1 The Strategic Disciplinary Boundaries of China s Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities LIU ZHIMIN PHD Professor & Director of Higher Education Institute, Nanjing Agricultural University, P. R. CHINA JUNE 29,2011

2 1. A Brief Introduction to Chinas Higher Education Martin Trows theory on the development stages of higher education, Gross enrollment ratios (GER) 50%,Universal education. Chinas(2011) GER: 26.5%, ushered in the era of Mass Education The number of students : million By 2020, Chinese government pledges 40% in GER and 35.5 million in student enrollment. Among the baskets of student-enrollments, agro-forestry universities account for 4.08% in bachelor degree study, 3.27% in master degree and 5.06% in that of Ph.D. The Strategic Disciplinary Boundaries of China s Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities

project CHINAS Higher Education Structure & Some Projects Taken Graduateschoolschool proje ct 366 Doctor 796 Master 1079 Bachelor Research University Others Fig 2. A Composition Framework of Universities Layer Structures in China Higher Vocational School+ adult C9 University

4 2. The Status of Chinas Key Agro-&Forestry Higher Institutions Table 1. Spreadsheet of General Information about China s Key Agro-forestry Universities Items University Name with Project 985 With Graduate School with Project 211 WRWU Ranking QS Ranking China Agricultural University(CAU) Beijing Forestry University(BJFU) Northeast Forestry University(NEFU) Nanjing AgriculturalUniversity(NJAU) Huazhong Agricultural University(HZAU) Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University(NAFU) - - * WRWU Ranking: Webometrics Rankings of World Universities, web clicks of the universities front page will be referenced to rank the top 2000 universities all over the world; QS Ranking: refers to the university rankings in Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University rankings- top 200

5 3. Disciplinary Structuring in Chinas Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities 1 ) Disciplinary Structuring Form: Agricultural Studies Branched into Other Studies in Universities of Comprehensive Disciplinary Setups Table 2.Generals of China s Key Agricultural Universities University Name Number of Sub- disciplines Faculty Number Fulltime Student Enrollment Fund for Research(Hu ndreds of Millions) National Awards for Excellent Ph.D dissertation Grand Total of Published Papers Among which: Papers published in overseas journals CAU BJFU NEFU NJAU HZAU NAFU Cited from: Official Front Page of the above six universities at July 30, 2010, refer to details at

6 2)Dominant Disciplines: Agricultural Science, Science, Engineering, Management. University Table 3 MOE Directly Administered Agro-forestry Universities in 2008 First-Level Discipline Appraisal Crop Science Plant Protection Horticulture Agricultural Resource Exploitation Animal Husbandry Veterinary Medicine AgriculturalEngineering Agriculture and Forestry Economic Management Food Science and Engineering Forestry Forest Engineering Aquaculture Science and Civilizationin China CAU BJFU13 NEFU31 NJAU 2343*5*2-1*53 HZAU * 3 NAFU 553*344 Cited from: Liu Zhimin. Probe into Agro-Forestry Institute s Disciplinary Development via National First Level Discipline Appraisal, China Agricultural Education J,2009(2): Disciplinary Structuring in China s Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities

7 RankingUniversity Name Number of Top 5 Ranked Disciplines RankingUniversity Name Number of Top 5 Ranked Disciplines 1Beijing University31 14 Harbin Institute of Technology Huazhong University of Science and Technology 8 2Tsinghua University26 3Zhejiang University22 4 Fudan University Nanjing University 16 6Shanghai Jiao Tong University13 16 Xi an Jiaotong University Nankai University Tianjin University Tongji University Huazhong Agro-University 7 7Renmin University of China11 8 University of Science and Technology of China Wuhan University Sun Yat-Sen University Beihang University National University of Defense Technology China University of Geo-science Northwest Agro-Forestry University 6 10 Beijing Normal University Sichuan University China Agro-University Nanjing Agro-University 9 Table 4. Top 45 University Discipline Ranking among the Number of Top 5 Ranked Discipline 3. Disciplinary Structuring in China s Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities

8 3)Development Orientation: multi-disciplinary / comprehensive university. UniversityDevelopment Orientation CAU Resort the strengthens built up in agricultural science and life science to develop science, engineering, arts, law, economics, management and other disciplines BJFU Continue to sharpen the edges of forestry, biology, forestry engineering while try to bring up coordinated developments in agricultural science, science, engineering, management, economics, arts, law and philosophy. NEFU Resort to the strengths of forestry discipline to sharpen the edges in forestry biology and bring up coordinated developments in agricultural science, science, engineering, economics, management, arts, law and medicine NJAU Continue to sharpen the edges of agricultural science and life science while try to bring up coordinated developments in agricultural science, science, economics, management, engineering, arts and law HZAU Resort to the strengths of agricultural science to sharpen the edges in life science and bring up coordinated developments in agricultural science, science, engineering, arts, law, economics and management NAFU Resort to the strengths of agricultural science, forestry and aquaculture to bring up coordinated developments in agricultural science, science, engineering, economics, management and law Table 5. Development Orientations of the Top 6 Agro-forestry Universities 3. Disciplinary Structuring in China s Key Agricultural & Forestry Universities

9 4. Essential Attributes and Growth Pattern of University Disciplines 1) University Discipline Setup Needs to Respect the Law of Knowledge System while Observe Demand from the Society. 2) University disciplines are stable in categorization, rotationally symmetric in layout and systematically unstable if the symmetric elements are absent. 3) Observing Gresham's Law in Disciplinary Development to Prevent Bad money drives out the good one. 4) Cost differentiation in disciplinary construction requires ambitions made within allowance.

10 5. Modern Agriculture on Disciplinary Development of Agro- forestry Institutes 1) Modern Agriculture Necessitates Comprehensive Disciplinary Configuration in Agro-forestry Universities. 2) Modern Agriculture Requests Agro-forestry Universities to Consolidate Their Flagship Discipline Clusters. 5.3 Modern Agriculture Requests Supporting Disciplinary Clusters in Agro- forestry Universities.

11 Engineering Agro-forestry Economic Management Food Science & Engineering Traditional Chinese Medicine Biology Forestry Engineering Philosophy of Science/Rural Sociology /Foreign Studies/Law of Environmental and Resource Protection MPA/MBA/Ma nagement Science and Engineering /Knowledge Management and Archive Management Architecture/ hydra engineering /transportation engineering/light industrial tech & engineering/computer science & technology/mechanics engineering Science &Civilization, General Science i.e. Geography, Chemistry, Mathematics) Applied Economics Ocean Science/Geology Environmental Science and Engineering Agricultural Engineering land management Agriculture (Agronomy) Core Discipline Boundaries of Discipline Fig 2. Center Radiation of Disciplinary Derivation and Development in Agro- forestry Universities 6. Foreseeable Boundaries of Disciplinary Expansion in Key Agro- forestry Universities

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