This book investigates the form and features of governance and the factors that shape governance in practice in private universities in China. Building on an exploration of the growth of private universities in China after the Communist Party took over the power, the study examines the specific context in China, including the role of the Communist Party, and integrates with shareholders and senior managers to achieve its governance role. It shows that two distinct forms of institutional governance have developed, namely the supervision form and the managerial form. While external policies provide an impetus for change for each university, how key actors in institutional governance understand these policies have significant effect on how the policies are implemented. This can result in change that can be viewed as either symbolic alteration or as operational change. The internal factors that act to shape institutional governance mainly relate to the different developmental stages of the private university, the characteristics of shareholders and senior managers, and the various ways the universities respond to the external policy.

This book examines the ways in which China’s universities have changed in the dramatic move to a mass stage which has unfolded since the late 1990s. Twelve universities in different regions of the country are portrayed through the eyes of their students, faculty and leaders. The book begins with the national level policy process around the move to mass higher education. This is followed by an analysis of the views of 2,300 students on the 12 campuses about how the changes have affected their learning experiences and civil society involvement. The 12 portraits in the next section are of three comprehensive universities, three education-related universities, three science and technology universities, and three newly emerging private universities. The final chapter sketches the contours of an emerging Chinese model of the university, and explores its connections to China’s longstanding scholarly traditions

This book documents experimentation with various policy and governance approaches that produce structural differences in the composition and organisation of Asia’s higher education systems. In view of the wide variation in the public and private provision of higher education, it showcases how issues of access, equity and modes of participation are addressed, how institutional and programme quality are managed and how academic labour is treated and developed. The book both maps these differences and analyses the country-level dynamics, policy approaches and the problems faced by a variety of states in Asia in the race to develop competitive higher education systems. Focusing on the intersection of governance and higher education policy, it addresses the challenges facing higher education in Asia and the national responses of governments in terms of the organisation of the sector.

Latin America higher education has undergone an astonishing transformation in recent years, highlighted by the private sector's growth from 3 to 34 percent of the region's total enrollment. In this provocative work Daniel Levy examines the sources, characteristics, and consequences of the development and considers the privatization of higher education within the broader context of state-society relationships. Levy shows how specific national circumstances cause variations and identifies three basic private-public patterns: one in which the private and public sectors are relatively similar and those in which one sector or the other is dominant. These patterns are analyzed in depth in case studies of Chile, Mexico, and Brazil. For each sector, Levy investigates origins and growth, and then who pays, who rules, and whose interests are served. In addition to providing a wealth of information, Levy offers incisive analyses of the nature of public and private institutions. Finally, he explores the implications of his findings for concepts such as autonomy, corporatism, and privatization. His multifaceted study is a major contribution to the literature on Latin American studies, comparative politics, and higher education.

This book takes an in-depth look at the development of the private education sector in modern China. Readers will find valuable data and materials never before presented in such an accessible and transparent way, together with analyses of the major changes and challenges in the course of this development. The book is organized both chronologically and by topic: it employs a past-present-future order that unites the general arrangement; at the same time, each specific subject is approached historically, not only to show the origins of the problem, but also to link it with the historical-comparative context, in which the evaluation of alternative policy choices become highly viable. Further, the book provides a pioneering account of current problems, adopting a fresh perspective to address the most important aspects of Chinese private education reform. The elaboration on topics concerning private school assets, property rights, legal personality, school operators’ entrepreneurship, benefits and investment returns, school autonomy, and the development of teachers and students, is both empirically rich and highly insightful. The book’s content is chiefly derived from years of fieldwork in private schools and from extensive interviews with hundreds of policy makers, school operators, managers, teachers and students. Since these people are self-conscious about themselves as the actors in and witnesses to the development of Chinese private education over the past three decades, the book places great emphasis on neutrality, allowing the private education landscape to unfold in the context of the privatization of the socialist system after 1978. The book offers an essential guide for anyone who wishes to understand the transformation of Chinese education. It is highly recommendable as a detailed introduction to Chinese education, or as a resource for comparative research on private education from an international perspective.

In The Chinese Idea of a University: Phoenix Reborn, Rui Yang conceptualizes the cultural foundations of modern university development in Chinese societies. Instead of focusing on the uniqueness of the societies, this book aims to prove that one educational purpose could be fulfilled via many paths, and that most of the characteristics the university could be found in other institutions of higher learning. Citing the practices of four selected Chinese societies, Yang opposes the existence of an impassable chasm between Chinese and Western ideas of a university and argues that it is possible to combine Chinese and Western ideas of a university. Also, this book is one of the first in English to theorize the Chinese idea of a university. It links the historical events to the present, in a context of an enormous impact of Western academic models and institutions, from the beginning of modern universities in Chinese societies to the contemporary period. “The scholarship is of high quality, based on a thorough critical reading of relevant literature in both English and Chinese, as well as detailed empirical research carried out on the campuses of eight leading universities in the four Chinese societies under consideration.” —Ruth Hayhoe, professor, University of Toronto “Yang Rui has produced an academic masterwork. China has arrived as a global power and the East Asian university has achieved or largely achieved the long project of catch-up to the West. The future begins now and question of the ‘Chinese idea of a university’ should trigger much discussion. Professor Yang favors the development of hybrid East/West higher education in the Chinese civilizational zone, noting that to an extent, existing universities have taken this path already. He develops these challenging issues with a depth of scholarship far exceeding the current journal papers in the topic area, and a style of exposition that reads really well. A book of lasting importance. Highly recommended.” —Simon Marginson, professor, University of Oxford; joint editor-in-chief, Higher Education

Examines the transformation of education policy in China, with an emphasis on transformations in the post-1978 period. This title also emphasises on policy change and its subsequent impact on different aspects of education at various levels of educational institutions, particularly in areas of educational financing and curriculum reform.