In the 1990s, with the establishment of China's socialist market economy system, the functions of government in managing economy and enterprises have changed greatly. From direct management to indirect management, from micro-management to macro-management, state-owned enterprises have also been decentralized or transformed to local governments. Under the background of social development, the management of colleges and universities is still too centralized. Li Lanqing, then Vice Premier of the State Council, vividly expounded the problems existing in China's higher education management system at that time in an educational interview:

Before the reform, the basic pattern of China's higher education was that the central government set one thing, the local government set one thing, and the low-level repeated construction. Colleges and universities run by the central ministries and commissions face the whole country and the industry. If the talents needed by local governments cannot be met from there, local governments should set up their own schools. Universities affiliated to the central government are also run by ministries and commissions, and later many local industry administrative departments (departments and bureaus) also run universities. Since then, some places have formed "what you have, what I have", which is more repetitive with the institutions and professional settings of the central departments. I have vividly described the division of higher education resources at that time, just like a cake, first cut horizontally, then vertically, left and right, and finally cut into cake crumbs. Although the institutions of higher learning affiliated to the central ministries and commissions have a long history and a solid foundation, the development of colleges and universities is difficult because of too many, limited funds and beyond the reach of the competent departments. Before the reform, there were 57 1 colleges and universities affiliated to the central ministries and commissions, and there were 25 in the Ministry of Machinery alone. At that time, some comrades in colleges and universities directly under the ministries said helplessly that we were born in a "family with many children", and everyone had to share a bowl of rice and could only suffer. The overall situation of local colleges and universities is that the history of running schools is short and the foundation is poor. Although it overlaps with many majors of institutions directly under the central government, because it is the "pro-son" of the local government, the local government has to try its best to support it, thus forming a dilemma that everyone is caught in low-level redundant construction.

Li Lanqing's description in "Education Interview" truly and accurately summarized and reflected the development of higher education in China at that time and the shortcomings of the management system.

The difficult course of higher education management system reform. The reform of higher education management system is the focus and difficulty of higher education reform in China. Li Lanqing, then Vice Premier of the State Council and directly in charge of education, attached great importance to this and vigorously promoted it. General Office of the State Council held three symposiums on the reform of higher education management system in 1994, 1995 and 1996 respectively. On the basis of reform practice, we should conscientiously sum up past experience and clarify the reform ideas. During the period of 1998, an experience exchange meeting on the reform of higher education management system was held, and the "eight-character policy" of "co-construction, adjustment, cooperation and merger" was put forward. Then, under the leadership of the Central Committee, taking the opportunity of 1998 the State Council institutional adjustment, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the State Planning Commission and other relevant ministries and commissions, with the cooperation of various localities, made three major adjustments to the institutions affiliated to the State Council departments (units), which solved the institutional problems of running schools by departments to some extent.

I. Seizing the opportunity of 1998 government institutional reform, the State Council made the Decision on Adjusting the Management System of Schools Affiliated to the Merged Department. First, the management systems of 93 universities, 72 adult universities and many technical secondary schools and technical schools affiliated to nine ministries and commissions in the State Council were adjusted. Among them, 8/kloc-0 universities were jointly established by the central and local governments, with local management as the main management. Second, at the beginning of 1999, the management systems of 25 ordinary colleges, 34 adult colleges and hundreds of secondary technical schools affiliated to five military industrial corporations were adjusted and reformed. Third, on the basis of summing up experience, the State Council made the Decision on Further Adjusting the Management System and Layout Structure of Schools Affiliated to Departments (Units) in the State Council, and adjusted and reformed the management system and layout structure of 50 universities affiliated to the State Council ministries and units after institutional reform. In addition, among the 72 universities entrusted by the Ministry of Education in the State Council, 34 are jointly run by local governments.

It took nearly ten years before and after this unprecedented large-scale reform, and basically completed the biggest macro-management system reform and layout adjustment of higher education in the history of New China. Although many difficulties have been encountered in the process, they have been properly solved and successfully transferred to the new management system, thus forming a new system of management and division of responsibilities at the central and local levels. Under the guidance of national policies, the provincial government is the main coordinator. Except for a few universities that are related to the overall development of the country, have strong industry particularity and are inconvenient for local governments to manage, the State Council continues to entrust the management of a few ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Education, and most universities are managed by local governments or mainly by local governments. Of the 367 ordinary colleges and universities directly managed by the relevant departments in the State Council, only11institute remains after the reform (further adjustment was made around 2007), and most other colleges and universities implement the system of provincial government management and joint construction of local government and central government. Changing authority into co-construction is the focus of this university management system reform, which is intended to change "compartmentalization" into "organic integration". Some universities (such as Zhengzhou University and Shanxi University). ), originally at the provincial level, has also been jointly established with the Ministry of Education under the condition of unchanged affiliation. The central and local governments have established a number of schools, which have maintained stability and solved various contradictions and dilemmas faced by the development of higher education in China.

