Research on Development and Prospects of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools in the “New Era”

After nearly 30 years of development, the ChineseForeign Cooperation in Running Schools (CFCRS) has become an indispensable part of Chinese higher education and a unique way to boost the higher education internationalization. Now the government, institutes of higher education and society are asking the same question: how CFCRS can contribute for the implementation of “Double World-Classes” strategy and Educational Opening-up policy in the “New Era”. By trace the development path and current situation of CFCRS in terms of its approval system, scales, social recognition and policy environment, this article predicts the development trend and provide some practical suggestions for CFCRS. In the New Era, the key development strategy will focus on two aspects: rebalance and competitiveness. The specific steps include readjusting the development pace and optimizing the structure, as well as encouraging Chinese universities to find prestigious foreign universities as their partner or highlight the uniqueness of the cooperation. Keywords—Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools; New Era; Current situation; Prospects In the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping, for the first time, presented a new historical development course for China: Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era. After his speech, the phrase “New Era” has been given fresh meaning and interpretation in the field of humanistic and social science. In the New Era, CFCRS has become an indispensable and influential part of higher education internationalization in China after nearly 30 years of development. It also drawn much attention from the governments and scholars home and aboard. This article will analyze the status quo and future challenges of CFCRS first, and then provide some constructive suggestions for sustainable development of CFCRS based in the New Era. I. THE BACKGROUND OF “NEW ERA” For now and the following decades, China is entering into the New Era. During this period, China will focus on domestic transformation and accelerate the opening-up to the outside world. With the further economic reforms and industrial restructuring, especially the implementation of “Made in China 2025” strategy, China is becoming stronger and more important in the world economic cooperation. Benefited from the regional cooperative platforms, such as ‘Belt and Road initiative’ and Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China has increased its capacity of participating in the global governance. In regard to education, Chinese people and government always regard it as the foundation of a nation and the driving force for sustainable development. Therefore, in the background of New Era, which direction shall the higher education internationalization of China go? What will be the ultimate goal of CFCRS and which path shall it follow? All these questions are waiting to be answered. At the dawn of the New Era, Chinese government has issued three guiding official documents to steer the course of higher education internationalization (referring to TABLE I). The above three documents all directly or indirectly mentioned CFCRS and outlined the requirements at macro level; therefore they are the guidelines for the future development of CFCRS. Among these three guiding documents, the first one, which was issued in 2015, did not mention CFCRS in its contents directly. However, it did emphasize the importance of bringing in high-quality foreign educational resources to support the “World-Class Universities and First-class Disciplines” strategy. The essential goal of CFCRS is perfectly matching this requirement. Both the second and third documents have mentioned quality control as the priority target for CFCRS future development. Besides, they also required education administrative authorities to improve the management systems Supported by the Youth Research Project of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics (Grant No.80059900164) 5th International Conference on Social Science and Higher Education (ICSSHE 19) Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 336