The Reconstruction of the University Academic Committee System and Government Regulation

Abstract The reconstitution of the academic committee system is an important part of the construction of a modern university system in China. Through analysis of policy documents, it is evident that, in the historical context of the last half century or more, whenever fundamental changes have been made to systems related to academic power, these have always been regarded as a policy issue, experiencing vicissitudes in response to the political environment; in the contemporary context, reforms have promoted a rational understanding of system reconstruction, and the introduction of government regulation has provided legitimacy for system reconstruction. Our survey found that the practical circumstances of efforts for reconstructing of the academic committee system still exhibit more nominality than substance, while the effectiveness of government regulation is limited. We therefore believe that it is necessary to seize the opportunity to forward system reconstruction by further specifying the status of academic committees within the university governance system, clarifying the relationships between agents of power, placing emphasis on unity between government regulations and university reforms, and giving attention to the coherence of reconstruction as well as institutional characteristics.