The Theoretical Connotation of “Characteristic University” and Its Construction

M & D FORUM
The Theoretical Connotation of “Characteristic University” and Its
Construction
WANG Rongde
Huzhou Teachers’ University, Huzhou, Zhejiang, 313000
Abstract: Characteristic university is a dynamic concept with specific reference and meanings. Its
popularity is not only practical need of a university but also essentially the transformation and
completion of the university characteristics theory. To build a characteristic university, it’s essential to
reflect local nature, highlight applicability, pursue originality, stress culture and focus on brand image.
Keywords: University characteristics, Characteristic university, Theoretical connotation, Construction
1 Introduction
Since school-running characteristics have been an increasingly important pursuit of colleges, the
concept “characteristic university” has made its appearance accordingly, which has been set as a
long-term goal for many higher institutions. However, different understanding of this concept and its
theoretical connotation has given rise to various interpretations at both the theoretical level and the
practical level. Therefore, clarifying this concept and its theoretical connotation is essential to build a
characteristic university.
2 Theoretical Connotation of “Characteristic University”
So far, not much literature themed on “characteristic university” is available. And it mainly focuses on
the strategy of forming and developing a characteristic university. However, the so-called characteristic
university in these literatures mostly refers to some high-level industry-based universities (a.k.a. “a
specialized” university). For instance, “characteristic university” in the seminar entitled “The building of
characteristic university and social development” held in China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) on
April 10-12, 2009, mainly refers to industry-based universities. For this reason, these literatures on
characteristic university failed to define its concept and connotation but took it for granted. However,
the crux of the problem is: does “characteristic university” equate those high-level industry-based
(specialized) universities?
2.1 The formation of university characteristics and characteristic university
Obviously, the fundamental and simplest understanding of “characteristic university” is that it refers to
universities with distinctive traits. In this light, “university characteristics” is the logical staring point of
“characteristic university”.
According to the latest views in academic circles, university characteristics have a broad and narrow
definition. In a broad sense, university characteristics stand for marked features of a university as an
organization unlike other social sectors during its growth, which are the essence of a university. Besides,
because of different environment and era, university characteristics further possess regional properties
and timeliness. In a narrow sense, university characteristics refer to its unique quality and style as an
individual throughout its existence and development, i.e. a university’s school-running characteristics. [1]
A university’s school-running characteristics constitute not only core competitiveness for its survival
and development but the values and strategic orientation for its growth as well. As to a university, its
characteristic school-running can induce orientation; its characteristic philosophy can engender mental
strength; its characteristic majors can bring productivity; its characteristic environment can give rise to
attraction; its characteristic teachers can generate influence; its characteristic students can produce
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competitiveness; and its characteristic administration can turn into motivation.
Undoubtedly, the formation of university characteristics is consistent with the formation of characteristic
university. In other words, the cultivation of university characteristics goes before building a
characteristic university, which should focus on unique features in school-running ideals, disciplines,
teaching staff, talent cultivation and campus culture. A powerful and innovative group of university
leaders are called for to develop the school to a new high. Among these factors, the key to building a
characteristic university lies in how the university president puts into practice his right school-running
philosophy and the longstanding university spirit.
Nevertheless, since “characteristic university” is not indiscriminate embellishment of a single
“characteristic” but the integration of various characteristics, the formation of a characteristic university
is a long-term transition from quantitative change to qualitative change and a long-term vertical and
horizontal extension accordingly. It’s the outcome of coordinated development of the university in an
all-around manner, taking on a scene of “flowers of every kind being in bloom” and mirroring the
upgrade of the university’s strength and proficiency as a whole (not its comprehensive strength). In brief,
a characteristic university should be like this: its image is not one-fold but multi-fold in the eyes of the
public.” For example, when the public are interested in the university’s excellent campus cultural
construction, the university president can claim that his university is a cultural university. When the
university’s marine biology research becomes its competitive edge and characteristics, the president can
call his university a marine university. Through flexible image representations, the characteristic
universities can attract more attention, possess greater competitiveness and gain more school-running
resources. Consider the university the present author works for, for instance, it sets a goal “through five
to ten years of efforts, we set the construction of a characteristic university as our objective in order to
build it into a teaching-intensive university with excellent teaching quality, a comprehensive university
with prominent flagship disciplines, an open university with extensive external cooperation, a regional
university with profound cultural reserve at the same time.”
