The impacts of the higher education expansion on education quality in China : evidence from Shenzhen University

Within the expansion of higher education in China, education quality should be considered into the process of reform and establishment, which is highly related to the resources of faculty and performances of management. It is crucial that universities sustainably conduct diverse academic research and meet the needs of community. Faced with the policy reform and opening up, China has more opportunities on cooperating with oversea education institutions and taking in overseas management system. This research explores the general quality assessment on higher education and the solution to balance the needs of domestic society and the growth of international education competitiveness, in order to provide supportive instruments to government on placing educational policy and managers in higher education on leading the development with competitive quality. Existing scholarship reveals that the expansion of higher education cannot effectively hedge the rapid growth of student number and solve the inequalities of educational opportunities. Moreover, the quality of higher education still has many puzzles in the following development which should cover domestic regulations on the process from quantitative improvement to qualitative improvement, while discussion on quality eager to concentrate on the relationship between government and society with co-existence of different approaches of promotion. This thesis is conducted by qualitative analysis, adhering with the finding information from semi-structured interviews. Interviewees are selected from Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Education Bureau by snowball collection, which is designed to comprehensively reflect the thinking on higher education expansion from the front line of teaching and management. Based on the suggestions from interview participants, government should keep a main perspective in the development of higher education in China and maintain a close cooperation with overseas institutions to help graduates develop individual competencies within the international competitiveness.