Research On Graduates Employment Policy Change In China

With the accelerated popularization of higher education in China,more and more university graduates need to enter the labor market to find the job on their own.According to the data issued by Ministry of Education in Notification on Completing the Work of National College and University Graduates Empolyment in 2013,the number of graduates in 2013 will reach to 6.99 million,which increases 190,000 compared to 2012.About 7 miliion graduates will enter the labor market,it is a severe test of employment elasticity of economic growth.The problem of difficulty in university graduates employment shows the respective performances in the field of higher eduction,labor ecnomics or educational ecnomics and social structure,which proposes new requirements for formulation and improvement of university graduates employment policy systems.To Examine the specific problem in university graduates employment policy change from the perspective of policy process theory is the original intention of this study.Advocacy coalition framework is a relatively newer policy process framework which was established in the late 1980s.It breakthroughs the bottlenecks and limitations of traditional policy process theory when it analyzes new policy problems.Advocacy coalition framework puts a set of variables into a longer period at least 10 years to deconstruct the increasingly complex policy problems,such as policy subsyetem,advocacy coalition,technical information and policy belief system and so on.Based on this,from the perspective of advocacy coalition framework,this study will reveal and show the paths,causes and trends of university graduates employment policy change based on the emipirical research through content analysis of text sets representing different policy actors or advocacy coalitions along with questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview of part of policy stackholders,and then,the study will propose advices on the design of university graduates employment policy system.Though the content analysis of text sets and empirical survey of related objects,this reseach mainly founed that:(1)There are four stages in the process of university graduates employment policy change:the stage of state uniform allocation(1952-1985),the stage of meeting between supply and demand along with two-way choice(1985-1999),the stage of independent job choice(1999-2003)and the stage of flexible employment(2003 to the present).Among this four stages,the policy paradigm of the stage of state uniform allocation(1952-1985)is state interest-oriented policy paradigm,the policy paradigm of the stage of independent job choice and flexible employment 1999 to the present)belongs to graduates employment model of market-oriented policy paradigm.The stage of meeting between supply and demand along with two-way choice(1985-1999)is a paradigm shift period from state interest-oriented policy paradigm to market-oriented policy paradigm,and the bud of second policy paradigm shift sprouts in the stage of flexible employment(2003 to the present).(2)The first paradigm shift of university graduates employment policy change is the result of interaction of external environment change and policy learning,while the bud of the second paradigm shift is the result of external environment change,policy learning has not yet occurred.Besides,the dominant coalition in policy subsystem of university graduates employment has shifted from the dominant coalition of state or government to the dominant coalitions of government,university and employer,while mass media,experts and scholars gradually participate in policy process as positive policy actors.(3)The deep core beliefs in policy belief system of university graduates employment policy have not radically transformed that fundamental social culture and social structure have not transformed in nature.While the policy core beliefs have changed from significant transformation to bud appearing that the problem of university graduates employment has gradually changed from a policy problem combined with higher education and labor economics to a policy problem combined with higher education,laobor economics or educational economics and social structure.Besides,the secondary beliefs have always been changing that the guidance tools,attention subjects,participatory manner and value orientation or standpoint of policy actors in policy subsystem of university graduates employment have greatly changed.(4)The policy change of university graduates employment has had direct and even decisive impacts on target groups---unversity graduates---that the problem of "policy interest damaged" caused by policy or institutional factors has existed in the process of university graduates employment policy change.The policy or institutional factors of performances in four aspects of higher education,labor economics,social structure and employment polcy have impacted on the interests in university graduates employment.The policy interests based on the level of subsistence and development have not been reflected and satisfied in university graduates employment.The empirical study,which includes questionnaire survey of university graduates in 2013 and semi-structured interview of university career guidance teachers and some graduates along with their familes,shows that there are problems existing in both employment intentions of graduates and employment policy implementation.On the one hand,most of university graduates make several considerations in employment intention,who are impacted by parents intentions and family capital at the same time.Besides,the graduates who do not consider policy employment tend to put "income and welfare" into primary impact factor that is based on the level of subsistence,while the graduates who consider policy employment tend to put "development opportunity and space" into primary impact factor and acquisition information that is based on the level of development;on the other hand,the three core contents of university employment policy,including statistics of graduate employment rate,plans of grass-roots employment and career guidance service,do not achieve the desired effects in policy implementation.The policy design from university graduates individual or group interests demand is less and conflict existed.The conclusion synthesizes the two aspects is it can lead to "policy interest damaged" in university graduates employment at present.Based on the empirical results,this study makes a conception of the present and future trends of university graduates employment policy.For the problem of "policy interest damaged" in university graduates at present,based on the redefinition and construction of the problem of university graduates employment at present,policy bodies should reflect and satisfy dual interest demands on the level of both subsistence and development in university graduates employment.The interest demand on the level of subsistence is that making the utilities of human capital accumulated by the investment in higher education played to the maximum extent in labor market in order to obtain return receipts,while the interest demand on the level of development is that enjoying the access to higher education and labor career fairly and competing the access to higher social stratum to changes the destiny of one's own as well as family.In view of this,the university graduates employment policy system in China should be constructed from the fields of higher education,laobor economics or educational economics and social structure,endowing other positive policy actors in policy subsystem with stronger action capacity,facing up to the bielief conflict produced in univertity graduates employment at present,constructing the policy belief system applied to the interest demands of university graduates individual and group in employment at present,guiding making authoritative decisions to establish people-oriented policy paradigm gradually.