A Study On The Evolution Of Discipline Layout Of World-class Universities In China

"Optimizing discipline layout" is an important direction of the university’s discipline construction and a key measure to build a world-class university.Since the reform and opening up,the discipline construction in China has a history of more than 40 years,and a number of high-level universities have made great progress in the discipline layout.It is an effective way to explore the optimal path of universities’ discipline layout by reviewing the history and summing up experience.In this study,doctoral degree programs are taken as the observation standard of discipline setting,the number of disciplines,the coefficient of discipline scale,the number of discipline categories covered and the coefficient of discipline balance are used to describe the evolution of discipline layout of 41 world-class universities in China under the background of “Double First-Class” initiative.It is found that after 40 years of discipline construction,the overall discipline scale has increased greatly,the discipline distribution has been more balanced,and the comprehensive degree of discipline layout has been significantly improved.There are different development paths between different universities.The evolution of discipline layout in universities dominated by liberal arts and natural science has the characteristics of developing liberal arts and natural science first,developing social science earlier and faster,and "growing" from natural science to applied science.The layout evolution of the dominant discipline of applied science has the characteristics of developing the applied science continuously,developing the natural science gradually,developing the social science from the management discipline and finally developing the liberal arts.And most universities develop medical disciplines rapidly by merging with medical universities.Universities with excellent foundation and sufficient resources develop new disciplines more quickly,while other universities without merger have a slower speed in the evolution of discipline layout.In addition,this research conducts statistics on the specific addition and withdrawal of disciplines in each university to demonstrate the factors that affect the evolution of the discipline layout of China’s universities.It is found that the degree of relevance to the original dominant disciplines is an important basis for the development of new disciplines,so the discipline foundation affects the evolution speed and adjustment direction of universities’ discipline layout.Policies and control of the government regulate the setting of universities’ disciplines in China,which is the main factor affecting the development of disciplines in universities.And academic needs and market demand play a guiding role in the discipline layout of universities.It is also found that the degree authorization system and the lack of development resources restrict the discipline development of Chinese universities to a certain extent.This study describes the development process of discipline layout of China’s world-class universities in the past 40 years from both time and space dimensions,which has certain reference value for Chinese universities to optimize discipline layout and for government to formulate discipline policies.Suggestions are as follows: universities should aim to improve the level of scientific research and talent training,pay attention to the layout of basic disciplines and emerging disciplines;universities should form school characteristics,pay attention to the development of advantageous and characteristic disciplines and the synergy of disciplines;the degree authorization review system should be reformed continually,such as diversifying auditing standards,expanding the autonomy of universities,and optimizing the setting of disciplines.