Modernization of Higher Education Governance
WANG Shutao; XIONG Letian
Postdoctoral fellows are a strategic force in promoting the construction of an educational and technological powerhouse. Based on the analysis of policy documents, academic literature, official reports, and other materials, from the perspective of historical institutionalism, it is believed that since the establishment and implementation of China’s postdoctoral system in 1985, the postdoctoral funding policy has gone through the elite funding stage under national unified funding (1985-1992), the diversified funding stage under scale expansion (1993-2007), the strategic precision funding stage under quality orientation (2008-2015), and the diversified collaborative funding stage under system reconstruction (2016 to present). The policy function has shifted from emergency talent supplementation to serving the national innovation strategy, resource allocation has shifted from planned supply to performance incentives, the governance system has shifted from national monopoly to central, local, unit and social co governance, and the value concept has shifted from affairs management to supporting career development. Further research will reveal the logic of policy changes from macro level deep structure, meso level path dependence, and micro level dynamic mechanisms. In the future, we should strengthen the guidance of central finance, establish a tiered and precise funding system, and strengthen the institutional support for the career development of postdoctoral fellows, in order to promote the high-quality development of postdoctoral funding policies.
