Research On Role Expectation Of The University Presidents From Undergraduates

With the strategic goal of deepening higher education reform all-roundly and pushing on the modernization of the national management system and management ability,the roles of university presidents attract wide attention and concern once again.The governing subjects in modern universities are becoming increasingly diversified.Undoubtedly,university presidents play quite a critical role in the governance of university-As the consumers of higher education,university students are important stakeholders and one of the governing subjects.Seen from the students' perspective and probe into the expectation of university students for the roles of university presidents can be conducive for university presidents to be clear students'expectations and their role positioning,which is of practical significance to perfecting the university internal governance.Role expectation of university presidents refers to society,group or others proposing a series of expectations and requirements that conforms to its identity and status,performing specifically for "what kind of person should president be?" and "what activities should president do?"Based on the role theory,this research selects 715 undergraduates from Zhejiang Normal University,Wuhan University of Technology,Huazhong University of Science and Technology and uses the quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the students' expectations for university president concretely from six dimensions which are role types,leadership styles,background features,image and personality,knowledge quality and ability,job responsibilities and content and carries on inspection in different situations of the university President role expectation from the different students,and discusses the results by combining theoretical interpretation and indepth interviews.The results are as follows:1.On the whole,undergraduates have high expectations for the role of university president.2.There is a big gap between uni-versity students' expectations for the roles of university students and the actual roles that the presidents play.3.The university president image that undergraduates expect for can be concluded as:a person who is an educator,a leader,and students' mentor;dares to reform;ages from 40-49;has doctor's degree,graduated from famous university,with overseas study experiences and management experience in colleges and universities,has professor title,and high academic attainments and status;has systematic knowledge of education theories,solid and comprehensive management knowledge and deep humanistic cultivation;has strong management ability,innovation ability,self-regulation ability and learning ability;has noble personality and professional ethics;is close to and care about students,and can put the talent cultivation in the first place of work.4.Different undergraduates with different gender,grade,university types or majors classification have different expectations for the roles of university president in different dimensions.Based on the aboved results,the university president should enhance the role consciousness of being educator,improve their quality and ability,and adjust the role behaviors in accordance with students,so as to realize the mutual harmony between the role playing of university president and the expectations from undergraduates.