The second problem to be solved in the reform of university management system is the relationship between the central and local governments. In this regard, China took a decisive step in 2000 and implemented two important new policies: First, the examination and approval authority of higher vocational schools was delegated to the provincial government. In the past, all colleges and universities had to be approved by the Ministry of Education. Although there was a motion to decentralize the education of postgraduate education to the provincial level, it was quickly rejected. The second is to decentralize the enrollment planning right at the corresponding specialist level to the province, and the central government only cares about undergraduate courses. The Ministry of Education and the National Development and Reform Commission negotiated repeatedly and finally reached an agreement. This is the result of proceeding from reality and emancipating the mind, and it is also a major breakthrough in the reform of the management system of colleges and universities in China. The decentralization of these two powers has expanded the overall decision-making power of provincial governments.

In the reform of higher education management system at the turn of the century, the merger of colleges and universities has become the most easily perceived event by the society and the public. In the early 1990s, some places adjusted the layout structure of local universities according to the principle of complementary advantages, and merged and reorganized some typical schools such as Nanchang University, Shanghai University, Yangzhou University, Guangxi University and Yanbian University. At the initiative of Li Lanqing, then Vice Premier of the State Council, Zhejiang University was selected as a high-level university to carry out the pilot project of school merger. From 65438 to 0998, the former Zhejiang University, Hangzhou University, Zhejiang Agricultural University and Zhejiang Medical University merged to form the new Zhejiang University, which became the first "aircraft carrier" among universities in China.

At the turn of the century, a total of 556 institutions of higher learning (387 ordinary institutions of higher learning and 69 adult institutions of higher learning 169) were merged and adjusted to 232 institutions of higher learning (2 ordinary institutions of higher learning and 20 adult institutions of higher learning), with a net decrease of 324. Through the merger, the situation of repeated setting, too many single-subject colleges and too small school scale in some areas has been obviously improved, and the adjustment of university layout structure has shown a good momentum. The whole process of structural reform and layout adjustment is magnificent and relatively smooth.

Breakthrough progress has been made in the reform of higher education system. Since 1990s, the main forms of higher education management system reform include co-construction, adjustment, cooperation and merger. The main contents of the reform include: reforming the school management system, diluting and changing the single subordinate relationship, solving the problem of "compartmentalization" and changing "compartmentalization" into "organic combination"; Correctly handle the relationship between the central and local governments and expand the overall planning power of provincial governments; Correctly handle the relationship between the central education administrative department and the central business department; Means to improve and strengthen the macro-management of the central government; Expand the autonomy of colleges and universities to a certain extent.

At the same time, other reforms carried out by higher education to adapt to the development of market economy have also made breakthrough progress. For example, the reform of the employment system for college graduates has made a historic breakthrough, breaking the traditional model of "guaranteeing distribution" and "guaranteeing being a cadre" in the past. Through the stages of meeting supply and demand, two-way choice and self-employment, a new mechanism of "market orientation, government regulation, school recommendation and two-way choice between students and employers" has been initially established. Of course, these positive explorations are still being constantly adjusted and improved.

During this period, the reform of higher education started with the reform of higher education management system and mechanism. On the macro-management system, China's colleges and universities have formed a new system combining central and provincial management, focusing on provincial management, and successfully established a number of comprehensive universities with complete disciplines and talented people; In the aspect of school-running system, private colleges and universities have developed rapidly from scratch, and the school-running pattern of common development of public colleges and private colleges and universities has initially taken shape; In the input system, the government input has been increased, and a diversified input system based on government input has been formed; In terms of enrollment and employment system, we will actively promote the construction of graduate employment system with "market orientation, government regulation, school recommendation and two-way choice" by exploring and constantly improving the college entrance examination system which is conducive to selecting outstanding talents and implementing quality education; In the internal management system of the school, the reform of personnel and distribution system has made progress, the incentive mechanism, competition mechanism and mobility mechanism have been continuously improved, and the socialization of logistics has been widely implemented. These reforms have greatly enhanced the development vitality of higher education and accumulated experience for promoting the reform of social undertakings in China. Due to many constraints in education, some reforms are relatively slow. For example, expanding the autonomy of colleges and universities to deal with the increasingly serious tendency of administration in colleges and universities was put forward in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Decision on Education System Reform 1985. However, due to the immature conditions and opportunities, the social credit system and other related supporting environments are not yet available or not enough, and it is difficult to achieve overall institutional breakthroughs and landmark progress. The realization of these reform goals depends on persistent reform.