Research On The Relationship Between The Layer Structure Of Higher Education And Economic Growth

1. Research ObjectiveEducation can promote economic growth (Schultz,1963; Lucas,1988).The higher the education level is, people are more easy to raise labor productivity. The education scale is larger, the accumulation of human capital is richer. Which has been recognized by many nation’s education development and economic growth(Zeira,2009). According to this theory, higher education can promote economic growth better. However, in recent years, many scholars (Barro and Sala-I-Martin,2004; Richard Vedder,2004; Risti Permani,2009, etc.) found that higher education was not necessarily to promote economic growth. In fact, only higher education that adapts to the needs of economic growth could promote economic growth (Colin&Geske,1989; Jiang Yi,2010; Fan Kwan,2005; Ye Feiwen,2004, etc.).Since the reform and opening up, China’s higher education has experienced the process of recovery, adjustment and rapid development. At present, although the higher education scale of China has leaped to No1in the world, but in terms of the relative proportion, compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap. Some structural contradictions are emerging. While the scale of higher education increases, the layer structure of higher education has been constantly adjusted. At the beginning of reform and opening up, undergraduate enrollment is dominant. Until now, the scale of post secondary education is approximately equal to college education’s scale, and graduate education has developed from zero to a large-scale. However, whether the structure of higher education has adapted to and promoted economic growth remains a question. Moreover, in order to realize the twelfth-five-years’ over all goal, which proportion of the layer structure of higher education is reasonable? Therefore, the relationship between the adjustment of the layer structure of higher education and economic growth since the reform and opening up is the subject of this study.Previous studies of the relationship between higher education and economic growth often start from the contribution of higher education to economic growth, but seldom looking at the layer structure of higher education. Higher education has its own pattern. The relationship between higher education and economic growth, in fact, is the problem of adaptation and matching. There is always the contradiction between the total amount and the structure of higher education(Lam Wing,2008). It is obviously inadequately discussed in current research. So it is particularly important to study the relationship between the layer structure of higher education and economic growth from the overall point of view, whichwould offer a certain reference value to the adjustment of China’s higher education hierarchy.2. Research contents, ideas and methodsthe research contents are as follows:(1) Reviewed theories of education and economic growth to find the historical relationship between the adjustment of the layer structure of China’s higher education and economic growth.(2)reviewed and summarized the developed countries’ experiences and lessons in the development of higher education including Japan, Europe and the United States, as well as emerging countries, to provide a reference for the adjustment of the layer structure of China’s higher education.(3) Studyed on the relationship between structural adjustment and economic growth since China’s reform and opening up, furtherly proved the internal relationship.(4) Calculated the appropriate proportion of the structure of higher education based on the overall goal of the12th Five-Year Plan.The paper explored several ideas. Firstly, it reviewed the hierarchy of higher education and economic growth theory, and the subject of this study is drawn by looking into the contradiction between the current higher education scale and insufficient human capital needs at the transition period of Chinese economy. Secondly, it reviewed and summarized the developed and developing countries’ experiences and lessons from the development of higher education. Thirdly, an empirical research is done with data collected since the reform and opening up while taking the12th Five-Year Plan’s overall goal into consideration. Lastly, it came to a conclusion and made policy recommendations accordingly.In this paper, following methods are employed:(1) Literature method. Relationship between the layer structure of higher education and economic growth theory is reviewed.(2) Comparative analysis. This study compared different layer structures of higher education during different time period since the reform and opening up in China, and horizontal compared Chinese higher education system with the developed countries, Japan, the United States, European countries, and also emerging countries.(3) Multivariate statistical method. Multivariate statistical analysis is employed. principal component analysis, nonlinear correlation Logistic regression are all used with statistical software Spss20.0.3. Research Conclusions The layer structure of higher education and economic growth associated with each other in both static and dynamic interaction mechanism. From the static point of view, they interact as follows:(1) The mechanism of the layer structure of higher education to economic growth. On the one hand, higher education meets, adapts, leads the economic structure transformation and upgrade of promoting economic growth by increasing the human capital, and also the expansion of higher education itself is stimulating domestic demand, accelerating the development of related industries, and promoting economic growth.