Strategic planning and the stratification of Chinese higher education institutions

Juan Hu, Hao Liu, Yingxia Chen and Jiali Qin

International Journal of Educational Development, 2018, vol. 63, issue C, 36-43

Abstract: Strategic planning is an important instrument for university management. This article’s objective is to reveal differences in strategic planning among universities at different levels and of different types. The article is based on the Chinese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) Strategic Planning Survey. The study attempts to understand awareness of strategic planning, the types of strategic plans, the coverage of plan text, the main influential groups in planning and the approach to assess such planning among Chinese HEIs. A comparative analysis was performed on the basis of the differentiations of HEIs through two dimensions. There are four main findings. First, the surveyed HEIs attach great importance to a five-year plan; however, there are differences in terms of formulating a specialized plan and a medium- and long-term plan. Second, the HEIs at the higher level are more ambitious in their respective missions. Third, the university leaders, leading professors, heads of schools, and heads of university offices are the major influencers in all HEIs. Vocational colleges and private HEIs focus more on the roles of students, alumnus, and external specialists. Fourth, vocational colleges and private HEIs appear to be more action-oriented compared with HEIs at other levels and of other types. This study found that private HEIs had certain unique characteristics in strategic planning. The study concluded that a highly stratified higher education has resulted in China due to the push of Project 98/5 and Project 21/1.

Keywords: Strategic planning; China; Higher education institutions (HEIs); Survey; Differentiation; Stratification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059316304382
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:injoed:v:63:y:2018:i:c:p:36-43

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.03.003

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Educational Development is currently edited by Stephen P Heyneman

More articles in International Journal of Educational Development from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().