Key Elements and Practical Paths of the Financing Mode of Education Foundations for Research-oriented Universities: A Multi-case Study Based on Content Analysis
Shen Liyong
School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Abstract：For research-oriented universities, it is an essential resource guarantee to explore a scientific and reasonable financing mode of university education foundations, thus exploiting their multiple functions. According to the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it is necessary to establish a coordinated system for primary, secondary, and tertiary distribution, and to guide and support enterprises, social organizations, and individuals with desire and ability to actively participate in charitable and public-interest initiatives. In recent years, China has placed more emphasis on tertiary distributions like charity and encouraged social input through donations and establishing funds. In that sense, China has enhanced the governance structure and deepened the education reform by creating and improving a long-term mechanism for joint investment by the central and local governments, enterprises and the public.Nowadays, education foundations for research-oriented universities have actively carried out financing exploration targeting society, obtaining various practical experiences. However, problems such as small financing scale, inadequate financing channels, low degree of specialization, and lack of overall planning are still to be addressed. The root cause lies in the lack of financing mode with complete elements and efficient operation. Therefore, it has become a new proposition to Chinese universities in the new era to apply theories to education foundations for research-oriented universities to construct an effective financing mode, with systematic analysis of the elements and operation of the mode, in order to transform the financing of education foundations for research-oriented universities from passive to active.According to the theory of multiple actors and the main viewpoints of education ecosystem theory, this paper regards the financing of education foundations for research-oriented universities as a complex system. Considering the maturity of research-oriented universities’ financing, the basic attributes of public and private financing of education foundations, as well as theoretical construction and marginal cost and effectiveness of cases, this paper selects nine typical research-oriented universities, including Tsinghua University, Peking University and Zhejiang University, for a case study. Content analysis is adopted for 22 key elements and 205 typical items of the financing mode from dimensions such as financing goals, organizational structures, financing processes, system specifications, conditional resources, etc.The degree and category of the elements of the financing mode are closely related to the mode of the education foundations for research-oriented universities. By comparing and analyzing the mode of action and correlation of the elements, this paper identifies the differences in the characteristic of the four financing modes. Among them, the centralized mode is dominated by the university level with accumulation effect and imbalance in departments. The decentralized one means financing related to departments with extensive channels but limited scale effect. The pluralistic integration one refers to the cohesion of university and department levels with significant correlation effects but differences in goal identification. The hybrid mode represents a shared integration of universities and departments with flexible decision-making management yet high coordination cost. There is no good or bad between these financing modes, and the distinctions are mainly reflected in the elements to exploit their functions. That provides a practical basis for further combination of the key elements and characteristics to construct and operate the financing mode of education foundations for research-oriented universities in a holistic and systematic way.In order to fulfill the mission of financing with high quality and settle the contradictions between the growing demand for resources and increasingly scarce resource guarantee, research-oriented universities should leverage scientific layout for the top-level design of financing, build the collaboration mechanism of universities and departments, enhance leading financing ability comprehensively, establish and improve the financing management system, and cultivate the culture of charitable giving actively, thus improving the effectiveness of university financing and providing references for facilitating research-oriented universities to the forefront of world-class universities.
沈黎勇. 研究型大学教育基金会筹资模式的关键要素与实践路径[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2023, 53(12): 106-117.
Shen Liyong. Key Elements and Practical Paths of the Financing Mode of Education Foundations for Research-oriented Universities: A Multi-case Study Based on Content Analysis. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2023, 53(12): 106-117.
2023, Vol. 53 
