Institutional Construction Of Educational Resources Sharing In University Towns

The breakthrough of people' s understanding of the leading role of education in social development has promoted the drive of the construction of university towns, which has initiated the rapid development of China' s higher education. The Chinese people have invested their great enthusiasm in this construction. According to statistics, by the end of 2002, there were more than 50 university towns in China with a total student enrollment of about one hundred thousand, covering an area ranging from several square kilometers to dozens of kilometers. The construction of university towns has added a shining landscape to urban construction.Owing to the increasing demand of the era and practical tasks, from the very beginning, the construction of university towns has shouldered the mission of seeking an organizational and operational mode for Chinese universities and colleges in the setting of modern schooling system through the innovation of physical and environmental construction of university towns, construction of institutional environment, as swell as moral and humanistic environment. This is to meet the challenge of the change in the conception of university, the demand from the popularization of higher education, integration of disciplines and locally economic prosperity.This paper has four chapters. The first chapter focuses on the stakeholders who share the educational resources in universities in southwestern part of Shanghai. It presents an analysis of the achievements in resources-sharing, teachers' and students' participation as well as some particular cases. It points out the discrepancy between designers' expections and participants' intentions in resources-sharing, projects carried out at relatively low level and inadequate participation, obscure orientation of the projects regarding resources-sharing, and social assessment at average level. The second chapter is an attributive analysis of the problems with resources-sharing and also explores favorable conditions for educational resources sharing in university towns. The third chapter discusses the guarantee ofresources-sharing in university towns from the perspective of institutional construction of the functions of the government and universities. The fourth chapter elaborates the institutional construction of teaching activities in sharing educational resources, including the organizations, contents and forms in resources-sharing in university towns. As a conclusion, we look at the development of university towns and Chinese universities in the 21st century in prospect.