Construction And Application On The Theory Of Disciplinary Ecological Niche In Universities

From ecologic perspective, no living organism can isolated exist, and any organism is existing in its surrounding environment, both living things and non-living things, and exchange substances, energy and information with the surrounding environment. The university discipline system is a complex adaptive one. Its existence and development are indispensable to the ecological environment composed by factors such as social and natural environment, regional economy and culture, etc. There are many aspects in common between the construction and development of disciplines and the evolution and improvement of ecological units in the natural ecosystems. The disciplinary construction share same principles with that of the ecological niche. The present thesis will apply ecological niche theory to disciplinary construction. The following results have been achieved.(1) The disciplinary development is studied from the ecological perspective. The concept of discipline ecosystem has been put forward through applying theories from ecology, system science, scientology, management and education, as well as adopting methodologies such as transplantation and metaphor analysis, quantitative simulation analysis, empirical analysis, system analysis, etc. The characteristics, elements, levels, structure and environment of disciplinary ecosystem are analyzed. By doing so, the theoretical system of disciplinary ecosystem has been established initially.(2) The concept, theory and measurement models of the ecological niche are studied. Some basic concepts in disciplinary ecological niche have been set forth according to the basic theory of the ecological niche and the principles of ecological simulation. Furthermore, a systematic research has been carried out regarding to the types and levels of disciplinary ecological niche, as well as relations and differences between disciplinary ecological niche and biological ecological niche. The above studies serve as theoretical basis for disciplinary ecological niche.(3) The present thesis has established such theories as breadth, overlap, situation, separation, expansion and compression of disciplinary ecological niche, as well as super-volume model, adaptive model, evolutionary momentum model, coordinative evolution model of disciplinary ecological niche, based on which the ecological relations among disciplines have been analyzed and digital model system of disciplinary ecological niche has been established.(4) The evaluation index system of disciplinary ecological niche has been established according to the basic meaning, theories and models of disciplinary ecological niche. The thesis carries out a case study by evaluating 12 key disciplines of Gansu Agricultural University. After analysis and research on evaluation results, the disciplinary ecological niche strategies have been proposed towards the selection of disciplinary development strategies of the university. In addition, specific recommendations on disciplinary construction are given to resolve problems and tackle disadvantages in disciplinary development of Gansu Agricultural University.