Modernization of Higher Education Governance
HOU Haoxiang1,2; GUAN Peijun1
As a key area in the new round of institutional reform, institutional reform in universities serves as the fundamental focus for accelerating the modernization of university governance systems and capabilities. To reveal the internal mechanisms of higher education institution reform, this study adopts the grounded theory approach to analyze 40 typical cases of institutional reform initiatives in universities, thereby summarizing and refining the practical logic behind these reforms. The research findings indicate that such reforms are driven by practical issues such as operational inefficiency and excessive institutional expansion. They require systematic implementation through synchronized streamlining of administrative bodies and staffing, strengthening departmental restructuring and integration, centralized management, and digital transformation process redesign. This aims to reduce organizational structures and staffing quotas, achieve systematic and holistic governance, and prioritize risk mitigation, steady progress, job transfers, and faculty governance capacity enhancement as safeguard mechanisms. Consequently, it is necessary to further establish an overall action framework for institutional reform in universities, explore scientific decision-making foundations for institutional streamlining and optimization, and implement a relatively flexible and adaptive organizational reform model through supportive organizational culture and humanistic care.