A Study on the Strategic Path of High-quality and Characteristic Independent College Running Based on SWOT Analysis

The long-term development of independent colleges lies in their high-quality characteristics. This paper analyzed the internal and external environments related to the development of high-quality characteristics of independent colleges based on SWOT analysis. It proposes five strategic paths for independent colleges’ high-quality and characteristic development including clarifying the college-running orientation, improving the model of college governance, offering services for the regional economic and social development, strengthening the cultivation of talents, as well as creating unique college culture, thus building a strategic model of the high-quality and characteristic development for independent colleges. Keywords—SWOT analysis; independent colleges; high-quality characteristics; strategic path Independent colleges are the product of the innovation of Chinese higher education systems and mechanisms. As an important part of private education, they make a great contribution to the reform and popularization of higher education as well as the economic and social development[1-2]. With the popularization of higher education, and the proposition of “realization of the connotative development of higher education” at the 19th CPC National Congress, independent colleges are facing the dual tasks of connotative development and characteristic college-running instead of mere expansion of scale. Therefore, how to realize the high-quality and characteristic development has become a major exploring direction for the future development of many independent colleges. I. THE EVOLUTION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES In September 1999, Wenzheng College of Soochow University and City College of Zhejiang University enrolled students for the first time, which was regarded as the sign of the birth of “private-run second-tier college” [3]. After 2000, a large number of second-tier colleges were successively established across China. In 2003, the number of second-tier colleges reached 360 [4]. In April 2003, the Ministry of Education issued On Standardizing and Strengthening the Management of Independent Colleges Run by Universities in New Mechanisms and Models, officially proposing the term of “independent college”. In February 2008, the Ministry of Education issued The Measures for Setup and Management of Independent College, which clarified the nature, rights and interests, establishment requirements of independent colleges and proposed a five-year transitional period of inspection and assessment. In 2014, the State Council issued Decision on Accelerating the Development of Modern Vocational Education, encouraging independent colleges to set their college-running orientation as applied technical colleges and universities when transformed into private colleges and universities. Application-oriented colleges should be an appropriate choice for most independent colleges. By 2018, there were 265 independent colleges, accounting for 10% among 2631 universities and colleges nationwide and 30% Fund Project: Guangxi Education Science “13th Five-Year Plan” 2017 Guangxi Private Education Research Project “Study on the Development of High-quality Characteristics of Guangxi Private Colleges” (Grant No. 2017ZMB004) 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