education and the continuous increase of resource investment, the early debt problem has been solved to a large extent。In addition, since the reform and opening up, China's economy has been maintaining a high growth rate, national economic strength has increased significantly, investment in higher education has increased significantly, therefore, the problem of resource shortage gradually no longer become the main factor restricting the development of higher education。However, when the low quality problem caused by the shortage of resources has been alleviated, the real quality problem of higher education has become prominent, that is, the overall quality and level of higher education in China still need to be further improved, and the ability to meet the needs of social development needs to be further enhanced。
In this case, "conformal development" has been redefined, and its connotation has become "stable scale, optimize structure, strengthen characteristics, focus on innovation, and take quality improvement as the core".。"Efficiency" is no longer the focus of attention, "characteristics" and "innovation" two elements are paid attention to。The reason why "characteristic" is concerned is mainly because of the convergence of university running mentioned above。When the scale of higher education is small, the problem of homogenization brought by the convergence development is not prominent, but when the scale of higher education increases substantially, the problem brought by the homogenization of colleges and universities will be multiplied。Just imagine, a super-large-scale higher education system, if the implementation of the same mode of education, will lead to a large number of colleges and universities in the same track development, not only fierce competition, but also cause a waste of resources, and can not meet the diversified needs of society。In the ten years after the expansion of college enrollment in 1999, the development of higher education in our country is in this situation, so strengthening the characteristics is the inevitable choice after the expansion of the scale of higher education in our country。The same is true of the focus on the element of "innovation", only through innovative development can we strengthen the characteristics, find a way out, and achieve breakthroughs。Therefore, the intrinsic logic of the "connotative development" path is that quality improvement is the core purpose, and only through characteristic development and innovative development and promoting the diversification of higher education can quality improvement be truly achieved。
3.The stage proposed by "high-quality development" : focus on solving the problem of innovative development under the bottleneck of quality improvement
Since 2017, China has begun to enter a new stage of "high-quality development"。From the domestic situation，The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out，Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era，The principal contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved into that between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life.In terms of the international situation，A new round of national competition is intensifying，Scientific and technological competition and industrial competition are directly related to national interests and the future development of the country。The challenges of international and domestic situations make it necessary for China to improve the overall quality of social development and enhance national competitiveness through high-quality development, so as to protect the interests and well-being of the country and the people。
As an important power station of social development, higher education has been entrusted with important responsibilities and missions in the stage of "high-quality development"。The report of the Party's 20th National Congress put forward the strategy of overall development of education, science and technology, and talents. Therefore, the "high-quality development" of higher education needs to be considered in the context of the high-quality development of our society。In recent years, China's higher education development situation, there is still a big gap from the requirement of high quality development, which is reflected in the following three aspects。First, the ability of higher education to lead the development of social innovation is insufficient。In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the investment in scientific and technological innovation in colleges and universities. From 2012 to 2021, the government will pay more attention to R&D Funding input from 768 in 2012.700 million yuan has more than doubled to 159.2 billion yuan in 2021, but there is still much room for improvement in higher education's ability to lead China's social innovation and development。Statistics show that from 1996 to 2014, the contribution rate of higher education to economic growth in China was 1.82%, well below the United States (14.61%）、英国（8.64%）、法国（10.52%) and other Western higher education developed countries。In 2022, China ranked 11th in the Global Innovation Index (GII), but in the dimension of "human capital and research" (including higher education), China only ranked 20th, indicating that this dimension has dragged down the country's overall innovation index ranking。According to the statistics of the World Bank, in 2017, the net intellectual property rights of developed countries such as the United States and Japan were about 4‰, while China remained in a negative range for a long time, remaining at -1.95‰左右。In recent years, some "stuck neck" technologies are the performance of China's lack of independent intellectual property rights in key areas。
