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Higher Education and Investment in Knowledge: A Perspective from Talent Policies in Mainland China

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Universities in the Knowledge Society

Abstract

China’s “opening” policy brought her lasting economic growth over the last four decades and pushed her to become a major contributor to technology and science innovations. This chapter introduces China’s effort in investing in knowledge through the channel of higher education institutions, through the perspective of China’s talent policies. We found that higher education institutions can serve as human capital banks that create, store, and utilize talents for innovations in the knowledge economy. The active participation of other stakeholders steers the direction of research and teaching activities within higher education, which may sometimes lead to an overemphasis on short-term products and a segregated academic labor market at the cost of long-term academic productivity and total efficiency of knowledge generation. We suggest that China make more effort to build an open and sustainable academic environment, which would eventually boost the innovation-led economy via the talents that have been cultivated, recruited, and retained by higher education institutions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Higher Education System, MOE, 1995; Decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Deepening Education Reform and Promoting Quality Education, Central Committee of CPC & State Council, 1999; Province and Ministry Joint Construction Program, MOE, 2004; Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform, Central Committee of CPC, 2013.

  2. 2.

    See Law on the Promotion of Non-public Schools of the People’s Republic of China, National People’s Congress of PRC, 2002; Opinions on Regulating and Strengthening Higher Education Institutions to Establish Independent Colleges on the Trial Basis with New Mechanism, MOE, 2003; Interim Measures for the Administration of Non-public Higher Education Fees, MOE, 2003; Provisions on the Administration of Non-public Colleges and Universities, MOE, 2007; Measures for the Establishment and Administration of Independent Colleges, MOE, 2008. Opinions of State Council on Encouraging and Guiding Healthy Development of Private Investment, State Council, 2016.

  3. 3.

    Project 211 was implemented in 1995 by the Ministry of Education with the aim of strengthening 112 (later increasing to 116) universities in key disciplinary areas as part of the national strategy, cultivating talents for socioeconomic development. It was succeeded by plan 111 (Talents program) in 2014. Project 985 was announced in 1998, aimed at founding world-class universities involving local and national government funding, creating new research centers and initiatives for international involvement; initially encompassing just 9 institutions, this was later expanded to 39 sponsored institutions in the mid-2000s. Project 985 was succeeded by Double First Class in 2017.

  4. 4.

    STEM degrees here refer to degrees of science, engineering, agriculture, and medicine.

  5. 5.

    Refers to senior rank, sub-senior rank, and middle rank, respectively, in China’s conventional professional rank system

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Higher Education Research, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Hong Shen

  2. School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jinwen Luo

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  1. Hong Shen
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Correspondence to Hong Shen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

    Timo Aarrevaara

  2. Higher Education Department, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey, USA

    Martin Finkelstein

  3. OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Glen A. Jones

  4. Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Jisun Jung

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Shen, H., Luo, J. (2021). Higher Education and Investment in Knowledge: A Perspective from Talent Policies in Mainland China. In: Aarrevaara, T., Finkelstein, M., Jones, G.A., Jung, J. (eds) Universities in the Knowledge Society. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76579-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76579-8_6

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