Why does China creating world-class universities? : A Critical Discourse Analysis of the “Double First-Class Initiative” Policy

• In Event: Reforms, sustainable development, and social change in higher education (I)

Proposal

Introduction
In the era of globalization, competition in Higher education become prevalent. Policymakers believe that building world-class research universities can help their countries to attain a “superior position” in the global competition in this knowledge- based society (Mok & Cheung, 2011). As a result, governments worldwide have started to overhaul their university systems, restructure their funding system, explore a new form of governance, and adopt new education policies to develop world-class universities (Deem et al., 2008). For example, Germany launched the “Excellence Initiative Policy,” worth billions of euros, to propel a group of universities into the top- tier research university in the world (Mergele & Winkelmayer, 2021). Besides, England developed the Research Assessment Exercise to allocate resources based on universities’ performance to enforce research accountability and increase universities’ competitiveness (Barker,2007). Italy, New Zealand, and Norway employed similar policy tools to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of universities in order to strive for higher global university rankings (Hicks,2012). Similar to Western countries, Asian countries also started to adapt different policies to improve universities' research productivity. Korea launched the "BK 21 Project" in 1999, and Japan started the "Top Global University Project" in 2014 (Shimmi &Yonezawa,2015; Shin,2009).
Like other countries, building world-class universities is an essential national strategy in China. The policymakers believe that world-class universities can reflect the nation's overall power and enhance global standing (Mohrman, 2008). China has implemented the "985 Project" and "211 Project" since the 1990s. In 2015, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China announced the Double First- Class Initiative to replace the '211' and '985' projects. The new policy aims to build several internationally renowned universities and disciplines by 2020 and build a number of "world-class universities" by the end of 2050. It aims to enhance China's higher education prowess and elevate the competitiveness of its universities.
This study looks especially into China and focuses on the Double First-Class Initiative. The Double First-Class Initiative Policy was chosen because it is the key policy in the coming years and will greatly impact the higher education system in China. The majority of previous research has been centered on the impact of this policy (Dong et al.,2020; Song, 2018), institutional response to the policy (Han et al., 2023), and the ways to improve the evaluation framework (Zhang, 2022). Analysis and Understand of the Double First-Class Initiative text in previous literature is insufficient. This study applied Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to understand the structural and political driving forces behind the policy and deepen the comprehension of the concept, motivation, process, and outcomes of the policy.
Methodology
This qualitative study used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the Double-First Class Initiative Policy. CDA is a methodology to analyze "discourse," which refers to the "language use conceived as social practice" (Fairclough, 1993, p.138). In other words, Discourse is not only construed as the individual language used in the form of text but as social practice. CDA has widely been used in education policy analysis in recent years (E.g., Koh & Zhuang,2021; Mattheis, 2017; Liu & Hardy, 2021; Woo, 2022). It adopts a "problem-driven approach" to comprehensively explore the policy issue and its relations to social transformation and change processes (Fairclough, 2013). In order to systematize CDA, researchers have proposed different frameworks (E.g., Fairclough,1995; Schegloff, 1999; Wodak,1996). This study will adopt Fairclough (1995)'s three-dimensional CDA framework.
Fairclough (1995) establish a systematic framework to explore the relationship between text and its social practice. The framework is created by three dimensions: "description, interpretation, and explanation”. The first dimension analyzes the linguistic description of the policy text. The second dimension explains the interpretation of the relationship between the discursive process (productive and interpretive) and the text. The third dimension explores the explanation of the relationship between the discursive process and the social processes. By applying this framework, this study aims to answer the following research question (1) What discourses are used to frame the policy? (2) How does the framing policy intertwine with broader policies contextualizing them? (3) How do the sociocultural contexts contribute to the Double First-Class Initiative?


Finding
The study aims to comprehend the policy framing, how the policy is interconnected with the broader discursive context, and how sociocultural contexts contribute to the policy. Three official documents of "Double First-Class Initiative" policy and serval speeches from President Xi Jinping are used to analyze base on the three three-dimensional CDA framework.
Firstly, the "985 Project" and "211 Project" have improved the quality of select universities, but they have also contributed to identity solidification and lack of competition among universities, which are harmful to the higher education system. These two projects are insufficient for promoting progress across the entire education system in China (Lin & Wang, 2021). The "Double First-Class Initiative" policy integrates the existing policy and adopts the performance-based system to solve the existing issue of the higher education system. They also implement five specific reforms to promote the development of the higher education system.
Secondly, the vision of establishing "world-class universities" and the potential benefits to the nation's overall power and global standing that come with it have enabled China to implement the “Double First-Class Initiative". Through building world-class universities, China aims to enhance its influence in international competition (Song, 2018). In order the achieve these goals, the Chinese government implements a performance-based funding system to enforce accountability, promote competitiveness, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of universities. “Marxism” and “socialism” hold a significant position in the "Double First-Class Initiative" policy (Song et al, 2021).
Finally, at the economic level, the "Double First-Class Initiative" policy can cultivate talent, which contributes to promoting national economic development." At the political level, the policy can enhance China's international status and address citizens' dissatisfaction with the "985 Project" and "211 Project". At the cultural level, traditional Chinese values and ideas highly emphasize education. Most Chinese people have positive attitudes towards education policy. The Factors at these three levels contributed to the push for this policy.

Authors

• IAT FEI LAM, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

• Manhong Lai, Chinese Univ of Hong Kong