Second, the development quality of different types of colleges and universities in our country needs to be improved。For first-class universities, they should further strengthen the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, the output of original scientific and technological achievements, and the ability to serve the national strategic needs. Compared with the world's top universities, China's first-class universities still have a big gap in these aspects。Some scholars pointed out through data analysis that "the current 'double first-class' construction is only to further expand our traditional advantages, without involving the key areas of 'jam neck', and did not solve the original innovation problem from the root".。For a large number of local colleges and universities, they should be further integrated into the local economic and social development, should be committed to training top-notch applied talents, provide the source of technological innovation for local enterprises, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements。2019年，The report of the Law Enforcement Inspection Team of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the inspection of the implementation of the Higher Education Law of the People's Republic of China pointed out，"The applied, composite, technical and skilled talents most needed for economic and social development are in short supply，Talent supply and market demand 'do not match'"，"The quality of teachers in application-oriented colleges and universities can not fully meet the needs of running schools，Full-time teachers lack practical experience and experience in enterprises and institutions，Teaching is out of touch with the practical needs of society，The practical ability training of college students is weak;Scientific research is difficult to solve the practical problems in the production and work of enterprises and institutions，Scientific research lacks practical application value.，These problems have seriously restricted the high-quality development of local colleges and universities。
Third, there are many institutional obstacles that restrict the innovation vitality of colleges and universities。There are still many barriers to break through in the system mechanism of higher education in our country，Such as the fragmented management system is still not completely straightened out，The discipline professional system is still relatively rigid and is not conducive to crossover and integration，The higher education evaluation system has not found an effective way to break the "five only"，The integration mechanism between industry and education and science and education still needs to be deepened，So to speak，These problems have become the pain points and difficult problems restricting the innovation and development of Chinese colleges and universities。Only by breaking through these obstacles and looking for the road of reform and innovation can we stimulate the endogenous driving force of innovation and development of colleges and universities, make personnel training, scientific research and social services in colleges and universities glow with fresh vitality, and put Chinese colleges and universities on the track of sound development。
Third, the new stage of China's higher education development policy changes
Entering a new stage of high-quality development means that the development of all areas of our society needs to uphold the new development concept, change the development mode, and innovate the development path。As for the development policy of higher education, on the basis of systematic analysis and summary of historical experience, starting from the new development requirements, a comprehensive transformation and upgrading should be carried out in the aspects of development focus, development methods and development tasks, in order to promote China's higher education into the new track of high-quality development。
1.From "quantity" and "quality" to "high quality" : the transformation of development focus
It is generally believed that the development of higher education mainly includes "quantitative" and "qualitative" changes。The change of "quantity" is mainly reflected in the growth of the scale of higher education，Is the process of higher education from small to large;The change in "quality" is more complicated，Because "quality" doesn't just mean "quality."，It also means "qualitative specification"，因此，The change of the "quality" of higher education not only refers to the improvement of the quality of higher education，It also refers to the overall improvement of the development level of the higher education system。In the field of higher education, development with "quantitative" growth as the core is called extensional development, while development with "quality" as the core is called conformal development。This understanding of development is mainly influenced by relevant research in economics。Marx first used "connotation" to describe economic phenomena, he said in Capital, chapter 8 "Fixed capital and Working capital", "if the field of production is expanded, it is expanded in extension;If the efficiency of the means of production is increased, it is expanded in connotation."。Later, some Soviet economists, inspired by Marx's works, divided economic growth into two types: "extension growth" and "connotation growth"。From an economic perspective, "connotation growth" is mainly achieved by tapping the potential of internal factors, while "extension growth" is on the contrary, mainly achieved by expanding the external scale。Therefore, for a long time, "quantity" growth and "quality" improvement have been regarded as the two main aspects of the development of higher education。
The ideal higher education development is of course the coordinated development of "quantity" and "quality", but constrained by realistic conditions, the coordinated development of "quantity" and "quality" of China's higher education has been intermittent, and the first ten years after reform and opening up and the first ten years of the 21st century have been the growth of "quantity" mainly。This is because for a catching up developing country like China，There are always real problems that need to be solved urgently，For example, the reconstruction of higher education in the early stage of reform and opening up，Do not promote rapid scale growth，Can not meet the urgent needs of nation building in the short term;Another example is the expansion of college enrollment in 1999，It is the overall deployment of the state to stimulate domestic demand，The development of higher education should obey the overall situation which centered on economic construction at that time，It is true, though, that higher education has grown too large and its quality has declined，But at the same time, it also quickly solved the problem of popularization and popularization。In this sense, the development path of China's higher education and China's economic development path have similarities, both are to first make the volume up, and then solve the quality problem in development, which may be the only choice for the development path of post-hairstyle countries。
