Research On Competences Of Professional University President

In studies of conditions that a university president should possess, many people have used concepts such as"quality","capability","consciousness","thought","spirit","knowledge","idea"and"glamour". In Part I, having sorted out and defined these concepts, the author put forward the concept of"competence"and define it as"qualities, idea, capability as well as basic qualifications fitting for certain profession and possessed by practitioner in the profession after being educated and self-cultivation".In Part II, studying from the characteristics of university and university president, the author expounded and proved that university president is such a profession which engaged with university management and education service according to characteristics of this profession.University is a social organization that implements higher education. Although it has some characteristics of hierarchical organizational structure, it is a loosely connected system. It is a poly of a number of specialized knowledge groups with highly academic characteristics. Academic power is the basic power in university. The most important task of university presidents is to run school. University presidents must clearly define (or redefine) the ideal and the mission of university on the basis of knowing their history, current situation and external environment , then strive to turn the ideal, orientation and goals into common aspiration and activities of all the staff. This kind of leadership is called"idea leadership".Profession is the social work category in which practitioners work for main source of livelihood. It is provided with characteristics such as aim, sociality, stability, and colony quality. On the basis of this, the author testified the professional characteristics of university president. There are three kinds of pattern of university president in the past, which are professional revolutionist,"double-tasked"scholars, and full-time administrator. Their common grounds are:①being appointed by government;②having administrative scale, and their power roots in their principalship;③running school according to the government's orders and being responsible to the superior. Such kind of president is principalship president, not professional president."Professional president is'to deal with management of university and education service specially. It is not a kind of post, but a social group with certain capability and spirit character.'"Comparing with president as a post, president as a profession has characters as follows:①not appointed by the government, but is completely selected and invited from the"social group with certain capability and spirit character". The president is only a high-class employee in university who manages university by right of his own talent but not the status as a national functionary.③There is a prefecture which is not restricted by"two consecutive terms most". Whether the president will be reappointed or not lies on if it is benefit for the university. Professional president is specialized, who will devote himself to manage the university heart and soul without dealing with other work in his term.Part III is to put forward and expound six kinds of competence of university professional president.①Qualification Professional president in university must have be educated in normal university, namely in full-time university because only person who educated in formal university can be nurtured by campus culture, and became familiar with university and understand university culture. It is best that the president could receive graduate education and receive doctor's degree. The president's artistic skill for running the university needs to taste and comprehend in practice, while tasting and comprehending need time. Thus, professional university presidents must be provided with experience of higher education administration.②Political qualities"The more higher education is involved in social affairs the more necessity of eyeing it politically is needed."University is such a career that values highly intervene in, thus it is extraordinary important and it is difficult to hold its orientation. All these factors determined that professional president in university must have superior political qualities comparing with other practitioners.③Education ideal Education ideal is not the education reality but is derived from pondering the reality. It is the clear cognition of education reality and, penetrating knowledge and insight of education possessed by education subject. Education ideal, which is established on laws of higher education, designates the orientation that university will go forward, reflects the ultimate concern of higher education and can make the president's behavior of managing school self-conscious and purposeful. Education ideal is the precondition of managing university successfully.④Academic qualities Academic activity is the most principal and important activity in university."It is the eternal vitality of university". Activities in university are provided with high academic quality and have their own laws and characteristics. Leading, managing, and supporting academic activities is the most important work for professional president in university. Thus, university presidents should have academic qualities, which is refers to having academic thought, academic vision and the spirit of science.⑤Management Capabilities The discussion focused on three kinds of capabilities including making a strategic decision, harmonizing, and running. Strategies in university are provided with political, complex, and academic qualities, which forces decisions in university to have their own characters as well as are extremely important. The internal and external environments of university are very complex and there are contradictions needed correspond, so the professional president should have highly capability of corresponding. Owing to the university is no longer fully contracted by the state, as well as the country's economic system has translated from planned economy into market economy, which affected universities by its operation mechanism, the university must consider efficiency, even benefit, and competition. Therefore, the professional president in a university must have running ability to manage the school.⑥Charisma Charisma derive from the attraction and influence of virtue. It is intangible, difficult to describe or generalize by language, and establishes on individual transcendent and impressive qualities. It is the force that can make people follow and obey. Presidents provided with charm of character could make use of their charisma in some extent to influence and attract others and arouse their intimity in feeling in order to reduce the resistance of exerting executive power, overcome the negative impact of"organized anarchy", and increase the centripetal fore of the organization.In Part IV,the author studied the selection, cultivation as well as authentication of professional university president.The thesis put forward that the professional university president should be selected and appointed according to the situation of the university. The affairs about selection should be charged by the party committee in state-run universities or by board of directors in private universities. Centering on the competences of professional university president, universities should identify evaluation index system according to its own specific circumstances then advertize for teachers according to its specific circumstances. The author deemed that instructors and advanced or secondary administrators are the main candidates of professional university presidents; in the next place are some officers and high quality enterprisers.The author proposed that to establish and improve university presidents training system means that legal competences constraining institutions should train the university presidents, candidates of university presidents, or persons who is determined to take charge of university management intentionally, regularly and termly. Moreover, the author suggested the establishment of higher education management academic degree in order to train special manager in universities, and that the doctor degree of it could aim for university president. It is an effective measure to raise the level of university president as well as the profession. What's more, the author suggested the establishment of the national institute of professional competences for university president, the formulation of Professional Standards of University President, thus, university presidents will take the post by their professional certifications, just like judges, lawyers, doctors and teachers.It is not so easy to truly make university president to be a profession. It needs the concept changing of government, society, university and university presidents and also needs keep up with the national personnel reformation and the higher education reform and aims for actual effects. As the healthy development of economic system and the deepening of higher education reform, university presidents'professional skill will developed and be standardized as soon as possible. University president will authentically become a kind of profession.