Accountability and the Development of Chinese Higher Education

摘要

This paper addresses the importance of accountability in the process of establishing the competitiveness of Chinese higher education. In the era of changing, the 1990s has seen the accountability of higher education become salient in national and international higher education sectors. With the expansion and reform internationally, higher education sectors have been required to be more accountable to more 'stakeholders', like governments, higher education administrators, student groups, industrial groups and even some international organizations. As a strategic approach to improve efficiency and effectiveness of developing national higher education, accountability of higher education has been emphasized variously due to dynamic forces in individual countries. In this case, a theoretical analysis on the fundamental position and further development of national higher education sector is necessary to be detailed. Arguably, accountability of universities and HEIs should be reconsidered under such three elements as autonomy, accommodation and accreditation in current context.On the critical issue of accountability of Chinese higher education, this paper focuses on the reviewing of the process in reform and enlargement of enrollment in the 1990s. Therefore, some problematic thoughts on accountability of Chinese higher education could be traced back virtually. Based on that, some ignorant aspects on revising accountability of Chinese higher education will be explored in-depth among the tangled relationship among those stakeholders. Related to public policy analysis on higher education, accountability of Chinese higher education is finally framed out into two parts accountability forming and accountability achievement so as to meet the challenges home and abroad in the process of development. In conclusion, based on the theoretical and practical analysis on accountability of Chinese higher education, the authors argue that rational accountability would be beneficial to the development of national higher education sectors in the international higher education market. And only by establishing a widely accepted accountable framework, could Chinese higher education be sensitive to the severe challenges at present and in the coming future. Additionally, some problematic issues pointed out remind us that accountability of Chinese higher education need to be further monitored, reconsidered and revised in the process of economic globalisation and internationalization of higher education.