It can be seen，Before the "quality development" policy was proposed，China's higher education has always been seeking balance and coordination between "quantity" and "quality"，But the proposal of "high-quality development" shows that，The development of higher education in our country has got out of the dilemma of "quantity" and "quality"，Has entered a new stage of development。It should be said that after entering the stage of high-quality development, the development of higher education begins to really pay attention to the quality of development, the focus of development, the way and the path itself。This is because，On the one hand，Higher education in our country has basically completed the historical task of "quantity" growth，It has reached a universal level of higher education，The development achievements of higher education in recent years have laid a realistic foundation for us to go beyond "quantity" and "quality" choice.On the other hand，When the contradiction between "quantity" and "quality" is no longer the main contradiction in the development of higher education，Deep problems in the development of higher education began to emerge，Such as the supply side and the demand side of the adaptation, the overall coordination of higher education development, higher education innovation vitality and other issues。From this point of view, in the stage of high-quality development, the development of China's higher education will face more severe challenges, we must turn the focus of development to solve the key and difficult problems in the development of higher education, explore the innovative development of higher education, to achieve the overall reform and upgrade of the higher education system。
2.From "heavy regulation" to "heavy innovation" : the transformation of development mode
Although the planned economy system has been in the past, its influence on higher education in our country is extremely profound, and the planned color still lies deep in many areas such as enrollment system, discipline system, resource allocation and management system of higher education in our country today。The main feature of the planning system is that the government has absolute unified management and planning power in the social development，This is reflected in the way higher education develops，That is, the government is more inclined to adopt a regulatory approach when promoting the development of higher education，Attach importance to the unity, regularity and planning of development，Ignoring individuality, diversity, flexibility。The development approach of "heavy regulation" has its advantages when the development level of higher education is still relatively low in our country. The government takes the place of colleges and universities and various stakeholders in society to make development choice. This approach can make the development of higher education quickly step into the right track and gain high development efficiency。但是，With the improvement of the development level of higher education and the enhancement of system complexity，The development of higher education is increasingly diversified, pluralistic and differentiated，The limits of heavy regulation are beginning to show，It is mainly reflected in the problems of "one-size-fits-all", "homogenization", "one tube will die, and one release will be chaotic" when responding to diverse social needs。At the same time, for a complex system with a higher level of development, it is increasingly difficult for the government to maintain the accuracy of the plan. Therefore, the establishment of an endogenous development mechanism based on the self-decision-making of the development subject should be a better choice for the high-quality development stage。
Of course, this endogenous development mechanism is not to give the power of development to the market completely. The macro-political and economic system of our country determines that the government must play a leading role in social development, but the government also needs to change the way and area in which it plays its role in light of the new development situation。In this sense, in the stage of high-quality development, higher education should break the long-term path dependence, put forward new ideas to solve problems, seek new ways of innovative development, and step into a new track of development。If "conformal development" refers to a unified and clear development path, then "high-quality development" is "a continuous process of constantly creating new development conditions", which will be "constantly updated and improved with the change of specific historical conditions".。In other words, "quality development" refers to a process of change, which can only be achieved by innovation。正像习近平总书记指出的那样，“新时代新阶段的发展必须贯彻新发展理念，必须是高质量发展”，“高质量发展要靠创新”。The development mode of "emphasizing innovation" means that the government should give higher education more space to explore. How to combine the local reality and find a new path of high-quality development of higher education is the historical mission given by The Times to China's higher education and the real test of its development ability。
3.From "grasping elements" to "building system" : upgrading of development tasks
In the stage of "internal development", the overall development idea of higher education in China is to realize the overall development of higher education by improving the level of core factors such as scale, structure, quality, efficiency, characteristics, innovation and so on。As previously analyzed, these core elements reflect the key issues in the development of higher education in different periods in our country, therefore, to grasp these core elements, we seize the key to the development of higher education in our country。From the perspective of deep concept, taking "elements" as the main task of development reflects the key development thought that has dominated the development of China's higher education for a long time。The key development idea is to grasp the key points and grasp the key ideas, in the face of various development pressures, the key development is undoubtedly more efficient。Compared with the developed countries of higher education in the west, China's higher education has a weak foundation, weak foundation and heavy development tasks. Therefore, in a long period of time, China's higher education can only take the road of key development and realize the overall development of higher education quickly by grasping the core elements。
