Comparative Study On College Experience Effects on Alumni Giving -------------Cases from Chinese and American Universities

• In Event: Evidence-based decision making in education
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Higher education SIG roundtable 1

Proposal

Over the last four decades, access to Chinese higher education has tremendously expanded，with the pressure to fulfill the national educational strategy to strive for world-class status. Salmi (2011) argues that Chinese institutions, in part, need additional funding to meet budget short falls and enable institutions to make decisions in order to achieve their goal of world-class status. As such many institutions within China are turning towards philanthropic giving. Philanthropic support of Chinese higher education is relatively low. However, alumni and others have been increasing voluntary support over the past few years.
As such there is a growing need for a theoretical understanding of the factors affect for Chinese social donation towards higher education. Such studies will not only add to the academic literature on Chinese context of philanthropy but will also have the opportunity to enhance fundraising practice at Chinese universities, thereby increasing numbers of donors and Yuan raised.
Yet, there most research looked at foundations and corporate responsibility programs. There is little research on the ways individuals engage with philanthropic giving. Most if not all of research on individuals is/was conducted in the US. For example, Drezner looked into the relationship between alumni identity and giving. The question still remains on how individuals in others countries and cultures engage with philanthropic giving.
This paper tried to explore how college experience affect on alumni giving, because this is a new phenomenon in the higher education sector in China, with little research, we will draw on concepts from the US literature: sense of belonging, satisfaction. The survey was formed on the basis of students’ involvement and survey of sense of belonging. This paper examines the case of China and American. The data from two public research universities from China(BNU) and America(UMD). In total, 698 samples collected from BNU and 1073 samples collected from UMD.
To be specify, the research tried to answer: How is alumni sense of belonging for alma mater? How alumni satisfy with their college experience? Are there differences among varied backgrounds of alumni? What are the relationship between sense of belonging and satisfaction with alumni giving? What are the differences findings between the cases from China and America?
By better understanding the relationship between college experience and alumni giving, which can allow Chinese universities make more efficient polices and improvement practices to students’ cultivation and admiration.

Authors

• Xianping Liang, Beijing Normal University

• Chengwen Hong, Beijing Normal University