The research on the scale and structure of undergraduate teaching expenditures of firstclass universities in China: the analysis based on Undergraduate Teaching Quality Reports of 39 worldclass universities in construction
MAO Jianqing1,2，LIU Meijia1，CHEN Wenbo3
（1. School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023;
2. Research Center of Modern University System, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023;
3. Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China）
Abstract： Undergraduate teaching expenditures are both the material basis for promoting firstclass undergraduate education development and the prerequisite for improving undergraduate teaching quality, and their scale and structure are directly related to construction effectiveness of firstclass undergraduate and firstclass universities. Based on the relevant data in Undergraduate Teaching Quality Reports of 39 worldclass universities in construction in China during academic years from 2014 to 2019, the study analyzes the scale and structure of their undergraduate teaching expenditures. It finds that, the scale is on an upward trend, the proportion of undergraduate teaching expenditures to university total expenditures is relatively stable, and the proportion of per student undergraduate teaching expenditures to per capita GDP of the province where the university is located is basically stable and increasing year by year; the structure is dominated by daily operating expenditures of teaching and special undergraduate teaching funds, with a stable binary pattern. The study also finds that their undergraduate teaching expenditures have the following problems: the scale is relatively insufficient; the structure is not diversified; there is a lack of due differences in the scale of per student expenditures among regions, and differences in talent cultivation costs among regions are not fully reflected; there is no significant difference in the expenditure of universities with different disciplinary characteristics or affiliation relationships, which exacerbates the homogenization tendency of universities. Therefore, China should continue to increase the investment in undergraduate teaching expenditures; optimize the structure of undergraduate teaching expenditures; establish differentiated allocation standards for different regions, and coordinate proportions of the funding from governments at all levels; increase differences in conversion coefficients of different disciplines and majors, and highlight characteristics of different firstclass universities, so as to better promote the construction of firstclass undergraduate education and "Double FirstClass".
2021, Vol. 15 