但是，Focusing on the development of "grasping the elements" as the main task has also left many problems，Especially in the face of "high-quality development" new requirements，The extensive character of this development has emerged，It is found that，Outside of the core elements of concern，There are still many difficult reforms in China's higher education, "deep water areas" or even "no man's land".，And these places are difficult to solve by "grasping the elements" way。This is because the development of higher education is a systematic project, which not only needs to grasp the core and key elements, but also needs to go beyond the elements to carry out systematic comprehensive reform。The development of higher education is not only reflected in the optimization and improvement of some elements, but also in the change of factor relations and the improvement of the internal coordination of the system, which requires the higher education in our country to rethink the development of higher education from the perspective of system comprehensive reform。In the new stage of high-quality development, the government's requirement for education is to build a "high-quality education system", which fully shows that the main task of China's current education development has changed to the construction of the education system。For higher education，The task of system building is more complex and heavy，On the one hand，There are multiple levels and types in the higher education system，There are many stakeholders involved，Higher education management is even more multisectoral，All these need to be considered in the internal system construction;On the other hand，There is a close relationship between the small system of higher education on the supply side and the large social system on the demand side，However, the coupling degree of the two still needs to be improved。Especially in the stage of high-quality development, society's expectation and dependence on higher education will be further deepened, which requires that the development task of higher education should be transformed and upgraded, from "grasping the elements" to "building the system".。
Fourth, some suggestions to promote the high-quality development of higher education in our country
The high-quality development of higher education is a long-term and arduous task, and higher education needs to make a comprehensive judgment according to the conditions, problems, priorities and difficult tasks of higher education development in different periods。This judgment should not only be based on the experience of historical development, but also from the new concept of "innovative development, coordinated development, green development, open development and shared development", and put forward innovative development ideas。This paper holds that，At present, China's higher education wants to realize the transformation and upgrading of development focus, development mode and development task，We must start from breaking the obstacles of the system and mechanism，Because the system mechanism barrier has become the pain point, the difficulty and the blocking point in the development of higher education in our country，These problems, known as the "deep water area of reform", have seriously hindered the further development of higher education in our country。Only when the obstacles of the system and mechanism are broken, can the construction of the system have a solid foundation。To break the obstacles of institutional mechanisms, we can start from the following three aspects。The first is to make efforts to open up all aspects of the higher education system vertically，Through opening up the talent training chain, scientific and technological innovation chain, etc，To achieve the purpose of reshaping the system, pooling resources and integrating forces，Build a higher education system with internal coordination and flexibility，Improve the independent training ability of top-notch innovative talents，To provide a solid foundation for China's scientific and technological self-reliance，We will give better play to the leading role of higher education in social development。The second is to strengthen the integration inside and outside the higher education system from a horizontal perspective，By promoting the integration of sectors within the higher education system and between higher education and relevant sectors outside the system，We will remove the administrative and institutional barriers that restrict the development of higher education，Strengthening the capacity of higher education to serve national and regional development，Stimulate the vitality of higher education。Third, we should adhere to the small incision, in-depth reform model, start small, focus on the big, through the small incision reform to achieve the deep change of the whole body, and constantly find ways to crack the obstacles of the system and mechanism in the reform。
The following will start from the urgent needs of the current development of China's higher education, put forward three small incision, in-depth reform breakthrough points。
1.In order to break the dilemma of discipline professional system to promote the deep reform of academic work in colleges and universities
