A case study of Shantou University: towards a value model in Higher Education Reform

Abstract

This paper explores the challenges of higher education reform in China through a case study of recent reform efforts at Shantou University in southeast China. Reforms proposed in the 2020 Blueprint most relevant to this analysis include installing faculty governance, empowering university administrators, and allowing open recruitment of faculty members. These bold initiatives have been launched and tested at Shantou University since 2002, with funding support from Hong Kong-based billionaire entrepreneur, Li Ka-shing. The paper particularly focuses on HR (human resources) reform efforts at Shantou’s School of Journalism and Communication. In the context of achievements, challenges and obstacles of Shantou’s overall reform efforts, the author argues that HR reforms are critical to the success of other reform initiatives, but changes in the HR system are likewise contingent upon larger structural changes outside the university, such as reforms in China’s Hukou system. The author also argues that for 2020 Blueprint policies to succeed, the government must adopt a value approach (as much as a functional approach) to higher education reform by promoting fundamental values that underlie academic excellence: openness, transparency , and the pursuit of knowledge for its own intrinsic value. Lessons from Shantou can map reform trajectories for other universities and inform government implementation of Blueprint 2020 reform proposals. As the only Chinese public university funded mainly by private money, Shantou University also provides a unique test-of-concept for the government’s proposal to promote a private-public mixed mode of university funding.