(2) the mechanism of economic growth to the layer structure of higher education:economic growth restrict the layer structure of higher education or promote human capital through conversion and upgrade of the economic structure. On the other hand economic growth can provide more input for higher education, so as to promote its development. From a dynamic point of view, the adaptation of higher education and economic growth results from the game of government, universities, market, family.Since the reform and opening up, in order to adapt and promote economic growth, China’s higher education system has long been in a state of adjustment. The relationship between Higher education and economy growth coincide the proposed correlation mechanism. The structural adjustment of higher education reduces the waste of resources, adapts and promotes the economic growth to a large extent. The trends of China’s higher education structure are that post secondary level develops the most rapidly; graduate-level education maintains a steady growth, and undergraduate-level education expriences the downward trend.No matter the developed capitalist countries, such as the United States, Japan and South Korea, or countries like Germany where vocational education has well developed, undergraduate education dominants the proportion of the layer structure of higher education besides slight difference according to national conditions. But all the countries share a same feature that the growth rate of post secondary education exceeds other layers’in the process of popularization of higher education. The fast growth of post secodary education provides huge talents pool for industrilization and later the rising third industy. Only after that, and with the development of economy and society, all layers of higher education would exprience an upward trend.The empirical studies show that, since the reform and opening up, adjustment of China’s layer structure of higher education adapts to the needs of economic growth significantly. Its relationship is non-linear correlation, specifically as cubic curve.At the period of12th Five-Year, the best enrollment ratio of post secondary education, undergraduate and graduate education would be0.445:0.48:0.075. And the average growth ratio would be2.164%,1.626%and1.714%respectively. 4. Theoretical Contribution(1) The paper reviewed the mechanism of the layer structure of higher education and economic growth systematically.It came to the conclusion that the adaptation of the layer structure of higher education results from the gaming among government, universities, market, and family. While previous research focus on higher education’s contribution to econoic growth, seldom has study looked at the relationship from this angel.(2) Systematically summarized the historical relationship of structural adjustment of China’s higher education and economic growth systematically. In previous studies, the time scope of most studies was after1999, while this article looked into the issue with a wider time scope starting from the reform and opening up of China.(3) Used principal component analysis and nonlinear fitting by drawing a scatter-plot to observe the distribution characteristics with Spss20.0statistical software. In previous studies, most conclusions were direct linear correlation, but according to the phenomenon and experience, the relationship between higher education adjustment and economic growth is not necessarily a linear relationship, therefore, curve fitting after bulk point distribution analysis would be more reasonable.(4) taking China’s12th Five-Year Plan into consideration, the paper used data of China’s higher education adjustment since the reform and opening up to forecast the scale and proportion of China’s higher education during the12th Five-Year. Its conclusions will provide reference for the future structural adjustment of higher education in China’s12th Five-Year period.5. Research Limitation and Future Research DirectionLimitations of the research could be concluded as follows.(1) The investment in all higher education has important influence on economic growth. However, as there is no detailed data about, it, this study can not include the prospective of higher education’s input.(2)The study of the interaction mechanism between the Higher Education structure and Economic Growth analyzes the game behavior of government, universities, markets, and family. The downside of this hypothesis is the lack of actual survey data of real community demand.(3) The industry data in12th Five-Year period was only calculated according to the average growth rate of goal.In fact, economic growth and the development of the three industries is not a simple average. It results in inaccurancy of predication.This paper has several indications for future research directions:(1) future study may look at the relationship between the layer structure adjustment of higher education and economic growth from the point of input.(2) Future reseach may increase the actual data survey of the community.(3) In terms of the proportion of the three industries of the national economy, future study should try to find a more accurate way to predict the relative data, thus the results of the study would be more useful.