After the founding of New China，Higher education in our country is influenced by Soviet model，It has formed a disciplinary professional system with strong planning color，This system has three characteristics: First, to highlight the adaptability of the post，The division of disciplines and specialties is more detailed;Second, the boundaries between disciplines and specialties are clear，Distinct hierarchy，Prominent structural features;The third is to focus on the subject，The government has formed a management system for grass-roots academic work，Enrollment, personnel training, scientific research, faculty management, resource allocation, and degree awarding are all carried out on the basis of disciplines and specialties。In recent years, under the influence of policies and systems such as the construction of key disciplines, the construction of first-class disciplines, and the evaluation of disciplines, the boundaries of disciplines have been continuously strengthened, and the barriers between disciplines have been formed。This has caused a lot of bad consequences，For example, the advancement of interdisciplinary majors is difficult，That is, it is difficult to conduct scientific research and innovation from the perspective of problem orientation and demand orientation，It restricts the vitality of knowledge production in universities.Disciplinary professional resources are dispersed，Repeated Settings are serious，The specialty standard of the discipline is prominent，It is difficult to form a big platform, a big team, a big project, and a big result，Lack of research ability on basic original innovation and "stuck neck" technology;The innovation vitality of universities is not enough，Disciplinary professional development is trapped in an internal cycle，Become more and more closed，Increasingly distant from the real needs of society;The training of top innovative talents lacks a dynamic educational environment，Outdated knowledge，Knowledge reorganization and curriculum integration are arduous tasks。
It is a complex systematic project to solve the dilemma of discipline and specialty system, which involves the reform of system and mechanism of enrollment, personnel training, scientific research management, teacher management, resource allocation and so on。Starting from the small incision and deep reform mode, it is suggested to take the reform of the grass-roots academic organization mode of colleges and universities as the starting point, and gradually crack the obstacles of the discipline professional system by exploring new ways of the reform of the grass-roots academic organization mode of colleges and universities。At present, new secondary academic organizations such as College of Future Technology and College of modern industry have emerged in Chinese universities，The aim is to break the current rigid disciplinary system，But the development of these new types of organizations has not been smooth，Many institutional mechanisms are still not in order，The management and evaluation of teachers, the working mechanism of interdisciplinary teams, and the allocation of campus resources still need to be greatly reformed。同时，Chinese universities should also explore more models and ways of grassroots academic organization reform，Such as can jump out of the idea of establishing physical colleges to promote interdisciplinary majors，Explore how to build more flexible interdisciplinary teams and interdisciplinary research platforms;Can we further explore how to open the way from interdisciplinary research to interdisciplinary personnel training，Effectively improve the effectiveness of training top-notch innovative talents。The government should establish a symbiotic and win-win relationship with colleges and universities, not only support the relevant reforms of colleges and universities in terms of policies, mechanisms and funds, but more importantly, jointly discuss and plan ways to solve the difficulties with colleges and universities, force the reform of the macro management system and mechanism, and work together to reform the "deep water zone".。
2.To build the scientific and technological innovation chain of colleges and universities to enhance the ability of colleges and universities to serve the country
In recent years, due to the intensification of international technology and industrial competition, China's demand for "jam neck" technology, key core common technology, and modern engineering technology is very urgent。In the process of cracking the "stuck neck" problem, some technological breakthroughs are the original innovation from 0 to 1, but many technological breakthroughs are the application innovation and engineering innovation from 1 to engineering and even marketization。In other words, modern scientific and technological innovation not only needs to stimulate basic research from application needs, but also needs to transform basic original achievements into technical and industrial advantages。For higher education，In the past, scientific and technological innovation mostly followed a one-way linear path from basic research to applied research and then to development research，At the same time, scientific and technological innovation in colleges and universities will not consider engineering, industrialization and other issues，This results in some problems, such as the incommunication of each link of scientific and technological innovation and the low efficiency of the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities，Not only does it not conform to the current technological development trend，More seriously, it has affected the ability of higher education to serve the national major strategy and scientific and technological innovation。Therefore, colleges and universities must open up the scientific and technological innovation chain in the future, and give full play to the role of colleges and universities in promoting the innovation and development of the country and society。