However, “university characteristics and “characteristic university” come into being differently and they
are different to some extent. Both concepts belong to modifier-head noun phrases in terms of Chinese
morphology, with their core being “characteristics” and “university” respectively. The former refers to a
thing’s style and features, suggesting the style and features of a university here. The latter stands for a
concrete thing, pointing to a university here. Comparatively speaking, a university’s school-running
characteristics are ever-changing but a characteristic university is relatively stable. School-running
characteristics can mirror school-running style of the university as a whole and of one or some core
aspects as well, but a characteristic university is an organic whole. In a deeper sense, the formation of
university characteristics is an endogenous outcome. The endogenous nature manifests itself in two
aspects: the formation of university characteristics usually is influenced by traditional culture and
environment in a subtle manner, which is an unintentional and spontaneous process; its formation is also
a process of the university “practicing hard its foundation” based on its own conditions and the internal
rules of higher education development, which is essentially a university’s inherent appeal and
self-evolution despite outward influences. Nevertheless, a characteristic university targets not only
insiders of the university but also outsiders more.
Taking this into consideration, a university should publicize this endogenous information in some
effective ways in order to attain a certain level of fame and goodwill. In other words, the formation and
development of a characteristic university not only calls for those insiders’ ceaseless efforts but also
those outsiders’ recognition and approval. Whether a university can be called a characteristic university
is not up to those insiders but the outsiders’ evaluation and criticism. As to how a university transmits
information to build the image of “a characteristic university”, it is certainly an expertise different from
characteristics construction. From this perspective, the formation and development of a characteristic
university is an extension inside-out, which should follow the rationality and logic of a university and
call for a good interaction between itself and complicated external environment.
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2.2 The definition of a characteristic university
Thus it can be seen that the so-called characteristic university refers to those universities that has had
overall teaching style and model featuring uniqueness, innovation and stability. Among them,
“uniqueness” means uncommon and original traits; “innovation” entails creativity and new advances in
some aspects; “stability” refers to relatively fixed style after years of coordination and perfection. [2] As
to universities, uniformly indiscriminate education could not foster creative talents and help develop
themselves into high-level universities. Actually, when different universities enjoy distinctive
differences, higher education can possess vitality. In this sense, “characteristics” are an epitome of a
university’s value orientation, ecological environment, educational innovation and educational tradition.
[3]
First and foremost, a characteristic university should build internal educational environment in the
interest of the students, thus benefiting their individuality and diversified growth, and forming
distinctive school-running style and individuality. Besides, a characteristic university must make
outstanding achievements in school operation and talent cultivation. Simply put, the ultimate goal of
characteristic school running should be aimed at raising the students’ overall quality.
3 The Construction of a Characteristic University
Based on the above analysis, it is argued that the construction of a characteristic university should focus
on the following five aspects:
3.1 Reflecting its local properties
Mostly sponsored by local governments, local colleges and universities owe their birth and growth to the
local cities and provide services for the local cities in turn. The local properties are the foundation of
newly-established local undergraduate colleges and the most fundamental growth strategy. As a result of
a close relationship with local government, a local college should know thoroughly key industries of
regional development and demands for talents, thus making clear its school-running potential and
development orientation. To develop itself into a real characteristic university, a local college should
give full play to its “regional nature”, form its own comparative advantage and position itself correctly
for its new development through setting up its unique talent cultivation standards and relevant style
based on the regional economical and social development and its own conditions.
3.2 Highlighting applicability
In the 21st century, Chinese higher education is characterized by a trend from elite education to mass
education, which gives rise to a variety of characteristics in school-running qualification, school-running
level, school-running types, and university features. Cultivating applied talents conforms to the growing
trend of higher education and trends of the times. Therefore, to build a characteristic university, a
college first should change its long-standing school-running philosophy that stresses theory but
downplays practice, and emphasize the cultivation of the students’ development capabilities, transfer
ability, design capability and application ability. Secondly, it’s important to reform curriculum system
and teaching content so as to build modularized curriculum system that focuses on ability training and
meets the demands of economic and social development. Finally, it’s necessary to give priority to work
with local enterprises, form necessary interaction between the college and local city, and conduct broad
cooperation with the enterprises in hands-on teaching, teaching staff and employee training,
technological transformation, new product development and employment of undergraduates.
