The Definition Of Responsibility And Accountability In Higher Education

Recently, as the higher education breaks the shackle of "the tower of ivory" and occupies an increasingly significant position in the process of the society, the accountability of higher education has aroused great concern in society. However, what kind of responsibilities the higher education should undertake, and among these responsibilities, which can withstand the accountability mechanisms and which cannot still need further researches. The significance of establishing the accountability mechanism has been clearly stated in the National Program for Medium-and Long-Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020), while, it is still a new attempt to promote such a mechanism in higher education in China. How to set up a reasonable, impartial and effective accountability system in higher education is an indispensable and urgent issue to be resolved. This thesis, based on such a research background, makes the definition of the responsibility of higher education and the accountability mechanism. The types, features, the correspondence of responsibility and the mechanism, the establishment of responsibility relations, the subjects and the objects of the implementation are all under discussion in this research. In this thesis, the academic principles of higher education and the juridical logic of Education Act are both applied to the analysis of the responsibility and the accountability mechanism.In the research of the responsibility and the accountability mechanism of higher education, the first priority should be given to the boundary problem between higher education and law, which is also the premise and the essential basis to resolve this problem. The dominant control of the law towards the higher education can be ascribed to the attribution of the law, and this control has certain effect but is limited. In the legal process, the higher education plays multiple roles, which is reflected in the civil law, the administrative law and the constitution. Higher education is considered as the special subsystem of the society and one of the educational levels, and boasts a kind of uniqueness which distinguishes it from other social subjects and helps highlight its own property. The uniqueness of the higher education is mainly reflected by its mission, tradition and academic position. All these differentiate it from other social subjects and represent the core of higher education.The responsibility system of higher education is the essential component of the defining the responsibility and promoting the accountability mechanism. A responsible higher education should actively adapt itself to the nature of social and economic development, ensure public interest and undertake the moral responsibility. Then, it should seek people’s satisfaction while improve the quality of education, shoulder the administrative, legal and academic responsibilities. This research classified the sources and formation of the responsibilities of higher education. A responsible higher education should bear the responsibilities brought by its social role, its interest relationship and its promise committed to the society.The relationship between the responsibility of higher education and the law is the starting point of defining the responsibility and implementing the accountability. Based on the legal regulations and legal fact, it builds a relatively clear right-duty relation between certain legal subjects. This kind of legal relation mainly includes subjects, objects and the content of the relation, etc. Meanwhile, it has several characteristics like the changeability of the subject’s structure, the overlap of the status, the definiteness of the qualification and the variety of the object’s structure, as well as the diversity of the content. Dealing with the legal relations of the higher education’s responsibility is the core of ruling the education by law. In the legal relations of that, the definition of legal responsibility between government, universities, administrative department, teachers and students is the significant legal evidence for implementation of accountability.In the process of formulating and implementing the higher education accountability mechanism, the principal-agent theory, the new public management theory and the integration of power and responsibility contribute to the theoretical starting point. The accountability mechanism exerts great influence on the regulation of the power in universities and the protection of the subject’s interest during the accountability. However, in today’s development of accountability in higher education, the low coverage, the vagueness between subjects and objects, as well as the difference of the coverage among universities are quite severe, and also become a great problem impeding the implementation and development of accountability. On the basis of this problem, this thesis, through the analysis of the experience of America and the results of the research, further clarify the establishment of the legal system of accountability in higher education. The principle of accountability, the relationship between subject and object, and the method, content, form and procedure are all taken into consideration, so as to promote and enhance the understanding and theoretical explanation of the accountability in higher education. The establishment of the modern university system is a vital protection for the implementation of accountability in higher education. The last chapter of this thesis, based on the responsibility and the accountability mechanism, put forward the key point and the future development direction of the modern university system. First of all, the information disclosure system should be set up and improved. If the universities could really put the information disclosure into practice and further realize the information transparency, universities’ responsibility towards the society would be better understood by the public, and this essential part of both the accountability development and the modern university system would be further improved. Secondly, the legal relationship between the universities, the government and the society should be carefully maintained, and the rights and liabilities of the government and the universities should be clearly defined, thus, to realize the academy-based return. Meanwhile, in the relations between the universities and the society, higher education should never neglect the "crisis of itself" and should spare no efforts to solve it. Thirdly, the development of university statutes should be promoted, the legal status and the setting subject should be clearly clarified. Besides, the content of the statutes need to be enriched, the right and duty of the government and the universities should be explained, and the internal management system also need to be constantly improved. Fourthly, to establish and perfect the regulation system of university management, people need to have the validity check of the internal management regulations, improve the system’s operational procedure and further realize the supervision of the law enforcement in higher education. At last, accountability culture should be cultivated. A cultural atmosphere of accountability should be set up, in which public awareness should be enhanced, obligations should be clarified, power and responsibility should be integrated together, and leaders in universities should always stick to their moral principles.