From the driving force of scientific research innovation, there are three main types of scientific research innovation chain in universities。The first is the "original innovation chain driven by free exploration", the main driving force of its innovation is the free exploration of scholars, so this path is characterized by the uncertainty and unpredictability of the results。However, it should be noted that free exploration is one of the important characteristics of scientific research and the source of human progress, so neither the government nor universities can simply intervene, but should be encouraged。At the same time, universities should focus on the back end of this innovation chain, that is, actively discover and tap the value of free exploration and research, and through a series of links such as applied basic research, application development and research, the original results of technology and industrialization。The construction of first-class science and engineering disciplines in high-level universities should play a leading role in this innovation chain, and teachers should be encouraged to work hard on real problems and hard research, and do basic original research with real value。The second is "strategic high-tech demand-driven collaborative innovation chain", the main driving force of its innovation comes from the major strategic needs of the country, so it is characterized by demand driven and multi-disciplinary support。However, universities do not have advantages in application development, engineering, industrialization, etc. Their advantages lie in the front end of innovation, and the back end needs to cooperate closely with scientific research institutes and technology leaders, etc. Therefore, the key to the optimization of this innovation chain is to build the path and mechanism of collaborative innovation。Universities should build a strategic science and technology platform, gather multiple research forces, and make overall planning to open up the whole process from basic research to industrialization。Universities should not only actively identify and promote the free exploration and research achievements with potential and prospects, and transform the advantages of basic research into advanced productive forces, but also, starting from the major needs of national and regional development, organize industry, university and research institutions to jointly tackle key scientific and technological problems。At the same time, universities should also deepen the reform of the transformation mechanism of scientific and technological achievements, plan the research direction in advance from the front end of market demand condensation and technology trend prediction, and timely follow up and in-depth mining of the output results, promote the accurate docking of industrial demand and scientific and technological innovation, and accelerate the opening of the "last kilometer" of the transformation of achievements.。The third is "the long-term research innovation chain driven by the logic of discipline development", whose innovation power mainly comes from the development logic of the discipline knowledge itself。The advantage of discipline development logic lies in its programmability and long-term development, so the key to the optimization of this innovation chain is to lead the discipline planning and development by the real problems in the national strategic development needs, and to establish long-term research planning。The first-class disciplines of science and engineering in high-level universities should lead the discipline construction with the development of national strategic science and technology, organically combine the logic of discipline development with the national strategic needs, and devote themselves to overcoming difficulties。
3.To break the shackles of departmental management system and mechanism by integrating and opening schools
With the reform of higher education management system since the 1990s, the problem of segmentation has been alleviated to a certain extent, but it is still not completely solved。On the one hand, the management departments within the higher education system still lack effective linkage; on the other hand, there are serious barriers between colleges and universities, enterprises, research institutes and other relevant departments outside the higher education system, and the situation of collaborative cooperation and open education has not really formed。
The Party's 20th National Congress put forward a three-in-one strategy of building a strong country in education, science and technology, and talent，Higher education lies at the intersection of the three，It is not only an important part of the construction of education power，It is also an important foundation and guarantee for the construction of a powerful country in science and technology and a powerful country in talents，And to make higher education and scientific and technological innovation, talent highland construction organic integration，We must get out of the shackles of the departmental management system，We will promote deeper integration of higher education with all sectors of society。Therefore, colleges and universities should cooperate deeply with scientific research institutes and enterprises by exploring new ways and practices of the integration of science, industry and education.A new mechanism for the integration of science, production and education will be established through mutual recruitment of experts, co-education of students, sharing of scientific research resources, co-construction of large scientific installations, and joint research on major topics。Colleges and universities should also actively promote the cooperation with science and technology leaders and "specialized and special" small giant enterprises, through the construction of joint laboratories and other forms, joint research on key core technologies, provide scientific and technological support for enterprises, and help them develop their own technological advantages。Colleges and universities should also strengthen the deep integration with their regions, and local governments should support colleges and universities in terms of policy and capital investment。Universities should focus on the key common issues in regional development, actively provide scientific and technological support for regional social and economic development, promote the accumulation of innovation factors to regional industries, and help the organic integration of regional innovation chain, industrial chain and value chain。
In short, from intension development to high quality development, China's higher education has reached a new stage that needs comprehensive transformation development。Only by breaking the path dependence and exploring innovative development paths is the direction of high-quality development of higher education in the future。
Author: Zhao Tingting, Professor, Higher Education Development Research Center, Xiamen University; Li Guangping, PhD candidate, Institute of Education, Xiamen University
Source: Higher Education Research