University governance, the emphasis is on the transition from management to governance."Governance is the sum of the many ways in which public or private individuals and institutions manage their common affairs."It is an ongoing process of reconciling conflicting or different interests and taking joint action, including formal systems and rules that are entitled to compel obedience, as well as informal institutional arrangements that are agreed or perceived to be in their interests.It has four characteristics: "Governance is not a set of rules or an activity, but a process; governance is based not on control but on coordination; governance involves both the public and private sectors; governance is not a formal system, but on continuous interaction".The basic idea of governance is to participate in co-governance, reflecting the concern and respect for the stakeholders of the university.Common governance has become a basic trend of contemporary university governance system.
In foreign universities, the basic model of common governance is to set up a board of directors or board of directors, so that outside stakeholders can participate in the university governance through the board of directors or board platform.These basic institutions, which are powerful institutions, are independently responsible for one aspect of university affairs, thus ensuring and respecting the rights and rights of stakeholders.
In Chinese universities, some universities, including state-run universities, have boards of directors or boards of directors. The Law on Higher Education and the newly published Interim Measures for the Formulation of the Statute of Higher Institutions (2012).But these institutions are often managed by Party committees or presidential committees, which are at best a platform for participation, discussion and communication.
In China's university governance structure, the board of directors has no decision-making function, only recommendation function, it can not meet once a year, the main function of the meeting is only to contact the community and alumni.As we have discussed in detail by the Academic Committee, it is basically a "white glove" for teaching.The faculty and staff congresses and student congresses, because they do not have independence and only approve or adopt established policies, are commonly referred to as "rubber stamps".
To change the "symbolic" mark of common governance in Chinese university governance, we must enrich and perfect the governance structure inside and outside the university.In terms of external governance, we should change the government function, change the relationship between universities and the government, and implement the separation of management and management evaluation.The university has become an independent legal person who can be responsible for his actions and responsible for the development of the university; transfer the functions of the government to social organizations, carry out evaluation of universities, and promote self-responsibility.In terms of internal governance, social stakeholders should be introduced to enrich the functions of the board of directors or boards of directors, and to connect them with society, markets and enterprises.At the same time, academic committees are made the top decision-makers of academic affairs in schools, and academic committees are transformed into everyday institutions.Finally, teachers and students should be regarded as the most important stakeholders in the university, and their opinions should be listened carefully, and the existing platform should be improved.Of course, all of this should have an information disclosure system that allows university governance to really operate under the sun, under institutional constraints.