| As the leader and administrator of a university,the president of a university is related to the strategy of a world-class university,the construction of a modern university system,the modernization of university governance capacity and the influence of international academic discourse,and shoulders the important responsibility and historical mission of running a university.At present,China is undergoing a great change unseen in a century,and the new round of information revolution and the reform of the global governance system are promoting the reform of education.Under the topic of "Changing times and University Mission",it is obviously important to select candidates who can respond to the needs of the country and society and meet the expectations of the public.In 2021,the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the Regulations on the Work of Grass-roots Organizations of ordinary institutions of Higher Learning: "In accordance with the standards of socialist politicians and educators,the president of the university shall be selected well." The report to the Party’s 20 th National Congress said: "To build a modern socialist country in an all-round way,we must have a contingent of cadres who are politically competent,adapt to the requirements of the new era and have the ability to lead the modernization drive." Overall,it presents the main theme of deepening the reform of the cadre and personnel system and "choosing good and strong" university presidents."Good selection" is the prerequisite for strengthening,and improving the selection mechanism of university president is the core issue of higher education development in the new era.Policy change indicates the evolution logic of policy direction choice and social order.Research on policy change of university president selection can understand the diachronic process of policy change and explore the deep meaning behind the selection system arrangement.Historical institutionalism,as one of the schools of new institutionalism,is an important analytical tool for policy changes.It focuses on history,the generation of policy changes and the interaction between actors,and builds a diachronic and structural explanatory framework for long-term historical evolution and causal logic.In this regard,this paper takes the policy change of the selection of the president of China’s public universities as the research object,based on the historical institutionalism theory,and follows the train of thought of "how,why and how to change",focusing on the evolution,dynamic mechanism,empirical research,reality block and optimization path of the policy change of the selection of the university president.The specific content is as follows:"Analysis of Theoretical Interpretation"--An analysis of the relevance of historical institutionalism theory and the change of university president selection policy.First of all,grasp the basic connotation of the theory,based on the theoretical nature of historical institutionalism to emphasize the macro social background and micro actors to construct the meso system and policy changes fit.Finally,with the help of the structural analysis paradigm and historical analysis paradigm of historical institutionalism,the causal chain and restrictive factors of policy change are explained,and the explanatory framework and academic analysis are set up for the research on the policy change of university president selection."Investigation of the Evolution Process"--diachronic analysis of the change of university president selection policy.Starting from the historical analysis paradigm of historical institutionalism,this paper summarizes the historical changes,evolution characteristics and experience of university president selection policy,and makes a panoramic grasp of the changes of university president selection policy as a whole.In terms of the process of change,with the founding of New China as the time starting point,the university president selection policy(1949-2022)is placed in the time chain,and the change process of selection subjects(who will choose),selection criteria(how to choose)and selection methods(how to choose)in different periods is longitudinally sorted out.According to the "key nodes",four periods of policy creation,reform,exploration and deepening are divided.Based on the evolution process,the paper further summarizes the evolution characteristics of the transition from a single structure to a multiple structure,putting morality first and focusing on management specialization,and from fragmentation to institutional construction.The selection experience as a whole presents a selection system with Chinese characteristics gradually formed in the process of diachronic changes by guiding the policy direction with the principle of the Party’s overall leadership and the Party’s management of cadres,responding to the objective needs of the modernization of the socialist cause and governance capacity."The Search for Dynamic Mechanisms"--Structural analysis of the change of university president selection policy.Taking the "macro-environment-meso-system-micro-actor" as the explanatory framework of historical institutionalism,the author constructs the social context,institutional environment and behavioral subject to explore the causal logic behind historical changes.In the social context,the international competition and the realistic thrust of university development demand;In the institutional environment,the potential promotion of economic,political and cultural changes in the institutional complex;In terms of the actors,the primary action group is expected to arrange the government policy and the secondary action group is expected to play the role of the university core stakeholders.Under the coupling of the convergent forces,the mechanism of promoting the policy change of university president selection in China is explored."Analysis of Content Structure"--digging deep and clarifying the internal mechanism of the change of university president selection policy.Through telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews,the author interviewed leaders of education departments,presidents of universities,deans of secondary colleges,professors and members of administrative functional departments of universities,etc.Based on the interview content and policy texts as primary materials,the author conducted three-level coding using rooted theory,and summarized the structural model of three main categories of selection concept,selection content and selection implementation.Secondly,by conducting a questionnaire survey on university-level leaders,mainly university presidents,SPSS and AMOS statistical software were used to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire,verify the rationality of the measured items and clarify the structural dimension of the research variables.Finally,through confirmatory factor analysis,the fit degree of the structural dimension is verified,and it is found that the structural model conforms to the theoretical conception in advance.Based on this,the internal mechanism of university president selection policy change is explained theoretically."Analysis of change block"--the practical dilemma of university president selection policy change.Based on the operation logic of the three dimensions of "selection concept","selection content" and "selection and implementation",the paper discusses the reality block behind the policy change.In the selection concept,the utility based instrumental rationality brings about alienated behavior and concept misunderstanding.It includes the epistemological deviation of paying attention to the hard index ignoring the inherent educational idea,strengthening the hierarchical attribute masking the organizational characteristics of the university,and favoring the science and engineering background of the president.In the selection content,there is a lag between the realistic situation and the policy reform.It includes the logical paradox between the single selection subject and the multiple governance,the contradiction between the homogeneity of selection criteria and the characteristic development of universities,and the contradiction between the narrow selection scope and the widening of the vision of candidates.In the selection implementation,the tension between the management system and the selection mechanism is discussed.It includes the realization of path dependence inertia retarding the selection goal,the internal logic of administration hindering the reform of the selection mechanism,and the delayed implementation efficiency of the selection by policies and regulations."The construction of system reform"--the optimization path of university president selection policy.From the perspective of "symbiotic relationship" between universities and the state,the optimal solution of selection system arrangement is explored.In the pre-stage of the selection concept,adhere to the overall leadership of the party as the fundamental follow,return to the value of reason to emphasize the concept of educating people,and build a scientific selection mechanism as the basic logic.In the reform of the selection content,with multiple governance as the core,clear standards as the premise and multiple methods as the means,the government as the lead,taking into account the participation of multiple subjects,selecting and strengthening university presidents who know education and good management,broadening the selection scope and improving the public trust in the selection of personnel.In the guarantee link of selection and implementation,with the improvement of laws and regulations and related supporting policies as the background,clarify the relationship between government and university and the internal power structure of the university,deconstruct the inertia of thinking and break the path dependence,establish an institutionalized supervision and evaluation mechanism,and focus on the construction of the president’s reserve talent pool guided by long-term sustainable development.This paper studies the policy changes of the selection of presidents of public universities in China by using the theory of historical institutionalism,which has a certain exploratory nature.First of all,the historical analysis paradigm shows the whole picture of the change of university president selection policy,which has a certain expansion;Secondly,the structural analysis paradigm reveals the dynamic mechanism and causal chain of university president selection policy change,which has certain foresight.Finally,the analysis of policy changes and countermeasures is also a response to the realization of university autonomy,the rationalization of the relationship between government and school,and the transformation of government functions. |