3.3 Pursuing peculiarity
The primary trait of a characteristic university is its peculiarity. Without its peculiarity, its
school-running would lose its individuality. As to a characteristic university, its peculiarity is embodied
in its own characteristics compared with other similar universities. It should aim for the goal
“availability, quality and fineness” that is reflected in school-running philosophy, training objective,
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training pattern, discipline layout, curriculum system, teaching methodology, administrative system.
First and foremost, it depends on the school’s philosophy and positioning. Secondly, it relies on the
school’s personnel training mode. Peculiarity is the basis of uniqueness. In order to gain a foothold and
keep up with the competitive education market, a college must break through its long-standing unified
teaching mode, get rid of homogenization tendency, and pursue individualized school-running.
3.4 Demonstrating its cultural traits
University culture is the driving force of university development, playing a leading and pushing role.
Naturally, building a characteristic university calls for efforts in “culture”. Firstly, it’s important to form
its school-running tradition and spirit. According to famous British higher educationist Eric Ashby,
every kind of university is the product of genetics and environment. This shows that a university’s
development cannot go without its tradition. Needless to say, to build a characteristic university,
tradition should not be deserted or seen as an obstacle for its development, since tradition is not only an
important part of its university characteristics but also a treasure for its sustainable development as well
as a subtle propeller for its formation and development. A university’s tradition and spirit constitutes the
core of its university culture. Since local colleges are mostly new-established colleges through upgrade,
their tradition and spirit is not sufficient to support and propel their own development. Therefore, to
build a characteristic university, local colleges should foster its own tradition and spirit through
intensive building and long-term accumulation. Besides, campus cultural construction should be
attached importance to in order to promote its brand value and enrich its spiritual connotation. Finally, a
university should protect its culture being eroded by business culture and guard against utilitarianism
and being instrumentalized.
3.5 Stressing brand image
In a sense, a characteristic university is a name-brand university, which requires that a local university
should build brand awareness and good images to extend its influence on the society in the process of
building a characteristic university. Firstly, publicize the significance of a characteristic university based
on a well-designed school logo system so as to help the public understand correctly a characteristic
university through its image, brand and philosophy; secondly, concentrate on crucial points and
publicize well a university’s quintessence in aspects of famous professors, key disciplines and
name-brand majors so as to deepen the public’s understanding of a characteristic university. Thirdly,
innovate publicity methods and use media coverage wisely to deepen the public’s recognition of a
characteristic university.
4 Conclusion
This paper attempts to interpret the theoretic connotation and the concept of “characteristic university”
from the angles of the definition of “university characteristics” and its formation. It’s argued that (1)
Characteristic university is mainly applied to local colleges (2) Characteristic university is the inevitable
outcome of the popularization of higher education in our country (3) The growth of characteristic
university is a key link in our transition from a big country with higher education to a country with
developed higher education (4) A characteristic university is an integration of various traits and images
as well as a reflection of its overall strength and quality. (5) The construction of a characteristic
university is a long-term, complicated and interactive process of extension and expansion based on the
understanding of a university’s essence and its logic. In light of this, it’s argued further that to build a
characteristic university, it’s essential to reflect local properties, highlight applicability, pursue
peculiarity, stress cultural construction and focus on brand image.
The journey from advocating a university’s characteristics to constructing a characteristic university has
spanned about a decade. This change mirrors university leaders’ crisis awareness and awareness of
characteristics as well as the urgency of a university’s development and growth in contemporary
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ever-changing era and today’s highly competitive higher education. Moreover, this change has a deeper
connotation that the construction of a characteristic university is an all-round and three-dimensional
remodeling and transformation while the present “university characteristics theory” is inadequate to
explain and guide present university practice. The notion of “characteristic university” arises against this
background accordingly. It is not only the practical need of a university, but also the transformation and
completion of the former notion in essence. As a new theory, characteristic university deserves more
in-depth research.
About the Paper:
First, it is a national educational science project in 2010 under the title of “A study on the development
of a newly-built university in the trend of higher education popularity” (BIAI00082). Secondly, it is an
important project of higher education association in Zhejiang province under the title of “The
classification and transformation of a newly-built university together with the study of characteristic
development” (KT2011161).
References
[1]. Shen Guofeng, Liu Aisheng. On the Nature of University Characteristics [J]. Researches on Higher
Education, 2009 (7): 40-43.
[2]. Wang Rongde. New Strategies for School-running [M]. Beijing: Publishing House for Science,
2007, 161.
[3]. Tao Xiping. On the Mission of University President in Mordernization [N]. Beijing: Educational
Press in China, 2008-1-8 (5).
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