Small and Medium-sized Institutions and the Development of Chinese Higher Education

Wang Yida

Abstract:

Entering already in the stage of massive higher education, China has become the top one in terms of the scale of enrollment of college students. It is predicted that about 35 million students will be studying in universities and colleges of all kinds by the year 2020. Current accommodating ability of universities and colleges however is unable to meet the demand of such a huge enrollment number, and therefore the number of higher education institutions urgently need to increase by as many as 1500, most of which will be what we call the medium and small-sized higher education institutions for the reason that they make up for the dominant part in and play an exceptionally important role as the foundation of China’s higher education system. Building a complete and well-functioning system is indispensable throughout the whole process, during which the scale expansion of the system must strike a balance with its structure, quality and profit-making ability in an appropriately coordinated way. To be more specific, higher education institutions must have more flexible room to develop themselves, trying to be able to apply multi types of running approach at various levels and in more than just one single form. In a broader sense, different types of capital and all sources of students should be considered to be introduced when running a university. Every institution must have its own niche, finding its due position and specialized area of education. Research-oriented institutions, most of which are large-scaled ones, for instance, aim to produce a few outstanding talents with highly qualified academic ability, while medium and small-sized schools’ task is to provide professionals of enormous number to serve the society, which are the defacto major force for the nation’s economic and social development. Based on this reason, the only solution for the bottlenecks currently facing the latter lies in opening the door wide to the society and take market as the only navigation mark, so that they can finally distinguish themselves with their own uniqueness. For them, walking out of the “ivory tower” and conducting scientific research and technological innovation in response to local demand is what the medium and small-sized institutions have to fulfill, with the ultimate purpose to solve the practical problems emerging in the technological development and production of those medium and small-sized enterprises. Keeping in mind of the previously mentioned principle, it is without doubt that institutions of medium and small size would have much more potential to tap. With the trend of rapid growth the higher education, academic research-oriented institutions and medium and small-sized ones should support one another and co-develop in a complementary manner, without which an innovative and harmonious society will never be built up in China.