An Empirical Study on Understanding Diversity in Chinese Higher Education based on a Horizontal Diversity Perspective

• In Event: Quality and Equity in reforming higher education programmes

Proposal

With the quantitative expansion of higher education, it has been pointed out that the characteristics of institutions of higher education need to be diversified from the traditional monotonous ones. Under this background, China has also implemented various policies to promote the diversification of higher education. As a result of these policies, have China's higher education institutions diversified in terms of quantity and quality, including the purpose, structure, and function of universities?
In discussing how to view the diversity of higher education in China, we can refer to four key indicators. Namely, "vertical diversification" and "horizontal diversification" those can clarify the directions of higher education diversification, while further to concretize these directions, we can start from "macro level" and "micro level". However, looking at the previous studies on higher education diversity in China, there are many macro discussions on "vertical diversity" and "horizontal diversity", but there are few empirical studies combined with the micro level.
Thus, the purpose of this paper is to verify the actual development of diversity in Chinese higher education. To achieve this, there are 3 points to note here. First, the logic of discussing diversity in higher education is consistent with discussing differentiation among colleges and universities. It is necessary to conduct a comparative study of the differences between universities. The data used in this study were collected through the implementation of a questionnaire survey (China College Students’ Outcome Survey) conducted in 16 universities in coastal China between November 2018 and January 2019.The sample collected data from 6,227 valid responses, and excluding invalid votes, the collection rate was 82.6% based on the number of valid responses (1,675 responses from three central national universities, 1,458 responses from three regional public universities, 1,909 responses from three independent colleges, 525 responses from one traditional private university, and 660 responses from three higher vocational-technical colleges). Secondly, the horizontal diversity is possible presented by the development of higher education as considered in this paper should be expressed as the variability among colleges and universities in terms of talent training objectives, educational methods, curricula, and talent competency constructs. Therefore, this paper focuses on two perspectives of students’ evaluation of goal achievement and competency acquisition by type of colleges and universities. In addition, the success or failure of the diversification of higher education in China is considered that how non-research universities break away from homogeneity among universities will be the key to achieving horizontal diversification.
The findings of this paper can be summarized as follows, revealing the essence of diversity in Chinese higher education.
Firstly, in terms of differences in human resource development by institution, From the theoretical point of view, the central national universities are dedicated to the cultivation of research-oriented and theory-oriented applied human resources, while local general universities such as the three types of universities mentioned above are dedicated to the cultivation of practice-oriented applied human resources and higher vocational-technical colleges are dedicated to the cultivation of skill-oriented human resources. If the above classification of human resource types and their correspondence with each institution are consistent, it will be possible to examine whether functional differentiation over human resource development can be achieved as expected. On this basis, it is possible to visualize the contents of horizontal diversification. So how does it actually work? In this regard, the students' self-evaluations show that central national universities and higher vocational-technical colleges correspond to the target human resource types as shown in the conceptual aspects of each institution. However, regional universities tended to be more oriented toward theoretical-applied education rather than the expected practical-applied human resources. In other words, it cannot be said that they have developed a characteristic that definitely differentiates them from other institutions of higher education in terms of practical education. Therefore, it is difficult to say that there is a remarkable effect of horizontal diversity in Chinese higher education between the central national universities, which are research universities, and local general universities, which are non-research universities.
Secondly, according to the actual situation of the competence structure according to the human resource goals of each institution from the micro level, it cannot be said that there is a remarkable effect of differentiation among colleges and universities. Specifically, as far as local general universities are concerned, it is undeniable that they have got rid of the traditional criticism of being equated with research universities, but they have not developed their own characteristics and advantages in the "elemental application-integrated ability" which is the core of practical application-oriented talents. For example, both independent colleges and traditional private universities were found to have weak functions in cultivating "application-integration oriented competence. Although the local public universities were relatively more highly evaluated by students, the homogenization problem with research universities still remains. On the other hand, in the case of higher vocational-technical colleges, based on the results of this paper, it may be necessary to further clarify their educational characteristics and individuality, as well as to guarantee the quality of vocational skills that are the core of skilled and applied human resources.
In short, to understand the diversification of Chinese higher education, we can confirm evidence of the the perspective of horizontal diversity based on the empirical study. From the above, it is undeniable that the degree of integration of vertical and horizontal diversity in educational functions corresponding to research functions is not high among institutions due to the different levels of self-perception of students of applied talents and evaluation of core competence formation. Although the diversification of higher education development is advocated from the policy level to the institutional level, the effect of its implementation is more evident at the vertical and macro levels, such as the diversification of structures, financial resources, and functions, but not yet evident at the horizontal and micro levels, such as students' self-evaluation, recognition, and skill formation. However, in the process of promoting diversity in Chinese higher education, how to promote diversity at the horizontal and micro levels remains an important issue to be considered by those involved at all levels.

Author

• PAN QIUJING, Yamanashi Gakuin University